Interview - Lorquin's Admiral
Dawn and Dandy Brown
She watches from the sides, spread out, somewhat seductively, on the leather couch, with eyes softly closing, loudly purring, signaling that its good… Or the little Bengal curls up in an almost hidden dead space, strolls along the cabinets and amps, without requiring much from the artists standing in the middle of the room recording the vocals. She gives them their space and is simply supportive of them with her presence…
Recording on those microphones, a lovely couple by the name of Dawn and Dandy Brown. The cat, Margot. The project, Lorquin’s Admiral… And as Margot gave her blessing to the recordings and championed the endeavor, so did Dawn and Dandy Brown…
We’re on Zoom with the two to talk about Lorquin’s Admiral, a project that sees the two shine as vocalists and the couple they obviously are. Competitive in games: “It’s been a long winter, but as soon as I have my service back, Dawn won’t stand a chance!” Collaborative in arts: “We can't help ourselves but to collaborate. We just enjoy it so much.”
And that last side is ever present, every day and is clearly audible on Lorquin’s Admiral. But let’s get one thing straight, it’s not Dawn and Dandy that started Lorquin’s Admiral. It’s a project instigated by Marlon King and Nick Hannon from bands such as Sons of Alpha Centauri and Yawning Sons. Who immediately thought of Dandy Brown as the main vocalist and songwriter companion for their project after already having delivered the goods for their 2021 Yawning Sons album Sky Island...
“They are such amazing songwriters. They called me up back then for the Yawning Sons album, if I wanted to perform, but I was in the frame of mind at that point, that I wanted to sing. I had been playing instruments on every record I had ever been on. They were cool with that, and when you hear it back, the playing, the production on that thing, they are tremendous at what they do. So we always kept that connection flowing, sending tracks back and forth. And you know, Dawn had done some background vocals on that Yawning Sons record as well. So, we suggested splitting the tracks between Dawn and me. We wrote a bit of music and melodies, but don’t play anything. We just sing. Then after a few months, the project took shape and turned into a family affair. I mean, Steve Earle (Afghan Whigs) is an amazing drummer and he has been with me for some twenty years, so I had to ask him. And Dave Angstrom, from Luna Sol, Supafuzz and Hermano, he’s a monster, just listen to his solos. Country Mark Engel, was with me on Orquesta Del Desierto, and brings all that natural feeling. It’s an ever growing family that has worked together for decades and are all in it for the love of it. It’s a cumulative process, engineering your craft, moving forward and always keeping a cohesive line throughout your body of work.”
It doesn’t take much to get Mr. Brown to talk about music, so it might be best to let him and Dawn ramble on… It’s their tree of life after all and this album is another branch. “It’s been an integral part of my life ever since I can remember, you know. I love to dig into music. I love to play it. Look at the world around you. It’s such a depressing time for the world. Even though personally, there are so many great things happening for us. Those two sides collide. And music is always there. It’s sanctuary.”
“Such a powerful word choice,” Dawn chimes in, “cause it’s both sanctuary and therapeutic. It can put you in a very specific headspace when you’re exploring a certain musical landscape. It enables you to disappear into another world for a little while and forget your troubles. And we are awfully lucky, we realize this on a daily basis, for we share this passion together. My writing partner is here. All the time. That’s a beautiful experience.”
So, how does a normal day in the Brown residence look like?
Dandy: “Depends on what day of the week it is. We’re working stiffs. So, normally I’m at work, for a public entity, nonprofit, just helping the citizens of our city.”
Dawn: “I work in a camera lab as a technician. I do photo editing all day long. And when I’m done scanning film at work, I come home and scan my own film for another two hours.”
And music wise?
Dawn: “I've been playing music my whole life. It felt like a golden opportunity when we got together. I was like, well, I, I play music on my own and I write and I think that together it would be the perfect opportunity for us to just put two heads together, mm-hmm.”
Dandy: “And see what comes out of it. It just worked, it just fell naturally together. It wasn't long after we started playing tennis that our relationship started growing towards where it is now. And on that path and after many conversations, it was like, why don't we try to do something? Why don't we try to play some music somewhere? And I think within seven months of us being together, we had booked a tour in Italy and we did a number of shows acoustically. And we had just such a hoot of a time. We thought let's expand this. Let’s start doing it on electric and let's bring in a drummer and let's bring in a bass player and let's just see where we can go with it. We might not be that good, but we've done some interesting stuff. I think we've caught some ears along the way of folks who appreciate what we're doing. I mean we're definitely, uh, a little bit different and unique. And, we're just very lucky that other people have been interested in it and wanted to put out records for us.”
You are partners. Your creative partners. Does that make things easier or difficult when something doesn’t feel quite right, for instance?
