David agreed to do an interview towards the tail end of the Mine And Yours summer tour. This was shortly after the launch of this site, which was called Landlocked at the time.

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Most of the reviews that I have seen of your albums state who your influences must be by the way you sound. Who most influenced you when you were shaping your sound?

When I was growing up it was kind of a weird mixture of more folky people like Paul Simon and Joni Mitchell. I started out with that sort of stuff, that evolved into what you would call eighties alternative rock like REM or U2. I had a buddy who turned me on to English music like what I would call Melody Maker/NME sort of stuff. I guess it's kind of a mix of all that. It's a sort of standard classic pop angle that can't become standard classic pop because I got an early dose of cool and trying to be obscure if that makes sense.

What was the first concert you attended?

I am told it was actually Olivia Newton-John when I was two. I don't remember that though.

Do you think that may have secretly had an influence on your songwriting without you knowing it?

Let's hope not, I don't know. (laughs)

Hey man. I'm just trying to cover all angles here.

True, true. I'll just say I hope not. I am trying to think of the first one I remember. It kind of gets mixed up because I was raised in these pretty evangelical Christian churches and there was always a lot of music and a lot of dancing and people would come perform at these churches, so I guess technically church kind of felt like a concert all the time because it was so overblown. My mom was not big on me listening to what she called "secular music" at the time so I don't have a big story on the first time I saw KISS or The Ramones. (laughs) It's more like the first time I saw the Gaither Trio.

So with that in mind, were you the kind of child that had to sneak listens to The Wall?

For a long time, I would just listen to the radio when my parents were gone. Our stereo was set up by the front window of the house, so I could just sit there in a chair and listen to the radio until I saw their car pull in, and then I could turn it off.

That's pretty hardcore.

I guess it was. Then after a while I started sneaking in tapes. I had a little cassette recorder and I remember the first one I did it with was the Men at Work record. The one that was so huge.

Really? Business as Usual?

Business as Usual. Thank you.

Speaking of the Melody Maker/NME bands you mentioned, I believe that the first cover you played was "Rubber Ring" by The Smiths.

That's the first cover I ever played in a band. When I was just sitting around by myself, I used to play all kinds of stuff. I don't even remember what the first thing was, but that was the first thing we ever rocked out on.

Were you a big Smiths Fan?

Mmm hmm.

Did Morrissey influence the big hair at all?

Probably in some subconscious way. It never really occurred to me and then at one point a guy went on my message board and made this really hostile thing about these ads that had been coming up on an Elliott Smith message board about me. It was basically just these internet marketing people going in the chat rooms and saying "Hey, have you heard about David Mead?", which is pretty annoying I agree. I went to the Elliott Smith site and issued an apology and told them that I told the people to quit, but before I did that I read this joke about a Morrissey wannabe, and it never occurred to me. I guess he got the hairstyle from James Dean and that's probably who popularized it here. I think I got a lot more pop melody out of Johnny Marr's guitar playing than I did from Morrissey.

What did you think of Morrissey's solo career?

It's all right. I guess in the end it ended up being a definite some of the parts kind of thing. I don't think either one of those guys came anywhere close to the heights of that band. It was such a diametrically wrong kind of setup. All the melody came from the guitar player, and it worked really perfectly for Morrissey's subject matter, his delivery, and his four-note range. So that was pretty intriguing because it was completely the opposite of anything that I had ever listened to.

How did you hook up with Ethan and WhyNot?

I met Ethan through a mutual friend, actually he's my brother now - Jason Lehning, who produced my first record, went to college with Ethan. Ethan knew WhyNot. When I moved to New York, Jason introduced me to Ethan so then we eventually started hanging out. Ethan has a band here that WhyNot is in called Red Time so that's how they knew each other.

Do you have a preference between playing solo or playing with a band?

