Prodigious and protean musical talent
Burbank-based psychedelic musician Dan West possesses a disgustingly alchemical load of talent.
The multi-instrumentalist shifts from genre to genre with a dazzling agility, and whatever style he decides to undertake, West displays both profound involvement and a technical precision worthy of an astrophysicist.
West’s music, solidly based on slightly retro, classic American pop, is a flexible sound where Boyce & Hart bubblegum shimmer collides with shadowy psych-garage menace, and his lyrics — whether delivering messages of loss, insecurity or ardent passion — draws the listener in, conjuring a relatable immediacy, which in turn extrapolates itself within the performer-audience equation to create a singularly intimate atmosphere.
“It’s multigenre, psychedelic ephemera, and the songs all come for many different sources,” West said. “My musical background came from both sides of the spectrum, I had formal training and have been performing since I was a kid. I grew up in Studio City. My father was a television writer — he did “Lassie” and “The Virginian,” a lot of shows — and I was very fortunate to grow up in a creative atmosphere. I was always forming little bands, playing backyard parties, wherever we could and then on into playing the rock clubs here in Los Angeles.”
His current album “Does it Suit You?” is an audacious safari through American pop, sampling a limitless palette, one with hints of samba sway, angular techno, idiosyncratic hip-hop, 1920’s era jazz crooning, folkie self-examination, and while it’s rife with musical citations and familiar landmarks, West never allows it to deteriorate into the derivative.
“I’ve got a giant trunk full of songs,” West said. “I just record all the time, whether it’s a solo thing or with the other bands I am in, Sidewalk Society and Lovey Dove, and from back when my old bang Agua Fantastica was active. There are just so many songs, the trunk fills up. My first solo album, “Hot Corners,” spanned about 10 years’ worth of songs! But this album was all basically created in real time, over about the last year and a half.”
Characterized by both tenderness and authority, “Does it Suit You?” is engrossing and always convincing — an altogether complex balancing act which West makes sound deceptively simple. It’s a completely homegrown B-town affair, recorded, mixed and mastered at Burbank’s Victory Way studio, with West playing almost every instrument on the album.
“I pretty much do it all by myself. I have a buddy who played bass on a few things, [spouse-musical partner] Azalia did a little bit of percussion,” West said. “But I have to get this out and I have to do it myself. And awhile back I met Andrew Maitai from Powertool Records, which has been around in New Zealand for 20 years, we hit it off, and he loves psychedelic music. When I finished it, I sent it to him and he loved it. It’s out on Powertool, and Cobraside is distributing it stateside as well.”
West is a master of the pop idiom, one who is able to link Bing Crosby to Sky Saxon and Brian Wilson, and songs like “Falling Up” and “Make Tomorrow a Better Today” are marvelous in their artistic depth and emotional reach.
“I just constantly have ideas — there’s a radio in my head that’s always going. It’s been like that since I was a kid,” West said. “Musically, I need to go to areas where I usually wouldn’t go, whether it’s jazz or old school country, because I love trying to put it together in a new fashion. There are so many songs in my head, and they have got to come out or I’ll go nuts.”
“Does it Suit You?” is available at danwest.bandcamp.com/album/does-it-suit-you and powertool-records.bandcamp.com.
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JONNY WHITESIDE is a veteran music journalist based in Burbank and author of “Ramblin’ Rose: the Life & Career of Rose Maddox” and “Cry: the Johnnie Ray Story.”