Project Description
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Interview with
BLAKE DANTIER
(25th March 2022)
Interview by Dave Bruce
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Have you always wanted to be a musician? When did you start writing music?
When I started writing music, seriously – around age 14 – I didn’t know I could be a musician. I just thought it was something fun to do, and sure I fantasised about the big stage, but didn’t think I’d be doing it as a job one day.
But since I started down this path I couldn’t imagine doing anything else.
How would you describe your sound?
Right now – it’s 90s neo-trad country mixed with 70s Outlaw Country, then put some modern recording techniques into the mix. In less wanky terms… it’s old school… but now.
Why do you think people resonate with your music?
I’m just trying to write and record music I love. It’s also not very mainstream, but I don’t care, cause I love it. So I could only imagine people who like it too appreciate that it doesn’t try to please everybody. It is what it is, no apologies.
Which music did you grow up listening to? How has it inspired you?
I grew up listening to a lot of 80s/90s dance music – Madonna, Kylie, Kool & The Gang (thanks Dad) – and in my teens it was heavy stuff – Iron Maiden, Judas Priest, AC/DC. It’s all had influence. There’s definitely still a big part of me that wants to be a rockstar haha
Your new album ‘DRY SEASON’ has just been released! Describe its origin and evolution.
This album started as an EP then I thought, screw it, there’s too many songs I want to put out – it’s an album. I decided this in late 2019 and started recording in 2020 right before COVID hit. The whole thing went a little different to what I expected… the recording process dragged out for about a year. But I still got exactly what I envisaged – better even.
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Do you have any more new music in the works?
Yeah it’s been so long since writing these songs I’m already stockpiling for album 2… we’ll see how that goes. I think the musical direction will be a little different, but who knows, I’ll probably change my mind a million times.
Any tours or events coming up soon? What are you looking forward to, and what can the fans expect?
Get ready for long ass chicken pickin’ solos. I’ve waited two years to play with a band so I’m gonna savour every pluck of those strings! We’re headed up to Toowoomba for Meatstock on Apr 8 then to the Tamworth CMF mid-month.
If you could perform with any music artist, Alive or Dead, who would you choose? And why?
I’m a big fan of Eric Clapton’s crossroads festival. Often a whole bunch of amazing players will turn up on the same stage… I’d love that. Trading licks with Vince Gill, Keith Urban, John Mayer, Clapton, or whoever they’d stick out there with me would be amazing.
What’s next for you in 2022?
Hopefully this is the year of driving. We thought it’d be last year but this has gotta be the one. I can’t wait to get out there and play people these songs in the flesh.
If you could perform anywhere in the world, where would it be? Why?
Wherever they’ve got good food, excellent beer and a country music loving crowd – that’s all that matters to me.
Do you have any long-term aspirations as a music artist?
I want that cult following, you know. Like a few dozen people that just turn up to everything and know the name of the bass player who wrote the part on some B side but didn’t play on it cause he got too sick with the flu.
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What is the best thing about performing to a live audience?
I really like straight after the show, hanging out with everybody and getting to know the people that have come out to hear the music.
What’s been the career highlight so far?
Making the album. And not just mine Cass’ too (my fiancée). Listening back to the final product brings back so many memories of the recording process, the writing and times when we’ve played the songs live. It doesn’t matter what happens with the songs, those memories will always be special.
Finally, a few questions for some quick answers –
FAVOURITE:
Album – at the moment – Waiting on Sundown – Brooks and Dunn
Artist – Alan Jackson
Movie – takes a lot for a movie to stand out to me… too hard to choose a favourite
Place to visit – Nashville goes alright. Home – wherever that is – always feels good too
Venue to play – I love a brewery gig!
Food – Honey chicken – it’s not just for kids!
Drink – be-er
Person in a history – Waylon? What a boss.
