Dan Patlansky: Cat on a curve

“Being a blues guy, I usually get blues guys coming to my shows. Springsteen fans would not ordinarily make the effort to go to a blues concert, but since that tour, we’ve had a lot of people at our gigs saying ‘The first time I saw you guys was at Springsteen.’ It’s been amazing from that point of view.”

Something like that tour causes a publicity spike in a relatively smaller act’s career. Is it possible to plan such spikes; to make sure that momentum is maintained?

“We have tried to move to bigger venues and to put on more of a show,” says Patlansky.

“We can’t do as much of that in South Africa as we’d like, though, because you haemorrhage money if you don’t sell out the venues. This is not necessarily what I envisioned early on – I just love playing. But one such event is an album launch. And we’re also doing fewer tours – three big trips a year rather than going all the time.”

Patlansky is now managed by Franie Kotze – as close to the legendary (and often brutal) Peter Grant as the local music industry has. That must have meant a mindset change for the laid-back Patlansky?

“I’m the first non-mainstream artist he’s taken on. He thinks in commercial terms, but he doesn’t sell me out.”

Dan Patlansky finds the process of making his live performance second nature a challenge. Picture: Paul Elliott

That said, Kotze does make occasional comments about his client’s image.

Patlansky grins: “I’m a functional cat. I’m aware of image management, but it’s not my thing. Franie has made me aware of what I look like on stage. But none of my heroes are fashion icons.”

The other prong of Patlansky’s recent success is the admiration of international audiences – he has big shows booked in Germany and Denmark in the near future and is highly regarded in the United States.

“We have our third stint in Europe coming up. It’s wonderful, and it’s all building up, but it’s not easy,” he says.

Patlansky’s new album Dear Silence Thieves is all self-written, featuring now standards – uncommon for a blues-based album.

“What’s exciting about covers is making them your own,” he says.

“It’s almost like writing original stuff, and I’ll go back that way in the future. There was no conscious effort to not do standards. I had my own tracks, and I wasn’t producing them – it was liberating. But it’s tough to translate studio stuff live. With standards, you know they’ll work.”

The new collections is Patlansky’s third in three years. Is that part of a self-perpetuating cycle? Write, perform, tour, be inspired by experiences on tour, write about them, rinse and repeat?

“It’s not a set formula,” Patlansky shrugs.

“Financially, it’s a challenge, but it’s good to have something to sell while you’re touring. You’re always amped for the next one, and then as you tour, you get new ideas and you want to go back to the studio to try them out.”

Patlansky battles with the practical performance aspects of the cycle as well.

“When you start a tour, the songs are not loose; not second nature. You get there by the end of the tour, but by then you’re tired of playing them – and then you start again.”