It has been said “What Dan Patlansky can do with a six-string Fender Stratocaster at the age of 27, most critically acclaimed guitarists will never quite achieve in a lifetime.” How true the statement is, Dan’s playing is simply blues at its best.
It’s Rocking The Daisies and I hurry up to the Media office to see if Dan Patlansky could squeeze me into his busy interview schedule. It was 15:30 and it turned out that he had interviews lined up until 16:00 (at which time he would be on the road to get to his next gig).
I walked outside and who was there but Dan himself, smoking. I expressed my disappointment at not being able to interview him-he then told me that he was sure there was a cancellation and I should find out. It turns out there was and it meant I had 15 minutes to chat with him.
We settled down and although his eyes were hidden behind sunglasses his passion for the blues and music soon came through as soon as we started talking.
I delved into his past and he revealed “I started out playing guitar at 15 years old and I grew up listening to the blues-it’s been 12 years [since he started playing] and it’s been fun…”
He is constantly inspired by artists and his influences are “old blue artists like Stevie Ray Vaughn, Jimi Hendrix, Robert Johnson, JJ Cale and many more…”
Fender recognised Dan’s “fiery playing” and offered him an endorsement deal. Dan happens to be one of only six Fender endorsed guitarists in South Africa. He says “I’ve always been a fan of Fender, even if I wasn’t sponsored by Fender, I would still play using their guitars-so it’s a huge bonus to have the endorsement and I couldn’t be happier…”
We moved on to the topic of Rocking The Daisies and his performance hours before (one that further cemented my belief in his out of this world guitar work). He mentioned it was his first time playing and he laughingly mentioned “it was a bit weird playing in the daylight but it was still really cool.”
Naturally our conversation moved on to talk about his new album Move My Soul, which has received critical acclaim in the short time since its release. He says “it’s great to have new and fresh material after having been playing the last album for the past 3 years, so we’re very excited about it.”
As for the tour, he’s playing on the outskirts of Cape Town, in places like Stellenbosch and Grahams Town but says “I’ll probably play a few shows in Cape Town next year, in February or March”.
He tours with Andy Turrel on drums, and Errol “Smelly” Fellows on bass. He met them “years back, whilst touring in Durban, as I lived there for 4 years, although I live in Joburg now…” It turns out Smelly will be retiring at the end of the year as “he’s getting sick of life on the road…” That means Dan will be looking for new a bass player. No pressure.
Life on the road isn’t as glamorous as it may seem. “It’s not like it is in the movies with our buses and flying to every destination, it’s very hard work.” He laughingly admits to losing “about 5 kilos every time I tour, from sweating and not eating properly” He continues “but it’s a cool life, you get to experience and see parts of the country as well as parts of the world that you’d probably never see if you didn’t tour…”
He’d like to “expose the younger generation to blues and blues rock.” We agreed that many young people stereotype blues and he continued that most young people“are scared of it.”
My final question to him was how he would describe his music. He captured the essence of it in one word, “Raw”.
Dan Patlansky is one of the most exciting blues artists of our generation, a legend in his own right and people are taking notice.
My interview first appeared on Musical Mover & Shaker!
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