Tattoo – I’m too scared to get a tattoo, I can’t decide on what I would get! I need to make more impulse decisions…
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SHOW DATES:
Friday 25th March – Dry Season Album Launch – The Baroque Room – Katoomba (w/ Rachael Brady)
Thursday 31st March – Shady Pines Saloon – Sydney, NSW
Friday 8th April – Meatstock – Toowoomba, QLD
Thursday 21st April – 50th Anniversary Concert – TCMF2022 – Tamworth, NSW
Friday 22nd April – Big Golden Guitar – Tamworth, NSW
Thursday 28th April – The Malt Shovel Taphouse – Birtinya, QLD (w/Jayne Denham)
Friday 29th April – Bay Tavern – Hervey Bay, QLD (w/ Jayne Denham)
Saturday 30th April – Racehorse Hotel – Ipswich, QLD (w/ Jayne Denham)
Thursday 9th June – The Vanguard – Sydney, NSW (w/ Michael Carpenter and The Banks Brothers)
Thursday 4th August – Hallam Hotel – Melbourne, VIC (w/ Jayne Denham)
Friday 5th August – Gateway Hotel – Geelong, VIC (w/ Jayne Denham)
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Follow BLAKE DANTIER
Website – Facebook – Instagram
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Press Release 25th March 2022 (below)
BLAKE DANTIER
drops highly anticipated
debut album
‘DRY SEASON’
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LISTEN HERE
Blake Dantier’s debut album Dry Season sounds like something that should be coming out of a jukebox in a smokey honky-tonk. It bears all the hallmarks of a Nashville throwback. Yet it was created on the other side of the world.
Dantier grew up in the suburbs, sandwiched between Sydney’s west and the Blue Mountains. Not exactly a melting pot for country music. He formed his first band with his older brother when he was 13, playing the drums. Their setlists were populated mostly by 80s glam rock and British heavy metal. “I’m a fan of all types of music,” he confesses. It wasn’t until he was old enough to legally drink a beer in a pub that he even heard of country music. “I get country music and it gets me – hearing it was like a lightbulb moment”.
The songwriter finds it easy to draw parallels between his own life and the ones sung about by his heroes. Each song on his 11-track debut album is a testament to that. It’s opener and title track snarls through the speakers like an old Waylon tune, with enough chickin’ pickin’ guitar to make Brad Paisley jealous. The entire collection was penned by Dantier himself, bar one co-write. “Some songs are autobiographical; some are almost totally made up. My only goal for this album was country songs that actually sound like country songs – something I don’t feel there’s enough of nowadays”.
Tales of lonesome drinking are cleverly delivered with a tounge-in-cheek outlook on ‘Wish You Were My Beer’ and ‘You Don’t Mix Whiskey’; while Dantier hits a more sombre note on ‘Ash & Dust’ and ‘Don’t Say When’, as he ponders mortality and death. Of course, no country record is complete without a story of love gone wrong – of which there’s no shortage. Yet tracks like ‘I’d Do It Again’ and ‘When She Gets Home’ deliver a fresh and bittersweet perspective on the tired trope. “You can tell I’ve tried to drown a broken heart, right?” chuckles Dantier.
The album succeeds as a throwback to a by-gone era, yet it doesn’t feel as though it’s stuck back in time. In part due to the work of producer, Simon Johnson from Hillbilly Hut studios. Together, he and Dantier recorded the album over the course of a year, with help from some of this country’s slickest players. “I wanted to combine that 70s Outlaw vibe and attitude with the musicality of 90s Alan Jackson and Brooks and Dunn records.”
Dantier has certainly captured the outlaw spirit of his predecessors and created a work that pays homage to his heroes, whilst still being completely his own. His dedication to “authentic” country music is clear in this honest collection of songs that are both familiar and original. Without a doubt, Dry Season is firmly planted in fertile ground.
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Blake Dantier
‘Dry Season’
Tracklisting
Dry Season
Last Call
Wish You Were My Beer
Ash and Dust
Outlaws Never Die
I’d Do It Again
You Don’t Mix Whiskey (ft Adam Harvey)
Wrong
Don’t Say When
When She Gets Home
Layover
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Since 2019, Blake Dantier has been releasing singles and blazing a path to the release of his debut album Dry Season. Four of his self-penned singles from the album have featured in the CountryTown Hot 50 airplay chart, with ‘Last Call’ peaking at #8. Described by The Music Network as “One of the most exciting prospects on the local country scene” Dantier was also the winner of two Tamworth Songwriters Salute Awards in 2021. He shares the wins with his fiancée and Golden Guitar award nominee, Cass Hopetoun, with whom he wrote the #1 airplay hit ‘Typical Bride’. Dantier even attracted the attention of Adam Harvey, who duets with him on the album track, ‘You Don’t Mix Whiskey’.
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AMNPLIFY – DB
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