Interview with Daniel Isaiah: ‘Every once in a while, a song falls into my lap’

Montreal-based folk singer Daniel Isaiah is gearing up to release his fourth album, To Live A Wild Life, in January.

Earlier this month, he released his single ‘Oblivion’, a wistful, searching track about the acceptance of death, set to gentle finger picking: ‘I have a little set up in the studio up the road from where I live,’ he said. ‘I found the melody on the keyboard. At first it was called ‘L’Chaim’, which is Hebrew for ‘to life’. I played it for my wife and she said: “I guess you can get away with saying that since you’re Jewish (laughs)” but she seemed unsure about the repetition of the word, with its strong ‘ch’ sound, as in Bach. There’s equanimity in the verses, coming to accept death.’

As the track kicks off: “When all is said and done. Did you stand or did you run? Did you hold your head up high? Or did you clutch at the sky?”

Isaiah’s love of music has been there right from the start: ‘I’ve been writing songs and poems since I was a kid,’ he said. ‘My earliest memories are bound up with music. In one, I’m lying on the floor listening to my mom playing ‘Für Elise’ on piano. I am three or four, so it could be my first time hearing it, but it seems that I have always known this music. In another, in my dad’s kitchen, he is singing and playing ‘At the Zoo’ on his Gibson J-45. My sister and I slow dance to the verses, then go crazy on the choruses. I try playing the Gibson, but it’s humongous, and I keep losing his guitar picks in the soundhole!’ 

‘As I get older, I’m aiming for clarity and simplicity’

Some songs seem to come out of nowhere, such as his recent single ‘I’ve Got A Lot Riding On You’, a beautiful, melancholic track with a haunting piano line, an organ that simulates strings, and saxophone fills, which he describes as being about ‘two people in it together’: ‘Every once in a while, a song falls into my lap,’ he said. ‘I was messing around on the piano when I found this melody. It came with an opening line: “Sometimes it feels like I’m gonna break.” I’ve rarely had that feeling, but I have had it. I just followed that line and it led me to the song’s refrain. I do have a story about that one, actually, when I was recording my first album in 2010, I was sitting at the studio’s piano, which I didn’t know how to play at the time. I had a three-note chord – an A minor chord, the basic shape – moving up and down, and I loved the progression, but there was no lyrical hook, so it lay dormant for years. Then, in 2020, I played it for my country-singer friend Li’l Andy and he said “You should repeat that ‘riding on you’ line”. ‘I’ve Got A Lot Riding On You’ doesn’t mean I rely or depend on you. It’s just recognizing that you and I are in this together, and that we are strengthened and sustained by one another. It was written in the pandemic. There was a curfew here in Montreal and the song came out of that mood.’

As the track goes: “Sometimes it feels like I’m gonna break. But to give up now would be a mistake. Open your eyes, look all around. This is our time, this is our town. We’ve come this far, we’ll get there soon. I’ve got a lot riding on you.”

As he gets older, what he expects from his lyrics is changing: ‘My lyrics used to be very opaque to the point that sometimes I didn’t even know what they meant (laughs). As I get older, I’m aiming for clarity and simplicity. With the music, I might have an idea for the song but the time signature might change or the lyrics might change completely. I never start with the words, I envy songwriters who can do that. If the music doesn’t come with a line like ‘I’ve got a lot riding on you”, if there’s nothing to grab onto, I’m in trouble. There’s a line in ‘Oblivion’: “The ones we used to know arrange a rainbow”. My mother used to call me whenever there was a rainbow in the sky. After she passed away, my stepfather would call me when there was a rainbow, or a good moon; he passed away last October.’

