by Adelie Salagnac
photos by Kyle Cassidy
Owen Lyman-Schmidt and Bobby Szafranski have traveled all over the country, playing with a lot of different people, in a lot a various places, before settling in our very own Philadelphia – much to our pleasure. However, they are not planning on stopping to explore the country any time soon. Lyman-Schmidt, always on the run, was kind enough to give me some of his time, in-between two trips, to talk to me about their newest project, Driftwood Soldier.
“We have fun playing live shows. If we didn’t, we wouldn’t do it,” Lyman-Schmidt says about roaming the country with his partner in crime. “One of the reasons that we stuck it out as a duo rather than continue to add up people is that we also tour in our own way. A lot of bands have a lot of people, a lot of gear, they got a van, and everyone wants to go to different places. Bobby and I, we travel effectively. We have our system; it almost feels like we are part of well-oiled machine.”
It is clear that Driftwood Soldier has found their very own recipe for success, as well as an obvious chemistry between the two of them. “We liked the way our instrumentations worked together,” Lyman-Schmidt says. “We loved it so much, we had such a full sound, that we just stuck it out as a duo.”
Lyman-Schmidt has been playing bass all his life. Growing up playing jazz and blues, he took part of various projects, his solo one being a major part of his life. “[It] was somewhat similar, so [Driftwood Soldier] is a bit more of an evolution of that,” he explains. “The sound changed and I also changed the way that I wrote music too. There is sort of a progression, from my old solo project. I had existing body of work, originals. At first, it was more about arranging what I had already written. The more we played together, the better feel I had about us, I started writing new music, Driftwood Soldier music.”
For those of you who have followed Lyman-Schmidt through his solo career, Driftwood Soldier is everything you would expect from him; except probably even better. Lyman-Schmidt says: “It is a much more dynamic instrumentation. I think that a lot of music we write is storytelling; in my previous instrumentation as a solo artist, I was able to sort of present the story to people, but musically, it was more difficult to make them care about it. It was just offering it out, and people could evaluate it. Driftwood Soldier is much more dynamic, and as a result, musically much stronger.”
What makes Driftwood Soldier stand out from others? One can admit artists in this genre are not lacking nowadays. But Driftwood Soldier has something different; they have something to say, and they say it in such a beautiful way.
“Everybody has a version of ‘John Henry’, there are traditional blues versions, and old-time versions, and country versions. None of them focused on the fact that it is basically a story about racist corporate killing somebody,” Lyman-Schmidt says. “At some point, it seems like, if I wanted to keep playing it, I should write the song that told the story the way I wanted it to be told. It is a fun song to play, just because of the way the song is build, but also it is an important song to play for me, because I think it lets people question their assumptions.“
Driftwood Soldier will be back in the studio this year; Lyman-Schmidt confessed the plan is to work on an extremely cohesive EP that has a central idea to it. Another album can be expected next year, but the duo likes to take their time, because they like what they have ready – totally understandable, with such an amazing response.
“That is also the reality of recording,” Lyman-Schmidt says. “It takes time to do it right, and to put together a coherent album that is not just all the new material that you have, but has some semblance of a whole. And it is also expensive. We do it all ourselves, we don’t have a label, and we haven’t done a crowd-funding thing. We are really proud of ‘Scavenger’s Joy’ and we would like to continue putting it out there as an introduction to our music.”
The band will also play at the Brewer’s Co-op Fundraiser event, on March 19th. “There is a group of folks starting a brewery incubator co-op,” Lyman-Schmidt explains, “and we are supporting them by donating our time and playing music at their first fundraiser. I was also involved in introducing people and getting the project rolling over a couple of years ago.” Tickets can be bought here. More info at https://www.facebook.com/BrewersCoopPhiladelphia/
