The Danny Paul Grody Interview
Danny Paul Grody is a founding member of both San Francisco based bands Tarenteland The Drift. He is a self taught guitarist, and the melodies at the core of Danny’s songwriting bring to mind his love of West African kora, Takoma style fingerpicking and all things minimal, repetitive and hypnotic
When and where were born? What was your childhood like growing up? When did you first begin to fall in love with music and teach yourself to play the guitar? Was this something that was relevant around your household growing up?
I was born in Roanoke, VA in '77 and moved to California at about 10 months old. California kid through and through. It's hard to pinpoint exactly when my love for music began but I suspect it existed well before I had the language to fully articulate this feeling. I'd venture to say the love was there from the very beginning and it was just a matter of time before I found a channel like guitar to connect with it. I can vividly recall memories of sailing on the San Diego Bay as a young kid around 7 or 8 years-old with my mother and her boyfriend at the time, who loved jazz and often played it while out on the water... Miles Davis, Alice and John Coltrane wafting through the air as the golden rays shined down. Moments like this left a visceral and profound impact on my little psyche and no-doubt led me to where I am today. Guitar entered the picture on my tenth birthday, when a family friend bought me my first electric and acoustic guitars (thanks, John!). Still use the electric, a black and white Fender Stratocaster. It's on nearly every LP I've done. I took lessons for a spell but ultimately preferred to chart my own path. Music was always on the speakers at home but no one in my immediate family played instruments. The support to pursue my creative interests was always there and I'm grateful for that.
What would you do for fun growing up? Who were some of your earliest influences in your more formative years? When and where did you see your first concert and when did you realize you wanted to spend your time pursuing music?
I was a skater in my youth. Totally obsessed from grade school into my early teens. It was all I did and thought about. I was initially drawn to the solitary aspects that skateboarding provided. Team sports had a culture of toxic masculinity (at least in my experience) that I found alienating and confusing. Skating was a nice alternative because it offered a physical outlet that encouraged creativity and could be done solo or among friends. The sense of community and belonging I found through this was foundational. My interests began to shift more toward music as I got into my late teens. I was fortunate to access a particularly vibrant music scene in the early-to-mid 90s in San Diego. I went to high school with a ton of talented musicians, many of which were associated with a record label called Gravity Records which served as a kind of west-coast hub for post-hardcore/post-whatever bands like Heroin, Evergreen, Clikitat Ikatowi, Three Mile Pilot, Physics, etc. I was exposed to a ton of weird feral arty rock bands who played DIY-run spaces, homes, and in the middle of nowhere using generators to power amps. These were the first live shows I recall experiencing and it left a huge impression. It's kind of amazing to look back and think about all the wildly creative peers I grew up with.
Over the years you’ve participated in groups such as Tarentel and The Drift. Can you tell me about those groups how they initially came to be? How did you initially meet your bandmates and when and where did you guys first get together to jam? What was the overall vision and approach for the group’s music in those early days?
I met fellow Tarentel co-founder, Jefre Cantu, through a mutual friend at a Lush & Mojave 3 concert circa '96. We were both recent Bay Area transplants and quickly discovered a shared interest in musical tastes. After that chance encounter we sat down informally with acoustic guitars on a couch at Jefre's apartment. The connection was immediate. From there we started looking for other folks to play with. The lineup shifted over the years but Jefre and I stayed the course until the end. Tarentel was initially very guitar-centric with a strong emphasis on melody and atmosphere. Our influences were more apparent in the early years. Bands like Tortoise, GYBE!, Labradford, This Heat, shoegaze, the minimalism of Steve Reich, and countless other so-called "post-rock" bands active in the late 90s seeped into our young impressionable minds. These influences were most evident on our debut album, "From Bone to Satellite" (1999) and follow up, "The Order of Things" (2001). As the years went on, we became less and less interested in structured songs and began to explore other modes, leading us down the path of spontaneous composition. The culmination of this led to our final album, "Ghetto Beats on the Surface of the Sun", released as a 4-part series of LPs in 2006.
Tarentel also shared a long fruitful collaboration with experimental filmmaker, Paul Clipson (RIP), who showed super 8 and 16 mm films alongside our live performances for many years. We considered Paul a band member. His films and vision significantly impacted the music and vice versa. It was a wild creative arc filled with moments of pure ecstasy and plenty of chaos. As Tarentel began to slow down, I looked for opportunities to rekindle an interest in the lyrical guitar playing that informed so much of Tarentel's early output. Around 2004, when Tarentel began slowing down, Trevor Montgomery (also a former member of Tarentel) reached out about getting together with mutual friend/drummer, Rich Douthit. I had admired Rich's playing for quite some time but never had the opportunity to play with him until Trevor suggested it. The chemistry was undeniable and we dove right in as a trio. The music was raw and stark but foreshadowed many of the creative threads that went on to shape The Drift's evolution. About a year later we had the good fortune of meeting trumpeter, Jeff Jacobs (RIP), who’s transcendent horn playing firmly solidified the sound of The Drift. I think both Tarentel and The Drift shared a lot of similar DNA. Each had a searching quality that drove the music into exciting and unexpected musical terrain. I am extremely grateful for the experiences, lifelong friendships, and learning that these groups imparted.
Jumping to your solo career, tell me about releasing your debut album “Fountain” back in 2010. Tell me about writing and recording that record and how the deal with Root Strata came about. Would you mind giving some background to some of the songs that are featured on the album?
