By Kathryn Pinto
Tonight Duniven celebrates the official release of I Need To Try for Her with a show at the Bootleg Theater. Playing in support are Broadcast Station, Liquid Love Letter, Bixby Knolls, Lost And Found, the show begins at 8pm. Radio Free Silver Lake presented Duniven's June residency at the Silverlake Lounge. We caught up with Patrick Duniven via email to ask him about the new album and what the band has been up to since the residency.
Radio Free Silver Lake: Back in June you had a really great residency at the Silverlake Lounge. It started strong, and by the final week the room was at near capacity and you played a very tight set with something like eight people on stage. Have you been able to maintain that momentum? What have you been up to since then?
Patrick Duniven: The Silverlake Lounge residency was a pivotal point in my growth this year. I went into it somewhat burnt out from making the record which takes so much out of you and I had very little rehearsal with my band. I think we'd played more shows than rehearsals at that point, which was both good and bad. My guys are very good and professional so there's not a ton of rehearsal necessary but at the same time I wanted us to have some momentum together which is hard to develop unless you're on tour. The res[idency] was just what we needed in order to develop that momentum...we played every week together and became tighter and more familiar with every show.
The momentum we established from that residency was really great, lots of good press and the shows were packed. So coming out of it I was a bit unsure of how I was going to maintain it but I took a chance on a few ideas and some things fell in line very nicely. I shot a video for "Stars Far Above" which was edited by the great Bryan Volk and was featured on Kevin Bronson's Buzzbands website. I headlined a sold out show at The Satellite in August and things began to snowball after that. We did the Downtown Art Walk in early Sept[ember] and next week shared another big Satellite show with Eastern Conference Champions...two days later we played a sold out show with "Ivy" at Bardot "School Night" hosted by Chris Douridas of KCRW. A week after that we played a big spot at the Eagle Rock Music Festival before heading to New York City for CMJ where we played the ASCAP showcase at The Canal Room, which was one of the biggest showcases out there.
You went to New York for CMJ last month. How was that experience? Did you play a bunch of shows? How many & where? How did the audiences in New York react to your set? Was it different from LA?
I ended up on the cover of CMJ after our show there. I built a small NY/East coast tour around the CMJ spot and played some of New York's coolest venues including Arlene's Grocery, The Delancy, and Pete's Candy Store in Brooklyn. Overall it lasted about two weeks and I played nine shows overall including heading down to Philly for a great gig at Dawson's Street Pub which ended up being one of my best east coast experiences. My music was received in a different way than it is experienced out here... I may move there, that is all I can say for now.
Coming back here I have done one show so far in Nov[ember] at The Standard Hollywood for Valida Carroll (KCRW) and her weekly singer/songwriter night with good support from Harley Cortez and Holly Conlan...all in promotion of the record release. My main goal is to get this album out there in the world so I can focus on the next batch of songs and getting them to my licensing agent (Scott Cresto) who I signed with back in August. He is one of the most well-known and respected music placement guys in LA and I'm fortunate to have become involved with him.
The songs on this album come out of a very personal, emotional place. How is it to perform these songs now, after some time has passed? Is it still very intense, or has the feeling of the songs transformed in some way?
[In answer to your third question], with time...I have developed the ability perform these songs with a greater accuracy to the original feelings that were present when I wrote them. When I first began to perform the songs live I realized I was not providing the true emotion that's present in the recordings and was scared that I'd lost the ability to tap into what was most sacred to me...But I eventually realized that was due to distraction of the early stages of a new project. It’s no longer an effort to imitate now...just me able to completely absorb myself in the song and translate its original intentions and emotions. It is stronger and more real now than ever before.
What is it like to finally have the official album release after having the album complete for a couple months? What formats are you releasing the album: digital, CD, Vinyl, cassette?
Its cool to have the album officially out there and available to the world. As I said I want to release this so I can move on to the next batch of tunes. I have to continue to create and produce new material in some shape or form. Otherwise I become a depressed, unhappy, dissatisfied individual and I'm not pleasant to be around. Its obvious when I'm right at the point of needing to write new stuff because I come across as pessimistic which is not my natural inclination as a human being. I am happiest when I'm writing... very at peace with the world and God.
I could have released the album early in the year, closer to the recording but that would have made it more difficult to leverage all the cool things that have happened leading up to an "Album release". I Need to Try For Her will be available on Itunes, Amazon and Spotify beginning Nov 30th. You can also purchase hard copies in Amoeba and on our website.
Who is playing tonight? Do you have the full band back together? Any guests or surprises?
[Tonight's] show features some great support! Broadcast Station will open at 8pm. That's the project of my former band mate Ryan Herbert. The Lost and Found is next up, the project of Aimee Lay who sings with me in my band. Her band is one of my favorite local groups. Liquid Love Letter is my main support, fronted by Matthew Kaner, they are also holding their record release!! And The Bixby Knolls will close things. The Bixbys have been some of my best friends and favorite musicians for so many years. My record release show wouldn't be the same with out them involved.
My band is always as full as full needs to be, and there are always surprises when you do a record release.
What's next for Duniven?
As I said, I plan to focus on new material in the next month and will have a new EP come January! I am doing SXSW next year for certain and plan on doing lots of touring and getting lots of good film/TV placements. 2012 is going to be a big year...there's no way it can't be. Someone asked me recently how I did so much in the first 10 months of a new project and I told them I'm always thinking three years ahead. It would be impossible for me to do what I plan on doing three years from now if I hadn't accomplished what I did this year. And believe me, you don’t want to know what I have planned three years from now. But when I get there I'll be thinking three years down the road. I think three years is a good number to work with, allows you to set long term goals to some extent but also keeps things within reach and allows you to maintain control.
Anything else?
I Need to Try For Her is an album about the love of a young woman from a young man. When I began writing these songs I was speaking to someone from the past that had manifested into my current state of being. I now realize I was not only writing about, to and for someone else but also reaching out to myself...a part of me that I knew was there and just needed to become familiar with in order to evolve.
Duniven plays tonight at the Bootleg Theater, 2220 Beverly Blvd., Los Angeles. Doors 7:00pm, Show 8:00pm, $8, 21 &over.
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