Absent Sounds: We're currently walking to the main stage, Julia Davis Park.

Dan English: Why do they name stages after people?

Absent Sounds: Or why do they name [streets] after numbers? That's bad for people who have dyscalculia.

Dan English: Dyslexia?

Absent Sounds: Dyscalculia, the one that's for numbers.

Dan English: Oh, it's different than dyslexia?

Absent Sounds: Yes [laughs]. Anyway, you've got to say who you are and what you play.

Dan English: I am Dan English, and I play music in some bands. And I'm walking down the street? I play Dan English. I write his songs too.

Absent Sounds: That is a very terrifying thing to know. How long have you known Dan and why?

Dan English: Almost 34 years.

Absent Sounds: Wow. What's your relationship with him?

Dan English: Not a fan. I would like to like him more. You know.

Absent Sounds: Can you give us a description of your life as we walk?

Dan English: This would be the most chaotic interview for your fans. I love it. My description of my life so far... just a sad, weird kid. Third of three. My parents were pretty over having kids, or raising kids, by the time I came around. So I was very video games, movies, music, books type vibe.

Absent Sounds: I don't want to forget to come back to this. There was a part in your album where you included the Anne Carson bit. I've been familiar with her work before I even knew you existed, so I was like, hell yeah, because I really like her work.

Dan English: She's amazing.

Absent Sounds: She's also from Canada.

Dan English: Wait, really?

Absent Sounds: Yeah, she's from Toronto.

Dan English: I had no idea. I like Toronto even more now.

Absent Sounds: So what was it about including her work? Through reading and literature, was there something you couldn't express yourself that you wanted to include her for?

Dan English: It's a funny story. I actually just told it on another interview, but it gave some context, or perhaps some memories. It's a long song, it's like six minutes, which is too long for a song for most people. I'm not saying that, though. I'm a long-song guy. If the song is good, I'm down no matter how long it is.

Absent Sounds: It's not a dare for you to listen to a long song.

Dan English: It depends. If I know I'm getting home in three minutes, I don't want to start a song that's four minutes long. But a song should be as long as it needs to be. Anyway, I was playing with the trope of the emo-music thing with voicemails, where you put a voicemail on the breakup call and put reverb on it, you know what I mean? So I was like, okay, there needs to be something over this section. And I had just read Autobiography of Red, which is one of my favorite books ever. So I was like, maybe I can find some Anne Carson. I just Googled "Anne Carson reading."

Dan English: Look at this baby husky. Incredible. Beautiful little baby husky. Anyway. My cousin's from here, Melody, who sings on my album. She's my best friend, we moved to New York together 10 years ago, but we didn't really know each other before that, that's another story. So, Anne Carson, I knew I loved her work, and I went on YouTube and the first one that came up was the short talk on major and minor, which is what I used. And it's her voice. I hope she doesn't sue me.

Absent Sounds: That would be an honor to be sued by her.

Dan English: Fair. My friend was like, don't worry about it. If she does, just think about it when it happens. Make the piece of music you want to make. And it was funny to me, because in music theory terms, the song messes with major and minor.

Absent Sounds: I don't know music theory, but yes.

Dan English: For music theory nerds it's like a little wink, a joke, because my music does major-and-minor stuff that you're not supposed to do.

Absent Sounds: You just like things that are not allowed.

Dan English: Yeah. I'm not a rule-breaker, but in music, I guess I am. Anyway, I found that and was like, that's too perfect, I'm going to use it. And now it's a thing. When I do the live show, I like to always make a joke about the show, or include something that's happening.

Absent Sounds: Like this show.

Dan English: So tonight I said, major things are trees and forts.

Absent Sounds: Give us one right now.

Dan English: Major things are... mobile interviews. Minor things are eating your dinner, and instead just carrying it.

Absent Sounds: There's one thing, you had this little quote that really stuck with me. It's like, "song is often God," something like that.

Dan English: "Song is often God," yeah.

Absent Sounds: Tell me about that.

Dan English: I didn't grow up religious at all.

Absent Sounds: Do you miss having that backstory?

Dan English: No, because I think most people who do are divorced from it. My engagement with quote-unquote God is, I feel the most feelings and happiness to be alive when I'm consuming a good piece of music, or a movie, or a book. Mostly music and movies. I think a lot of people experience that at church, feeling connected to other people. For whatever reason, I just came to understand it mostly through getting into Neil Young, like 15 years ago. That's kind of how I came to understand religion and spirituality, just through my experience with music. It seems heady and intense, but it's really just me saying I love music. And it brings people together, like church, like religion, like God, whatever.

Absent Sounds: I'm wondering, what's the most transcendent experience you've had listening to a song, or which live performance?

Dan English: Probably Joanna Newsom. You guys like Joanna Newsom?

