EVERYONE WHO TAPES A DAYTROTTER SESSION IS SOMEONE THAT I'VE PERSONALLY INVITED SO THEY'RE ALWAYS HERE FOR A REASON. - SEAN MOELLER
If you rolled up to career day to find Sean Moeller behind a desk, rubbing his beard and spouting tales of writing without grammatical constrictions and recording live music to make a living, you’d probably guffaw and measurably throw Skittles in his barnet. Yet the digital movement Daytrotter, is alive and brutally kicking into shape musicians with improvisational sessions, all available to download at the price of a fudge cake. Since we are big, obnoxious fans of the Daytrotter team, we wanted to know the ins and outs of the Moeller world, from giving free reign to bands to what gets the team growly, all in our grand scheme to take over once they get bored. Hmm, we can dream…
SS: If you had to direct a Daytrotter virgin across your site, what sessions must they check out?
Sean Moeller: I'm extremely proud of the sessions we've done with Kris Kristofferson, Bon Iver, Deerhunter, Vampire Weekend, The National, Ben Kweller, Avett Brothers and on and on. Those are nice starters though.
SS: How much do you struggle trying to record big collectives like Edward Sharpe and The Magnetic Zeros and The Dodos (with Magik Magik Orchestra). Do you have any tales behind these particular recordings?
Sean: You know those are sessions that are just what they are -- big and sloppy and magical. Our great engineers just do what they can. There are a lot of room microphones and you just go to town. If a band's great, it will come through and I think both of those sessions that you mention translated very well. The Dodos session was a cluster and we were under the gun due to other obligations that some of the Magik Magik players had. I think we had a total of 40 minutes to make that happen and the studio we taped in -- out in San Francisco -- is intensely tiny. We needed a shoe horn.
SS: According to your ‘About’, you offer “alternate versions of old songs…by some of your favorite bands” but have you ever had to refuse a certain cover, or band. Any great ideas been lost down the pipeline you hope one day to animate?
Sean: Nope. That’s never happened. Whatever the band wants to do, they get to do. We don't dictate anything. It's always fascinating seeing what actually happens.
SS: When you’ve asked a band to come down and perform, have you ever had your preconceived ideas of the band totally squashed?
Sean: Never. Surprisingly, I can count on one hand the number of bands that we've had in that I felt just didn't get Daytrotter or weren't happy to be here. Kind of incredible, I know, but we've been really lucky that way. Most of the time, it's the complete opposite. Everyone who tapes a Daytrotter session is someone that I've personally invited so they're always here for a reason -- I like them. There are, of course, bands/artists that I'm extra excited about, but more often than not, we have a band in that is GOOD on record and then they completely blow us away when they are here. I live for those days. It happens soooo often.
SS: You write the description for every session with a pretty in-depth, stream of consciousness point of view. Where does your writing style originate from? What writing influences have been merged into your work?
Sean: I don't really know where any of it comes from. I just try to convey the feeling and sense of the music as accurately as I possibly can and I only know how to write the way I write so whatever happens, happens. I've learned to not give a damn what anyone else thinks about my writing. 90-percent of the time, the band that I wrote about writes me the morning of the post and tells me that they loved what I'd written and I've been asked by a number of bands to write their album bios so I don't sweat any of it. I like Richard Brautigan, Nathanael West, Borges, Vonnegut, Fader, Twain, whatever I can get my hands on. I'm a reader.
WHATEVER THE BAND WANTS TO DO, THEY GET TO DO. WE DON'T DICTATE ANYTHING. IT'S ALWAYS FASCINATING SEEING WHAT ACTUALLY HAPPENS. - SEAN MOELLER
SS: You’ve got two young girls, what do they think about your career? Have you started training them in the world of Daytrotter; or do they keep out of it?
