Folk and Americana troubadour, Dan Raza, is back with his first album in eight years.
Wayfarer, his third record, was mostly written while travelling across the US, Mexico and mainland Europe.
“After my last album, Two, came out, in 2017, I found myself feeling burnt-out and in need of a change of environment. I’d just come out of a long-term relationship, Brexit had just happened, and things were starting to feel quite claustrophobic for me in the UK,” says the London-based singer-songwriter.
“I just had a realisation that life is short, and I’d spent the best part of a decade-and-a-half doing the same things and had become a bit jaded.
“I wanted to go to new places, meet new people, and spend some time reflecting on where I was at the time and where I wanted to go next.”
Where he’s gone is to make his best album yet – Wayfarer is an ambitious, warm and soulful record that sees Raza taking his sound in new directions and exploring influences including Van Morrison, Rod Stewart, Ronnie Lane, Jackson Browne, Bobby Womack and The Staple Singers.
‘I found myself feeling burnt-out and in need of a change of environment. I’d just come out of a long-term relationship, Brexit had just happened, and things were starting to feel quite claustrophobic for me in the UK’
Tackling both personal and political themes, the songs embrace folk, country, blues and soul, and feature rich arrangements.
“On stage now for a while, it’s just been me and a guitar, but I knew some of these songs deserved fuller arrangements,” says Raza.
“Part of the fun for me in going into the studio is having other musicians add their own musical voices and seeing how the songs expand as a result.”
With that in mind, Wayfarer features an impressive list of guests, including Adam Phillips on guitar (Richard Ashcroft), Geraint Watkins on keys (Van Morrison) and Luke Bullen (KT Tunstall) on drums.
North Carolina multi-instrumentalist and Grammy-nominee, Josh Goforth, plays fiddle, mandolin and guitar, while the album also continues Raza’s long-term collaboration with members of Slim Chance, the band Ronnie Lane founded in the ‘70s after leaving The Faces.
Charlie Hart from the group produced Raza’s 2012 self-titled debut record, and Steve Simpson (mandolin) and Frank Mead (whistle and accordion) both appear on Wayfarer.
In an exclusive interview, Raza spoke to Say It With Garage Flowers about the inspirations and influences behind the new record – we managed to persuade this restless wayfarer to spend some time with us in a pub in Hackney a few weeks ahead of the album coming out.
“That warm sound is what I love. It’s soul music,” he tells us.
Q&A
Wayfarer is your first album in eight years – the last one, Two, came out in 2017. In the press background to the latest record, you say that in the last few years, you’d found yourself feeling burn-out and in need of a change of environment. You’d just come out a long-term relationship, Brexit had just happened, and things were starting to feel quite claustrophobic for you in the UK, so you went travelling. Is that why it’s taken you so long to make a new record?
Dan Raza: They were the reasons I left London after the last record – I was living in London until 2017, then I went walkabout… I left London shortly after the last album came out, which wasn’t the brightest idea, but I needed to get out, so I did… I came back in 2019.
Why did the record take so long? I started to write and gather the songs over two or three years while I was abroad, then I was ready to record, but the pandemic happened…
So, when you left London, you went to Tennessee…
Dan Raza: I had friends there and I’d never been before. It was so cool – I flew into Knoxville and spent time in Nashville and Johnson City.
How was Nashville for someone whose music has often been tagged as Americana? Did you see several sides to the city?
Dan Raza: It was the best – it’s amazing… There’s a lot of bad stuff there, but the good stuff is top level. It’s just so inspiring, getting to hear the best songwriters play in intimate venues, trading songs.
In the sleeve notes for the new album, you say that the record involved a journey all over the world – from the streets of Helsinki to the streets of North Carolina…
Dan Raza: That’s right… When we started recording the album, we had to do it remotely because of the pandemic. The rhythm section was in Helsinki – the engineer, who is a cool guy named Henri Vaxby, is Finnish, and he organised the rhythm section. I was playing in East London – we were wearing masks – and the drummer and the bass player were in Helsinki, playing to a click.
