We had the absolute pleasure of chatting to the wonderful Dan Davidson at The Long Road a couple of weeks ago. Check it out as we speak about Canadian country music, his plans for the future, and his amazing mandolin playing!

Firstly, how’s learning the mandolin gone?

It’s terrible! It’s just so tiny. We just figured we usually have a fiddle in the band and our fiddle player wasn’t around to come on this trip, so we have our guitar player taking the leads. And sometimes when I’m playing, three guitars is kinda a lot, so I’ll take a break for a couple of songs and play a really simplified mando. If it’s a train wreck tonight you can laugh at me!

So, how do you have the time to do everything you do?

It’s exhausting! I’m doing a morning radio show, I’m developing a kids show, I’m touring a lot around the world this year; Australia, Italy and now the UK… yeah man, there’s a lot of plates spinning right now and it’s a lot of fun. It keeps me motivated! It’s fun to take a brain break sometimes and spread the bandwidth out. It kinda refreshes me for all the country stuff.

I found that… I produce a lot for other people; producing rock records and stuff like that. Get that all out of my system and then back to the regularly scheduled program!

What’s it like being a country musician from Canada, given that the genre is still so closely associated with the South?

Well you know it’s so funny… in Canada we feel like it’s 100% our identity. We have way more open spaces than America. So where I’m from, the Canadian Prairies, there’s nothing but wheat fields, there’s oil there, cattle farming, so it’s pretty country. We don’t have southern accents but the lifestyle has always been there!

For me, I did rock music for so long that one day it was just opening up that door I kept closed. Adding in the banjos and the twang. It’s there and we feel like Canadian country competes on the global scene pretty well!

It’s interesting you say that as I spoke to Tim Hicks last year and he had a similar story. You’ve just done a song with him, so how’d that come about?

Tim and I have been writing together a lot. I co-wrote his ‘I miss Tom Petty’ song that was just played on BBC for the first time the other day. And he’s co-written a bunch for my record. He’s just a guy I feel a bit of a kin to; he’s a hard worker, he’s grinding, we’re not on the label scene as much so we’ve both got our own paths we’re trying to forge. I just felt a lot of respect and admiration for him. It just made sense. We were working together a lot and I was playing Australia, I’d just signed this deal, he was going down right away… the stars kinda lined up!

You have a sold out gig on Sunday in York, right?

Yeah, that’s pretty cool! First time we’ve done a sold out show in the UK and it’s a small one. But it’s gonna be a fun songwriters kinda night where we can tell some stories and make some bad jokes, we’re looking forward to it!

Is this your first time playing much over here?

I’ve done C2C, and I’ve done Buckle & Boots… and I think that’s it, just the two trips before. It’s been great, man. The fans are really starting to catch on, it’s really becoming a thing here. That’s why I hope they can tell, I’m trying to commit to the market and be here and show support.

Is there anything different in terms of the scene compared to back home?

I find that UK country fans are a little more Americana focused. I think that’s how they suck themselves into country a little bit, down the Americana route. And that’s cool; it leads to so much fun in the live show because you can pull from so many influences. That’s the big thing. Other than that, there’s not a whole lot of big festivals like this one, so I hope that other promoters see how cool this is and keep going!

I’ve seen a few popping up in Europe too which is awesome!

There’s lots of little ones, yeah. We’ve done one in France, Spain, it’s been cool!

It’s been a while since your last album, any plans to do another longer form release or are you sticking to EPs?

I kinda like the EP thing. It’s a little more bite-sized, the EP always sounds more current, I thought. I mean I released one in October and now I’m in the studio working on another one, trying to figure out what the next move is!

I feel an EP lends itself a lot more to the current format of music these days, too.

Totally. People digest stuff so fast now. That’s why you see Post Malone drop 12 surprise tracks. Crazy!

Have you got any plans to come back here?

I sure would like to. That was a big part of coming here. I’m playing the Front Porch stage, doing an acoustic trio thing. I’ve been trying to get their attention for a while so now that I have this I wanna try and plant the seeds and come back and get on the main stage!

You’re doing two sets too, right?

Yeah, tonight and then tomorrow, early. It’ll be hard sleeping tonight!

And any clues on this cover you’re releasing of a rock song [since out!]?

Oh yeah, I’ll just tell you straight up. I’m doing a Death Cab for Cutie cover, gonna do ‘I will Follow you Into the Dark’, but kinda country banjos and stuff. It’ll be cool. It’s just a little bonus for the fans. And I like the song, I thought it would sound cool so I just threw it all together. I’m really happy with it, I think it’s fun! It’ll be different, but I think it’ll actually really work with the UK country fans!