…continuing from yesterday, here’s the rest of our interview with John Davis of Title Tracks….

TBD: The album, It Was Easy, was basically a solo effort. Where did you record? What was the time frame on putting the album together yourself?

JD: I had written the songs myself, I had started writing songs before Georgie James had broken up yet. We still had a good bit of touring to do, but I knew that I didn’t want to do that band anymore. Around January of 2008 I started the songs that what ended up on this album. So I kinda started writing everything and by the end of 2008 I had enough songs to do an album. I recorded most of it our practice space [in DC]. Probably 2/3 of all the recording was done at the practice space. We did the rest of it at a couple of different places, like Inner Ear Studio, which is a pretty famous studio where a lot of the Dischord bands recorded. We did some vocals there. Piano and things like that, we did a couple other overdubs at a friend’s house, but it was mostly done at the practice space. I pretty much played everything myself on it because I just wanted to make a record where I just played everything. I had written everything and I knew how it to sound and could play it, so I thought like, I should just try it. I don’t know if I’ll do records like that, that way, in the future, maybe it’ll be like a mix: sometimes I will, sometimes I won’t. I’m really glad I did it this way because it was a good experience.

TBD: So now you’ve got this album that you did yourself and you’ve transitioned into the live band. How has that process worked out? Who did you decide to bring in on that?

JD: My friends Andrew [Black] and Michael [Cotterman] play drums and bass in the live version and they were both in the live version of Georgie James. Then another friend named Nick Anderson plays guitar and he is the guy who engineered and co-produced the Title Tracks record with me. So it’s the four of us normally, although the part of the tour on which we’re gonna be coming through Dayton, Michael couldn’t get away from work to do those shows so another friend of ours is gonna be filling in for him on those shows. His name Eamonn Aiken and he runs a studio here in DC and it’s just kind of a guy about town that is just a friend of our and he’s been filling in and doing a good job so it’s gonna be fun to get out and do some shows with him too, although Michael Cotterman is our main bass player normally.

TBD: So there haven’t been any glitches or anything transitioning from the record to the live band?

JD: No, not at all. It’s really better for me, in my opinion. For me, it’s little more like what I’d like to be doing. The record is a little more refined in places. I kinda like more what we do with it at the live shows.

TBD: In terms of musical continuity, how do you feel about your progression musically speaking from Q and Not U to Georgie James and now with Title Tracks? How do you perceive any similarities or differences? What, if any, themes do you think you carry through all of these incarnations of your music?

JD: It’s always just been in whatever band I was in, whatever the band sounded like at the time, it was also just naturally ‘this is what we happen to be sounding like at this point’. Q and Not U changed a lot over the seven years that we were a band. Every record that we did was different sounding from each other. So that was something I just got used to. Even in Q and Not U, every time there would be a record that would come out, some segment of our fan population would be really disappointed. Even when the first album came out, [some people] preferred the first single as opposed to the album. Every time it was like that, so it was something that I got used to pretty quickly in terms of not really worrying that much about it or not worrying about that people weren’t into it. It just kinda thought, “OK, if you don’t like it, that’s fine. You can always go listen to whatever the record was that you did like. We’re just gonna keep doing what we wanna do.” It was definitely that way with Georgie James. It was very different from Q and Not U, but it was just what I wanted to do at that time, just sort of focus more on that type of music. It was the sort of music I really liked, and still like. You know, each band has reflected the different people that I was working with. Q and Not U was me and those guys, Georgie James was me and Laura, and then Title Tracks is just me. It’s been kinda different, so it would be interesting to me to try and think of a thread that’s run through all three bands would be. When you think specifically musically, I’m really not sure what it would be. I do know that the thread that runs through all of it is that it was very natural in terms of [it being] just what we were into at the time and we writing this stuff and it all came very naturally and was just sort of an expression of the music we interested at the time that we were writing those records. Generally speaking, every time I’ve done an album, whatever the next one it’s been kind different because I’m just trying different stuff. Even if it’s not radically different, I understand the Georgie James to Title Tracks isn’t some huge leap, although I definitely think there’s a difference. When the next Title Tracks record comes out, I think it’ll be even further away from what Georgie James sounded like. I think that would be sort of the trend of those three bands is that I never really worried much about what people are gonna think and let’s just do whatever we feel like doing and be confident in it enough that we know that at least some people will like it and we’ll just roll with it and hope that some people like it and [we’ll just keeping making music.

