Dain Norman: A Passion For Music

Interview by by Judy Grover

July 18, 2018

Charles Lee Dain Norman is a shy, modest fellow who just turned 30 but has the soul of an old blues-rocker who has been on the road for decades. He has a boundless passion for music – writing, performing and recording – that comes out in his rocking instrumentals raw, soulful vocals. His first EP, “Garage Blues” with the Dain Norman Band (now Chrysalis Effect) is a solid, 6-song album whose title describes it well—with its raw, “garage band” feel that makes the listener feel like they are in a bar sipping a beer while listening to the band live. The sound is a little muddy at times, but well-mastered and not over-produced; it definitely stays true to the “indie” sound that is totally Tacoma.

Dain is a multi-talented musician who plays piano, guitar, cello, bass (acoustic and electric) and banjo as well as singing and writing songs, recording and producing at his studio, “Hello Jude Productions.” He mainly sticks with guitar and vocals on “Garage Blues”, though you can hear some banjo on “You and Me,” which is one of the slower tracks on the album, along with “My Heart’s Lost Song” – which I found to be the most interesting and complex song, with its rich background vocals and violin by Adi West. Noah Harvey provides bass on tracks 1, 3, 4 & 5; Patrick Brockwell drums on tracks 4 & 6 and Thene Aldergreen (Singleton) drums on track 1. The final song, “Coming on Strong,” features an experimental-sounding coda with a backward tape loop reminiscent of the Beatles “Revolution No. 9” or the tail of “A Day in the Life.”

Norman’s sound shines as a modern throwback to classic 1950’s-1970’s blues/rock/soul with obvious influences of bands from the era such as Creedence Clearwater Revival, the Beatles (early Beatles in particular), and Stevie Ray Vaughn. Dain’s raw, soulful vocals are reminiscent of John Lennon and Bob Dylan—but he can also hit the high notes like Paul McCartney (something I’d like to hear more of, along with his banjo and other instruments!)

In an interview with Dain Norman, he describes his roots and how his passion for making and recording music developed:

When did you first develop an interest in music?

Dain: Probably about 4 years old…my grandfather was really into Elvis, and 50’s rock-n-roll like Fats Domino, Little Richard—all those people. So I grew up regularly listening to vinyl from the 50’s and 60’s. My grandfather was kind of a greaser and fixed cars and stuff… he had a rough childhood…he was kind of my father figure when I was a kid, so I kind of grew up with that influence.

So what was your first favorite band?

Elvis Presley…and the Beatles—they’re still my favorite band.

And you grew up in Georgia?

I grew up around the whole country—I moved around my whole life. I say I’m from Florida/Georgia ’cause I spent the most time down there or anywhere, but I moved every year and a half to two years since I was eight.

Why did you move so much?

My stepdad…had different jobs he would get, and businesses he would start…so we’d move.

So you must’ve picked up a lot of different influences from just everywhere.

Yeah, I’ve lived in every section of the United States except for the Southwest.

Education and it’s Influences

And you went to Full Sail University in Florida—can you tell me more about that?

I went there right out of high school, and it actually wasn’t my favorite experience.

Really? Why?

They were recently sued for like, scamming people with false advertisement…and you know— there are actually different sectors of the government forgiving students loans…from Full Sail because of the advertisement at the time… it was way overpriced tuition and you’re really not getting anything out of it.

So would you say most of what you learned about music you learned on your own?

All the actual music I learned on my own…but about the music business—I did learn at Full Sail, I learned about the music industry. But..recording, that’s what I went for—recording I kind of taught myself and studied it, and learned through experience…

So what brought you up to Washington State?