No, not really. The only time I have a preference is when I've been doing one a lot more than the other and I'm just a little bit tired of it. I usually get tired of playing solo because I don't get to play with a band enough. If I could do both equally I don't think I would have a preference over the other. I like the solo because you can just do absolutely anything you want - if you feel like lengthening a song, you can; if you feel like shortening it, you can. If you feel like playing songs that you hadn't planned on or fielding some weird request you can do that. It's nice to have that freedom.

Speaking of the solo show, why "Human Nature" instead of, say, "She's Out Of My Life"?

(laughs) Actually, going back to listening to the radio when my parents were gone, I remember that was right when Thriller was everywhere. I totally remember listening to "Human Nature" on the local countdown in the living room. There's something about it, it was like the first thing I ever associated with - this is kind of embarrassing to admit in a way - but almost like feeling sexy or something, like there's something pulsating about that song that I thought was really cool. It just has really good strong images in it. I remember playing this show in Nashville a few years back that was a tribute show and you were just supposed to go up and play three songs by one of your heroes so I just picked Michael Jackson and that was one of the songs I learned so that's when I actually started playing it - that was kind of the one that stuck.

He gets a bad rap but hearing the song in that acoustic arrangement makes you realize that it is a great song.

Yeah, it is. He's great too. I guess you see the price of being so great so young, that's what the last twenty years of his life have been about.

When you write, how does it happen? Music or lyrics first?

Music. Melody and chords definitely first. Usually if they're good then they're strong enough to evoke some sort of mood to treat a subject in, they don't always evoke a very interesting subject - you kind of have to come up with that. I had the melody and the chords to "Breathe You In" and that went in a pretty obvious direction as far as the subject for some reason. I had the melody and the chords to "Girl On The Roof" and it didn't really seem to be a song about a suicide attempt - seeing that randomly happened and it seemed like a good juxtaposition. It can work either way.

Speaking of "Girl On The Roof", anyone who reads the tour diary would remember the entry that the song was based on. Are there any other events that made you write that have a particularly interesting story to go along with it?

Let's see. I have a lot of new songs actually that are maybe a little more story oriented and a lot more specific than some of the older stuff has been. "Figure Of Eight" was when I used to come back from a tour the first thing I would do is go to Central Park - that was just a total love fest day, it's like walking and seeing all of these kids hanging out listening to Ricky Martin and it's just kind of a "life is good" thing. "Elodie" I guess is a story, it's about Elodie Bouchez...

(rudely interrupting) Actually, the question I had next was about this. Are there any other actresses that made you go and write some very obvious and stalky songs about them?

No, I don't think so - just normal girls that I've written obvious and stalky songs about. She's the first actress.

Just making sure.

(mumbles)

Is there an album that you think is totally perfect from beginning to end?

I think Revolver [The Beatles] is perfect. Let me look through the CD collection.

But Revolver has "Yellow Submarine" though.

It works. I don't ever listen to it but as far as the entire record, it's totally right. I'm trying to think. (looks through collection) Let's see here. (lots of silence) Perfect album. (mumbles) Um. (silence) Alright. Why don't we go ahead and I'll keep thinking about that.

Do you have a show that stands out as most memorable?

Probably more like four or five. Actually, one that comes to mind was the first time I ever played by myself in New York. I had played there bands before but I came up and RCA (the record company) had heard the demo that I did and they liked it. The A&R guy couldn't leave town so he said "we could bring your band up to do the showcase or you can come up yourself". It was interesting because I sort of spent eight years in Nashville in pursuit of a record deal in various forms and gone to all of these different ridiculous lengths trying to attain it - everything from showcases for A&R guys to participating in these music conferences and stuff and nothing ever seemed to work. I just almost cut the margin of error when I decided to come up by myself. It was a tiny club and nearly no one was there and it was my first show in New York and I got a record deal based off of that and the demo. I guess there was something that was very reassuring about just being able to do it that way as opposed to all the pomp and circumstance so to speak. So I remember that one. Actually I think the night before we played in Philly we played in New York and that was a really great show at the Bowery Ballroom, I always wanted to play there but I never had. It just sounded amazing - the guys actually took the time with the sound and you could tell. It was a situation - for various reasons - where I was expecting it to be hard to get people to react and I could see their faces transform. Let me think of another one... they're some of the cool ones.

