The iconic, genre-defining bassist-songwriter will unleash an acoustic-driven, career-spanning show at the Tip Top Deluxe with an innovative Detroit jazz group. The Local Spins interview by Brian J. Bowe.
Interstellar, Otherwordly: David J plays The Tip Top Deluxe on Friday. (Photo/Don Spiro)
Over the past 35 years, David J has made a career bringing avant garde artistry to a post-punk attitude.
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Best known as the bassist for the genre-defining goth group Bauhaus and neo-psychedelic hitmakers Love and Rockets, David J has released a series of increasingly reflective solo albums.
But when David J. Haskins brings his acoustic-tinged, career-spanning show to Grand Rapids’ Tip Top Deluxe Bar & Grill on Friday, he’ll be traveling the spaceways with members of Detroit’s Planet D Nonet, with whom he’s been collaborating recently.
David J
The collaboration between David and the PD9 began last year, when they both performed the Theatre Bizarre. The highlight was a rendition of Bauhaus’ “Bela Lugosi’s Dead” reimagined as sleazy romp through a Cab Calloway opium den.
“That went down a storm, and we decided to do more,” David said.
In fact, that performance sparked a full-blown collaboration. They’re recording a full album together at Tempermill Studios in Ferndale, and will launch a Kickstarter campaign later in the year to finish it. When David plays Grand Rapids, he’ll be backed by PD9 members Joshua James (sax), Akunda Hollis (percussion) and Kurt Krahnke (bass). In this cosmic jazzy setting, he’ll tell some of the stories behind the songs. “It’s not a rock show, it’s more low-key,” he said.
James, who is PD9’s musical director, has been writing arrangements for David’s older works and collaborating with him on new songs.
”A big part of what we do musically is coming out of the Sun Ra tradition, which is interstellar and out there. Otherworldly. That’s what I’m helping to invoke in the program on Friday,” James said. “Structurally, it’s all David’s original material … but we’re going to be re-treating the arrangements.
DAVID J ‘LIKE YOU’VE NEVER HEARD HIM BEFORE’
“There will be a degree improvised soloing going on that’s coming out of the jazz context. There will be a little dash of Sun Ra, a little dash of spooky. It’s going to be David like you’ve never heard him before.”
(Planet D Nonet — sans David J — also plays the West Michigan Jazz Society’s Jazz in the Park series at Ah-Nab-Awen Park in Grand Rapids on Aug. 24.)
Because of the project, David has been spending some time in Detroit. Of course, he’s tuned in to the Motor City’s music history. He and his bandmates were inspired by the MC5 and the Stooges, and Love and Rockets scored their first hit with a cover of The Temptations’ “Ball of Confusion.” But he’s also taken by the current creative vibe there.
Planet D Nonet
“Because of the impoverished nature of the city and the fact that it’s been decimated to a great degree, there are a lot of artists who are moving there from places that have been gentrified to the hilt — like New York, like San Francisco. [They’re] going to Detroit and finding really cheap, great places, now-disused industrial spaces, and making the most out of them,” David said. “There is a real energy there and a resurgence of artistic activity there. It’s really great.”
That scrappy independence may be attractive to David because he’s at a similar place in his career. His most recent album, “An Eclipse of Ships,” was crowdfunded with a Kickstarter campaign. He offers rewards to ongoing supporters through Patreon. He said he finds these do-it-yourself tools liberating.
MORE PERSONALIZED, ‘WARMER, MORE HUMAN’
“It’s not faceless like it was in the old days,” David said. “It’s smaller, of course. Much smaller. But it’s more personalized. I converse on a personal level with these supporters. I meet them, and some of them become good friends. It’s a whole different level. It’s much warmer, more human.”
With Love and Rockets and Bauhaus, David became accustomed to playing big stages and gargantuan festivals. But that kind of success comes with downsides, like the isolation of large venues and the never-ending cycle of buses and airports and hotels that all look the same.
David J
“That became a downer,” he said. “It’s not anywhere near as energizing or pleasurable as playing to 50 people in a living room, when they’re all totally engaged.”
As a solo performer, he has been focusing on small, intimate venues — like the Tip Top — all across the U.S. and Europe. Oftentimes, he will play house shows set up by fans or in improvised venues like a warehouse or a chapel or the back room of a pub.
“I love doing these gigs. They’re always different, always interesting and stimulating,” David said. “And then you get to meet [the fans], and they tell you the stories of what the music means to them, and that’s very gratifying.”
At 58, David seems more interested in those human connections than he was as an alienated 21-year-old causing a stir with Bauhaus.
“We were masked,” he said. “It was like adopting the pretentious to reveal your true character — the lie that tells the truth.
“We were all pretty armored and on the defensive,” he added. “Now, I don’t feel like that at all. I’m not armored; I’m open. I’m open-hearted, and that’s much more joyous.”
David J plays at the Tip Top Deluxe with special guest, Grand Rapids’ JOE, at 8 p.m. Friday. Tickets are $15 in advance and $20 day of show. Get tickets and details online here.
VIDEO: David J playing “Bela Lugosi’s Dead” with the Planet D Nonet in Detroit
VIDEO: David J’s hit single “I’ll Be Your Chauffeur” from 1993’s “Songs From Another Season”
VIDEO: Love and Rockets, “No New Tale To Tell” from 1987’s “Earth, Sun, Moon”
VIDEO: Bauhaus’ 1983 single, “She’s in Parties”
Copyright 2015, Spins on Music LLC
