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Getting to Know You
Lunch with Danny Freund at Pinky's in Livingston

JG: Isn't this a great spot? That's Pinky right there, he's an amazing musician in his own right – plays keyboards in all kinds of bands around here, for decades.

DF: It's my first time in here – (and as the homemade world famous turkey pasty arrives in front of him) and probably not my last! (laughter)

Danny Freund

JG: How'd you get to Montana, Dan? Tell me about you, musically.

DF: I started playing back in college, back in Springfield, Missouri and St. Louis. I moved to London my last year of college and that changed my life, that just changed everything and I became a traveler. I did a lot of traveling by myself, went to Greece. I came back from that, and I'd seen a couple of bands play and when I saw them playing up on stage I thought – that's what I want to do. It was the music, it was them, it hit me so hard. I had NO idea what I was doing, I'd always played piano and organ when I was a kid but I had no training. When I graduated from college I moved back to St. Louis and a friend said "Go to Park City, Utah. If you're looking to get somewhere, Dan, go there." So, I did. My drummer came out and we started playing in bars all around Park City. I came to Montana – I wanted to see Glacier National Park – and I found this little town Polbridge and when I saw that little town off the grid, all the artsy people and the scenery, I just said, "I am moving here. I'm going to buy a cabin here." Three of my friends bought cabins there, I couldn't afford to yet, so I lived up there through their houses.

JG: When was that?

DF: That was in 1997. We would get together there every 4th of July - me and all my best friends from all over the country that all met in Utah, and we put together a jug band and played in the 4th of July parade in Polbridge. Next thing you know my drummer was getting married, and I thought, "Let's go out on a bachelor tour!" I'd started playing solo quite a bit up there so I went out and opened and another band played and then the 7 Smart Fellers came together as the finale set. We went out for seven days or something, and then we started doing 20 days at a stretch, and 7 Smart Fellers just had some connection for people. It worked.

JG: So, basically 7 Smart Fellers is a buncha friends? How fun.

DF: It was all my songs, and then country covers cause we were playing in Montana and then we got into the getups and it just went very well. As always happens, everyone started having kids – which I did as well and I moved to Seattle to play music and lived on a small organic farm there for a bit. Eventually, my now ex wife and my son Henry and I moved back to St. Louis where I started a recording studio and fell in love with working on songs for other people and I did that for 9 years. I did a lot of hip hop there when Nelly has happening in town, and ultimately sold it to a NFL player. A few years ago, we had a 7 Smart Fellers reunion sort of thing, and ended up visiting some friends in Paradise Valley, which is how I got to Livingston.

JG: Your son and ex wife are still in St. Louis?

DF: They are, and that's the luckiest thing I have in my life, my exwife is so supportive of what I do. My son Henry has been on tour with me, he lives with me in the summertime, he's 12 now. I've looked at going to so many places, Asheville, Los Angeles, Nashville, but strangely enough I've picked Montana now to make a music career.

JG: (laughing) I know. But it really is percolating around here, starting to buzz, which is so fun. Is Henry at all into music, does he play anything?

DF: He's got a great beat with the drums, he's taking piano lessons and does his recitals – he's good.

JG: We were talking last week about the tour you did with the pop band Train. Tell me about how you hooked up with those guys. That's another departure –

DF: A sound guy from Lawrence, Kansas, who was a close college friend got involved with Seven Mary Three and Whiskeytown with Ryan Adams and then Train.
(Here a long winded interruption about when DF was actually ON the road with Train, as I made several videos and long form concerts with them. After ticking off several, Danny and I realized we had absolutely been in the same place several times. Small world.)

DF: I'd been out with Seven Mary Three with him and Whiskeytown – never got paid, but enjoyed being on the bus and learned a lot about performing and songwriting from hanging with those guys. My friend Jeff asked if I wanted to come out and I went out as a tour manager among other jobs – I was also a drum tech and Pat's assistant (Pat Monahan, lead singer of Train) for a while. I would listen to everything in the back of that van and learned so much. I think I was the first guy to hear "Drops of Jupiter" right after Pat and a buddy wrote it on a mini tape – just a piano and voice. You could hear it, you could hear that was going to be a hit.

JG: Did you ever let on that you were a songwriter?

DF: They have no idea. I worked hard, and I've always been so shy. I didn't feel like it would be right to put myself in there like that. I wanted to do it authentically, on my own. I care about music and about songwriting but don't NEED to be onstage to be happy.

JG: You got to be the fly on the wall for some pretty cool stuff.

DF: I did. And I love the logistics of it all. The getting from point a to b, I crave it. I can't wait to go out next month for two months. I'm going out with two songwriters from Knoxville and have some dates booked in Montana through the West and then back through Asheville, Nashville, New Orleans. They're great guys on the road. It's what I ultimately want to do – be on the road, opening for a bigger band and living out there for a while. I like it.

JG: So, about Norris – isn't it a wacky little place?

DF: It's a wacky little place and I can't believe how many people are comfortable being in that hot pool together. Well, maybe I would. There were 150 people.

JG: Sure, you would.

DF: I really enjoyed it. What a great scene, really…a great spot. Everybody's in the pool – for two hours!

JG: What a wild ride you've been on, Dan. Jug band, hip hop recording engineer, on tour with a giant pop band and now troubadour. Good for you. Can't wait to see what comes next.