(prodding) No Philly shows stand out?

There has been a lot of great Philly shows but one doesn't stick out. The one the other night was a great show - I don't really think I've ever had a bad show in Philly to be honest. So maybe it's about towns that are considered good.... (laughs) That would rank pretty high up there.

I'll go with that. With piano oriented songs such as "Only In The Movies" and "Painless", would you ever consider playing piano in the set?

Yeah, definitely - if we could get a piano or something in the van. (laughs) I've done that before with keyboards and stuff and I haven't really done it in a while because I'm kinda down on electronically generated piano sounds. When Rufus Wainwright played with Tori Amos the other night he couldn't even have his own piano and had to play a keyboard.

What do you have against "Make The Most Of" and "Apart From You"?

I don't have anything against them, I like them both.

Just making sure.

I can't really think of any songs off either one of those records that I'm tired of or that I wouldn't play. Usually it's a situation of logistics, like if I'm playing a solo show, a song like "Make The Most Of" kinda has to become something I'm not completely comfortable with. We played that when the band toured after my first record but the band toured so infrequently after the first record that not a lot of people heard it but that was a really good song. "Apart From You"... I don't know. I guess I'm in the unfortunate position of playing a lot of 45 minute opening sets and I have two records. I could pull it out anytime I guess.

Are there any songs off the first two records that you wish would have been done differently? Are you happy with the way everything came out?

Oh yeah. Probably every song off the records I could think of things that could be done differently but that's the thing about doing records - you have to just accept the fact that this is how it's gonna be and you're not going to be able to change it. Hopefully you're gonna be happy with it. So far I'm happy with both of them but I do hear things that could be improved. That's the cool thing about playing them live and playing stripped down the way we do. I would say the majority of the songs we play live from the first record live I like better the way we play them now than their recorded versions. Some of the ones on the new record too.

When I casually listen to you, I listen to the live versions. When I listened to the studio version of "Touch Of Mascara" the other day I found it pretty straightforward in comparison.

I think that's the mark of a good performance or a good arrangement if it puts the record... not to shame, but it brings a lot of different aspects to it.

Do you find it annoying when interviewers ask you what a song is about?

No, I don't find it annoying. I guess I'm a little bit guarded about it sometimes because I don't always like hearing people describe what a song is about. I wouldn't want to find out what's going on in someone's head if they wrote a song that I really like. Usually the description of a really good song rivals whatever explanation I've come up with in my own head - I think that's kind of the idea. Like I've told that story about "Girl On The Roof" in interviews. Sometimes I kinda wish I hadn't. I've read a good number of reviews that think that is a straight ahead love song and that's alright. I really don't have an agenda to put across as far as how people interpret my lyrics. Every once in a while it happens - I remember that people thought that I said "fucked out a baby" in the beginning of "World Of A King". I had an issue with that because I just wouldn't write a line like that. I mean it's not the profanity, it's just the image - it's not something I could come up with. I didn't like that being misinterpreted. At the same time, you have to let it go because people will hear what they want to hear a lot of times.

(basically ignoring the previous response) When I first started listening to you, a friend of mine and I puzzled over the significance of emails to Jesus and heartbreak and cold cuts. So help me out.

In a nutshell it's pretty autobiographical, but the point of delving into that much personal history was like ... it's the story of someone taking themselves too seriously basically. So it's a tongue in cheek look at a two year period of my life. I guess it probably has all those veiled references in there just because I didn't want it to just be that - I didn't want to leave it so that the focus was so narrow that people would just think it was that. A lot of it is kind of a joke - or a joke on me basically.

Is is true that the recorded version of "Landlocked" is simply your demo with strings added?

Yes.

Are there any songs that completely changed from their original vision in the studio?

