Doug Levitt – Edge of Everywhere

By starrymag | May 26, 2023

By: Jamie Steinberg

 

 

Q) How would you describe your sound?

 

A) I would describe my sound as Americana infused with elements of soul.

 

 

Q) Who are some of your musical influences?

 

A) Among my influences are Woody Guthrie, Bruce Springsteen, Jackson Browne, Donny Hathaway, Emmylou Harris, Patty Griffin, Steve Earle, Lyle Lovett, Lucinda Williams and more recently, Brandi Carlile and Jason Isbell.

 

Q) Talk about the story behind your new song “Cold Comfort.”

 

A) “Cold Comfort” is a song that speaks to the universality for the reliance on the vices that serve as a sometimes very short-term fix.  The song begins “I woke up on the wrong side of myself again,” which is a feeling we’ve all had.  And, certainly, people who travel by Greyhound whose sense of security or any semblance of security is measured in sometimes days or weeks, not months or years. And sometimes the winds are so strong and whipsaw as to make any comfort, even a cold comfort, feel vital.

 

Q) What do you think it is about the song that fans connect to?

 

A) I think it’s this universal feeling that applies to all of us. That is what fans connect to. Who among us hasn’t had that feeling of I woke up on my wrong side of myself again? So, pour me another shot of cold comfort.

 

Q) How does the video for the track play into the message behind it?

 

A) The video for the track gives the feeling of signage in a bar or passing by a bar and creates a sense of place that we all can recognize — of gauzy numbness and a light that shines bright in the moment but may not lead anywhere.

 

Q) What is your song writing process? Do you need music before you can create lyrics?

 

A) I would say that for me if I’m writing a song that is about a person, oftentimes the music and the lyrics meld together in the songwriting process. Sometimes I’ll have an idea for a melody that matches the feeling or some of the words that grow out of a person’s story. In some cases, I’ll have the idea for a title or a line in a song and that will just marry up with a melody that I’ve been playing with.

 

Q) Your new album Edge of Everywhere is out now. What are some themes that you explore on it?

 

A) Among the themes that I explore on my new record Edge of Everywhere are belonging and dislocation, survival and arrival, the caring we show toward others and the unexpected angels who seem to arrive in our path.  And throughout America at the crossroads — one that has so many varying backgrounds, but that finds ways of meeting in the common places as we share paths for periods of time.

 

Q) Which track(s) challenged you the most creatively for this album?

 

A) I would say the track that challenged me the most creatively for the album in some ways is a song called “Turning Myself In.” And that’s because the chord progression is dissimilar to others of mine and so it creates a unique frame of reference.

 

Q) What songs on the album hold a special significance for you and what makes them so special?

 

A) “LA River” is the first song that I wrote. And so, it helped me at the earliest parts of this journey. “Run It All Back” has a special significance because I became a good friend of the bus rider who I had met (Hector). And there’s a theme in it which is self-blame and how we overcome it and how we help each other overcome it. Sometimes that can be complete strangers on a bus and it helped me to realize that we’ve learned from each other how to forgive ourselves and, for me, this had a special resonance because I was trying to come to terms with my father’s suicide and bus riders, inadvertently I guess, would help me in that process.

 

Q) The album was produced by Trina Shoemaker, but how much of a say did you have when it came to the production side of Edge of Everywhere?

 

A) I would say it was a lot. It was just a very collaborative process where there were no bad ideas unless they were in fact bad ideas. But other than that, what we were able to make together played to our collective strengths. It helps that she’s a multi-Grammy-winning genius.

 

Q) What do you hope listeners take away from listening to your upcoming album as a whole?

 

A) I hope listeners will take from listening to this album a feeling from the heart up instead of the head down, with varying strands of American life and experience. And they will feel as though they themselves went on a journey and met these people along the way. I hope they were able to be moved by the highly charged and moving stories as I myself was — and am.

 

Q) Where are some of your favorite places to perform and what makes those locations so significant to you?

 

A) I value performing in non-traditional venues where people who don’t usually get a chance to listen to music are able to, so along the way, I’ve performed in prisons, shelters and VAs as well more traditional venues like clubs and theaters and have been lucky enough to perform in places like Lincoln Center and the Kennedy Center.

 

Q) Who would you most like to collaborate with on a song in the future?

 

A) I would say Steve Earle. And Brandi Carlile.

 

Q) What album/band are you currently listening to and why do you dig them? 

 

A) I’ve been listening to a band called The Wandering Hearts who are based in the UK and I just love their harmonies and song structures. And I’m reengaging yet again with Citizen Cope who I grew up with in Washington, DC, who has such a unique take on instrumentation and feeling in his songs.

 

Q) You are a part of social media. Why is that such an important way for you to connect with your fans?

 

A) Social media is a kind of communication that’s both micro and macro at the same time and is indispensable, and am I communicating with my audience or any audience?

 

Q) What would you like to say to everyone who is a fan and supporter of you and your work?

 

A) To anyone who is a fan or supporter of my work, I would say first thank you and second that this is part of a broader process of a journey and that I look forward to traveling it with them in the miles, months and years to come.