Denison Witmer - Are you a Dreamer? (2005)...And because I just saw Say Anything two nights in a row, I felt I needed to switch gears to something a little quieter, and the king of quiet music, Denison Witmer.
Most of the time, when I meet people, I ask them what their favorite band is. That's because I have a one-track mind, and very few social skills outside of music . . . but I digress. I had just met a guy named Chad Sundin after seeing his brilliant band The Via Maris play and agreeing to work with him on his upcoming record. We had several discussions on this "quiet" genre of music, how to get people to listen closely and where his influences were there and one of the ones that stuck with me was a guy named Denison Witmer.
A few weeks later I was aimlessly wandering around Hoodlum's between classes, dying for something quiet amdist my very noisy life. I had asked the staff for a few suggestions, but then had a moment of genuis and picked up Denison's, Are You a Dreamer? after Chad's glowing recommendation. I absolutely loved the album artwork and also picked up his later release, Safe Away.As I tend to do, this album got lost in the shuffle of some of my work records and whatever else I was obsessing over at the time. It was added to my iPod, but hardly listened to.
Over the summer I went to see some friends in Chicago and to go to the Pitchfork Music Festival en route to NYC for one last pre-graduation adventure. I stayed with my friend Pat in a fairly busy neighborhood in the city and crashed on his couch. The living room had these beautiful bay windows, however busy streets + big windows + open windows because it was hot and the middle of July made for a lot of noise. I typically don't sleep with headphones on because it inevitably wakes me up when I roll on them or my ears start to hurt. However I've also found it to be the best way to really injest music if you REALLY want to love an album, so i took the opportunity of noise blocking and a record I hadn't circled back to and put on Are You a Dreamer?
Hearing that first guitar riff of "Little Flowers" reminds me instantly of that apartment, how much I love Chicago and just how infinite that summer felt. I got to do some really amazing things and was fortunate to have jobs and means that allowed me to do so. It was the last summer I'd have off in my life (since I started working a week after graduation) and I knew that I needed to take those times and just go for it. What some kids do by exploring Europe I do by routing my vacations around concerts. Denison's music was such an exceptional soundtrack to all of that and by the 3rd night I found myself waking up thinking "Dude, this is my favorite song", even though I had only really listened subconsciously. It's pretty weird/awesome.
I kept that record on my entire trip to NYC, although sometimes switching to Safe Away for lines like "For the New York City skyline destination of our sight . . . " The weather was beautiful and I ended up taking long walks to the subway just so I could listen to it in full and take everything in. I slept on another couch in a another busy neighborhood (oddly enough, in what would be my first apartment in NYC) and put on Denison to help me sleep.
The last time I saw him play I requested another Safe Away song, "Over My Head", to which he replied that he didn't remember how it went. However, he did let me choose if I wanted the "slow" or "fast" version of "California Black and Blue". I told him, "Oh yeah dude, you should probably rock!"to which I got some laughs from the audience and a quiet Denison alone on the stage. It was probably sacreligious, but I love that I can love him in any capacity and with many of these "quiet" artists, it just takes a few careful, deliberate listens.
There is a short interview at the beginning, which TOO requires a careful listen. Be paitient. Let it all just sink in.
ah, he's so great
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