Interview with Daniel James McFadyen: ‘I think the saxophone is making a comeback – it’s not just for cheesy folk!’

Last month, Nova Scotia-based Canadian folk singer Daniel James McFadyen released a cinematic five track EP titled ‘Songs To Show Your Friends’.

‘Part of the EP title came from people coming out to my shows, bringing their friends and spreading my music through word of mouth,’ he said. ‘I really like to promote local music here in Nova Scotia and to show friends music that I love, so this title is a joking reminder to everyone to do just that’.

The opener ‘Sunshine’ is a bittersweet love song laced with intricate melodies and compelling instrumentation, featuring soulful, melancholic strings and an exquisite saxophone solo. It’s something of a happy accident and is a track that came to fruition when McFadyen stumbled across a long-forgotten voice note containing the idea for its hook, pairing an upbeat melody which is as sunny as the title suggests with lyrics that are profoundly dark in places: ‘The lyrics are a bit about missing someone or not being able to get over somebody – I can relate to that,’ he said. ‘I thought, originally, that it would just be a happy love song but then I thought: “Wouldn’t it be nice to start off happy then introduce those darker notes and lyrics” (laughs), like on the violin. Andy Shauf wrote an album called The Party, and a lot of the songs on that record sound upbeat but are contrasted by sad, often lonely lyrics, which were inspiring. Initially, we couldn’t figure out what to do with the solo, so we tried a few different approaches. My original idea was a trumpet but it didn’t have the right vibe. For the longest time, that was the empty part. James, who ended up playing the sax on it, figured it out. I think the saxophone is making a comeback – it’s not just for cheesy folk!’

‘I was off in Guatemala, writing about Halifax and Darkness being separated by a bridge’

‘City Of Ashes’ is a heartfelt, almost Springsteen-like track about Halifax, where McFadyen now lives: ‘I was off in Guatemala, writing about Halifax and Darkness being separated by a bridge,’ he said. ‘It’s kinda inspired by Joel Plaskett (a Canadian musician and songwriter), and there are some odes to him in the song. It was also inspired by a man I met selling blankets and trinkets out late at night in Guatemala.’

Typically, he writes his songs on the acoustic guitar. When I interviewed him last time, he told me that ‘there’s nothing I love more than playing guitar’. ‘I have two knobs on my Taylor guitar, for the low and high frequencies,’ he said. ‘My favourite guitar is my full body mahogany Martin 000 15M to write songs on. It’s small and beautiful. I couldn’t find one here in Canada but my dad was going to San Francisco and I found a place where you could get one and he brought it back for me. How cool was that? Thanks, dad!’

McFadyen’s beautiful fingerpicking that I associate with earlier songs of his, such as ‘Let Me Go’ also makes a comeback on this EP, particularly on ‘Find My Way To You’, which also features Darragh Jessome on vocals: ‘I used to write a lot of songs with fingerpicking,’ he said. ‘I wrote ‘Find My Way To You’ a long time ago when I was camping but the song never really felt finished – I had it for years. I lowered the song a bit, I did it with my friend Ida. It’s hard to know when to stop adding things (laughs). Quinn, the producer, did a live take of it on the floor and recorded it. He added some banjos and that’s all it really needed.’

‘I think my songwriting has changed a lot’

Understandably, his songwriting is taking on new shapes over time: ‘I think my songwriting has changed a lot,’ he said. ‘I’m thinking more about production and instrumentation. Quinn is very musical and offers a different perspective. I met Quinn through Mike McKenna Jr., I was so impressed with his (folk) album that I asked him who produced it – he gave me Quinn’s name. I’m so glad he didn’t gatekeep it!’

He got into music at a very young age, taking piano lessons but not really enjoying them, switching to the guitar when he was thirteen and taking part in Battle of the Bands at school. He grew up outside of Toronto but went to school an 18 hour drive away in Nova Scotia (Acadia University) and has not left since. He was exposed to a huge range of music, thanks to his stepdad, from Tragically Hip and The Beatles to Pink Floyd and Leonard Cohen. ‘Then I discovered The Lumineers (a Colorado-based folk-rock band), and I’d say they’ve shaped my sound the most.’ He’s also a massive fan of The Middle East, an Australian indie folk band from Townsville, Queensland. ‘They write some of the most beautiful songs I’ve ever heard,’ he said enthusiastically. ‘They had a really tough time existing as a band, they didn’t seem to get along. They have a song called ‘Blood’, which I really love and I wish I’d written it, it’s like dark folk.’

The closer ‘The Ghost’ turns out to have been inspired by his childhood: ‘I got the inspiration from a back room at my mum’s, at the very end of the house, that me and my two sisters always thought was haunted,’ he said. The tune’s chords are equally haunting and I ask him what they are: ‘The ‘M7th chord is the first chord and I think there’s an Em7,’ he said.

‘He writes such beautiful melodies and lyrics and the pedal steel guitars mimic them’

Some songs he can’t hear without wishing he’d written them, something that is particularly true of Bon Iver’s ‘Blood Bank’ EP: ’The song ‘Beach Baby’ on that EP has pedal steel guitars on it, which I love. He writes such beautiful melodies and lyrics and the pedal steel guitars mimic them,’ he said.

If he could have a pint with any musician,  McFadyen would pick Gregory Alan Isakov, a South African-born folk singer-songwriter currently based in Boulder, Colorado: ‘He’s inspired a lot of the stuff I’ve written,’ he said enthusiastically. ‘I’d like to know how he writes his lyrics, nobody ever asks him about his lyrics.’

Last time we chatted, he had just got a new tattoo and he’s picked up a few more since then. ‘I saw a design at a woodblock printing place in Oaxaca, Mexico,’ he said. ‘I didn’t get the tattoo done there, I got it done here in Halifax, but I got in touch with the guy and asked for the design. The Arkells’ trombone player (Ernesto Barhona) gave me a tattoo!’