TBD: Coming from one of the more renowned music scenes in the indie world, that being DC, what degree do you feel that informs or inspires what you do and what you’ve done? When you go out on tour and see other cities, how do you view other scenes based on what you’ve seen in DC?

JD: It inspires us a great deal, it influences us a great deal. The DC scene now is different from the one I grew up in and participated in. It’s pretty different now. I don’t think there’s the same sense of community that there was a few years ago, certainly not in the sense of activism. It’s a little bit more of like a normal rock n’ roll scene right now. I don’t know if it’ll stay that way. I do think that being part of the scene in DC for well over 15 years now, I was in high school when I first started going to shows and putting on shows and doing a fanzine that started doing in the early- to mid-90s, when I was a young teenager, all that stuff has stuck with me and think the main way is relating back to the last question, in that it’s always been about do whatever you want to do. Don’t feel like you need to change anything about what you want to do. Express what you’ve gotta express and that’s it. Some people are gonna like it and some people aren’t, but just be free and do what you wanna do. I’m sure that there are plenty of other scenes that extol those virtues too, but that’s definitely a big part of the DC one. People say that there’s a DC sound, maybe not anymore, but in the past there was kind of a DC sound, but when people said that they meant Fugazi and Jawbox and Hoover, or whatever, that kind of angular sort of tough kind of guitars, but the DC thing was always much, much broader than that. You had bands like Tsunami and Unrest alongside Fugazi and Nation of Ulysses and kinda weird bands like Holy Rollers and 9353. Just all kinds of stuff in DC, it was a very broad mixture of bands. I think that still exists, there’s definitely a broad list of bands in DC still, but I do miss the more underground feeling. There’s not that many shows in DC anymore at sort of alternative spaces: community centers and churches and this and that. Every summer there’s still a show at Fort Reno Park in DC which has been going on for decades and is a crucial part of the punk scene here. That still continues. There’s still some shows off the track at alternative spots, but not as many as I would like. I’m hoping that’s something we can do more of this year, because Title Tracks has not done anything like that since we started playing shows. Everything has generally been bars and clubs and stuff like that, so that’s something that as people get to know us more and come out to see us more, I definitely want to do more shows in challenging locations and keep that notion alive. I’ve always felt more excited about and by and connected to shows that were in sort of weird spaces, like a basement of a church or a community center or just some weird outdoor show or whatever. That’s something we’ll be able to help continue. But to answer your question, I think that what growing up in DC and being part of the scene here, how that affect Title Tracks now is not being afraid of what people may say or think about what you’re doing and to just do it and be confident in it and just put it out there. Get it out there and see what happens. That’s definitely very much a complete part of our DNA.

TBD: Yeah, I think it’s like that a lot of places, where everything was seemingly more underground fifteen years ago or whatever. People have complained about that around here too, so I think it’s just a trend going across everywhere.

JD: That makes sense, it’s kinda hard when the people who put all the work into doing those kinds of shows just got a little older and have other things going on or whatever and there’s just nobody to replace them, it’s kinda tough. We had that [underground show scene] in DC, definitely well into last decade. Q and Not U played a ton of shows at alternative venues, but it was always a lot more work to do. It was just harder to get people out. If we would play the Black Cat, which is the main club in town, it would sell out at like 800 people. At the same time, if three months later we played a show in some community center basement or something, it would be a nice turnout, probably like 200 people, but again, you have a quarter of the turnout. It’s always just more difficult to just play something alternative like that. I just think there’s a value in that. I think that’s an important part of a community feeling and it’s something a little different than just playing bars. As essential as I think clubs and bars are to a scene, I really like to have an alternative once in a while.

TBD: Is there anything else you’d like our readers to know about Title Tracks and whatever else you’re getting into?

JD: I’ve actually never been to Dayton in all my years of touring. I’ve played any city of note in Ohio you could name, I’ve played there, but not Dayton. I’ve played Akron twice, but I’ve never played in Dayton. So I was excited to see that was a possibility for us, so that when it came through I was like, “Awesome!” Obviously the musical history of that town is awesome and we’ve just never been there. I’m excited to play Dayton.

…thanks again to John Davis for taking time out to speak with us. Remember, Title Tracks will be at South Park Tavern next Monday, February 15 with Pretty & Nice [Boston] and Kuan. Have a listen and a look and we’ll see you all next Monday night….

MP3: Title Tracks “Every Little Bit Hurts”

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Title Tracks : Steady Love from John Davis on Vimeo.