Daniel Knox - You Are My Friend: The Songs of Mister Rogers '2020

Tracks list

Songwriter and composer Daniel Knox lives and works in Chicago, but it’s
not the Chicago known by most. His is a different city, a city almost entirely
his own, set in the small hours. Something of a nocturnal creature, Knox roams a
city of dark corners and quiet beauty; a place unstuck by time where the lines
between himself and the character driven personas of his music blur.

It’s in this setting that Knox’s unique sound was born. Upon
discovery that most hotels downtown have a dilapidated old piano tucked away
somewhere in their lobby, and that during the deepest hours of the night nobody
is going to stop you strolling in and using them (mostly), Knox began to teach
himself. Roaming around from hotel to hotel, on a different piano every night
for as long as he could get away with Knox learned his own unconventional style
– seeing Knox play the piano it’s apparent that he wasn’t
taught traditionally but possesses a gift, he hops wildly around the keys and
makes his own way. From there he began to craft the songs you’ll hear on
both his self-titled record released in 2015 via Carrot Top and his new album,
Chasescene. 

These are songs rooted in tradition, stories of true love and loss. Murder
ballads met by Shakespearean tragedy against a backdrop of Lynchian contemporary
America. Knox grew up spending more time in movie theatres than most people do
in their entire lives, currently he works (late shifts) as a projectionist at
Chicago’s historic, beautiful Music Box Theatre – occasionally
enlisted to play the dusty old organ that sits in the corner of the screen.
Knox’s influences unsurprisingly stem from here too, the language and
feel of movies are what shapes his music inside and out. Most prominently in the
work of Wim Wenders, David Lynch, Errol Morris, Charlie Chaplin and Abel Gance.
In terms of singing he cites Judy Garland, Marlene Dietrich and Maurice
Chevalier. Some more contemporary musical influences include Gavin Bryars,
Ryuichi Sakamoto, Paolo Conte, Roberta Flack, Scott Walker, Iris Dement, Randy
Newman and Moondog.

Of the many remarkable things about Daniel Knox – and there are many,
he’s one of those artists who the more you look the more weird and
wonderful details you’ll find about him – one of the most
significant is that people don’t seem to just be fans of his, you get
sucked into his world, completely enamoured. This has reaped some pretty
remarkable rewards; in 2007 when David Lynch was touring the country with his
film Inland Empire he asked for a local musician to play a piece which led to
Knox composing a droning instrumental piece to perform in front of his idol
– Lynch looming over him from the stage as he played. This was seen by
musician and art director David Coulter (Tom Waits, Damon Albarn, Yoko Ono) who
immediately flew Knox out for his ‘Plague Songs’ event at the
Barbican Centre in London. There, Rufus Wainwright and The Handsome Family heard
him play – both of whom Knox would later work with and lead to further
collaboration with Andrew Bird, Thor Harris (Swans, Bill Callahan), Richard
Buckner and more.

A year later, Coulter invited Knox back to the Barbican where Jarvis Cocker was
in attendance, and a few weeks after that, Knox was in the studio with Jarvis
recording backing vocals on his album Further Complications.

Through the subsequential bond Knox formed with Cocker, a personal collaboration
came to pass. On Chasescene, Jarvis Cocker lends his trademark vocals to
‘Capitol’ backed by a ghostly musical saw, meandering saxophone and
rusty strings. Elsewhere, Knox steps back, giving way to Nina Nastasia’s
effortlessly affecting vocals on ‘The Poisoner’, a swelling ballad
taken from Knox’s original score for Chris Hefner’s film of the
same name and given new life. Not to mention the players on the album who
include the late Ralph Carney (Tom Waits), David Coulter, Jason Toth (The
Handsome Family) and more.

Chasescene came together similarly naturally – a mixture of real life
experiences and gallows humour. Often tracks are compiled in the heat of the
moment; ‘Blind Deaf and Dumb’ was written quickly when Knox found
himself sat at the piano of friend who betrayed him and ‘Pack Your
Bags’ is an snap-back insult to a different friendship which ended with
everything Knox had ever given them floating down the Chicago river. Others are
more longstanding; ‘Anna14’’s peacefully beautiful piano
balladry is part of a series dedicated to one person, the rest of which can be
found dotted around his back catalogue. The grand strings of ‘Me and My
Wife’ build into a powerful opus written because Knox felt that maybe
terrible people ought to have a love song too.

From the snarling savagery of ‘Cut From The Belly’ to the
unsettling joviality of the tongue-in-cheek ‘Man Is An Animal’ to
the all-consuming heartache and irrational anger of Chasescene’s title
track – Knox journeys in and out of the lives of the good and the bad,
the beautiful and the ugly; telling tales both close to home and entirely other,
stories that are otherwise untold. Chasescene welcomes you into its world, Knox
taking the role of both narrator and resident, surrounded by characters from
every walk of life, observed intimately from a distance and without judgement.
This is where Daniel Knox resides, an imperfect world with an irresistible
charm.

Tracklist:
01. Daniel Knox - Wont You Be My Neighbor
02. Daniel Knox - Some Things I Dont Understand
03. Daniel Knox - Please Dont Think Its Funny
04. Daniel Knox - You Will Not Go
05. Daniel Knox - Sometimes I Wonder If Im A Mistake
06. Daniel Knox - Hello There
07. Daniel Knox - Many Ways To Say I Love You
08. Daniel Knox - Im Taking Care Of You
09. Daniel Knox - Scary Mad Wishes
10. Daniel Knox - Im Angry
11. Daniel Knox - Its Such A Good Feeling

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