Dawn: “I would say it makes things easier just because there's a certain level of trust. And so we know we're not going to violate that trust. If we want to express an opinion, whether it be, oh, I think perhaps these two chords might not really be in the vibe of the song that we're trying to go for. So maybe let's try a different set of chords. Or perhaps this word could be swapped out for this word.”
Dandy: “It eases the writing process rather than creating a barrier. Yeah, I think it makes it much easier. Being married and being in love with each other, there's just not a whole lot of egos in the room. When we're writing together, we know each other too well for that. Obviously, I've been in bands before and played with many musicians where you could get into a writing situation, where ownership over things that people don't want to give up on comes into play. People sometimes get frustrated that their ownership is being questioned in some way. But we just don't have that, you know? Strength of our love for each other. And that just spills over into the writing process between us.”
Dawn: “It's very easy for us. We'll get out of the shower and one of us will run over and write down some lyrics that we've thought of or, you know, bounce ideas off of each other. Continually, and trade songs back and forth. I'm stuck here. Can you take a look at this or vice versa? But really being open to it all since we know each other and we know each other’s styles so well and we've written together so much. Just knowing what fits where.”
Dandy: “You know, maybe I'll produce a riff and think, this is really one that Dawn should sing, or this is really one that she should write the lyrics for. It's like, let's share this between us and see what we come up with. And it works really well.”
So this record than has to open with a song called My Blue Wife, an in
your face rocker, with of course Dawn as subject. But she answers that
one with My Blue Husband, which is more of a sexy song. Did you surprise
each other with these tracks? Or did you collaborate on those as well?
Dawn: “We collaborated as we do on everything.”
Dandy:
“We can't help ourselves but to collaborate. We just enjoy it so much. I just thought, since we're both singing on
this record and since we're splitting up the duties of singing,
wouldn't it be a really cool thing as part of that kind of uplifting
message that we were trying to pursue on this record, to sing a song to
each other, about the connection between each other, and the passion
that we share for each other. And the passion that exists in our lives.
And it created just a certain level of dynamism on the record that I
thought was quite essential to have.”
And then you went off to Kent to record?
Dandy:
“After we did a European tour for the Fizz Fuzz project we stopped over
in Paris, for a few days off and then flew out to Kent to record our
vocals. Steve Earle had already recorded all the drum
parts before us and we did our vocals in two to three days. With only a
few minor overdubs from our own house. But pretty much what you hear on
the record is what we did in Kent. It’s called Joplin House, it’s a
tremendous facility, run by a guy named Dan Lucas, a genius engineer.”
Do
you always work that fast and easy? Do you need the pressure? Cause
we all know the stories about how hectic the recording days were for
legendary Hermano… Or fabled Orquesta Del Desierto…
Dandy:
“Haha, well in this case, we really didn't have much of a choice, right.
Because our flight was leaving in a few days. So we kind of surprised
ourselves at how well we pulled it off, over those three days. But yeah,
just due to the limitations of time, we tried to, get
everything as ready to go as we can, just because we don't necessarily
have the benefit of being able to have a month in the studio. We usually
only have a handful of days or a week and so we roll up our sleeves and
get it done.”
Dawn: “Yeah. But we do take a little pressure off
ourselves because we have a rig that works well enough here at our home.
So, if something goes off the rails entirely and we know we can't use
it, then we can always do tracks here at our house. But the material we cut for the Lorquin’s Admiral record; we surprised ourselves and
we really knocked it out while we were there.”
Dandy: “And we
were both sick. We were both sick like a dog. Steve Earle came off the
tour with some sort of bug and he ended up passing it to us. So we got
lucky to go into the studio completely congested, and we just swilled
back some medicine and went for it. You know, with how well it turned
out, maybe that needs to be our plan going forward.”
Dawn: “I think that contributed to the adrenaline in the studio. 'cause we were like, oh, I really hope we can get this take.”
It does seem to be a recurring theme with you Dandy
because as I already mentioned you also recorded at the very edge of
the needle with Hermano. So maybe you work well under pressure?
Dandy:
“I do creative motivation. I do enjoy that. I do enjoy bringing people
together. I do enjoy bringing them into an environment where maybe they
are not a hundred percent comfortable. And they've gotta work on the
edge and get the tracks done in the time they have offered.
Hermano was perhaps one of the most mind blowing experiences of my life
because none of those guys really knew each other until we walked
into the studio. And I mean, literally, we did that first record, live,
we just jumped on it. And from the very first note we played, it was: oh my God, this is tremendous. The tones and just the
feel, you know, and we just looked at each other, we got something
really cool on our hands here. It's like the variable X, that one undefinable
thing that's in the air.”