‘Nashville was just so inspiring, getting to hear the best songwriters play in intimate venues, trading songs’
You went to Mexico and mainland Europe on your travels too…
Dan Raza: Yeah – Italy and Germany, where I played gigs, and I went to Eastern Europe for a little bit.
It sounds quite romantic and Dylanesque – you were a wayfarer, a wandering minstrel – but what was it really like? Was it hard and quite hand-to-mouth?
Dan Raza: I was in my mid-to late thirties, so it wasn’t like being a young Dylan in his twenties… It was cool and I’d always wanted to live abroad, so when Brexit happened, I thought, ‘Oh, shit – they’re going to shut the door…’ I was like, ‘Hell, man – I want to get out, meet people and experience what it’s like to live abroad, only if it’s for months rather than years…’
I loved it, man – you read about the history, you’re standing on the streets, and you can’t help but suck it all in. It’s so inspiring – incredible history and rich, individual cultures.
I toured a lot in Germany, and in Italy I turned up at acoustic nights or songwriter nights – I would talk to the promoters and musicians afterwards and see if they could get me gigs.
So, were all the songs written while you were travelling?
Dan Raza: Pretty much, but there was a little break because of the pandemic and I wrote a couple of other songs, including Water Reflects (What It’s Shown). That was written during the nadir of the Boris Johnson time.
Was Covid a double-edged sword for you? It delayed the album, but it also gave you more time to write a few more songs for it…
Dan Raza: Definitely. I was one of the unfortunate musicians who didn’t get any government help, so I was working all the time – I was doing a delivery job… I didn’t have all the time to sit at home, writing songs, like some people did, but I got to reflect on the songs I’d written and where I thought the album was going to go – it was a good thing for me.
‘Water Reflects (What It’s Shown) was written during the nadir of the Boris Johnson time’
How do you write songs? On acoustic guitar?
Dan Raza: Yes, but I do a lot of work away from the guitar as well, in terms of thinking about the ideas.
Do you write the lyrics first and then the music, or is it the other way round?
Dan Raza: It’s evolved – it’s more lyric-based now, but before it was more music-based. Hopefully the lyrics are a little bit stronger on this album because of that.
So, you recorded the album between 2021 and 2023…
Dan Raza: The bulk of it happened at the Rock of London Studios on Hackney Road and we did some overdubs in North Carolina – I have a great friend called Josh Goforth, who is based over there. He produced the sessions. I went up into the mountains – it’s Doc Watson territory…
But you produced the album…
Dan Raza: I did, but by default… I’m not a great producer, but I had a lot of help. It sounds alright.
It sounds great! It has some nice, full arrangements, and you’ve worked with some good musicians on it, including Adam Philips (guitar – Richard Ashcroft); Geraint Watkins (keys – Van Morrison) and Luke Bullen (drums – KT Tunstall), plus some members of Slim Chance: Steve Simpson and Frank Mead. Charlie Hart from Slim Chance produced your first album, in 2012…
Dan Raza: Charlie saw me when I was in my mid-twenties – he came down when I was playing at a songwriters’ night in Lewisham, as he lived nearby. He liked what I did, and he invited me to his studio – I played him some songs and he asked me whether I’d be interested in making an album. That’s how I made the connection with all those guys. The nice thing about the new album is that I feel like my extended musical family has grown.
The album has a lovely, warm sound…
Dan Raza: Thanks, man – I love that. It’s what I like in a lot of music, like Jackson Browne…
I’m thinking Van Morrison’s Tupelo Honey, too… There’s a Celtic soul thing going on…
Dan Raza: That’s a real sweet spot for me, and Ronnie Lane and early Rod Stewart. There are English, American and Anglo-Irish influences, and they meet in a unique place… The Waterboys are kind of similar… It’s a melting point – that warm sound is what I love. It’s soul music.