To Live A Wild Life will comprise nine tracks, including these two singles: ‘The lyrics and storytelling are straightforward,’ he said. ‘I’ve shed the abstractions of my earlier writing. The songs kind of talk to each other. ‘Waking Life’ is about a woman who has just gone through a breakup and has made the firm decision that she doesn’t want another man. And the next track on the album, ‘At The Celebration’, is about a country-wedding. It’s told from the perspective of a wedding guest, with a sort of ironic detachment, but I didn’t really see how much the songs related to each other until I started sequencing them. Another track, ‘Brock Avenue’, is about the street I grew up on. After my stepfather passed away last autumn, I walked around the neighbourhood where I grew up, I didn’t recognise anyone on the street. I was standing at my old house, looking at it and reminiscing when an old lady came out. Last time I saw her, she was my age. She gave me a big hug. It’s a slow song, it’s in a minor key, it’s a document of that afternoon.’

‘I’m quite comfortable in French but I can’t be funny in French’

I ask him if he ever writes songs in French, given that he is bilingual and we get to chatting about the complexities of expressing yourself in different languages: ‘I wrote two songs in French for my first album and I use French every day. I’d like to do more of that. Writing poetry in French, it’s tricky, especially the rhyming. I’m comfortable in French but I can’t be funny in French, I can’t be quite me,’ he said.

Interestingly, Isaiah prefers songwriting to actual performing: ‘I like the solitude and letting my mind wander,’ he admitted. ‘I used to play with a band but I felt I was singing karaoke (laughs), but on my own I can be more spontaneous and expressive. I can change tempo, I can change keys. One thing that helped with my performance was teaching English as a foreign language. The classes were four hours long, so I had to sort of perform for the students to keep them interested! I’m a bit of a nervous performer, I tend to speed up. An old bandmate of mine, a guitar player, got the shits whenever we’d play, he was always looking around for the bathroom two minutes before we’d go on.’

Every time he starts working on a new album, Isaiah likes to give himself a new challenge. For his last album, Only One Left, he bought a synth and drum machine and figured out how to record at home. For his upcoming album, he learned piano and wrote all of the songs on it. Most recently, that challenge is drawing, teaching himself from how-to videos: ‘Last winter I started drawing, something I’d never done before. I’ll often start by drawing abstract shapes until something emerges on the page: a body or object. Then I’ll try bringing that out. After doing several of these drawings, I realized that some of them could fit my songs. There’s a drawing I did for ‘Oblivion’ of one kid on his phone, the other staring up at the sky. The focus was originally the woman at the bus stop in ‘Waking Life’ – it was a cityscape and those kids were just background characters, then I cut everything else out and only they were left. Drawing is relaxing and fun. Emily, my wife, she animates some of them.’

‘I went to a school where we sang the Hebrew prayers every day, I was always the loudest singer!’

Singing has always come naturally to him: ‘I went to a school where we sang the Hebrew prayers every day, I was always the loudest singer! I didn’t know what the words meant, but it didn’t matter – I liked the melodies. A few months before my bar mitzah, my father gave me a choice: we could throw a party and invite all of my friends, or I could have an electric guitar. Easy choice! He gave me a black made-in-Mexico Stratocaster. I was overwhelmed by its beauty and by the fact that it was actually in my bedroom.’

In 2009, he recorded a three-song demo and sent it to Secret City Records, who loved the songs, and signed him. His first album High Twilight (2011) was called a ‘stunning debut’ by American Songwriter magazine, and reached #1 on Canadian campus radio. The next album Come into Gone (2015) also charted on college radio and The Globe and Mail selected ‘Sail’ as their track of the week. After came Only One Left (2019).

Isaiah’s dad had a great record collection, which set him on the musical path: ‘He was always playing guitar but his job was manufacturing children’s clothes. I was young and impressionable and I loved hearing him play. He introduced me to The Kinks and The Beatles. I live in Montreal so Leonard Cohen is important (laughs). As a teenager, I listened to a lot of punk rock like The Raincoats.’

If he could go for a pint with anyone, he picks Tom Waits: ‘I might want him to give me a piano lesson! He seems avuncular and friendly, he wouldn’t intimidate me as much as, say, Bob Dylan. Dylan’s son Jacob tells the story of Tom Waits meeting Bob Dylan and freezing up, he didn’t know what to say, and Jacob was disappointed, like: “Come on Tom, you’re the coolest guy in the world. Talk to him!”‘