That seems to be present on the track, Burn and Heel as well, with the different guitar lines and your
more staccato vocals. How was that one born?
Dawn: “The story
behind that song is kind of funny. I had rewritten it a number of times,
and then the day before, the night before actually, we were back in our
hotel room and I knew I had to get it done. That's how that variable X
got in there because the timeframe in which the lyrics were written was
very narrow. Maybe an hour or two. And he was asleep already. He was
snoring away. And I'm just like, oh dear, I gotta drone this man out. And then suddenly it just clicked, maybe even thanks to
his snoring.”
Dandy: “And the guitar parts were made up by Nick
and Dave. Well, the core of the song was Marlon and Nick. And as far as
the leads on that, you know, Dave Angstrom always takes anything he
plays on to the next level. You know, he's my favorite lead guitar
player out there. County Mark's way up there too, because of the feeling he can put into every note he plays. But Dave Angstrom has
something that really nobody else has tone wise.”
Well, what is the most important thing Dave Angstrom brings to the table for you?
Dandy: “That tone, man. That tone and those chops. He's something else. It’s the aura of Dave Angstrom.”
So
talking about all the members, let’s circle back. How do you think that
variable X in the air felt for Nick and Marlon who brought this all
together?
Dandy: “Nick Cannon. Marlon King. Those guys
are, writing machines, and they write all different genres of
music. They're really great at these beautiful soundscapes. But they can
also contain it within certain limits with a kind of a pop element to it as
well. Souding so appealing. It doesn't necessarily have to go into a heavy
rock area or that atmospheric side of music. They can write anything in
between. And it's just been a real thrill and honor to work with those
guys. It has that level of contrast that people can be hungry for. You listen to a certain genre for so long and it can start to kind
of blend together. But having different elements included, really
sparks the energy.”
So I suspect this was all written over a longer period of time?
Dandy:
“Yeah, I think over about a year of passing material
back and forth. And then the rest of it was just logistics of bringing
people together. We just so happened to have done a Fizz Fuzz tour in Europe and it just kind of lined up with the end to jump into the studio. But
those guys had never met Steve Earle and those guys had never met Country
Mark or Dave Angstrom. So it was one of those instances where people
come together that have never met each other before, and you got an hour
before your track to get to know each other and then just, let's get it on. And man, I've had such luck working in that kind of atmosphere
where people come together for the first time and there's just kind of a
magic in the air. And I think this record is alive will all that electricity.”
It’s all that X again! Well, who invented the name in that case?
Dandy:
“That was me. Whenever there’s a new band or project, I immediately
start surfing around and pecking and hunting. And we made a list of
probably thirty different names. And we just kept circulating those
names and Lorquin’s Admiral was at the beginning of developing that list
and every time we would add something to it or circulate those names,
we just kept coming back to it. It just seemed like a name that had kind
of a mystic feel to it. And a natural beauty to it, you know, it's the
most beautiful butterfly. I'm sure a lepidopterist would maybe have a
different opinion. They're native to Northern California and kind of
rare.”
Dawn: “We don't see one often. I have seen one in the
wild. When I was visiting down in the desert and I was just walking out into the Joshua Tree National Park.
And I just so happened to see this little thing flutter by and land on a
piece of dead grass. I'll be damned, that's a Lorquin’s Admiral. And I
tried to take a photo, but I wasn't quick enough. We do have a prop one.
We call him Quinnie.”
Dandy: “The butterfly fits the tenure of
this project, this group. We kind of set out to write things this time
that were more uplifting. With more positive messages behind them.
Instead of anything that's kind of down or doomy or gloomy. I really
wanted to focus on themes that were uplifting and hopeful.“
Uplifting and hopeful, let’s end with that… What was the most euphoric moment surrounding this record?
Dawn:
“Well, haha, the most euphoric moment was when we were all crammed in
that van in the UK and you had to learn how to drive on the other side
of the road. And there's just a moment where everyone was like, your
personal cheerleading squad yelling: “don't look that way” and “look the
other way.” “You're supposed to look this way!” Cause yes, there were a
couple of sketchy moments in there and it’s just the euphoria of
missing death by a hair. Haha.”
Dandy: “When you receive the
final master of something you've been working on for a long time and you
get to hear it as it's going to be released, that's always a really
tremendous moment. But there are so many euphoric moments making this record. Sending the material to Country Mark and having him
send his tracks back, not knowing, what's this guy going to do. And to
hear that for the first time and be like, whoa! It's like opening up a
present. You know, that feeling, butterflies in the stomach…”
Words on the Lorquin's Admiral album...
Argonauta Records
Or check out some more Dandy Brown stuff below...
(Margot)