Dan Black Interview: SXSW 2010

In Spring 2008, London-born Dan Black created a MySpace account and uploaded his creation 'Hypntz,' a track which combined the drums from Rihanna's 'Umbrella' with sweeping strings from the soundtrack of John Carpenter's 'Starman' film, over which Black sang the rhymes from Notorious B.I.G.'s 'Hypnotize.' Almost immediately, the track began getting daytime airplay on BBC's Radio One, and by summer, A&M had signed Black to a major deal. For the week of Dec. 28, 2009, Black's single 'Symphonies' was released as the US iTunes 'Single of the Week.' Spinner had the opportunity to speak with Black before his appearance at SXSW. Here's what one of 2010's most promising breakthrough artists had to say.

Describe your sound.

The hardest question in pop music [laughs]. The sound of a computer crying in the toilets at the back of a disco just after closing time.

You were in a band, the Servant. What made you decide to go solo?

I got bored of coming in with ideas for songs and working on a song for, like, two weeks, and then coming in and starting to play it and within 30 seconds someone saying, "I don't like it. Let's do something else."

What are your musical influences?

For me, far and wide: Cocteau Twins, '80s Prince, De La Soul and the Smiths.

What's one of your biggest vices?

American junk food -- the sweet end of American junk food. I have the taste buds of a school child!

What's your musical guilty pleasure?

That's always quite hard. By implying it's a guilty pleasure, that implies I feel guilt about liking this music. I can think of worse things in life to feel guilt about other than liking some music! The first record I ever bought was called the Minipops. When I was a kid -- this is in the UK in the '80s -- the Minipops were like a TV show where kids pretended to be famous pop stars. So there would be a little-kid version of Bananarama. I should probably feel a bit guilty about that!

What's the craziest thing you've seen or experienced while on tour?

A girl who had my name tattooed on her arm, and as the bus pulled away, she made a few gestures that basically relayed the idea if I don't call her she would kill herself. Pointing at this tattoo and raising her hand and making a phone signal, pointing at me, and then pointing at herself and wagging her finger in a "no" fashion, and then a slitting her own throat gesture. That was quite weird!

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