Twelve years and four albums later, he’s still mastering the art of being a working musician. Jimi Hendrix, who he describes as the first environmentalist musician. “He is so weirdly space-aged. Back in the 60s he was writing songs about the earth burning and escaping to the ocean from the point of view of someone from another planet. It resonates now … probably more deeply than when he wrote it.” So how did an environmental scientist end up travelling the world playing music? “I went to university, but I wanted to be a musician,” says Dan. “I wasn’t very confident. I loved playing with my friends, who were all wild, acid-taking rock and roll freaks from the Gold Coast … but I wasn’t particularly good at it. It was the early 90s so it was Mudhoney-pre-Nirvanagarage-psychedelic-Butthole Surfers kind of stuff, and I didn’t really have the aggressive whacked-out psychedelic tone that could pull that off.” Moving to St Kilda – “it was a good transition from the Gold Coast … it’s still coastal here in a way” – he washed dishes, worked in kitchens and through his uncle started to meet members of the local music community. He recorded on a four-track in his bedroom, wrote a bunch of silly songs with a weird Iggy-Pop-cum-hillbilly character named Phillip who had a band called Frank Sinatra’s Dog, and occasionally got up on stage with other musicians. Then he met Perth band The Drones who had just moved to Melbourne. “We got a house together in Richmond and those guys played in my band. That’s when I started doing my own songs. The Drones were incredible from day one. I had to really lift my game out of sheer embarrassment.” Twelve years and four albums later, he’s still mastering the art of being a working musician. “I’ve never sold a lot of records or made a huge amount of live money. I think I started putting out records just when people stopped buying them! Playing with Paul Kelly has definitely paid the bills over the years. I had two or three really good years with him where we just worked and worked. It was like a regular job, but a really fun one. I do some DJing. I’ve been teaching music at a community school. I played on the last Kasey Chambers record. I just hustle.” As for song-writing, it remains a mystery and a challenge. “I write unusual music. It’s not like Captain Beefheart where it sounds really complicated, but it’s not easy music to get your head into straight away. It takes me a long time to sign off on it. You’re in danger of over-producing your records when you work like that.” He’d love to write simple but deep soul songs like Aaron Neville’s “Let’s Live”, or a song like The Smiths’ “There’s a Light That Never Goes Out”. “I love that song. It’s just so dark and romantic and sad. As a lyricist, Morrissey is perceived as being really maudlin – but he’s also very funny. He can create a whole world and the music is just so perfectly formed.”
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He says he gets a lot of his good ideas in the water, and as he travelled, he’s managed to swim in unexpected places. “I’ve been bodysurfing in Ireland at a place called Spanish Point. Paul and I were on our way to a gig. We drove around the corner and there was this beautiful blue water and these incredible 4-foot body-surfing waves. I’ve swum in the English Channel, in a place called Saint-Malo. I’d never realised that the English Channel could be really beautiful.” And in amongst the travel, the surfing, the music and creating a bunch of curious, whimsical, satirical stories, he’s finding his own place in the world. “I don’t naturally crave the limelight. It’s taken a long time for me to be able to say … ‘Okay, this is what I do’. If I need to, I can get up in front of a lot of people and play well, and that’s an opportunity I’ve been afforded mostly by Paul. By playing solo a lot, I’ve figured out how to be a performer, whereas before I was slightly embarrassed about it. Part of being a good songwriter is getting up and performing your songs. Often you can’t tell how good a song is until you play it in front of people. It’s gratifying if you do it well and people like it. It’s mortifying if it doesn’t work.”
Dan Kelly has started working on a new record and is currently on the road with Oh Mercy’s Alex Gow, on The Australian Dreamers Tour. Catch them on 16 June at The Grand Hotel in Mornington and 17 June at the Caravan Music Club in Carnegie. www.dankelly.com.au