Absent Sounds: We do. [Passerby, Tony]: My name's Antonio, they call me Tony. We're outside on the street doing what we want. It's not even... believe it, it's faith. I got all of this for 30 bucks. We took all of this and started from nothing. I looked like a hobo at the Theo Von show two years ago, and now I'm here looking professional. Shout out to everyone here, shout out to media, shout out Treefort 2026. Get off your phones, just do stuff, get outside.

Absent Sounds: Wow.

Dan English: I knew this was going to be a fun idea.

Absent Sounds: What I was going to add: because you incubate your music so much, it sounds like you have such an intimacy with it.

Dan English: "Incubate" is a really good word, that I actually use, but often feel uncomfortable with, because, I don't know, chickens are just so far from human.

Absent Sounds: Chickens are probably one of the most...

Dan English: Close to dinosaur. Birds freak me out. Well, they freaked me out more when I was younger, and as I get older I think they're fascinating. But incubation, yeah, that's the word I use about my process.

Absent Sounds: Because you're incubating them for so long, it must be a lot, letting them go at some point.

Dan English: Sky Record took a long time. I actually don't really know how to answer that. Well, a good way to answer it is, most of the time you know when a song is done. Especially in the writing process. The best stuff you write in a sitting, and you don't have to think. You're almost not a part of it, you're just fielding it, catching it.

Absent Sounds: Do you feel like you're harvesting the ideas? I feel like there's such humility to saying you're just the vessel receiving these.

Dan English: Yeah, I don't have any sort of "I am the one that God chose" thing. It's just, if you have the calling to go fishing, you might catch a fish. The best ones are written that way. I'm not putting down anybody who sits down like, "I'm going to write a song," but whenever I do that, it sucks so much, it feels hack.

Absent Sounds: So were all the songs on Sky Record written that way?

Dan English: For the most part. There are a couple that are longer or older, like "Need” and “Borrow," the one with the poem. I had the first part of it, the riff, and then I would just gather ideas over the years. I was working in restaurants and doing random tours my whole life, since I was 15. You keep them in your back pocket, and then when you have an idea, you add it. So some songs are like that, which I guess is the same process of just waiting and hoping and having faith, like that guy just said. It's not...belief, it's faith. I would like to trust myself more, and have more faith in myself, and think that what I sit down and write is genius or something. But it just so happens that anything I don't think about when I make it, I still like five years down the line. I've just been lucky enough that I haven't had to put anything out that I didn't sign off on.

Absent Sounds: I feel like we're coming back to this thread a lot in these interviews. Like, you're scratching at a wound, often, when you're working through music. What are you itching at or digging at?

Dan English: I have a heavy question. I think Sky Record is a lot about repression. Or, ignoring how you feel, and just making do with what needs to be done.

Absent Sounds: It’s good you’re here because we’re directionally challenged Dan Englsih: This has come up for me a few times recently. When I grew up, I was taught this spatial awareness by my older brother, who was a flower delivery person at a local grocery store. He would take me out in the country and be like, "Okay, now how do we get to Iowa City from here?" And I would have to know the directions, know cardinal direction.

Absent Sounds: That's really good.

Dan English: They're cool guys. Shout out Joe and Dave.

Absent Sounds: Shout out to my older sister.

Dan English: Are they twins? My mom's a twin, and my girlfriend's a twin.

Absent Sounds: How did that happen?

Dan English: I didn't have any part in those situations. Genetics. DNA. Some degree of chance.

Absent Sounds: Are they fraternal or identical?

Dan English: Carol is fraternal, my mom's identical. Anyway, what were we on?

Absent Sounds: What are you scratching at. Repression.

Dan English: Repression, yeah. I was in my twenties, and having older brothers who are bigger, stronger, more masculine, I think I just learned for a long time to take the backseat. So emotions for me were kind of like driving down the road, looking out the window. They weren't these actionable things, they were instead these... yeah, like looking out the window.

Absent Sounds: That's a really good image.

Dan English: And I think a lot of the music, when I made a lot of that stuff, I was really into ambient music, which to me was an escape from New York.

Absent Sounds: Brian Eno.

Dan English: Eno, yes, for sure. And Harold Budd, who worked with Brian Eno, he's my favorite. A lot of stuff like that. So it was a place to hide in, or just feel what I was feeling, instead of what was going on outside. It just kind of represents the record to me. I hope the new stuff is more fiery and exciting. Well, it's not for me to say, but I think it's more like, "I'm pissed off and I'm going to do something about it." Whereas Sky Record feels like, "I'm sad and I'm not going to do anything about it."

Absent Sounds: Trying to wipe the crumbs off your bed and stand up.

Dan English: Perhaps. We'll see.

Absent Sounds: I think the cool thing about Sky Record to me is it feels like a medieval world you've built, especially with the music videos, which I think are peak. They're really cool. And I'm a big fan of the fact that you have things like Blender...

Dan English: Wow, you guys know about the Blender videos. I did that during COVID.

Absent Sounds: It’s good. I'm doing a course right now and I have not attended any of the classes.

