Daniel Tashian: Having Fun

In 2017, one of my best friends, Craig Alvin [Tape Op #137], kept texting me about a record he was engineering. He was saying how amazing the process was, and how awesome the results were. The album turned out to be Kacey Musgraves' Golden Hour, which went on to be a platinum selling, award-winning album that even her own record label had never expected. Daniel Tashian, with his longtime collaborator, Ian Fitchuk, co-produced, co-wrote, and played on Golden Hour, as well as the follow-ups (that Craig also worked on), Star-Crossed and Deeper Well. Outside of this, Daniel has produced amazing records for Lily & Madeleine, Sarah Jarosz [Tape Op #140], Rainbow Kitten Surprise, and even co-wrote and produced an EP (Blue Umbrella) with Burt Bacharach. Even more recently, Daniel co-produced (alongside T Bone Burnett! [Tape Op #67]) the new Ringo Starr album, Look Up. Now that's fun.

Did you grow up in Nashville?

I did.

Your father, Barry Tashian, had a long career in music.

Yeah, he did. He has Alzheimer's now. He's in memory care. He recognizes me still, but he's not unhappy. He's just got Alzheimer's.

Yeah. My dad had Parkinson's, and it was similar. It's rough. I was a big fan of The Remains. I think I saw you at the Las Vegas Grind show they played in Vegas in 2002?

Probably.

That was a fantastic reunion show.

Yeah. I was always amazed. I saw them play maybe three or four times – and it was not during the '60s, obviously – but I was always like, "Wow, that's an unusual sound; the combination of all of them together." There were some good musicians in the band. I think when bands are unappreciated, or cult bands, they can see what it takes to become this dominating force and they might think, "Well, I never intended to do it that way." It's not a pact with the devil, but it is still kind of a pact. They have to agree: "I'm willing to…" Some people are not in it for that. Look at Syd Barrett. There are examples all over the place of people who are brilliant, and they just don't want to sign up for the whole package.

Do they toe the line of what people are telling them to do, in order to be famous?

And there are introverts and extroverts. I think my dad's an introvert, really. Extroverts get energy from the crowd and introverts are depleted by it. They have to take a lot of time to repair themselves after an event. Some of the most interesting artists are probably introverts – like Kurt Cobain.

How do you see your own career? You started off with songwriting in your teens, then signed as a solo artist, and now you're known as a writer and producer. Do you ever feel you should have been more known as an artist?

I continue to be an artist in different ways, and I have that side of myself. It is fun to get up and play and sing. If some stratospheric success had happened for me as an artist we might be having a different conversation, but for me it was about finding a way to still have my day be occupied with music. I remember one tour I went on with The Silver Seas. I was opening for Graham Parker, and I was playing solo. I told the promoter, "No bad hotels." This was when our daughter, Tigerlily, was just born. I came home after a three-week tour and my wife [Lillie Fish] asked, "Where's the money?" I said, "It should be here any day." It all went to the hotels. I realized I couldn't go away as a young dad with a young family for three weeks and not come back with any money.

Did you start off more as a writer and co-writer when you were young?

It was a big relief to me when I figured out about writing songs. I wanted to be a drummer because I thought that looked like a good life to have. I loved Jeff Porcaro and Toto, I loved [Michael Jackson's] Thriller with J.R. Robinson. Then, in sixth grade, this kid arrived from South Africa, Nick Buda, and he was extraordinary. He was so much better than me. I thought, "It's going to be too hard to be a session drummer. I'll be a songwriter." So, I started making up my own songs.

You made your first solo record [Sweetie] in 1996, with T Bone Burnett producing?

I did. What was cool about that was that I feel I also got a "producer class" out of it. He would tell me a lot about the way he'd do things. Like, "Sometimes I have to leave artists alone and let them figure it out." Or he'd say, "Oh, you don't like singing with headphones? I don't either. Let's put some monitors on for you." All these different little ways of shoring up people's insecurities is what it really is about, in a lot of situations.

That...