Q&A: California Crooner David Serby Not Waiting Around For People To Knock On His Door

Back in April I did a short review of David Serby’s second album, Another Sleepless Night. Since then he’s been busy promoting his album and playing live shows, one of which was the first ever Stagecoach Festival in California. I got in touch with David to see how things were going and ask if he’d be willing to participate in a back and forth Q&A via email, to which he graciously agreed.

What has been the biggest obstacle for you so far in getting your music discovered?

Folks work so hard, and they have access to so many different streams of entertainment, that they don’t often have the time or the energy to check out something new. They really need to hear from people they respect and trust that something is worthwhile before they’ll invest a lot of their precious time to find it. Even when you narrow it down to people who love alternative country, I’m still competing against the new Dave Alvin, Dale Watson, Lucinda Williams, Marty Stuart, or Willie Nelson records, Byrds reissues, or hell, even watching old clips of Buck Owens and Ray Price on YouTube.

I read somewhere that Bob Dylan said, and I’m paraphrasing, that the world didn’t need any more new songs, and that if he had his way, he’d stop writing and just play old Charley Patton tunes. The challenge is to find the folks who not only think the world needs another song, but who also want to be the first person to have heard that new song.

That sounds like a tall task. What steps have you taken to overcome that obstacle, and do you think you’ve been successful thus far?

First, I wrote a bunch of songs that I’m proud of, and that I enjoy sharing with people, and I think my producer/guitar player, Ed Tree, and I put together a pretty darn good band and record. Ed and I, Taras Prodaniuk on bass, and Gary Ferguson on drums, we have a lot of fun playing shows and I think people can see that, and they have a good time, too.

Second, I don’t sit around and wait for people to knock on my door. I hit the streets, hustle gigs, and try to find the folks who enjoy hearing new music.

Third, I’ve been lucky to have met people like Kim Grant, and her partner Pam Moore. They book a great show called the Grand Ole Echo here in Los Angeles. Kim liked my record and badgered Chris Morris at LA City Beat Magazine and Indie 103.1FM to give it a listen. Chris liked it, wrote about it, and played in on his radio show, Watusi Rodeo. Luckily, Kim and Chris are a couple of folks who when they tell someone something is worth checking out it eventually gets checked out.

Fourth, I’ve found cool alternative outlets like The 9513 who were willing to give the record a listen (and in your case write something nice about it).

I was able to piece together enough good quotes about the record that when I sent it out to radio stations it had a level of credibility that it might not have otherwise had and they started playing it.

Another Sleepless Night debuted at #17 on the Freeform American Roots Chart in April, and from what I understand it’s going to bump up to #9 on the May chart. So far, I do think I’ve been pretty successful, but it’s taken a lot of work, and a lot of luck, and I’ve had a lot of help — For which I’m very grateful.

Was it easier getting Another Sleepless Night accepted by listeners since you already had one album under your belt, or did it present a new set of challenges?

We finished my first record, I Just Don’t Go Home, put the band together to promote it, and as soon as we started playing shows I wrote a batch of new songs (which would become Another Sleepless Night).

The time I could (probably should) have spent pushing my first record I spent making my second one, and figuring out how to book and promote shows. So, to most listeners Another Sleepless Night probably is my first record.

I write a lot and have at least another album worth of songs, but I was smart enough to set them on the back burner this time. We play a lot of them at shows, but recording is going to wait a little while. Hopefully, any good impression I’ve made with Another Sleepless Night will carry over for the next record and make it easier to get folks to listen to it.

I noticed on your website that you did some shows in Austin a few months back, but other than that everything has been in California. Do you have any plans to take your show out of state on a more frequent basis?

It’s funny you should ask; I’m getting to work on a small tour right now.

I don’t have a manager, or a radio promotion person, or a booking agent, I work a day job, and I’m not the greatest multi-tasker…sometimes I’m amazed I can hit all six strings on the guitar at the same time. Luckily, I’m pretty good at focusing on one thing, getting it done, and then moving onto the next.

Now that I’ve got the record to radio, I’m looking at places it would make sense to take the band out on the road for a week or two. Right now, I’m focusing on heading up through central and northern California, as well as moving over into Arizona, and maybe down into Texas. I’m working on booking shows in towns were folks can already hear the record on the radio. That way, we can drop into the station, thank them for playing the record, maybe play something for them on the air, and promote a show we’ll be playing later that night or week in or around their town.

The band and I had a great time in Austin; the response we got was really good. We’re really looking forward to getting out on the road again and playing from some new folks.

Sweet, that’s bound to garner some new fans. You were one of the artists that got to perform the Stagecoach festival, what was that like for you and did you catch any other noteworthy performances while you were there?

Stagecoach was great.

First, it’s the biggest show I’ve ever been on and it was very cool to see how they put something like that together. There were four stages, acts turning over on each stage every hour, gear getting moved in an out…so many moving pieces and I was amazed how the whole thing runs like clockwork. Goldenvoice really knows how to put on a show; everyone I dealt with, from the president, Paul Tollet and his assistant, Stacy Vee on down to the folks driving the golf carts backstage treated us great.

Second, I’m used to lugging my own guitars and amps, setting up mics, fiddling with the P.A., so, it was nice not to have to worry about all that stuff for a change. I gave them a backline request, a stage plot, and an input list and they did the rest. We showed up, plugged in, and played. Goldenvoice made it pretty easy for us to put on a good show and have a great time – which we did.

Third, country music fans have to be the nicest folks around. I think there were about 30,000 people there each day and the vibe was amazing. It really was like a giant family picnic, and it might sound kind of funny, but everyone I met felt like a long lost friend.

As for noteworthy performances there were a lot of them, but my two favorites were Marty Stuart and The Fabulous Superlatives, and Raul Malo.

I never got to see Buck Owens and The Buckaroos, and although Marty Stuart isn’t a California country guy, I imagine seeing his band is like what it must’ve been to see Buck Owens. Everyone in Stuart’s band plays their tail off, they can all sing, and they look like they’re having the times of their lives. And Marty Stuart is just about the most gracious musical host I’ve ever seen – Everyone in his band gets a chance to shine, and he makes sure the audience is having a great time.

And Raul Malo’s voice has been touched by angels. It was probably about 90 degrees in the sun while he was playing but I bet he still managed to give just about everyone goose bumps.

You make me want to sign up for next year already. Lastly, I want to touch on one of my favorite subjects–songwriting. Do you have a specific process you follow when writing your songs and where do you draw inspiration from?

Most of my songs come out of conversations I’m having. Someone will tell me about something that happened to them and I’ll recognize myself in their story, or vice versa. I’ll realize, “Hey, this has happened to a lot of folks.”

I think people love country music because they find comfort in it. And by comfort I don’t mean they want to be told everything is going to be okay — because a lot of the time it’s not going to be okay — it almost never is in my songs. I think folks just want to feel like they’re not alone in this life; that’s what comforts them. At least that’s what comforts me, and that’s what I love about country music.

Once I get that little spark I try to come up with a title that’s conversational and will hopefully sum up what I want to say in the song. Then it’s just strummin’, hummin’, scratchin’ and scribblin’.

Head over to David Serby’s MySpace to listen to some songs from Another Sleepless Night.