It’s been a while since we’ve heard some new music from Dustin Hamman’s long-running musical project Run On Sentence—or at least, it’s been a while for those of us who aren’t supporters of his “Community Supported Music” Patreon. Those folks have been getting access to a new track every month by the folk rock singer/songwriter. For everyone else, the release of “Break Me”—a fresh track inspired by power chords, new wave pop, and gender fluidity—is a welcome return for this Oregon artist.
The new tune was written in a flash by Hamman during a stay at a borrowed beach house in Oceanside and recorded soon thereafter back here in Portland with the rest of the band. The self-proclaimed “West Coast cruiser” is, according to a press release, only the first taste of a promised new album that should be available to the world early next year.
Hamman was kind enough to hip us to this new track (which you can hear below), and to submit to an e-mail interview where he talks about the inspiration behind “Break Me,” the wonders of crowdfunding, and what he has planned for his upcoming Al’s Den residency, which kicks off on August 18.
MERCURY: What can you tell us about the inspiration behind this song?
DUSTIN HAMMAN: Well, I was out at the beach in Oceanside and I’ve always loved the idea of nature and time making mountains crumble… so that’s where the inspiration for the metaphor came from. I was also thinking a lot about gender in our society and how I’ve always felt that we all have both female and male elements to our selves, and how the world would be a better place if more people became comfortable with this idea and, particularly, if men embraced their femininity more often and more gracefully. So, it’s basically a song from my male self to my female self, begging her to help me open up and embrace her fully, so that I can be a more balanced individual.
In your note for this song, you talked about how Tom Petty and Kurt Vile were the musical touchstones for this tune. What did you take away from their work and injected into your own?
I didn’t really mean to do that… I was actually watching an old guitar instructional video from the ’90s on VHS at the beach house I was borrowing and I was, like, “Oh yeah, power chords! I forgot about those!” Then I started playing power chords and listening to the Cars and the Ramones. After I made the track, I shared it with some friends who said it reminded them of Tom Petty and Kurt Vile. After folks said that, I listened to them a little bit too, but the only thing I changed because of that was that I added the backing vocals after listening to Petty. That’s sort of a classic move for him, I think. When you put out a release through a label or distributor, they always want to be able to tell people some kind of reference of who it sounds like… so when asked, I just said Tom Petty and Kurt Vile, because that’s what my other friends said. I must’ve done something wrong because I was trying to be Ric Ocasek. Being influenced is inescapable but it’s probably best if it sounds like something else after you filter it through yourself. I was once asked to write a song for a movie that sounded like ’80s hair metal and when I finished, everyone said, “Hey, that sounds like Queens of the Stone Age!”
This track was recorded as part of your ongoing Community Supported Music/Patreon project. Why did you decide to wander down this crowdfunding pathway?
When I started the CSM in 2011, I had been working at a farm/winery for many years and they had started using the CSA (community supported agriculture) model. I got to thinking that would be a good model for making music too, so I started a CSM to keep myself writing. I like deadlines. I like having to do something. If I promise people a song every month, I’ll write a song every month. If I don’t, I won’t. Anyway, I did it for a couple of years and then stopped because I was traveling too much to keep up with it. The first year I did it, I made a video with my dear friend and surrogate grandmother, Allegra Ahlquist. She passed last November and I thought it would be a good time to revive the project. A friend suggested Patreon and it’s made the CSM a lot easier to manage.
Are you able to support yourself completely off of what you earn from CSM or does it just help ease the burden on recording costs/equipment upkeep/etc.?
Definitely not. I only have about 60 people signed up at the moment via Patreon. It amounts to just a little over $200 a month. Long term, I’d love to get closer to 1,000 supporters on Patreon. It only costs $2 a month, per person, but that would be enough for me to live comfortably (my needs are pretty simple) and have more time to make more cool stuff for my lovely patrons, but for now, it just eases the burden. It’s especially helpful when I’m not touring, because if I’m not touring, I’m not getting paid.
The notes also say that you wrote this song while staying in Oceanside and then recorded soon thereafter… do you tend to want to get ideas down on tape quickly without overthinking them too much? Do you stress over every last moment on a recording session?
I never used to, but I’ve been increasingly interested in the idea. I have a bunch of old songs that I’ve been wanting to record for a long time but they feel kind of old and stale, so I started thinking I wouldn’t let new songs sit around too long anymore. In the past, I would have saved this for a record and then it would’ve sat until I had enough money and time to make the record, but if feels good to just get it out and move on. This is our first time releasing a “single,” and so far I find the process much more manageable than a full album… and it can still go on a record later! We didn’t stress over the session at all (I find stress ruins sessions so I try to discourage it in myself and everyone I work with). We recorded this with Ryan Oxford and he is the opposite of stress. He got everything set up and sounding good and we played the song one time and it was basically done. We tried doing a couple of other takes just because we had some time, but the first one was the one and the whole process was pretty breezy.
You have a residency set for Al’s Den starting on Aug 18. Can you talk about what you might have planned for those?
I’ll be playing every night, and each night I’ll have a different guest who will either open, or play in the middle. (Some nights I’ll have two guests!) These are mostly old friends of mine, so I’m pretty excited to get to hear them perform. I’ve also invited the members of Run On Sentence to come sit in with me anytime they want, so some nights I might be solo, but others it’ll be me and a trumpet player, or a bass player or drummer, or whoever is around. The only thing I know for sure about the band is that they’ll all (well, at least four out of five) be there on August 23 to play a full band set and do a proper-ish release for this song. Autopilot Is for Lovers will be our guests that night.
What comes next?
Well, right after the Al’s Den residency, we’ll do a week-long tour with the full band, out to eastern Oregon, starting with the Ruins in Hood River on Tuesday, August 27 and ending with a recording session at the OK Theater in Enterprise, Oregon. After that, I have a month-long artist’s residency in Utah followed by a three-week gig tour managing for a friend. Then I’ll spend most of the winter at home, editing a screenplay I just finished the first draft of and mixing both the solo album I recently started recording and whatever we record with the band at the OK Theatre on Labor Day. Hopefully one of those records will be finished and in hand to take to Europe for a tour in the spring. And hopefully, I can keep up the CSM amidst all of that. I’ll let you know next summer!