Daniel Lanois and company pay homage to their roots while beautifully branching out

Daniel Lanois the performer takes second place to Daniel Lanois the producer. That’s generally how it goes in terms of mainstream attention and understanding of who Lanois is and what he’s famous for. Of course, with Lanois’ resume, it’s hard to ignore a list that namedrops some of the greatest artists of all time: Bob Dylan, Willie Nelson, U2, Peter Gabriel and more. But there’s also an artist at work when he’s not bolstering the work of others, and his latest handiwork with his band Black Dub displays new facets of his musical personality.

Black Dub is an homage to the soul, blues and gospel music that Lanois and his bandmates grew up on, yet Lanois’ presence turns it into so much more. Equally heartfelt and ambitious, the dynamic players involved (a dynamic bass/drum combo of Daryl Johnson/Brian Blade and the powerful vocals of Trixie Whitley) remain rooted with songs like “Surely” and “Canaan” while branching out into ever-interesting compositions at each turn.

Lanois recently took some time from the summer tour to discuss how he even formed such a group in the first place, his teenage studio in his mother’s basement and what experimental projects lay ahead for him.

SSv: Black Dub is such an interesting path you’re taking right now, and I’d love to hear the impetus that brought that together and the musical path you’re charting.

Daniel Lanois: I just want to follow my instincts and invite the folks who were immediately around me to go on this journey with me. It’s essentially a soul music project. It’s also an opportunity for me to write songs with Trixie in mind because she’s such a force vocally. She’s allowing me to have freedom to just be more of a guitar player and an architect. I think we can safely say that the members of Black Dub are fans of soul music and traditional music.

Certainly, I can speak of Brian Blade on this subject matter, because he grew up playing in his church and as a southern drummer, he has a strong understanding of gospel, the blues, jazz and everything that pop music stands on the shoulders of. We do approach church music. We do “Ring The Alarm,” which I consider a church song. The Rolling Stones did it. The Staple Singers did it. So we feel good about paying tribute to that gospel culture as well.

I recorded gospel records as a kid. Brian was in church and all. So we’re just trying to remain true to our roots and what we were exposed to. In fact, the song “Surely” was something I built on a church classic as well — another song called “Surely” that’s very different in the end, but I wanted to celebrate that. So that’s a bit about that tradition. Trixie grew up in the presence of her father’s record collection, so she was exposed to the blues greats and she was listening to Jimi Hendrix at three years old rather than kid’s records. So we have an old soul on our hands, even though she’s 23. We’re all resonating on the same frequency. [Laughs]

SSv: I was talking to Robert Randolph about his recent release with T Bone Burnett, and he talked about him being this musical archivist of sorts. Do you feel like part of that comes in response to the current digital culture?

Daniel: Of course, I can’t speak for T Bone, but for myself, it’s just the duality of what I’m presented with. I like machines. You can’t make records without machines. [Laughs] So we like them. But then how far do you go with a machine? We’re still flesh and bone, so it’s a never-ending challenge for me to incorporate technology and yet have it sound like there was someone real in the room and that there was this hidden force in the place.

It’s easy to just push a button these days and get a track pouring out of the speakers. So there’s a lot of instant gratification that you can get, but ultimately the work that holds up and stands up is well-balanced. Of course, you want the bottom to be good. I want the bottom to be good. That’s been one of the great contributions of hip-hop recently. I listen to Lil’ Wayne records and think, ‘Way to go man, you really got the bottom right.’

Part of me is a generalist and I want the bottom to be as good as Lil’ Wayne, but I’m not making a Lil’ Wayne record because that’s not me. So that’s when we need to pay respect to the persons in the band and bring that flesh and blood aspect to it.

SSv: Can you talk about your own background in that? Were you raised with a lot of soul or gospel around you or did you find that at a later date?

Daniel: As a kid, I was exposed to Quebec culture, which is essentially a self-entertaining culture. My family didn’t have a lot of money, so on the weekends, we’d bust out the violins and play the old jigs and it was there melodically I was exposed to some of those greats early on. Then as a teenager, I formed a studio in my mom’s basement and I got good real fast. It reached the point where even in my late teens, I was knocking out albums left and right.

We were connected with the Gospel Music Association in Canada, which brought in acts from all over the world — all gospel quartets. So I recorded dozens and dozens of gospel quartet records as a kid and that was really good experience on two fronts. First, I got to hear a lot of the old classics and got a real education on what four-part harmonies were, which those are some essential ingredients.

SSv: How much production are you taking on now? Are you full force in Black Dub or are you spinning a few plates?

Daniel: No, it’s all Black Dub now. We’re heading out for a summer tour that will run into the fall, so there’s nothing else on the horizon. But I did knock out a pretty good Neil Young record last summer.

SSv: So true. [Laughs]

Daniel: What I have on the burner is two projects. I have one that I call Songs From The Tundra. These are what I call my little snapshot songs, and they’re the songs I imagine I would write if I locked myself in a cabin up north where the tundra lives. So that’s just a fun reminder about my little songs. They’re personal and little, but then again, it’s those songs that can eventually become quite large. [Laughs]

Then I have another project that’s quite elaborate and experimental and laboratory based. I’m doing some work that’s not ready for exposure, but I do think it’s some of my best work. So there’s no outside production jobs until that’s all finished.

SSv: How are the Black Dub songs transitioning to the stage? Is that pretty easy just to jump into that or does that take some work on your part for the four of you?

Daniel: That’s a good question, because obviously in the studio, especially when you’re building the material, there’s this process that we go through. Some of it is trial and error, but when we play live, we’re essentially a three-piece band. At least instrumentally, we’re a three-piece band. That happens to be my favorite configuration as much as it might be a contradiction to my usual studio work. I love the power of the triangle.

So some of the songs become better when it opens up like that and you’re to play the melody with only three. I do miss some of the technology with the songs, but it’s hard to pull off. The bass on the record, in my opinion, is staggering and so full of nice virtuosities. In terms of singing, Trixie is really doing the business delivering it. So some of it is worse and some of it is better. Certainly, “Ring The Alarm” reaches a new height that I think is better than the album version.

SSv: Have your own fans followed you well to this?

Daniel: I think so. I still get some requests for some of the old songs, and depending on the territory, like if I play Montreal, then I owe it to those folks to play a few of the French songs from my first album. I’ll play my steel guitar in the middle of a set and it covers that cinematic part of what I do. I think people appreciate that. We also have three-part harmonies, so it still feels like I’m in there somewhere.