Kari Williams posted on September 07, 2012 08:00
David Mayfield (of the David Mayfield Parade) will soon play solo acoustic shows for fans who donated at least $1,000 to fund his band's second album, Good Man Down.
Mayfield hopped on the Kickstarter trend to create the Parade's sophomore album, rewarding donators with T-shirts, acoustic shows and more. And, with the new album on its way, Mayfield and company return to St. Louis Sept. 12 at Off Broadway.
InsideSTL: What are you looking forward to about returning to St. Louis?
David Mayfield: I love St. Louis. One of my dear friends lives there, she’s kind of shown us some of the fun things around town… last time [we were] there we played Chuck Berry’s place, the Duck Room, so actually we're back at Off Broadway this time… The people seem to genuinely enjoy good music, so it’s avery welcome environment.
InsideSTL: How does playing with your family compare to your solo act?
DM: Well, I grew up playing with the family and just kind of learned a lot about the aspect of entertaining. So that was one thing that my dad was real good about, teaching us kids as we were all playing together, as entertainers, we provide a service and it’s not always just about you on the stage. It's about the people that pay to come out… I think that’s a big thing that I learned in the family that I really incorporate into the David Mayfield Parade … [I also try to make it] more about comedy and kind of making sure there's no pretentiousness and just a lot of fun and entertainment.
InsideSTL: Why did you use Kickstarter to fund your second album?
DM: It seems like with the way the music industry is changing with Spotify and downloading songs and all that, there's not really a right way to do it anymore… and now that everything is kind of up in the air, it’s real exciting have all these different options of doing things… and now with things like Kickstarter and that crowd funding, really, it puts the power in the artists' hands. I raised a lot of money on there, [but] only 155 people who backed it… It was really unique thing. I don’t know if I’ll do the next record that way or not… [but the] experience was really fun.
InsideSTL: How did you come up with the rewards for the Kickstarter campaign?
DM: I did a lot of research and looked at what other people’s rewards were. I had friends who had done them before. I wanted to make things that were going to be easier for me to fulfill… write a song or give you hand written lyrics…. My idea was more like I’ll make a cool T-shirt or a cool poster or come play concert in your living room… [things that were a] little more easy to flesh out than having to write a song for someone or something like that.
InsideSTL: How different is Good Man Down from your first album? Or is it any different?
DM: Yeah, I think it’s really different. I think it’s going to be a lot more mature sounding. The first record was — I was as in another band called Cadillac Sky when I started making the first album. It kind of was a place really for songs that didn't fit that band… Now that I’ve been touring as the Parade for all this time, building a fan base, this next [album] really feels more focused… I know what works well live, what doesn’t work, so I think it’s a lot more focused. I would say it’s more folk and bluegrass influenced than the last record…
InsideSTL: What is the most unusual place that you got inspiration for a song on the new album?
DM: It’s funny that it comes from all different places. One of the songs on this record, I wrote the whole song on an airplane waiting to take off. We were delayed for about almost two hours, just sitting on the runway, [and I wrote] this really reflective song about my family and kind of, not necessarily a regret for some of my actions in the past, but just kind of acknowledging them and the affects they've had on myself and my family…
InsideSTL: With touring almost nonstop, how difficult was the recording process for the second album?
DM: Well, it wasn’t really difficult. We took some time off to get in the studio and kind of hone down and record things for about a week and then after that, [we were] doing finishing touches interspersed with touring… Now it’s kind of a slow process… I have a lot of friends doing guest appearances on the record, and they have studios of their own or friends with studios. Some things are being done over the Internet…
For more information about the David Mayfield show at Off Broadway click HERE.
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