Spotlight: LISTEN IN! A New Release by Danny Moynahan
But you're one of the most diverse musicians, meaning that your styles are so varied. But when it comes down to your happy place, you go. Here you go to this funky, cool vibe. Kind of Engelberg, humbled ink sometimes comes into my head. I hope that's okay. So I want to talk with you about inspiration. Just that word, inspiration because we're doing this during a time when people are feeling really uninspired. They're bored with their faces
Danny Moynahan
@Danny · 4:22
And after that, I do a seven minute exercise on my seven minute app, and that's working for me, too. It's not a long workout, but I'm finding that if I do it every day, it feels good. It gives my body a little juice in the morning. And then after that, I go to the piano and sit at the piano for about an hour and work out some things that I've been working on. Practice different piano stuff I'm loving
So can you tell us the different kinds of keyboards you use in recording and the choices you make and maybe drop us into a little song at the end of it that you think is a good example of one of your favorite examples of examples. Twice, I did, I think, Sorry, a good kind of example of your favorite use of keyboard. Does that make sense? Because I just love the variety you do when you're play and the variety that I hear when I listen to your music
Danny Moynahan
@Danny · 4:45
But you'll hear the word 200 A all over 70s music and the Roads, the Roads is even more prominent. It's a great instrument, and that's a little bit about the keyboards on the album. I use a lot of the Corg Ms 2000. It's just the synth that I had have, but I think it was the only since I owned at the time and tried to make the most use out of it. Thanks for the question
It's called speaking school, and we're sort of working with people twice a week to talk better. And I feel like you like your voice. And not only that, I feel like you sing in a way that makes me feel like it's a continuation of a conversation you just had. And it's a really beautiful style. I feel like when you sing, it's not like I'm going to sing now
Danny Moynahan
@Danny · 3:16
There are times where I like to dig in and put a lot more air through it, depending on what's happening in the song or the lyric or even the syllable, some syllables I like digging into more what's happening in the vowel shape. But as for when that started, I know that I've been singing my whole life with family, with the relatives. When my grandma Rowan, who was born in Bali by by Danny Moynahan around, she'd lead us in and teach us Irish songs
Danny Moynahan
@Danny · 4:05
And I had a really great reminder that when I went to Ireland with my brother Mike, we wanted to find the farm that our great grandfather grew up in. And there was this one day that we dedicated the whole day. It was a magical day. We ended up hailing a taxi in this little tiny town in County Kilkenny. And it turns out the taxi driver grew up next door to that farm 10 miles away
It just drives your joy. And when you teach, I'm just wondering, I've never seen you teach. How do you relate to your students? I know they're adults. So do they feel like kind of bandmates to you at some point, like, do you get to that kind of flow with them and do you aspire to get to that flow?
Danny Moynahan
@Danny · 2:33
And I do really enjoy being a part of their learning. And so we have a good time. We laugh. And that's another thing. We can tell off color jokes in the classroom on occasion and have a really good time now because I don't choose what we're going to learn. The state of California does. So I'm given a list of things that we need to cover
How do they stay in touch with that moment in a more expansive way so they could maybe show some improvements, some incremental improvements. So maybe some of that would help people vibe a little bit more with what inspires them, because to hear some tips on how to keep that going and how to keep themselves thriving as musicians. And then we'll talk more over time
Danny Moynahan
@Danny · 4:45
It requires singing a note and then another note and then finding a phrase you like and repeating it a couple of times, putting some your thoughts to those syllables. It's very simple and fun and spontaneous and purely musical. I think so. All of that music in each of us can come out in a variety of ways. But I think that's one idea I have is just saying we all have a voice, a unique voice, too. So why would we getting back to the competitions?
Danny Moynahan
@Danny · 0:52
Post script. I don't think I mentioned how much fun it's been for me to sing spontaneously because my wife, Joanna, is rubbing off on me. And so when I play along, I have a good time. It's fun. And I just want to encourage the swell community. Invite yourself just to sing the news of the day or the news of the present moment. It's a great way to just access some of the amazing music inside yourself. There's a lot in there
Deborah Pardes
@DBPardes · 0:53
Danny, this is Deborah singing, Singing from My heart to tell you what a great, swell conversation this was. I hope that you will stay a and sing to me like I'm singing to you because like you said, it's so much fun. And anybody else who wants to join this conversation, please don't hesitate. You don't have to rhyme even though you've got time, because that's the nature of asynchronous conversation. Danny, this has been great. Let's continue
Danny Moynahan
@Danny · 0:14
Deborah, that was amazing. Amazing. Thanks for making me smile at the sound of your voice. Yeah
Bowie Rowan
@bowie · 1:15
I'm wondering if that's something that you always felt confident in doing, or is it something that you had to build up to? And when you first felt compelled to share your creative work with others
Danny Moynahan
@Danny · 4:09
But at the end of that process, I have this music and I don't want it to just stay on my computer or in the rehearsal studio. I do feel compelled to put it out in the world and say, hey, world, please enjoy. This is what I've been working on. It doesn't take much thought. It's pretty unconscious. But again, the joy of making the music is paramount
Bowie Rowan
@bowie · 1:54
Thank you for such a thoughtful answer. And for also encouraging my love of Scream singing in the car. I will never stop. Yeah. I really love loved what you had to say, because it made me think a lot about how process can be really similar across mediums. And I know for me as a writer, the process of creating the work and losing myself in the work, and sometimes the puzzle and challenges of the work feels very different than the work of putting it out in the world
Hey, Danny, I forgot to ask you, can you at some point in this wonderful swallow conversation, play the saw for us. I know you have to take it out and everything. But please, cause it's so cool. And I just want people to hear what you do. It's the best. Only if you can
Danny Moynahan
@Danny · 0:51
Hey, Deborah, I think if you want to hear that song, so there you go by request and I'm going to link to a song on Decade of Danny that features the song, so I hope you enjoy