How does one go from being a shy kid, brought up in a staunchly religious home, to being one of the most talked-about new artists on New York’s esteemed indie record label, Asthmatic Kitty? Just ask David Stith, or DM Stith, as he’s better known. Having just released his seminal debut album, Heavy Ghosts, his music has been likened to a darker, deeper doppelganger of label mate Sufjan Stevens’ work, and with influences varying from obscure classical composers to Louis Armstrong and Tom Waits, it seems that DM Stith is aiming away from mass popularity and towards a more niche listenership. With praise pouring in from all angles though, it looks like his niche may not be all that small for long. Totally Dublin caught up with David to talk religion, art and the pressures of fame.
How did your association with your record label, Asthmatic Kitty, come about?
Through Shara Warden (My Brightest Diamond), she was a good friend of mine in Brooklyn when I lived there and through her I met a whole load of people. They were the ones who kind of pulled me out of my shell!
You play most of the instruments on the album yourself. Is it harder to let go of that control when you play live?
I do have to let go. I decided that I wanted it to be really loose for the live show; I want my players to be having as much fun as I am. So the way we structure the songs for the live show is very accurate to the album but there’s still a lot of space for things to move around a little bit. Initially, for the recording, I wrote out all the parts in notation and then I just played them exactly as they were, whereas with the live show we sat in a room together and I would say “ok, I kind of want you to do this”, and I’d sing a part and play it then we’d practice it but they would kind of take it to the next place. So it’s been more collaborative. Some of the songs, like ‘Pigs’ and ‘Around the Lions Legs’, those two songs really have changed for the live show.
I read that you’re not a big fan of playing live. Is that still the case?
Well that’s how it was in the beginning but I have string players on tour with me now and it’s so much more fun now. When we played live in the past we’ve had to focus on rhythm, because the stuff that I write for lyric instruments is complicated, but now that I have string players everything makes sense to me. It’s a lot more comforting.
What or who has been influential to your songwriting process?
There’s a Canadian singer-songwriter named Mary Margaret O’Hara who I really love, she really embraces all of the quirks of her voice and she just has the most incredible control. Nina Simone is amazing. Lots of classical music too. I think it’s mostly female voices that I’ve been influenced by. But then people like Tom Waits and Louis Armstrong too. There’s a kind of honesty to their voices, it’s not about singing really gently all of the time. It’s like launching yourself into a place that you then have to recover from.
Your songs have quite a lot of religious connotations. Is this something that is particularly important to you?
It has been to my upbringing. I’m a spiritual person but not a religious person right now. A lot of the album was about dealing with my shyness, which was very much tied into my upbringing in the Evangelical Christian Church. I was brought up in an Evangelical Christian home, so it was almost like a cult. I found it very, very loving but intertwined with that love there was a sort of indecipherable religious language.
You come from a very musical background. Did you ever feel pressure to become a musician yourself or was it a natural progression?
When I was little my parents would have me sing solos in church or play piano and I just hated it; I hated the music I was performing. I was so sickened by it that I said “I’m not going to do this ever again, I’m going to do art.” But I do think, for me, that a love of music and a particularity about it is completely natural. But it was so strict in the past 20 years that I never let anything musical happen until recently, if that makes sense.
You’re a graphic designer by trade. Do you think that visual art and music are intrinsically linked and influence one another?
I think that for me the connection is the process. I think that there are evidences of the process in the final product; you can tell that a painter has a certain kind of process. So I’m sure that my aesthetic is influenced by that to some degree. I think that mostly what I’ve learned through visual art is to be relaxed throughout the process and that every problem has a different system for solving it. For me [with music] it’s not about finding the one, four or five cords, adding a verse then adding a chorus; there’s no system that stays the same from song to song with me. So when I start writing, I start from the beginning and I move towards the end of the song and there doesn’t have to be anything regular about it. That’s like playing with form and that’s all that painting is.
You’re working towards your masters at the moment. How are you juggling that with touring?
I’ve the summer off now. I had my final exam the morning that I left for Europe. I had my exam and then ten minutes later I was in a car driving to the airport! I just finished my first year [in college], so I have two years left. I really like the academic year. I like two semesters and the summer off. I also like being close to people who are thinking about lots of different things and challenging themselves. Having access to poetry readings and concerts and all sorts of things; it’s great. I’ve always needed an intense sense of community so when I don’t have school I tend to surround myself with lots of people I trust. It’s very important to me.
What are your plans for the rest of the year?
I’m going to spend some time writing and recording but in the meantime there’ll be a few EPs coming out with, like, alternate versions of the album tracks and that type of thing.
You mentioned that you grew up being very shy. How are you coping with your newfound fame?
Well I think that a lot of my shyness had to do with feeling like I was really strange. It’s like a sort of confirmation, or an affirmation, for me; people are telling me that, ok yeah I’m strange, but maybe I’m strange because I’m smart or strange because I’m creative. When I was really young I was put in all of the gifted, special, really smart kid classes and I felt really comfortable there because I was a smart kid. But eventually I got really bored with it and I think that my boredom looked, to everybody else, like stupidity. So from the ages of, say, ten to twenty I was treated like a stupid person by my teacher, by my family. I was quiet and I had strange, eccentric ideas about things and I questioned everything. But a few people saw in me that I had just given up on translating my thought into something that other people would understand. But it’s only in the past few years, maybe through being around a lot of intensely brainy people, that I’m realising that I’m a lot like them and they’re not treating me like I’m crazy! Also, the reception of the album has been incredible and it’s a huge, huge affirmation for me. I’m trying to be honest with my music and I’m trying to make something that I think is beautiful. To finish something and be really happy with it and then to discover that there are lots of other people who are happy with it too, it’s the best kind of feeling.
DM Stith’s amazing new album, Heavy Ghost is out now on Asthmatic Kitty. An essential purchase.
Words by Sheena Madden
