An Interview with Josie Dunne
We Sat Down with Up-and-Comer Josie Dunne, You Know, Before She Gets Too Famous to Talk to Us.
Josie Dunne belts out of the side of her mouth, strumming intricate jazz progressions and overwhelming the small stage at Rockwood Music Hall.
Her band isn't there. It isn't even really a concert, but rather a showcase, mostly designed to impress record label executives and members of the press. Josie doesn't care. She casually talks between songs and laughs through her set, giving one the impression that she would perform exactly the same whether she's singing for ten people or ten thousand.
She may be young and inexperienced, but it's easy to pick out that shimmering clarity–the one that all great pop artists have–in her voice. And, even as a novice performer, Dunne has managed to tap into a level of authenticity most veteran musicians never find. On June 1st, she released her debut EP titled To Be The Little Fish, and the songs on it have garnered more than 1.5 million hits on Spotify to date. We decided to give her call before she gets too famous to talk to us.
What was your last big online purchase?
I have a pet bird, so I just recently got a shower perch for my bird. I didn't know this before I had my own pet bird [but], my Dad said they need to take showers every once in a while. I used to stand outside the shower and just dangle my bird in the middle of the shower. Now [that] I got a perch for him, he's going to be living the good life.
So, you have a bird?
Yeah, his name is Calvin.
I always wondered this, and since you own a bird maybe you can answer it for me. Birds don't seem, um, potty trained like dogs and cats are. Are they?
They kind of are. What's tricky about birds is that they're really hard to discipline, which is kind of annoying. But, they catch onto routine really well. Basically, when Calvin has to poo, he has perches around the different rooms of the house. If it's coming too soon, he'll shimmy off of my shoulder so it misses my shirt.
That's considerate.
Yeah, it's nice. Sometimes he misses which is a real bummer.
Now that we've talked about poo, we can talk about anything. We're right where we want to be.
( Laughs)
So, I caught your set at Rockwood. It was great, but you were all by yourself. How is it different when your band is with you?
I've just started playing with this band that I love. It's so much fun to play with a band. My full band show is fun because I have a drummer, a bassist, and a keyboard player, but I also have a saxophonist who sings background vocals. It's fun because, in the song "Make You Mine ," for example, there are a bunch of horns. We can make up our own horn section because I play the trumpet. Right now I'm obsessed with playing live. It's my favorite thing to do.
Since you signed with Atlantic five years ago, I assume you skipped college?
I actually went to a year of college. I started having meetings with Warner and Atlantic in Nashville when I was finishing out high school in Chicago. I would fly down to Nashville and write. I moved down there after I graduated school. I went to college for a year at Belmont, but I say that and I was barely in school. I took the bare minimum of classes. I spent most of the time off-campus writing and trying to play shows. Once I was starting my sophomore year, I realized that it was too much to both [school and writing], so I dropped out.
Hindsight is 20/20, and obviously, you're super successful now, but were you nervous after you dropped out?
A little bit. My headspace when I was in college was just splitting time. I was having to bounce from one side of my brain to the other–going and playing shows and doing creative stuff and then having to go do algebra homework. It was tricky for me to do both of those at the same time. Once I dropped out, it felt like I didn't have a backup plan, so it was a real kick in the butt to write the best songs that I could write.
What's your favorite song on the EP?
I think "Cool with It" is my favorite. I think that one's my favorite because it was such a puzzle to make. I wrote the song with Nathan Chapman and we wrote it on an acoustic guitar. For whatever reason, it was hard for us to find the production that fit with that song. We went through dozens of different versions trying to get the sound to be right. It took us months before the production felt really cool and it became what it is. Because it took so long to make, that one's my favorite.
So, when I watch you play live I noticed you were playing a lot of jazz chords. It's pretty clear that you're a very talented musician. Do you think you're always going to make pop music?
