An Interview with Patrick Sweany PHOTO CREDIT: Joshua Black Wilkins Nashville musician Patrick Sweany has never been one to conform to his surroundings. In a city where country is kind, Sweany brings an invigorating blend of roots, blues and Motown soul to his music. His style incorporates a natural aesthetic that shows his heart as a distinct part of everything he does with a guitar. His voice has a rustic quality and a no-nonsense approach. On November 4, he’ll be performing on the upstairs stage of the Columbus Theatre in Providence’s West End with Boston blues dynamo Julie Rhodes. Before the festivities Sweany and I had a chat about his beginnings in Kent, Ohio, what made him move to Nashville, his time from working with The Black Keys’ Dan Auerbach, last year’s release Daytime Turned To Nighttime, his opinions on the Nashville scene and what his plans are for the holidays. Rob Duguay: You started your musical career playing around Kent, Ohio, and now you’re based in Nashville. How did you end up in Nashville? Was it always a goal of yours to move there or did it just happen by chance? Patrick Sweany: It had been on my mind to move to Nashville for a while due to it being a big place for the music business along with the epicenter of everything happening moving closer to that city. I didn’t realize how much the place would really blow up since I’ve been here, but it has really has been a center for touring players and sidemen so I had been thinking about it for a few years. Around 2008 I ended up heading over there and I’ve stuck around ever since. RD: Another musician who is a Nashville transplant by way of Ohio is Dan Auerbach from The Black Keys. You’ve worked with Dan on a few of your albums. How did that professional relationship start? PS: When Dan started The Black Keys he was in my band. He was handling the low tune guitar on songs that were based on the styles of Hound Dog Taylor for the rhythm guitar parts. That was in the early 2000s and around that time he started getting recording equipment and started setting up a studio space. He recorded two tracks for the C’Mon C’Mere record, the rest of which we did in Mississippi with Jimbo Mathus from the Squirrel Nut Zippers. Then on the next record, Every Hour Is A Dollar Gone, we did in a basement in Akron, Ohio, which Dan produced and engineered back in 2007. RD: That was around the time when The Black Keys were making records in Patrick Carney’s basement. PS: Yeah. RD: Now your latest record, Daytime Turned To Nighttime, has a rustic and rootsy approach to it. It’s stripped down with an acoustic base and it has a backwoods twang. What was your main objective with the album and did it turn out completely different than you originally planned? PS: It was all very much planned ahead of time. This was the third record I did with Joe McMahan as producer. Up to this point, my band and I had done four rock ‘n’ roll records in a row and a lot of our stuff was moving toward soul and things like that. The song “Them Shoes” is more popular now then ever and it’s a straight ahead rocker, which I love, but I wanted people to see that there’s more to it than that. I wanted to use acoustic guitar as a main vocal point on the last album, but at the same time still have a really greasy and funky rhythm section. I was listening to a lot of Bobby Charles, especially that record he did with all the members of The Band except Robbie Robertson along with stuff by Bobbie Gentry and things like that. We were looking for more of a chilled out and groovin’ kind of sound, but I definitely had a lot of time to think about what the concept would be. RD: Nashville is the epicenter of country music. Recently there’s been a conflict between the mainstream pop realm and the more traditional realm. A notable example is Sturgill Simpson ripping apart the Academy of Country Music over the Merle Haggard Award. As a musician who’s based there, what’s your opinion about the likes of Jason Isbell, Chris Stapleton and Sturgill calling the mainstream out? PS: I don’t know, man. I’m not about to begrudge the way any musician makes any sort of living, I feel lucky to be able to do so. Laur Joamets from Sturgill’s band is a very good friend of mine and it’s beautiful to see him becoming so successful. Margot Price and her husband Jeremy have been good friends for a long time and all the guys in her band are friends because it’s a pretty small community. I don’t have anything against that industry kind of stuff because it’s just a different thing; it really doesn’t have anything to do with me. I’ve got a lot of friends who work in that world. People have been bitchin’ about not adhering to the roots of things and that things are getting worse since Elvis. I don’t like it and I don’t buy it, but do I think it’s worth fussin’ over? No. Also nobody breaks down what I’m saying about country music (laughs). I don’t share that kind of influence or that kind of exposure that Sturgill has. I like Sturgill, I like those records, I think he’s great and I love his singing, but I got nothing against any of those other people. I don’t like a lot of those pop records, that modern sound just sounds like software to me. None of it matters to me. That Stapleton record is great, the songs are great and his singing is great, but Chris has sort of been getting recognition because he worked in that side of country music. He collaborated a lot with a lot of artists from that side, so he made a name for himself among those people. A lot of people wanted to record Chris Stapleton songs before Chris Stapleton was a household name. It’s not surprising to me that Margo or Sturgill haven’t been accepted in that sort of mainstream stuff, it doesn’t surprise me at all. It would surprise me if they expected to be accepted because it’s always been a very sort of closed little club. It’s always been that way and that’s how it’s become what it is. It’s a very much a working community that builds itself, which is why it happened in Nashville and it’s why country music is a big phenomenon now. Does today’s country music have much in common with Hank Williams? No. Then again, name a band that sounds like Grand Funk Railroad. You can’t. Not one that’s on the radio. RD: You’re right. PS: I just don’t think about any of that ever. To be honest, this interview is the most in-depth I’ve ever gotten when it comes to country music in Nashville (laughs). RD: After the current tour you’re on, what’s in store for the rest of the year? Do you have any plans for the holidays? PS: I like to stay home during the holidays and spend time with family. I don’t do that many holiday shows around Thanksgiving and Christmas. I’m going to be ending this current tour back in Ohio in Akron, which is something I always do by design. I’m also working on another record and when this tour is over I’m planning on working on a couple of tracks in the studio. It’s looking like it’ll be another year until it’s out, but it’s a really interesting project I’m doing in Memphis at Sam Phillips Recording at the studio Sam Phillips bought after he sold Elvis’ contract. Buy tickets to see Patrick Sweany & Julie Rhodes at the Columbus Theatre on November 4: ticketfly.com/purchase/event/1288093?utm_source=fbTfly&utm_medium=ampOfficialEvent; Patrick Sweany’s Website: patricksweany.com.