Sean: I've got two little girls and new 5-month-old little boy. They like music. My girls love Local Natives and they have recently really enjoyed singing Charley Pride songs in the van. They don't really know what to make of this stuff yet. They're far too young. They do love shakin’ it to music though, for sure. I think they'll grow to really dig what it is we do.
SS: The entire Daytrotter team is pretty passionate for the cause and the sessions but what get’s the team growling at each other when working together. How do you keep the environment creative and enjoyable to work in?
Sean: We don't have much trouble keeping it enjoyable and creative here. What do we get growly about? Hmmm. We get growly at the winter. We get growly in really fake ways. We do NOT get growly when it comes to our favorite book Knee High and Livin' Large by Lil Penny Hardaway.
SS: What are the best and or sneaky ways you’ve used to discover music and what have been your best finds this year?
Sean: I don't have any sneaky ways, really. It's mostly bands sending us stuff. I do scour NME and MySpace when I have the time. If there's a band that I like or am friends with, I like checking out bands they're friends with and then just getting lost in that labyrinth. Best finds of the year are just too many. I'm really happy to know Peter Wolf Crier, Caveman, ARMS, Dinosaur Feathers, Gamble House and so many others. It's endless and perfect.
SS: We have some favourites at SUPERSWEET which we tend to stalk and support, but who is a band you are proud to follow incessantly over the years?
Sean: Someone I follow incessantly...hmmm. The closest person like that I can think of is Willie Nelson. He's been a constant for as long as I can remember and yet, I've never seen the man perform in person. How sad is that?
SS: Also, for our benefit, could you blurt out a word to SUPERSWEET’s Usual Suspects?
Sean: Liars - ROCKnFUCKINroll!
The Walkmen - All-American
The Dodos - Friends
Adam Green - Kooky
CocoRosie - Kookier
Bon Iver - Woodsy
SS: If someone was to follow in your footsteps for a day, (say the ultimate fan of Daytrotter), what would your day include?
Sean: We'd be getting up at the crack of dawn, feeding the children PopTarts and Lucky Charms, maybe doughnuts. Some orange juice. We'd watch Toy Story 3 or something, practice our letters and numbers, do some drawing and painting, then leave the kids behind and head to the studio around 11 or noon. We'd tape and write until around 5, in between grab a couple cups of coffee or Mello Yello, hit up the hot dog lady at the end of the block for a couple weiners or a tuna melt at the coffeehouse or the most delicious BBQ ribs in a three-state radius at Jim's Rib Haven. Then we'd head home for dinner, maybe do a little vinyl shopping at Ragged and write all night till about midnight or 1 am. The Ultimate Daytrotter fan would be bored with me, but he or she would love the time spent at the studio, I'd imagine.
SS: You’ve become one of the creators of bootleg recordings for the digital age, was this your drive to start out Daytrotter; to create unreleased material for yours and your friends' benefit? What’s the best unreleased, bootleg track you cherish still today?
Sean: Yeah, you know, I suppose it was. Though I don't think the word bootleg at all applies to Daytrotter. To me, there's a negative connotation to that word, as if the recordings were done on the sly. Bootleg stuff, hmmm, I don't have much, really. The first thing I really had was a live Spacehog show. I think I lost that. I have some Bill Callahan bootlegs that are amazing. I'm a little low on bootlegs.
SS: If you could create the session of the lifetime, what would it be?
Sean: Taping Loretta Lynn, Charley Pride, Jack White, Steve Earle, Tom T. Hall, John Prine and Guy Clark in an old hardware store near Nashville, then heading out to drink beer and fish with them all.
MORE OFTEN THAN NOT, WE HAVE A BAND IN THAT IS GOOD ON RECORD AND THEN THEY COMPLETELY BLOS US AWAY WHEN THEY ARE HERE. I LIVE FOR THOSE DAY. IT HAPPENS SOOOO OFTEN. - SEAN MOELLER
Words: Gemma Dempster
Photography: Michelle Wallace
Illustrations: Johnnie Cluney