I can't tell down the road what I'll make, but I think pop music is such a big part of the foundation of how I grew up. I grew up on a lot of what was on the radio at the time, which was a lot of early 2000s pop music–the tightest, in-the-box pop songs.
What was the first album you owned?
Avril Lavigne. The one with "Complicated" and "Sk8er Boi ." But, that tight pop music is what I grew up on. I would bet that I'll always have a bit of that in everything [I write]. Another part of my foundation is Motown and soul music. To your original point, to me, songs always need to have a bit more musicality than I think is played in songs now.
Would you prefer to be known more as a performer or songwriter?
I would say, first and foremost, I'm Josie Dunne the artist, but I've fallen in love with songwriting. It's a big part of my everyday life. I write a song every day.
Gotcha. Okay, rapid-fire question time.
Let's do it.
The only rule is, you're not allowed to think. If you think, I'll hit the buzzer and you don't want to know what happens when I hit the buzzer.
( Laughs) Automatic disqualification?
Exactly. And you won't win the big prize. Ready?
Yeah.
Favorite author?
Virginia Woolf.
Favorite movie?
Dreamgirls with Beyonce and Jennifer Hudson.
Favorite animal?
Fish. I was gonna say bird, but that's my second favorite.
Those are weird choices. Favorite '80s musical artist?
Michael Jackson.
Awesome. I was just testing you though. There is no prize.
Did I win at least?
Eh...sure.Next, I have a conspiracy theory I'd like to discuss with you. I did some research on you. Let's talk Dewey Lake Sessions, 2011.
Oh, man. You did some digging.
So you were singing a Stevie Wonder song, "For Once in My Life" if I'm not mistaken.
Yup.
In that video though, you don't seem to be wearing glasses...Now let's go back to 2010. That year, you recorded a cover of "Human" by the Killers on the piano. Yet again, I don't see any glasses. What's up? Are those glasses fake? I gotta know.
They're real. I don't know my prescription offhand, but my eyesight has just gotten worse over time. I started wearing glasses when I was in high school. Those videos were from middle school. ( Laughs) I like that you did some investigating.
I love that you keep the old stuff up there though. A lot of artists delete that stuff.
I hate when people delete it all. It's a piece of the story. It's the same as when a someone goes through a breakup and they delete everything that would show that they were involved with that other person.
Sometimes they're just embarrassed too. We've all dated people that we've been embarrassed about.
( Laughs) True. It's like, 'maybe we should rewrite history here.'
Yeah, I think you have a right to rewrite your own history. I don't think you have a right to lie about your glasses prescription to me, right now, in the middle of an interview though.
I swear they're real!
Alright, jury's still out on that one. I want a doctor's note next time I talk to you.
( Laughs)
On another note, do you feel famous yet?
I just was home for the weekend and it was funny. The suburb where I grew up is so small. It was funny being there. People were asking me for pictures and asking me for autographs. It's silly because I'm so far from being famous and all of my friends think it's hilarious that people would treat me a different way because I'm so not that.
Do you think that shoe is ever gonna drop or do you think you'll always feel like you do now?
As soon as I went diva, my parents, my family, and my musical team would immediately snap me out of it. It would be a hard fall from grace.
What's next? I realize that you just released your first EP, and this is sort of a weird question to ask right now, but I'm curious.
This summer, I'm writing a lot, and I'm going on a bunch of trips. I'm really writing and trying to get the songs that'll come out next. I'm really trying to fine craft [sic] whatever comes next. On top of that, I'm excited to start playing more shows. Hopefully, fingers crossed, [I can] book a tour for the fall. As of now, I have a couple one-off shows that I'm playing.
Matt Clibanoff is a writer and editor based in New York City who covers music, politics, sports and pop culture. His editorial work can be found in Inked Magazine, Popdust, The Liberty Project, and All Things Go. His fiction has been published in Forth Magazine. -- Find Matt at his website and on Twitter: @mattclibanoff
POP⚡DUST | Read More…