Howie Day may only be 22-years
old, but he has an old soul.
On his debut, “Australia,”
Day’s bittersweet
songs evoke the spirit of
a lifetime’s worth
of lovesick nights spent
dwelling on regret and drinking
alone. “My songwriting
is somewhat moody,”
agrees the singer-songwriter
from Bangor, Maine. “It’s
not intentional, I just
write what I feel.”
Inspired by the emotionally
raw songs of Richard Ashcroft,
U2, and Jeff Buckley, Day
proudly wears his broken
heart on his sleeve. “Sorry
So Sorry,” “She
Says” and “Disco”
help set the album’s
dark tone. But it’s
the first single, “Ghost,”
that captures the album’s
spirit with hushed guitar
and brooding vocals.
Recorded independently
in 1999 at Q Division in
Boston with producer Mike
Denneen (Aimee Mann, Guster,
Letters to Cleo), Day says
the biggest challenge of
making “Australia”
was paying for it. “I
couldn’t afford to
record the whole thing in
one six-week session,”
he explains. “I would
book the studio for five
days, record two or three
songs with Mike and then
go out on the road for three
months until I had enough
money to pay for another
week in the studio. All
in all, it took about a
year to record the album.”
Independently released
in 2000, “Australia”
went on to earn Day a 2001
Boston Music Award for “Best
Debut Album by a Singer-Songwriter”
and a 2002 award for “Best
Male Singer Songwriter.”
The album has sold almost
30,000 copies via Day’s
Web site and at the 300
shows he played last year
at clubs and college campuses
around the country. It was
Day’s spirited live
performances that first
caught the attention of
Epic Records, which signed
Day earlier this year.
Day has come a long way
from booking himself at
local bars and clubs on
the weekends in Maine. “The
crowd was more interested
in getting their drink on
than hearing some 15-year-old
kid sing,” says Day.
Howie eventually won over
the bar crowd playing half-covers
and half-originals, “I
played some Beatles and
Elton John songs and that
seemed to get everyone on
my side, then snuck in a
few of my original songs
when no one was expecting
it.” Day’s version
of the Beatles’ “Help”
can be heard on the certified
gold “I Am Sam”
soundtrack.
Driven by an intense desire
to create, but limited by
a teenager’s budget,
Day ‘invented’
a lo-fi system to record
his early songs. “I
thought I was a genius when
I figured out that I could
record something on one
tape player, and then record
myself playing along to
that tape on a second tape
player,” jokes Day.
“It was my poor-man’s
version of multi-track recording.”
The same artistic ingenuity
that helped Day turn his
bedroom into a recording
studio carries over into
his unique live shows today.
Armed only with an acoustic
guitar, Day uses two quick
feet to trigger an array
of delay pedals he uses
to create and control an
invisible orchestra. He
slaps his guitar for a backbeat,
picks the melody out on
a couple of strings, scratches
the low-strings with his
pick for extra percussion
and singing background vocals.
The sounds bounce around
until Day pulls them all
together with his guitar
and soaring voice.
Day gives credit to Ohio
singer-songwriter Joseph
Arthur for inspiring him
to start incorporating loops
into his live show two years
ago. “For a long time,
my show used to be just
me and an acoustic guitar.
To be honest, I was getting
bored with those limitations.
Around that time I saw Joseph
Arthur using samples in
his show,” he says.
“Some weeks later,
I was in a music store in
Birmingham, Alabama and
I bought a loop sampler.
When I read the manual,
I knew I’d found what
I was missing in my show.”
Day not only enjoys building
his songs on stage in front
of an audience, he prefers
to write songs in front
of them too. It’s
common for Day to play half
written songs to packed
houses and then try to finish
the song standing in the
spotlight. “I like
writing that way…
I don’t have a chance
to edit myself and worry
if something is cool or
not,” he explains.
“Sometimes I come
up with something genius
and other nights it’s
just gibberish. It’s
such a pure form of inspiration
because I’m writing
from my subconscious and
not allowing time to second-guess
myself.”
On tour for “Australia,”
Day has been trying out
possible material –
“Madrigal,”
“Sweet” and
“After You”
- for his next album. Playing
new songs gives Day a break
from the challenge of keeping
fresh the three-year old
songs on his first album.
“That’s a long
time to play any song,”
he says. “I’m
proud of this record, but
I’ve come a long way
as a songwriter and performer
since I recorded it. The
new songs are more personal
and intense than before.
I’m looking forward
to showing the people what
I can do now.”