I moved to Portland, OR from Florida in 2013…to sign with a record label in Portland—actually it was based in Salem—and so, I knew Portland had a crazy rock-n-roll scene and garage band thing—which is what I’m kind of doing, that type of music, rock-n-roll and 60’s stuff, so that was going on…I’m like, I can go there, I think —get in with the right people—people who understand what I’m doing, get all this. So I moved out to Portland with…I had $600 to make the tour—I mean, the trip across the country was a tour, kind of—just going to open mics and stuff like that, staying at friends’ houses and all that. It took two months to get across the country and…by the time I got to Portland I had $15 in my pocket and I was living in my car for like, three months, in the winter. I decided not to sign with that label ’cause it was not a good deal—they wanted me to meet them halfway with the money for promotion—they were a small label–[I couldn’t do that]. So then I met my fiancee, Aili, in Portland—I was sleeping in my car—she’s from here, so we moved up here, but we moved here initially to move to Seattle—I didn’t like Portland—it’s kinda turning into an L.A.–Just from my experience.. we moved up to Washington to be closer to her family ’til we saved money to get a house in Seattle and then we found out she was pregnant with our son, who’s now 3 ½.

So is Washington treating you better?

Yeah—Washington, actually—I love Washington.

Musical Instruments, Writing Songs, and Genre

So you play guitar, piano, drums…what else?

Cello…my first instrument was a cello. I also play the ukelele, a little bit of upright bass—if you play bass guitar, you can pretty much figure out upright bass—it’s the same thing, just longer and there are no frets. I also play 12-string guitar, a little banjo…I love the banjo, you know, it’s an attractive instrument, sexy…makes everything just kinda sound awesome.

So you also write songs—what’s the first song you wrote?

I wrote my first song when I was 10, on the piano, actually—it was like, a doo-wop song.

What’s it called?

I didn’t have a name for it – it was basically just an improvisation on “Heart and Soul,” which is like all the doo-wop songs—I just made a little melody over it—I was really proud of it. I consider, I guess, the real first song I wrote—I mean, I wrote a lot of songs between 10 and 16 and I wrote a lot of stuff, but the first song I wrote and performed singing-wise in front of a live audience was a song I wrote when I was 16 with my band Founders Hill, my band from high school, and we were really serious—we practiced for six hours every single day—we’d skip school and practice and we’d play shows, and we were actually the most popular band in our town, Gainesville, Florida, in the high school scene, that is, just from my understanding of it—that’s what a promoter told us one time—and we got mentioned on the radio and were pursued by a record label, but that band broke up when I was 19.

So you’re obviously very much inspired by the Beatles, and you said Elvis and all classic rock…

Oh wait—to answer your last question—the song was called “My Happiness,” which is actually the name of the first song Elvis ever recorded—the same song title, not the same song, of course. I am very influenced though by stuff pre-1982. Not saying nothing good came later, of course, there is tons of good stuff out now even. I am a huge fan of classic soul as well, Ray Charles, Sam Cooke, James Brown. It doesn’t get much better than that. Garage rock, 70’s punk, The Byrds, The Sonics, Ramones, MC-5, Dave Clark Five, Ventures, J.D. Mcpherson a new artist, could go on…

Right. So anyways—you do a lot of covers—what’s your favorite cover to do?

Probably anything by the Beatles that John Lennon sang—John’s songs…I love playing Beatles songs. Probably my favorite to do is—well, I love to do “Kansas City,” but they didn’t write that one—they covered it as well—but the cover was amazing. Wilburt Harrison wrote “Kansas City” in 1957. I love doing “Oh Darling” as well.

So you’re playing a gig tonight in Olympia with The Chrysalis Effect?

Tonight, just solo.

How much do you do solo vs. full band?

I play half and half pretty much—it depends on what the space is and if they want acoustic or not, and how much we’re getting paid—which is #1, actually—if we’re getting paid a certain amount, then I can bring my band, so we can all make some money.

So you play venues all around the Pacific Northwest—do you have any ambitions to tour nationally or internationally or do any festivals?

Oh yeah—I’m trying to play every venue we possibly can everywhere—I want to tour the world! I want to make it as a musician—that’s my goal—I can even say mainstream or whatever, but I want to be heard.

Musician or Day Job

Have you managed to ditch the day job yet?

I have, at times—not always by my own choice.

Yeah, that happens…how about music videos—have you done any of that?

