Rising Star Brett Dennen Dishes on Life, Music, and Nature

LAGAMMA: How has your love for the outdoors and experience working as a camp counselor influenced you as an artist? 

DENNEN: It sets the tone. I’m more inspired by the natural world than I am by an urban landscape. You have to pull my teeth out to get me to write in the city. Music and lyrics come to me much easier in nature. I have a closer connection to the source.

LAGAMMA: Talk about your time in Nashville, the hotbed of country music, while recording Smoke and Mirrors. Did you find time to jam with Nashville’s greatest? Were you able to explore the city and its historic music venues?

DENNEN: I didn’t do any of that sort of exploring. I explored a lot of wildlife areas and went to all the city’s great restaurants. I didn’t get to meet any country stars and I respectfully didn’t let country music influence the record too much.

LAGAMMA: Your song Make You Go Crazy garnered over a million hits on YouTube.  What made you decide to work with Afrobeat musician Femi Kuti? 

DENNEN: He’s a legend. I’d work on every song with him if I could. He’s the greatest performer I’ve ever seen. When you are around him, you feel the presence of greatness. Spiritually, I mean.

LAGAMMA: Describe some of the challenges or surprises you encountered while working with disadvantaged youths in the Sierra Nevada in a program similar to Outward Bound. 

DENNEN: It was in the Stanislaus National Forest [Sierra Nevada mountains of Northern California] and Hoover, Carson-Iceberg, and Emigrant wilderness areas. These are kids from all walks of life. Many were in some form of adjudication or in a system of correction. I learned that young people are smart. You can’t talk down to them to or condescend to them. You have to empower, always, rather than try to control or teach—let them learn the way they know how.

LAGAMMA: You were home schooled. How did that shape your thinking?

DENNEN: It gave me the space to be a self-learner. It gave me the freedom to become an artist. Because of home schooling, I became an abstract thinker.

LAGAMMA: While on the road, you have sometimes painted city-specific watercolor prints. What inspired this idea? 

DENNEN: I used to be a very comfortable with a paintbrush and I’m longing to get back to that feeling. Sometimes music can be torture. That’s how passion works. I need another creative outlet so I can stay inspired and be happy. I will be paining and selling prints on this tour.

LAGAMMA: What else is new on your Fall tour?

DENNEN: It’s just me and a guitar. I plan on playing a lot of songs that aren’t in the usual repertoire.

LAGAMMA: Will this be your first visit to Portsmouth? 

DENNEN: Yep. Can’t wait.