I can't say there are any that radically changed. Actually, the most radical change I think was "Touch Of Mascara". What is the chorus now was originally just a bridge that popped up at the end of it and Peter Collins (the producer) suggested that it be the chorus and that you hear it more than once. That's the most radical change I can remember. I think of radical changes in terms of song structure, lyrics or something like that. In terms of arrangement and instruments, I'm pretty loose with how you can put a song across. There have definitely been been agreements, disagreements and changes but there are so many of those that I can't remember. Actually, I take that back - one that changed radically was "Comfort". It sounded closer to "The Boxer" than whatever it sounds like now. Adam really took that and completely changed the rhythm of it around and actually simplified it a little bit. That's a very different song than the demo. It could be an interesting demo to try to put out. It would be pretty funny because it's so different.

I'm all for that. I know there were three or four songs recorded for The Luxury Of Time that didn't make it. Were they recycled for Mine And Yours or are they still just floating around?

They're just kinda floating around. The idea is that you want to have some extras for B-sides in the UK and Europe but I haven't really had any commercial singles there so they haven't been used.

How many tracks were cut for Mine And Yours?

I think fifteen. (long silence) Yeah. Fifteen.

Are there any alternate recordings from the studio? Or were the songs pretty much arranged and recorded as-is?

I think they were all arranged and recorded as-is, we've never seemed to have enough time and money to make alternate recordings. Both records have been kind of like, you get with the musicians a week or two before and rehearse and then go cut them, so that kind of worked out. The alternate version we would do before we got into the recording studio.

In the tour diary you had mentioned a duet...

Oh right - Shannon McNally.

Yes.

Yeah, that's a song was called "Didn't I Warn You" which is actually quite nice. I think we already had enough songs on the record that were sort of in that space tempo-wise and mood-wise. There was somebody in my group of people who didn't really care for her voice on it but I thought it was really nice.

Could that be released in any form?

It might. (laughs) Until I've had enough records under my belt to merit a rarities kind of record I don't know because it's so hard to get the songs... you know, people talk about movies and the way that people talk about it you get this impression that music directors for films are just dying for extra songs when the fact of the matter is that's a completely political minefield. It's completely difficult to get your single from your record into a movie. There aren't a lot of outlets for it, you have to hope someone will hear it or release it yourself.

Back to the perfect album question.

(silence) Right. The hard thing about it is that there are a few records that I think would be perfect if they just cut two songs. (laughs) As far as the perfect amount... I'm talking about music that means something to me too. I know Blue [Joni Mitchell] is pretty much a perfect record.

Going to stick with REVOLVER?

I'll put... (silence) You know what? I think I'll put Joni Mitchell's Blue.

(trying to influence) Not The Queen Is Dead [The Smiths]?

Um... The Queen Is Dead... it's a very good record but I have to look at all the songs. I have to look at it. (silence and mumbles among Craig's prodding about his own opinion) See? "Some Girls Are Bigger Than Others" I fucking hate. (laughs)

I don't mind that one. Or "Vicar In A Tutu".

"Vicar In A Tutu" is great.

Genius. Does it scare you when two twenty-something obsessed fans declare "Breathe You In" as their song?

No. My thing with songs is I feel like - I guess recording in general or with making records too - I think if you really think that a song is yours then you should really never play it for anyone, it's just that simple. As soon as someone else hears it you've kind of broken your own rule. I don't understand why people get so up in arms about somebody - or fans especially - ruining their songs by taking it and making it into something they didn't intend it to be. As soon as you share music with other people it's inevitably not going to end up being interpreted the exact same way that you interpret it. And even to think that you'll interpret your own songs the same way in three years is short sighted too. Alright, I'm not going to tell you that I haven't had some people refer to that song in such a... you know what, not that song actually, but probably some others that I had to cringe a little bit. But that song, it's such a straightforward sentiment that I can't envision ever begrudging anyone for adopting it for any purpose, it's fine. I think that music is a very liquid kind of thing that changes shapes in people's minds and it changes shapes with the passage of time. Once you put it out there you really can't control it and if you get bent out of shape about losing control of it you're kind of missing the point.