I made one when I was 20 with my band I was in, (we were called Yum Yum!) but I’m trying to make another one as soon as I can, actually. I’ve just got to make the money to get it done.

So you have a newly-founded music studio, “Hello Jude Productions”–when did you start that?

It’s kind of a thing that’s on the side, where I eventually want to expand it—my goal is to be a touring musician six months out of the year at least and bring my family with me, kind of like, you know—Paul McCartney. He would do that with his kids and they would all travel together on a bus and they would homeschool their children. But it’s kind of a long-term goal to do that, and whenever we’re at home I want to produce bands as my day job when I’m not touring—because my second passion is definitely recording, versus performing and writing—I love recording music, mixing it, and getting the mic placement right, and you know. My son’s name is Jude and so Hello Jude-kind of like “Hello Goodbye,” the Beatles song (in Liverpudlian accent)–It’s all tied around the Beatles.

Do you ever do any, like, any experimental music?

Yeah—psychedelic…so, I’m recording a new song right now called “Heed the Call,” which is really influenced by “Tomorrow Never Knows.” And actually, on “Don’t Pretend,” the intro is a backwards sound, like a tape loop, and the end of “Coming on Strong” is a portion of the tape; I basically recorded a chord progression, I played it backwards, so when I flipped the tape over, the chord progression played forwards but the audio’s backwards.

About your new EP—what’s it gonna be called?

 “Lantern.” The EP I did already was just called “Dain Norman and the Chrysalis Effect.” It was called “Garage Blues,” but I changed the name because the band name was the Dain Norman Band at the time, and I wanted to re-put out the old EP with the new band name—same songs. But the new EP is called “Lantern”–it’s already started—I’m already probably one-third of the way finished with it. “Lantern” is a theme in my music, “Lantern” meaning Aili, actually—my fiancee—she’s the lantern—She’s a light in my life.

And then you’ll be touring and promoting that?

Yeah—I’m planning a tour of Oregon right now from September 28th to October 6th, we’re gonna be on tour going down to Redding, CA, throughout Oregon, and then back up to Leavenworth for Roktoberfest. I am also planning on doing a Kickstarter for our full-length album, which will becalled “Hiraeth” which means, “A wistful longing for a home that never existed”, and using this EP and tour to promote and raise funds for that as well.

Kind of switching gears here a little bit…I know that you are critical of the Trump Administration and the way the country is heading in general—kind of like Bob Dylan and John Lennon were—how would you like to see things change and how do you see your music influencing the world around you?

I want to see things change to people not being so obsessed with what they’re told to think…like if something doesn’t go with what’s considered “adult,” meaning, what you’re taught to see as “adult” in the society that you’re in. It’s a creation—it’s not really reality—it’s a box, and when you’re outside the box you’re not taken as seriously— I have friends that travel constantly—they just hitchhike—because they’re like “fuck that—I don’t want to be part of it.” I get why they do that, actually—it’s like why would you want to be a part of it? You only live one time. So I kinda want to see people realize that they’re being cheated… I see my music helping people bond with each other and connecting to their roots again. Through merely the act of enjoying organic live music. You don’t always hear or feel that type of music these days. I want people to forget their problems for a bit and feel like their not alone because they’re really not.

And the kind of world you’d like to see your son grow up in…what would that look like?

More love—definitely more love—and more understanding of differences–cause, you know, autism is something that is misunderstood, my son isn’t autistic just using this as an example, they’re actually brilliant, usually—they have a different form of communicating, and its judged, kind of like many other outwardly characteristics. It’s a level of how you perceive, and if you’re not at a certain bar of that level that is considered “acceptable” you’re considered disabled, when it’s like, that doesn’t make any sense, just because of the box again, it’s what’s accepted as “normal,” which doesn’t exist.

Is there anything else you’d like to say?

Peace and Love!

You can listen to a track from Dain’s new EP with the Chrysalis Effect, “6 AM Hangups”, at https://dainnormanmusic.bandcamp.com/ With this sample as an indication of what the new album will sound like, I’m excited to hear it!

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