Dan Patlansky – Flawless Fatality

The South African guitar ace is building up a reputation on the live circuit outside his native South Africa. With a new album packed with original songs imminent, Pete opted to base the chat with Dan on that this time around. As usual Patlansky’s answers inform and show his clear thinking on his work…..

Perfection Kills….that’s almost a Tubes album title! Did the release title come first?

Yes, the title came before the artwork. It’s a concept I’ve been very interested in for a few years now. Trying to perfect an art ends up doing more harm than good. This was the way I produced this record. Raw, Real, and honest.

The artwork’s a tad disturbing – your idea?

The basic concept was mine. I gave a basic brief to the artwork team, and they came up with the final design we went with. My idea had to do with perfect but lifeless dolls. I think they got the concept down great!

Assuming you’re still a Strat lover, which models were used for these recordings?

I am! I used one Strat for the whole recording, which is my main touring Strat ‘the beast’. The beast is made up of a whole bunch of vintage Strat parts. 64 neck, 62 scratch plate, and an old sunburst body.

Do you – as I suspect – use strings heavier than tens?

Yes I do. I’ve used 12’s for the past 15 years. I really like the tonal change with bigger strings, and also love the way they feel now. They have just enough fight in them.

I love story songs, mainly because so many review releases I receive are me-me-me. How do you balance the lyrical content of your output?

Thanks, it’s one of my favourites on the album. Maybe sub-consciously a bit of JM, but not intentional. I find it’s important to write about stuff that I know, have lived through and is true to my life. So a lot of it is about life one the road verse life at home with the family, as well as social commentary. A lot of things in this world annoy me and I’m a blues artist at the core, so moaning about things is all part of it.

Never Long Enough finds you splicing guitar between your vocals much better than the early DP….how has your sense of dynamics come so far? This song is superb.

Thank you. Dynamics comes in so many different forms. Live I like to use soft verse loud and angry verse gentle. On an album its different, one needs to use other forms of dynamics, Vocals verse guitar, busy verse sparse etc. It’s a very crucial part of any recording.

Judge A Man has a glorious sun kissed roll to it, what inspired this number?

Every record I’ve ever made has had one thing in common. One slow blues track on it. This is that for Perfection Kills. I find a medium to slow 12 bar the most natural progression for me to express through. On this song, I went a more traditional route lyric wise, and had a moan/dig at ex-girlfriends.

iEyes – quite intriguing! How would you describe it? The treated vocal works well.

The vocal were recorded through a microphone called a ‘Green Bullet’ which is traditionally used for harmonica. It has a very dirty mid-range heavy sound. iEyes is what we all seem to have these days. We live and see the world through our smart phone screens. It’s very sad we’ve got to this point. I really notice this at live shows, people watch the show through their screens.

My Dear Boy – a Dave Coverdale phrase! This must be the best vocal on the set in my humble opinion. Do you agree that this is where you come into your own as a song stylist?

Very kind of you to say. Loved writing this song, and recording it. Maybe one can hear the joy and passion coming through. This one was a bit of work at first to get the vocals sounding good but after a good few takes it started to settle nicely and naturally.

Dog Day – a real nagging sound, how do you get that gritty fuzz please?

That fuzz sound is a Bass guitar running through an octave pedal and bass fuzz. I’m a sucker for dirty bass sounds, I thought that would work great for the tune.

What’s the Dan Patlansky Band Road Diet?

Show days- mostly a bunch of crap. Crisps, chocolate, sandwiches. On off days I try get some fruit and veg into the system. Eating badly can start to effect the way we play if it’s not rectified at some point. It’s very difficult sometimes to eat health while touring. I try drink a lot of water to clean my body.

There are few artists displaying more sheer intent than you. So how do you relax if you do?

I love being at home because it’s a rare thing these days, so I find I relax the best when at home with my family. Also practising new stuff is very relaxing for me and also gets my head away from all the current songs we are performing.

If this album presents a step on from your most recent albums, in what ways please? IF songcraft, what have you been listening to or reading lately?

Song craft is one thing. I think one gets better at writing the more you do it. I’ve been listen to a whole host of stuff from SRV, Steven Wilson, Supertramp, Pink Floyd, Hendrix, Beck, The Black Keys, Weather Report, Josh Smith, Ray Charles. I think the biggest step for me was taking on the producer roll, and trying to translate the sound I had in mind in my head.

Pete Sargeant