From The Gut

Daniel Hutchens On His Love Songs For Losers And Bloodkin’s Back Pages

originally published May 16, 2007



Daniel Hutchens’ 2006 solo release may be called Love Songs For Losers, but the collection of shadowy ghost songs and unfiltered rock and roll is a safe bet for the most striking collection of songs from Hutchens thus far. The Chase Park Transduction sessions inspired, among others, songs about reincarnation, birth with eventual death and the significance of blood - the hardcore stuff, y'know, no songs about finding your angry inner man-child here.

As for Hutchens’ primary gig in Bloodkin, the indestructible foursome has been digging through the archives for what sounds like one mother of a box set featuring unreleased sessions, demos and live cuts spanning the local band’s entire near-20 year run. Plus, both Bloodkin and Hutchens recently entered the realm of iTunes, where downloaders can now snag copies of hard-to-find earlier releases like Creeperweed as well as 1999’s excellent Out of State Plates. The complete online catalog is up at both www.bloodkin.net and www.danielhutchens.com.

Flagpole recently touched base with Hutchens to discuss the solo album, Bloodkin and more.

Flagpole

Describe the recording process ofLove Songs For Losers. It has a very low-key, live-in-the-room feel that sometimes sneaks up on you. Everything isn't totally mapped out before the first chorus or refrain arrives.

Daniel Hutchens

I did demos out in Colorado, mostly up in Keystone, where my wife and I spent the winter. In April, 2006, I came back to Athens and did the actual record at Chase Park Transduction with David Barbe producing. He’s become a true collaborator on my music. I've done six records in a row with him now, counting both Bloodkin and solo projects. Aside from producing, he always plays various instruments - drums, bass, guitar, keyboards, percussion, you name it.

The actual recording process on this record consisted of me sitting down and playing the song first, just recording my vocal and  guitar. Then we'd dub everything else on top, including drums, which isn’t an easy thing to do, really. In this case, it just felt right, since we were building the sound around the core of my acoustic guitar and voice. The exceptions to that rule are “Blood From the Rock” and “Rock Back Home.” I know, that’s two songs with “rock” in the titles - forgive me! Anyway, on those two, we just set up in the big main room at Chase Park, the whole band, and let the songs rip kinda Crazy Horse-style.

Flagpole

Who are some of the other folks involved with the record - putting it together and playing on it?

Daniel Hutchens

Justin Gage, who released the record on his Autumn Tone label, has been a Bloodkin fan for several years, and it was his encouragement that got this whole project rolling. Eric Martinez, who lives in Denver, also plays on most of the record. He engineered the demos, and in general just kicked me in the ass and got me working. So he and Justin really made Love Songs… happen. Eric Carter plays some guitar, David Nickel plays bass on two songs, Paul "Crumpy" Edwards plays bass on one and Barbe plays bass on the others. Todd Nance [of Widespread Panic] and Aaron Phillips [of Barbara Cue] play drums on various songs and John Neff plays pedal steel on one.

Flagpole

Did you have any sort of overall character or subject theme in mind to tie the whole thing together, or is it just coincidence that each track seems to lead you into the next?

Daniel Hutchens

The album definitely has a kind of theme, or at least mood or feel to it, that basically involves a kind of spiritual struggle also involving romantic love and loss. I guess I’d have to say the theme has to do with clawing your way back up from the bottom after a long, dark period of self-destructive behavior.

Daniel Hutchens

In the liner notes, I said, “Losers need music most of all,” and I guess there's a kind of time traveling element to the lyrics, as well. “Underground Cafe 1923” is the most obvious example, presenting the idea of running into a spirit you've known through different lifetimes, or at least you feel that way.

Flagpole

It’s not a concept album or song cycle, really, but the separate parts do fit together noticeably well in forming the whole.

Daniel Hutchens

But when I actually write, I don't map it out quite so consciously. I tend to just feel it more than think it, at least as much as I can, just get the brain and the ego out of the way to an extent, and then maybe the themes are being molded and colored subconsciously. Hopefully, they just come spilling out when they’re ready. I tend to look at the work afterwards and only then really figure out what it's all about!

Flagpole

Other than the thematic elements, what do you think sets these new songs apart from your work with Bloodkin?

Daniel Hutchens

I think what separates the solo albums is that they're entirely constructed around the song selection, meaning that the songs are a little more like chapters in a novel. With the Bloodkin records, the songs that wind up on the records tend to be, simply, the ones that the band is playing best at the moment. It's a little bit more about the sound of the whole band. Of course, at the end of the day, Bloodkin records and Daniel Hutchens records probably have more similarities than differences.

Flagpole

What’s the current status of the discussed Bloodkin rarities collection? Sounds like a pretty thorough trip through the vaults. Are we to expect it soon?

Daniel Hutchens

It’s almost finished, and we hope to release it in some form this winter, but there's no hard date yet. It's a compilation of unreleased material, some home recordings, four-track cassette stuff, pretty low tech, and some of it consists of “pro studio quality” outtakes from our records, or whole studio sessions that didn't wind up getting released for one reason or another. There are tracks we did with John Keane, David Barbe, Johnny Sandlin and several others.

The working title is Unreleased Bloodkin Recordings 1988–2007, and it's basically a box set. At the moment, it stands to include seven discs, about 130 songs, plus a DVD of concert footage and interviews, a book of liner notes and band history, photos, etc. In a way, I consider it our biggest and most important piece of work, because it’s really a life's work.

Michael Andrews

WHO: Bloodkin, The Bros. Marler, Part Bear
WHERE: Nuçi's Space
WHEN: Friday, May 18, 9 p.m.
HOW MUCH: $5