Dan English: Well, you can figure it out on your own by making a Dan English music video. But really, start with the donut, get models from somebody else. I have a donut file. I didn't even finish it, I just downloaded a skeleton and moved it from point A to point B. It was more about the camera and the lighting.

Absent Sounds: That gives it the whole feel.

Dan English: I hope I never make a movie though, because music is a lot of my life now. Movies are so special to me that if I started making them, it would lose a lot, and I wouldn't want that to go away.

Absent Sounds: How do you feel about that when you listen to music these days?

Dan English: It's a hard question, because I don't want to come off as an asshole. I hit a tree with my eye. I walked into a tree, but I'm good. Anyway, we were talking about movies. Apparently at the Flicks in Boise, you can watch a movie and eat and have fun, since 1984.

Absent Sounds: We need more of that.

Absent Sounds: I think you would enjoy Magdalena Bay. The one thing that surprises me is that you haven't heard anything by them.

Dan English: Don't tell them that. What if they hear this?

Absent Sounds: Oop. We're all three huge fans. Seen every show, read every single thing.

Dan English: There's a lot of stuff I haven't listened to that I will like. A lot of my favorite bands I find when people are like, "you remind me of this," and I'm like, I've never heard that.

Absent Sounds: What do you often get?

Dan English: I get Pink Floyd a lot, and I've never listened to Pink Floyd. I mean, I've heard them, but I've not been a Pink Floyd fan. I think it has something the same in the DNA, which is probably just very white, sad, experimental, spacey, psychedelic.

Absent Sounds: Pink Floyd is really good, and so is your music, so I would not feel bad about that.

Dan English: Thank you. Robert Wyatt, you guys know Robert Wyatt? That was another one I found. And Broadcast, honestly. 15 years ago somebody was like, "you dress like you listen to Broadcast," and I was like, who's that? Obviously they're one of the best bands of all time, in my opinion.

Absent Sounds: Does that mean you enjoy a lot of slowcore music as well?

Dan English: I like slowcore, but it's not my thing, I don't really listen to it. I do really fuck with Low. But that's also something I didn't know about until later in life. No one listened to Radiohead until I was like 25. I'm not going to say I'm a big fan, but putting it off, skipping it when I was little, I think was really good. Because to experience that stuff for the first time at 25, you're like, wow. How often do you get to find a new thing that's that good? It makes me wish I had a group of friends that talented who were in a band with me. I wish I had four other geniuses to write songs with.

Absent Sounds: That's kind of why I was saving Joanna for a while. I was waiting for the right moment, because I'll never get to experience it for the first time again.

Dan English: She's the goat. I got into that when I was 18. What was appealing to me then was the stuff that was aggressively different. Her voice was so crazy. The whole thing was a rejection of modern life, of what it's supposed to be. And that really spoke to me.

Absent Sounds: Since we're nearing, I'll give you a few more. Are you still at a point of escape? Right now, in this current form of Dan English, are you escaping anything in your life, or are you present in the moment?

Dan English: I'm escaping having a real job. But this is my job now, and that's crazy. There's a responsibility to it. I'm escaping life in Iowa, normal life. Being an artist is a complicated thing. There's a lot of shame involved too, where it's like, really, this is what I think is worth money? I just started doing it for a full living and I'm like, this is kind of crazy. I don't have the ego to back that up. But I have logical evidence, where it's like, cool, interesting people like this, and sensitive people like this, therefore it's worthwhile. Because I want to help people like that, like me, who want to listen to that. But I'm also not somebody who sits down like, "yeah, I write songs." That's just not me, so it's complicated. I escape that thought by just being like, I like making songs, I'll make them, and I love playing music, so I'll play it. All of that stuff, media and music, all of it is a way to escape what's actually going on in the world, which is very hard to think about and face on the daily.

Absent Sounds: Yeah.

Dan English: What is currently falling apart, especially as an American. You guys probably deal with less.

Absent Sounds: It's fun to watch the wolf from afar. Just kidding, it's not fun.

Dan English: It's entertaining. I certainly get a lot of news updates on my phone. It occupies my mind often. But, you know, as a future Canadian, I don't have to worry about it for long.

Absent Sounds: Definitely get your PR.

Dan English: I'm trying to escape America, is what I'm trying to say.

Absent Sounds: That'll be the thread we're talking about. Dan English, escaping America. Escapee runaway.

Absent Sounds: This is it. Do we finish one more?

Dan English: Yeah, let's finish one more.

Absent Sounds: One last question. As we arrive in this moment in time, close your eyes and envision yourself five years from now, 20 years from now. What memory do you want to take from this moment?

Dan English: I just hope it's fun and interesting for your recording, that we are walking. It was fun, right? To have the interruptions. It's memorable.

Absent Sounds: Thank you so much. We'll say that's a wrap.

Dan English: That was very nice. Natural.

Absent Sounds: That was great. Thank you so much for doing that.