Spotlight: Dan Pettitt
Can you tell us about ‘Messages in Blood’? What inspired the music and themes behind it?
By the time of this new album I wanted to pull things back to where I’d started, just me and acoustic guitar and vocal, stripping back the excess. I’d experimented with a lot of different sounds before this, such as a band sound, electric guitars, drums etc. I’ve never been a producer, I’ve produced albums more out of practicality than choice, so with ‘Messages In Blood’ I just wanted to stick to what I was good at, simple sounding songs. I knew I wanted to get back to the songs rather than the sound or production, focusing on the lyrics, melody, and the story of the album.
How has your upbringing in North Yorkshire and the creative environment of the Steiner and Quaker schools shaped your approach to music?
I think early on, in those environments, it was a natural place, such as going to school surrounded by countryside. With the art as well, I learned a very natural honest approach, just relying on myself for self expression and a sincere, genuine exploration. Of course, as a child this was natural to me, I hadn’t lived in the world, but that was at the heart of my approach to creativity.
Your music draws from traditional balladry and social commentary. How do you balance personal storytelling with broader societal themes in your songs?
I’ve mostly always had an instinctual landscape in mind when writing and creating, such as myself, or a fictional version of myself walking through scenarios, worlds and places. To translate that, I guess a bit like Marvel’s ‘Dr. Strange in the Multiverse of Madness!’ In a way, none of my songs or my music is me, as in me as a person, it’s all a fictional version of myself – it’s just imagination, ideas. I’ve used myself, my life, myself as an artist as a story; a lot through my songs are fictional landscapes, and as time and my albums have progressed I’ve explored these different things.
Who are some of your biggest musical influences, and how have they impacted your recent work?
I had an early flourish of musical influences in my teens, which impacted my earlier albums, such as music from the 60s and 70s etc., vintage singers and bands. However, since then, as an adult and with the internet and streaming services like Spotify, I’ve just heard so many different influences these last years. It’s incalculable how much music is out there, apparently millions and millions of songs or something. I’ve mostly been listening to recommendations from friends, hearing different things, singers, artists, bands, there’s a lot of authentic people out there, amongst the noise and the technology, I find it mind blowing.
You’ve collaborated with various musicians throughout your career. Are there any new collaborations or partnerships featured on your recent projects?
My last really collaborative project was ‘The Basement Sessions’, from 2018-2019, this was a partnership with electric guitarist Chris Sutchie and drummer, guitarist and singer Phil Rhodes. This was the last big collaborative project I did. We recorded each month, mostly late into the night for around two years. A critic could think it was all just an experimental mess, an ego driven failure, but there was some good stuff in there, there were some gems, and some of the best pieces I’ve made in a long while. It was a mini library of songs and performances, a shadow piece to my back catalogue ‘Chronology’, like a smaller ‘Chronology’, another portrait.
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