‘The nice thing about the new album is that I feel like my extended musical family has grown’
There’s organ, strings, pedal steel and fiddle on the record…
Dan Raza: That’s one of the problems when you’re producing – it’s so tempting to keep adding stuff… It was difficult to make it all sit right, but we got there.
Let’s talk about some of the songs. There’s a mix of personal and political songs on the record. You wrote Only A Stone’s Throw Away while you were in Tijuana, Mexico, in winter 2018. It’s about Central American migrants trying to cross to the US…
Dan Raza: That was a wild time… I don’t know how much of it was reported over here… the caravan of hundreds and thousands of people leaving Central America for the US… Climate change, war and whatever else causes displaced people to want to move – that situation is going to keep coming up. It was something I saw and I wrote the song that day.
Nothing Like A Woman is one of the lighter songs on the record. It’s romantic and is about the power of a relationship – how a woman can make you change your mind…
Dan Raza: That was me trying to do the whole Ronnie Lane and Rod Stewart thing, with a fiddle and a mandolin.
Like You Wear It Well?
Dan Raza: Exactly, man – that’s my template.
In My Own Time is a Dylanesque country-folk tune, and again, it’s a bit lighter than some of the other songs on the record, with violin and banjo…
Dan Raza: Yeah, man – I love the groove, with Luke Bullen on drums.
Water Reflects (What It’s Shown) has a moody, blues-soul feel, It’s a new direction for you. Musically, it was influenced by Bobby Womack and The Staple Singers, wasn’t it?
Dan Raza: Yes – very much. Thank you for picking up on that. It was exciting – as a musician, you listen to a lot of diverse stuff, but your sound can be a bit limited, do you know what I mean? So, it’s nice when you can touch on some of your other influences, and they find a way to come out.
I think this album will surprise people. It’s ambitious and it has a range to it.
Dan Raza: Good – thanks, man. I’m just lucky with the way it came out and with the musicians I worked with. Water Reflects (What It’s Shown) reflects some of my influences and some of the people I was working with – they pushed me in different directions. When I play the song live, it sounds different – it’s almost like a Bert Jansch drony blues thing, but when I did it with the keys player, who is a guy called Carl Hudson, and the drummer, Russ Parker, it just gave it a Pops Staples feel, and suddenly I was like, ‘This is awesome, man,’ and I came up with the chant bit in the middle, which I basically stole from Bobby Womack, and I was running…
That song was inspired by the political climate when Boris Johnson was prime minister and Brexit happened…
Dan Raza: Yeah – I was disgusted by it, as a lot of people were. It was the hubris of the time – Johnson, who was so arrogant… It was January 2020, and it came from my frustration and anger.
Behold The Night is a beautiful song to start the album with. It’s a ballad with strings that gradually builds. What can you tell me about that track? It lures listeners in, rather than starting with a bang…
Dan Raza: It’s always difficult, because most of my songs are slow... (laughs). If I put a fast song at the start, the rest of the album would be downhill! I like it – it just felt like a natural start, but I never wrote it to be an opener. It starts with my guitar and voice, which is a natural way to start a singer-songwriter album, and then the other instruments come in.
Wasn’t That Enough For Me, which was the first single, is a song about being on the road and hitting the highway…
Dan Raza: That’s a metaphor…
It’s also a relationship song…
Dan Raza: Exactly – it’s about not being able to settle down.
It fits with the title of the album too – a wayfarer, a restless person, moving around…
Dan Raza: Yeah. It has echoes of all those things – a restlessness and searching for something…
Are you feeling restless at the moment?
Dan Raza: Good question, man. No – I feel alright.
How is it being back in London?
Dan Raza: I’m not feeling restless yet. Let’s wait and see. I’ve got so many friends and connections here, so let’s make the most of it. I want to soak up what’s happening.
Wayfarer by Dan Raza is out now on Valve Records.
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