MP3 Daniel Watters Presents - The All Day Dreamer's LP
Daniel Watters Presents: combines the beautiful and highly poetic vocal influences of Paul Simon with Indie Pop grooves and jazz sensibilities to create a unique, smart, addictive album that appeals to a wide audience.
10 MP3 Songs
ROCK: Emo, POP: Beatles-pop
Details:
Biography:
Daniel Watters Presents: is a showcase of Daniel Watters'' unique and diverse talents as a musician. On his debut effort, The All Day Dreamer''s LP, Daniel wrote all of the material, played practically all of the instruments, recorded, produced, and arranged the entire album all himself. With indie influences, jazz know-how, strong pop sensibility, and a knack for poetic words, Daniel has produced a highly appealing and personal collection of original music.
The album is a result of a lifetime of efforts for the young artist. Music, for Daniel, has always had a presence in his life. At eleven, he became passionate about the guitar and music in general, teaching himself the bass, trombone, piano and several other instruments throughout the years. As a result, Daniel has pursued a diverse range of musical experiences. He is a well-versed jazz musician, playing with the Arizona State Jazz Band as well as receiving the role of guitarist in the prestigious Sedona Jazz on the Rocks Youth Band for two years. His original jazz compositions have won him favor from acclaimed jazz artists such as Carmen Lundy, and Wynston Byrd. His musical experiences obviously don’t end there, however. Over the years, he has played with a myriad assortment rock and ska bands, including Schroeder, a Northern Arizona ska band that won several Battle of the Bands and grew into a local favorite. He considers The Beatles, Ben Kweller, Dan Keyes, Sublime, Stevie Wonder, Broken Social Scene, Copeland, Pinback and The Shins some of his strongest musical influences.
A native of Sedona, Arizona, Daniel now is a passionate student at Loyola Marymount University in Los Angeles. As a full time student, he enjoys the challenge of balancing school with a music career. He performs energetic solo acoustic sets almost every Monday at the University’s open mic night, taking the opportunity to learn new covers every week to supplement his originals, determined to entertain.
In the future, Daniel plans on putting together a Los Angeles branch of Daniel Watters Presents to play The All Day Dreamer’s LP with love. He hopes you enjoy it.
About the All Day Dreamer’s LP:
The idea for the All Day Dreamer’s LP was born about a week after I graduated high school in June of 05,’ when my dad and I were on a Jeeping trip in southern Utah (this would prove to be the most stressful trip of my life.) My dad had just bought me a Digidesign M-Box with Pro Tools as a graduation present so my mind was racing with ideas for what I could do with it. The trip, however, proved to be less than ideal for creativity. The second day on the trail, we lost our tent poles, resulting in an intense night sleeping in a chair in gale force winds. Waking up after that night, the name “The All Day Dreamer’s LP” stuck out in my mind – an album consisting of anecdotal songs about people’s daydreams. In fact, I already had three songs in mind (“Days,” “Jake” and a reggae song I had already recorded).
When I returned home from my trip, I began experimenting with the M-Box. The only recording experience I had prior to this time was strictly analog and limited to only three or four recording sessions (I recorded “The Fix”). So when I began recording the album, I had very little experience with the process. The first song I ever recorded myself was “Days,” I programmed the drums on Reason, and plugged my acoustic guitar in directly. The result, at the time, felt like a huge success. But looking back now, it’s definitely not my best work. By the end of the summer, my experience and knowledge in recording, as well as my ambitions to what I wanted my album to be, had increased exponentially.
Then college began.
I moved out to Los Angeles to start my studies in August 05’. I found this change overwhelming, especially because the girl I loved with was still back home in Sedona. It was during this time that I wrote “Keyboard” and “Popsicles,” with no intention of adding these songs to the album. During this same time period, I was returning weekly to Arizona to practice with a jazz band I played with at the time. For this reason, the music I wrote at the time held a strong jazz influence. In fact, when I first contacted my friend Eddy Baratini about playing drums on my first three tracks (“Days,” “Te Amo,” and a old jazz version of “All Day Dreamer”), I told him to incorporate a jazzy feel to all of them. He talked me out of it, thank goodness. The four weekend visits home allowed me to continue to record and “finish” my songs. One of these songs, “Why Now,” was a song I had written in high school as an up-tempo ska tune. I rearranged and reharmonized it, giving the Pro Tools session to Eddy to lay down drums. At that time, I ended up recording an acoustic version of “Keyboard” and “Popsicles.” At this point, I had no vocals on any of the tracks because I didn’t feel I had the right equipment to do so. Eddy directed me to Richard Salem, a local musician/recording technician. The first time we met, we recorded Popsicles and I thought it sounded magical. Since then, I’ve done all my vocals (except various backgrounds) with Rich.
After finishing the vocals to about six tunes (those mentioned above and a few others I scrapped) in Oct-Nov. ‘05, I felt I was ready to mix my music and began looking for studios in which to do so. After a few disastrous studios experiences, I put the project on a moderate hiatus. During this hiatus, I realized that there was a huge discrepancy in genre between the music I had written during the summer and during school. My musical tastes had evolved and it was reflected in the songs I was producing. I slowly began cutting the more jazzy songs I had until the only songs I had left that I felt represented me were “Why Now,” “Popsicles” and “Te Amo” (and as it turns out, “Keyboard,” which I would rerecord later.) I didn’t worry about recording during my second semester, but rather I focused on writing. The first song I wrote after winter was “Agua Del Corazon.” I ended up recording the entire song during my spring break. I also began arranging and writing the current version of “All Day Dreamer,” “Ocean Eyes” and “Ferdinand.” When summer of 06’ finally hit, things finally fell into place. I recorded the songs previously mentioned as well as the “Fire Song,” which was written late in the summer. In fall of 2006 the LP you hold in your hands was finally finished.
It was a long ride. I hope you enjoy the album and feel it as deeply as I do.