"Fountain" was the culmination of several years absorbing all-things fingerstyle guitar. I dove deep into the seminal music of John Fahey, Leo Kottke, and Robbie Basho along with contemporary players like Jim O'rorke, Jack Rose, Glenn Jones and Marisa Anderson (hardly an exhaustive list), who took fingerstyle into unique and exciting places. I learned to self-record in Garageband and amassed a good amount of material, which eventually found a home as "Fountain" on Root Strata in 2010. Jefre Cantu and Maxwell August Croy, who co-ran the label, pushed me to take this music more seriously and gave me a platform to share it. I credit them and a handful of friends for believing in this music and for encouraging me to release it. It's hard to imagine what my musical trajectory would have been had that not been the case. When it came time to sequence an album, I knew I wanted to include a wide range of material to reflect my burgeoning love of acoustic guitar. I was also mindful to avoid the trappings of making a “guitar soli” album per se. The music needed to be unorthodox and weird. In the end, I think the album offers an honest glimpse into my creative interests at the time. It all just poured out of me.
That following year you released your follow up album “In Search Of Light”. How did you want to approach this album that differs from the debut record? You released your debut on Three Lobed Recordings “Between Two Worlds” in 2013. Tell me about this record and how much the has changed and shifted in your writing process around this time.
"In Search of Light" came about from an invitation by Alex Cobb to put something out on his label, Students of Decay. The timing worked out well because I was looking for ways to keep the creative momentum going after the release of "Fountain". I took inspiration from the geography of San Francisco/Bay Area. I also attempted to scale back arrangements and be more intentional about including only what felt most essential to the music. My hope was to evoke a sense of place, of grandeur, and share my deep appreciation for the natural beauty that surrounds the coastal region of northern California. It's essentially a love letter to home. The story behind "Between Two Worlds" is very circular. Cory Rayborn, the person behind Three Lobed Recordings, put out Tarentel's "Fear of Bridges" ep way back in 2002. I believe it was the label's 7th release to-date. He kept up with my musical output and eventually asked me to do a proper solo LP. I was thrilled! It had been a couple years since my last release so this was the perfect impetus to keep things moving forward. The label also afforded greater visibility than prior releases, which was super exciting to me! Right around the time Cory reached out I had acquired an acoustic 12-string guitar. I barely put that thing down so the music on "Between Two Worlds" was heavily influenced by my love affair with that guitar. The album also built on past efforts to find common ground between acoustic-based stuff and the more amplified atmospheric zones. My ongoing fascination with place (both literally and figuratively) continued to find its way into the music as well. It took some time before arriving at something that felt cohesive and "complete". I remember hitting a bit of a creative slump when a dear friend, Billy Joe Miller (who's beautiful artwork graces most of my solo album covers) invited me to come play at his solo exhibit in Albuquerque. NM. During that visit, he took me to the Ojito Wilderness area just north of ABQ. Spending time on that land transformed something in me. I returned home with a renewed sense of purpose and was able to finish the album. Sometimes we need to shake things up and that change in scenery was exactly what I needed.
Approximately 10 years later you released your very anticipated follow up with TLR “Arc Of Day”. Can you tell me about the creation of this record and what inspired this wonderful material?
Yes, it's wild to fathom that 10 years have passed since my last Three Lobed LP. I kept my toes dipped by self-releasing "Furniture Music" and doing some collaborative work (Field Works, documentary soundtracks), but the invitation from Cory was exactly the creative lifeline I needed to take that next step forward. I'll start with the preface that "Arc of Day" was written with the backdrop of the pandemic. It is not a "pandemic" record, but I would be remiss not to mention the impact that collective uncertainty, isolation, and disconnection had on the music. The cumulative effect drove my choice not to make another solo album. I longed for human connection and knew I wanted to involve other voices and collaborators. The first person I reached out to was Rich Douthit. Rich had been on a kind of self-imposed musical hiatus for about ten years by that point and I was determined to change that. We made sporadic attempts to get together but nothing ever came of it until around the time Cory and I started talking about doing another LP together. The timing was serendipitous; we began practicing weekly in Rich's garage using acoustic guitars and a paired down drum kit.
It was a gentle reentry that ultimately laid the foundation for the material that would develop into "Arc of Day". We kept things loose and open-ended. We avoided framing it as "working on an album" and instead focused on finding a common ground that felt creatively satisfying. It was so nice to just play without an outcome and explore new musical entry points. Once we got our footing, we opened the door to collaboration and reached out to people we felt an affinity towards. I had dreamt of working with clarinetist, Jonathan Sielaff, who plays in the duo, Golden Retriever. Jonathan has the rare ability to effortlessly move between abstract and lyrical spaces with his instrument; a quality both he and Jeff Jacobs share in common. Jonathan was incredibly generous with his time and contributed a boat-load of material. To no surprise, his playing became central in shaping the feel of the album. Chuck Johnson was another dream collaborator. He and I had toured together pretty extensively, but this was our first foray making music together. He also contributed a ton of material in addition to his lovely work on the song "Cathedral Tree". I hope to release additional material from those sessions in the near future, but I digress!
That's a topic for another conversation.In addition to Jonathan and Chuck, Rich and I knew Trevor Montgomery was an obvious person to involve. He sent us ideas from his studio in New Zealand, where he now lives with his family. Tevor's playing really helped to ground this music like no one else could. The spirit of collaboration extended beyond the players. We had the privilege to work with Jay and Ian Pellici at their amazing studio, Brothers (Chinese) Recordings in Oakland. This was a first for me bringing material under my own name into a studio setting. The Pellici’s recorded all The Drift albums so there was a good amount of familiarity. But there were plenty of interesting creative challenges navigating unfamiliar musical spaces and instrumentations. It was a really positive experience and I feel incredibly fortunate to have worked with so many talented people who helped to elevate the music beyond anything I could have personally imagined.
Is there anything else you would like to further share with the readers?
Thank you very much for your interest in my music and for taking the time to talk with me. Stay tuned... there's more to come!
