| Danielle Ate the Sandwich |
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Danielle Ate the Sandwich’s intelligent, insightful, incisive tunes and engaging, inventive DIY videos have, over the past five years, garnered her a huge and devoted following at live gigs throughout the States and, especially, on YouTube, where her personal channel boasts thousands of subscribers (31,795 and counting) and millions of views (4,941,705 to be – temporarily – exact). Her ever-growing fan base greets each new entry, featuring Fort Collins, Colorado-based singer-songwriter Danielle Anderson on vocals, ukulele and/or guitar, enthusiastically. But now Danielle—who the Denver Post called “a woman of inspired musicality, plaintive beauty, charming virtue and whip-smart aesthetics”—is ready to go beyond those not-so-humble beginnings. Two Bedroom Apartment, her third and most sophisticated album to date, is a collection of songs that establishes Danielle Ate the Sandwich as one of the most original and noteworthy rising forces in music. For Danielle—who won the Best Singer Songwriter award at last year’s Westword Music Awards ceremony—the new effort, which she co-produced with Mark Bliesener at Macy Sound Studios in Denver, marks an elevation to the next level of artistry. “I have to admit that being one of those ‘DIY musicians who got their start on YouTube’ has been an incredible treat,” says Danielle. “It’s amazing that I can sell enough albums to pay my rent. It’s incredible that I keep busy playing shows so I don’t need to justify getting a ‘real’ job and it’s even crazier that when I log on to YouTube, I can see that thousands of people have watched my homemade music videos. It’s still unbelievable to know that most of those watching like what they see." But now, adds Danielle, “While this world of subscribers, comments, favorites and thumbs-downs has become my home field, I would love for my songs to transcend beyond my homely and quirky videos as well as the novelty that the title ‘YouTube musician’ connotes.” Two Bedroom Apartment—which follows Danielle’s self-titled debut and 2009’s Things People Do—is the vehicle that’s taking her to that transcendent place. Each of the songs carries on the candid approach and forthrightness that has already endeared Danielle Ate the Sandwich to so many, but adds a few new layers of songcraft on top of it all. Her songs, which deftly balance wit and intimacy, are observational and easy for anyone to relate to, yet rich in imagery and smartly constructed—none of that obtuse, head-scratchingly pompous stuff for Ms. Sandwich, just well-written, beautifully sung songs you’ll want to hear again and again. In the highly visual title track, Danielle confronts isolation with a rare familiarity: “All the parking lots feel empty in all the late night markets/And the trash that once belonged to someone now lies on the ground/And I am in good company as all the shopping carts roll lonely/Bumping into cars just to feel that someone’s there.” In “El Paso,” the Texas border town depicted by Danielle is a far cry from the setting for the country-western gangster tale of the same name once sung by Marty Robbins: “Oh El Paso, I have ridden on your highway curves and I have spoken to your governor about the use of your U-turns/Oh El Paso, I ate two corndogs at a Wienerschnitzel/I have watched your infomercials that threaten bigger muscles to those who stay up late enough to order.” “I am silly. I am quirky. I do wear thick-rimmed glasses and floral dresses and make little videos on my webcam,” says Danielle, “but I also write good songs. I am, to the bone, a songwriter and was one before I ever turned on the webcam. I want these songs I write to be heard and listened to, thought about and wondered over and stuck in the mind of some teenage girl writing a love letter to someone far away from home. I want the words I write and sing to be remembered.” The way Danielle Ate the Sandwich is already achieving that goal is by consistently writing in a plainspoken language that invites the listener to enter her songs’ worlds, to come along on the journeys they portray. One need not have experienced the sadness and tension of the father and child of “17 and 53” to relate wholly to the narrator’s memories: “When you heard them fighting you hid in the apple tree, the branches broke their noise/When your brother studied at the university you were left alone to realize/That while you were growing older he was busy growing older too.” “A lot of my inspiration comes from iconic ’60s folk musicians like Bob Dylan, Simon and Garfunkel and Joni Mitchell,” says Danielle (curiously, Joni Mitchell’s original last name was also Anderson). As a songwriter, I want to honor them by attempting to make something as timeless and wonderful as they were able to. I’ve always focused strongly on the words, lyrics and meanings of my songs, but in the rapid-fire arena that is the Internet, those thoughts get easily trampled by what I’m wearing, or what’s in the background of my video or what funny face I’m making before I start playing the song. YouTube is a visual place and often times the song itself is the last thing heard.” The 13 songs that comprise Two Bedroom Apartment—partially funded by Danielle auctioning off on eBay household items that appear in her videos!—are brought to life by Danielle and a team that embellishes her words and melodies with bold arrangements and superb musicianship. Complementing Danielle Ate the Sandwich’s heartfelt vocals, ukulele and guitar are Dennis Bigelow (bass), Chris Jussell (violin, viola), Aaron Keim (alto horn, banjo, mandolin), Scott McCormick (piano, organ, accordion) and Carl Sorenson (drums, percussion). The full band and professional studio recording provides expanded textures and colors that were previously unavailable on the Danielle Ate the Sandwich solo recordings familiar to her YouTube audience. Reviewing the album, Westword wrote, “Two Bedroom Apartment is a beautiful, wistful, disarmingly charming sliver of indie-folk goodness,” while Muruch.com said, “Danielle’s voice is lovely and her manner of singing is genuine and full of heart.” In order to bring her new material to a larger audience, Danielle Ate the Sandwich has been taking to the road across the nation, and critics as well as fans everywhere have been falling under her spell. She played Colorado’s Mile High Music Festival in 2010, and shared a bill last fall with the extremely popular Mumford and Sons. “I am proud to be part of the new generation of musicians finding their own fan base through the power of the Internet,” Danielle says. “I’m honored to ride whatever train car will take me there. I just hope that the music I make will live well long past the days of the Internet and social media, and I just hope that the songs get heard for everything they are.” The way things are going for Danielle Ate the Sandwich, it’s a fair bet that she’s got nothing to worry about on that front. Click images for a larger view. Right-click images to download high resolution file.
Artist: Danielle Ate The Sandwich CLICK HERE TO DOWNLOAD Track Listing:
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