Based out of South Florida, The Dan Gootner Band may not be a name you're familiar with just yet, however, their original songs feel like a band that's been around for a long time, churning out catchy, infectious tunes that have a timeless feel to it. Music-News got the exciting opportunity to interview the band and learn the story behind the music.
Hi Dan! As the lead singer/songwriter of the Dan Gootner Band, tell us about how this project came together, who plays what, and the background story?This project started a bunch of years ago when a good friend and co-songwriter of mine moved away from South Florida. Elie is actually the lead singer of the band. As a guitar player, I've always had a wealth of material, but always wanted to co-write with a singer. I think it's a great setup to have that duo writing team, to bounce ideas off each other. When I found myself without a co-writer, I went in search of someone new, and I found Elie! We hit it off right away, and practically wrote a new song every single time we were in a room together. So Elie is the lyricist and vocalist. I play acoustic and electric guitars, harmonica, dobro, lapsteel, ukulele, harmonica, and sitar. I also arrange the music and produce and curate all the other musicians needed for any given song. Elie and I are the only permanent members of the group.
How would you describe the band's sound and music? Who/what are your musical influences?We have put out a good variety of songs thus far, ranging from blues rock to some more folk or country sounding songs. Some recent press has referred to us as indie rock and indie pop, so I guess throw that in too! As far as influences, I can list Bob Dylan, Tom Petty and Monsters of Folk for influencing some of the overall vibes and songwriting style we've gone for with certain things, like the new one The Fox And The Hound for example. Personally as a guitar player, I'd also have to list Steve Miller, Mike Campbell, Eric Clapton, Lindsey Buckingham, and John Frusciante. They all have had an impact on how I approach a guitar solo, as well as building riffs for a song.
Your new single 'The Fox And The Hound' just released. Congrats! What's that about?Thank you! We're proud of it and super excited it's finally here. This song is about two kids who fall in love with each other, but their love is not meant to be. They come from different worlds and are on two different paths. Throughout their time together, they also have their families trying to pull them apart, because they don't understand each other. Sadly this is something that happens in the real world quite often. These characters in this song represent the real life situation of, people can't always see eye to eye with each other, just love each other, and realize we're all in this together in this world.
If there's one band or artist you could open for on tour, who would it be and why?It's hard to pick just one, but I'm gonna go with The Steve Miller Band. He's one of my earliest influences. My father listened to him, so I've been listening to him practically since birth. When I was 15 years old and my mom asked what instrument I wanted to learn, guitar was the obvious choice in large part to Steve Miller. The guitar solo in our song "Doom and Gloom" , that's me thinking, what would Steve Miller do?
What's next for The Dan Gootner Band?'We have a ton of unreleased material right now that is finished and ready to go! The response to The Fox And The Hound has been incredible so far, so we're leaning towards the next single being stylistically in the same vein. But we have some other fun stuff in the bag, like a funky instrumental song with a big horn section, and other surprises too. So keep an eye out!
What are some things you guys like to do when you're not playing music?We love the outdoors! Elie tends to head for the mountains, and I head underwater. In fact right now Elie is hiking through the mountains in upstate New York. I've been a scuba diver since 2010 and love to travel to great dive destinations. I've put a couple of our songs to my GoPro dive footage too, and the videos are all on our YouTube channel.
How can our readers keep up with you guys moving forward?We hope you'll follow us! On Twitter:
@DanGootner and Instagram:
@dangootnerband.
