About Me
In the tradition of solo artists such as Paul Westerberg and Ryan Adams, Boylans Slave is a statement of endurance and resolve. Combining the liberties of full-fledged rock-n-roll abandon (Slave, Last Knock, Lucky Shoes), with the wry musings and grainy soundscapes of the more traditional singer-songwriter (Elizabeth, Twistin in the Wind, Fist full of Wine), Boylan has created a diverse and vibrant work an homage to all those young enough to recall the sweat and smell of the local bar, but old enough to know that theres more to life .Slave ReviewBy Greg Glasgow, Camera Music Writer
February 17, 2006..... the cat's out of the bag now that Boylan has a series of release shows including concerts Saturday at RedFish, March 3 at Club X in Longmont and April 29 at Nissi's in Lafayette lined up for his new solo CD, Slave.
Influenced by rootsy singer-songwriters such as Paul Westerberg and Steve Earle, the record marks a return to form for Boylan, who says he liked playing the no-frills, Rolling Stones-influenced rock of the Feds much better than his short stint as an acoustic troubadour.
"I did that sort of singer-songwriter thing I went to Telluride a couple of times, I went to Merlefest ... I did the Lyons Folks Festival ... so I was feeling totally pigeonholed into this singer-songwriter mode, which kind of drives me crazy on some level," says Boylan, 40, who grew in Boulder and graduated from Fairview High School in 1983. "There are a hundred thousand males in Boulder County that know three chords and consider themselves songwriters."I listened to tons of Paul Westerberg, guys like Steve Earle, and it was just like, 'Those guys aren't really just doing little acoustic ballads all the time, they're doing some pretty cool records,' and so me and my partner Steve DeVita, who was the producer on this, we just said, 'I can still do a solo album and just rock it up as much as I want.' I'll throw a ballad at you once in a while, but mostly I just wanted to be able to do whatever I wanted to do and not just be that singer-songwriter dude from Boulder.
"I've seen enough of those at the open-stage nights."
The resulting record, produced by DeVita and mastered by Dominick Maita at Boulder's Airshow Mastering, sounds simply fantastic, with sparkling acoustic and electric guitars, crisp drums and Boylan's raspy, emotive voice front and center. The singer says it was a conscious decision to make a record that sounded radio-ready."I wasn't afraid to use the types of effects and the delays and reverbs and stuff that you hear on nationwide releases," Boylan says. "To me, that's the biggest problem local guys have they're all afraid to use effects. ... There's a couple of (songs on the album) where I had three different guitars going. In the old days, I could see certain guys I worked with at different studios in Boulder just cringing. That was somehow impure: How can you possibly do that?
"But you listen to any U2 song, any Coldplay song, anybody that's big right now, that's just what it is. It's production. The radio business and the recording business is not the same as the live-music business."Boylan tackles a range of subject matter in the album's lyrics, ranging from love to loneliness, family to broken dreams. "Elizabeth" is about abducted Utah teenager Elizabeth Smart; "Don't Tell Her I'm Alone" is a sad song about a man pleading with a friend at a bar not to tell his ex about his current state of being.
Boylan says he says he writes songs partly from personal experience and partly from putting himself in someone else's shoes. Each song, he says, contains a mix of fact and fiction."People are always saying, 'OK Dave, who is that one about?' I'm like, 'Well, the real question is what is it about?' More often than not, I'll create a persona, just somebody that might remind me of somebody else, or it might be part of myself, it might be a family member or someone I knew once. ... There's a girl I'm talking about in 'Twistin' in the Wind,' she's exactly somebody we all can have a feel for. Did I know her? No, I didn't happen to know that person, but a lot of the commentary I make about her is absolutely true.
"That's what I like you keep them guessing a little bit."
