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Article published Jan 12, 2007 Brett Dennen gets a leg up thanks to John Mayer's praise
By Steve Wildsmith of The Daily Times Staff
When John Mayer name-checks you in the pages of Rolling Stone, you know you've got a good thing going.
For singer-songwriter Brett Dennen, Mayer's praise of his most recent album, "So Much More," is well deserved. And yet the California native remains humble in light of the praise, maintaining that he's just a guy who tries to put into words what everyone thinks and feels.
"Just focusing on the content of what he said, he actually best put into words what I try to do with music," Dennen told The Daily Times this week. "He did it better than I've been able to put into words; better than anyone I know, really. He said something like how I sound like I'm 25 in 1972, and I think he just nailed it on the head in terms of the sound I'm going for. First and foremost, I'm going for the song. Everything — the melody, the sound of my voice, the guitar rhythms that I'm playing, everything else is to support that.
"And coming from him and who he is ... I mean, the guy is a heavy hitter. He's got a lot of people waiting to hear him talk about the music he likes, and then they're going to run around and try to find it. So that's incredible, having someone of his stardom point the finger down at me and say he likes my music. It's probably one of the biggest breaks I've ever received."
Mayer's exact words were that Dennen's music sounds "timeless. … He's probably 25, but he seems like he's 25 in 1972. He paints these gorgeous pictures, musically." That's a spot-on description, given the gorgeous, intimate, heartfelt package of tunes that make up "So Much More."
Take, for example, a line in the gentle, achingly beautiful second track, "There Is So Much More." Filled with guitar swirls and anchored by Dennen's wavering, strangely soothing vocals, it meanders in and out of a dream-like fugue before something so simply stated resonates with all the identifiable clarity of a bomb: "I don't feel comfortable with the way that my clothes fit / I can't get used to my body's limits / I got some fancy shoes to try and kick away these blues / They cost a lot of money but they aren't worth a thing ..."
"With that passage and that lyric especially, I wanted to say that I don't feel comfortable in my body, but I wanted to say it in a less vague way," he said. "I wanted to point to more particular things I wasn't comfortable with about my body, to say that I don't feel comfortable in myself, but I wanted to do it in a way everybody can relate to. I could have said that I don't like my knobby knees, but if someone doesn't have knobby knees, they aren't going to relate.
"But to talk about how my clothes fit, that touches on anything — women can wear clothes too tight because they feel like they have to, or it can refer to the masks we wear and the facades we put on. I think that lyric is a good example of what I try to do. I write from my heart about my experiences — the things that make me sad, things I'm hopeful for, things I find beauty in — and I try to do it in a way that speaks directly to other people's hearts.
"And I want to do that by talking about things that interest them and things they like rather than their politics or their style or fashion," he added. "I want to do it in a way that anybody could have said it or written it or felt it."
Dennen has been described as one of the "new millennium" folk singers who, along with Jack Johnson and Tristan Prettyman, has crafted a style that's both groove-oriented and honest. His songs are deceptive packages — dark, melancholy and introspective lyrics wrapped in shiny pop hooks and gently skittering drumbeats. They can inspire foot-tapping and body-swaying, but they're also ideal for a pity party of one on those nights when candles, a bottle of wine and "So Much More" on the CD player allow the listener to wallow and linger in the bittersweet memories of opportunities lost, relationships ended and possibilities unexplored.
He released his first album in 2004, and when "So Much More" was released in November, the songs "Ain't No Reason" and "The One Who Loves You the Most" were top downloads on iTunes during the following days. His songs have been featured in commercials and on episodes of the hit drama "Grey's Anatomy," and Dennen credits his painstaking honesty as one of the things fans find attractive about his music.
"You see it over and over again — every big record label or MTV is looking for the next big star they're going to make billions off of as the next one-hit wonder," he said. "They're going to dress them a certain way and put them out there as a certain product, but then somebody like Jack Johnson comes along, and he's just a very bare bones kind of guy who didn't have to change a thing about himself. They marketed him based on who he was — a casual, laid-back guy, with interesting melodies that are catchy, simple and easy to sing along with.
"It really was all about the music, and that opened a huge door for all of us who walked in after him. He just proves you don't have to buy into all that crap. It's possible to do what you do and not have to adjust to a model that the record machine is spitting out. I think it's great that I get compared to him, because I'm doing the same thing. I don't put on costumes or assume other personalities when I'm on stage; I'm the same guy backstage as I am on stage."
On stage — where he'll be Monday night at Preservation Pub in Knoxville — Dennen tries to combine his soft-spoken demeanor and gentle sense of humor with his boyish earnestness to build a warm environment around the music. By the end of the night, it's like sitting around listening to an old friend play and sing instead of an artist you first met an hour or two before.
Dennen succeeds in that because he's genuine. He doesn't try to disguise his insecurities and uses his songs as a springboard for diving headfirst into a pool of self-exploration. More often than not, audience members find themselves tagging along because Dennen has a way of pointing out things about themselves they don't always notice.
"I'm a young man who really is just a scared little kid experiencing life for the first time," he said. "I'm constantly intimidated by things all around me — the fear of being a failure or a flop; the fear of being great; the fear of losing my loved ones; the fear of being afraid to do the damn thing. I'm just being afraid of it all.
"The one thing I know is that when I write songs about it, I write songs that I want to hear, and I know from the past three or four years that there have been people who have responded to it and are cheering me on and telling me they like what I'm doing and that I should keep going. I've always known what I was doing was good, but that doesn't mean I've always believed that or not gotten down on myself.
"There are a lot of people out there cheering me on, but that doesn't make it easy for me," he added. "I'm an artist because I have issues and insecurities and things I don't want to share with the world, but those are also the things that because I'm sharing them with the world, have given me the blessings I've received. It's a struggle everyday."