It’s easy to forget Brett Dennen has been making music for more than a decade when listening to him speak. His soft-spoken rasp calls to mind a recently retired altar boy more than a 31-year-old folk musician who’s put out four studio albums. The Badger Herald caught up to him after a walk through Chattanooga, Tenn.
“I was a career musician before I really could afford it,” Dennen said. “I became a musician, was poor, and couldn’t afford rent so I didn’t have a house. So I stayed at people’s houses. But then a year went by and I started making enough money to pay rent. But, you know, in a really cheap situation. And then another year went by and I could afford another, better place. And then another year went by and I could afford to buy a house.”
He hasn’t worked a day job since he started playing music for a living almost 10 years ago, he said. “It’s scary. There’s no ladder you have to climb to achieve set goals. There are no promotions. There are no income levels. You kind of gotta make it up as you go.”
If he wasn’t a musician, Dennen would have wanted to be a teacher. “I would like to have been working with young people in some kind of situation where I’m outside, in the mountains, taking kids backpacking,” he said.
As a musician, he has been able to tour across the country on expense-paid trips. Despite his constantly mobile lifestyle, Dennen still finds the energy to travel in the off months. “I’ve been to India; I’ve been to Hawaii. I spend a lot of time in the mountains in California. But most of the time I’m on the road.”
Dennen may spend a lot of time on the road, but getting dinners paid for isn’t always easy. “It’s weird. It’s not work and it’s not vacation,” he said. “I mean, sometimes it’s really difficult and challenging. But, for the most part you embrace the lifestyle and appreciate it. It’s long hours and it’s tiresome but it doesn’t feel like work. It feels like traveling a lot. But it’s not vacation because you’re not sight-seeing and you’re playing shows every night. ”
He cites the Grateful Dead as his all-time favorite band. It comes as a surprise from a musician whose sound is more reminiscent of Bob Dylan and Jason Mraz than the biggest jam band of all time. But the man clearly has some of the good vibes in his soul: “I’ve always wanted to go to Burning Man. I think I’m going there next year. I’ll probably rent an RV or something like that.”
Dennen is known for his interest in poetry, both in music and the spoken word. While on tour, he writes constantly. “I write more than I need for songs. I definitely have volumes and volumes of poems laying around,” he said.
While poetry may draw to mind the dark and obscure for some, Dennen prefers simpler poems. “I like poetry with strong imagery. I don’t need to be moved emotionally. I don’t really like romantic poetry,” he said. “I like poetry that uses metaphors and is really simple in just using everyday objects and activities as metaphors for other things.”
During the day of his show, you may catch Dennen taking his morning stroll. “When I come [to Madison] I usually like to run around, get down to the water, run around down by the water and hang around by the center of town,” he said.
Brett Dennen will be performing in Madison as part of “Bud Light Concerts at the Capitol” in the Overture Center for the Arts’ Capitol Theater this Wednesday at 7:30 p.m. Blind Pilot will be opening. Tickets are $20. For more information, call the ticket office at 608-258-4141.
