ZapTown

Link: http://www.mikedoughty.com/

When Mike Doughty went to release his Sad Man Happy Man (ATO Records), he did something he had never done so blatantly before. He listened to his audience. Some people loved the fulfillment of horns and piano that he incorporated into Golden Delicious, while others hated the accessibility to the music when all they wanted was his acoustic banter in its purist form.

So Doughty returned to his acoustic ways and lyrical perspectives on personal, current affairs and how it all fits together. For Doughty, he still found a way to push the envelope and take his music beyond the simple efforts of his bare-bones ideology by adding subtle electronics to the mix.

The electronic influence came about when he was asked to contribute vocal work to BT’s hit “Never Gonna Come Back Down.”

“When I did the BT track in 98 or 99, it was back when you needed a room full of gear,” he said. “Now all you need is a laptop. I have always wanted to use electronics with my music, but it was not really accessible until now.”

Even though Doughty is heavily experimenting with the electronics and sampling technology — he is working on an instrumental-type album to be titled Dudious Luxury where instead of his voice, he will use sampled voices — the electronics used on Sad Man Happy Man is accents to what he does best and that is being a singer and songwriter.

“Whenever I am working on a song, it will have its seed and grow and grow and become parts inside my brain. I’ll go back and fill the holes and then keep tweaking until they turn into songs.”

And as the electronics push and pull the core essence of Happy Man Sad Man, so does the lyrical stability of the album. Like the title, the album’s emotion is a contradiction in a good way. On one hand Doughty wrote the album during the break up of a relationship but was also experiencing the beginning of a new one.

“I was feeling pain from one relationship while being happy with the new relationship. We’ve continued to be good friends. I’m not a moper.”

On the other hand, Doughty is known for not being a navel gazer and presents his albums just as they are and not a vehicle to simply overcome an obstacle.

“My breakup is clearly indicated on the songs,” he continued. “What’s going on with me is that I’m not so interested in being an innovator as much as I am being a communicator. I’m not trying to be a vanguard. I’m just trying to do what I do.”

And when it comes to trying new things and moving forward, Doughty is all about embracing the future. As with his recent live tour, he offered a unique approach to the experience.

“I was recording all of the shows as they happened so that people could purchase them on their way out.”

Doughty bought a small recording unit and had it hooked up to the soundboard, where it processed, mixed, and the final product was sent to the merch booth for instant accessibility. At each show, the audience was able to walk out with a unique piece of fanfare from the night. These are some of the interesting perspectives to his music that Doughty experiments with. And for him to maintain that unique perspective, he is always looking at what works now for the future.

“I don’t have a lot of external perspective,” he said. “I am too close to the trees from the forest. My songs kind of get smaller as I get older. Whenever I make an album it sounds great to me the first month, and then I don’t listen to it anymore as the live versions get further and further from the source.”