Robert Deitch photo by Zach Van Dorn
Robert Deitch Expands His Creative Life Through Legacy
Robert Deitch got a later start in music and songwriting in life than some, but he hit the ground running as a songwriter, never really expecting to perform or record his own music. While he previously recorded and released two collections of his songs, now he’s recently released the very intentional album Legacy, which is packed with excellent songwriting and very compelling performances that sound like a very natural fit.
Nashville made a significant impact on Deitch as he found a lot of support for his work there for a number of years, but he made a big decision to return to living in Iowa where he now focuses mostly on solo songwriting and has started performing live as well. Legacy is the result of this new chapter in his life, and it reflects his personality and current concerns in a number of different ways. I spoke with Robert Deitch about stepping into the role of a recording artist of his own songs, the experience of when songs seem to “work” or “not work”, and the impact of Nashville on his life.
Americana Highways: Are you more used to having your songs work their way into world through other artists than having a big album release for yourself?
Robert Deitch: That’s kind of the reason that I started playing out and making albums. I had some cuts as a writer, but I felt like there were a lot of cuts that weren’t making it out that maybe should be heard. I got to the point where I was feeling like, “If anybody’s going to hear these, then I have to do it.” Especially at the beginning, I was out of my comfort zone to have a bunch of people staring at me!
AH: It’s quite a step to put your own shoulder under that burden to advocate for songs, and to put your face and voice out there.
RD: It’s all on you, right? If it doesn’t go over, you can’t say, “The artist who cut my song didn’t get it.” Or, “The artist didn’t put it out there in the right way.” It’s a good thing, as a writer, to do this because I see things through a whole different lens now. When you’re staring out at people, you see what moves them, and what doesn’t. It’s a whole other thing.
AH: When you write songs that you know that you’re going to potentially going to offer to other artists, do you record them in a demo form, or in a full studio form?
RD: I’ve got kind of a quasi-studio in my home, so I’ll do, basically, a guitar and vocal, and maybe add some flavor to it. Then, what we used to do, is I’d write 50 songs, and we’d go through and see which ones we’d like to go into the studio and perform. Then, we’d hire the best musicians in Nashville, and we’d go into the studio and cut them. It was kind of hit and miss, because you’d have about 45 minutes per song. There wasn’t a lot of time to stop and say, “Let’s talk about this.”
So my first two albums were a compilation of some of the best songs from among my demos. But with this album, it was a purely organic process. I took about a year of going into the studio for a few days a month and really taking my time, trying to get the right sounds. I wanted to enhance the message behind the songs.
AH: I’m glad that you felt strongly enough about making sure that these songs made it out into the world that you created this full album.
RD: I do think that’s where the process started, but now I’m to the point where I do feel like everything that I do, whether I’m singing, writing, or performing, is from me. I’m not really writing to pitch to someone else. I wouldn’t be against somebody else cutting it, but I’m just trying to stay true to the song and imagining myself performing it and it making its way to the right listener.
AH: Every single one of these songs is very strong and impactful.
RD: Thank you so much. I appreciate hearing that. When you work on them, it’s kind of a lonely process, and you can get too alone with your thoughts. You have to wait so long to get any feedback. There are some songs that you think are incredible, but you present it on stage and you know half-way through the chorus that it was a miss!
AH: It’s funny how you can have all the right ingredients and somehow it just doesn’t take.
RD: I’ve always said that. People used to tell me that when I first went to Nashville, “You don’t know until you play it or not. You don’t know until you play it for people.” It’s so true. I just played a listening room down in Nashville, and I played two brand-new songs, and I knew half-way through that it took the air out of the room.
AH: Just hypothetically, what do you do with a song after that happens? Do you keep working on it, or shelve it? You have so many songs right now, too.
RD: That’s a great question, because it’s kind of hit and miss. Sometimes I’ll circle back, and sometimes there’s not the core there that I thought I could work with. Sometimes I put things on a shelf, and come back to it years later, and I say, “Man, this is a good song, but I think the reason that it didn’t work is that I didn’t have a strong enough opening line.” Or “The second line of the chorus needs work.”
AH: I have heard a couple of times a surprising thing, that a song that absolutely didn’t work, not even in the studio, when years later it was taken into another musical approach, or even another genre, it suddenly worked.
RD: I do have one song like that on the album, called “Bullet Holes.” I had written it years ago, and I knew there was something that was not quite right, or missing. I played it for Mary Gauthier, and she said, “That’s going to be a special song. You know in your heart, there’s three lines there that if you tighten those up, it’s going to impact way harder.” So I went back, and worked, and worked, and worked, and it’s one of my favorite songs on the album.
AH: That’s an amazing story, because that’s a real stand-out song on the album. I was really blown away by it. I can’t believe that song might have gone unrecorded!
RD: Thank you. Mary had such an impact on that song, and she’s someone who I met years ago, backstage at the Opry, and when I went down there a couple months ago, she was nice enough to record harmonies on it. We’re going to release that as a separate single in the next couple of months. If you like the song now, you’ll love it when you hear her voice. It’s like she’s a haunting angel back in the corner, an angel on your shoulder singing along.
AH: That’s really going to add an interesting angle to that song, because the person feels so alone. But I think that whenever you bring in a duet or a backing vocal, you suggest the presence of someone watching the situation, or that the person is not entirely alone.
RD: That’s very well-put. I was going to do harmonies on it, originally, of my own, but I thought, “I don’t think so.” The more I thought about it, and after talking to Mary, I said, “There’s something about your voice, which is just haunting anyway, so I’d like to have that angel on the shoulder kind of thing.”
AH: That song is very hymn-like, but not in a distant way. It’s like a modern hymn. The song expresses a situation that many can relate to. Particularly, I’ve heard from a lot of men who have a hard time expressing when they are in a dark place, and I also know a lot of creative people who are more likely to feel alone. Particularly since this world is not really set up to help creative people survive.
RD: Yes! I agree. A lot of people can relate to it, and those are the people I’m trying to write towards and sing to.
AH: Was it hard transitioning to recording your own voice and performing live? You do such a seamless job on this album that I wouldn’t have known that you previously didn’t usually record your own music.
RD: I never knew that I could sing. I’ve always had music in my head. I’ve always been musical. But I didn’t play music other than growing up playing brass in a band in high school. When I was pushing 40 years old, I was going to business meetings, and I could not get these songs out of my head. My wife was nice enough to say, “Go to Nashville, and let’s see what happens.” At the time, I didn’t even play guitar, but I had to figure it out. So I started playing guitar, and making trips to Nashville, and went to a couple of songwriters seminars. I was discovered by some professional songwriters. They forwarded me on to BMI and I was then passed on to different publishers. I was very blessed in that regard.
I didn’t even know that I could sing, but I started doing my own demos. That kind of gave me the confidence to continue singing and I started doing my own songs, and my own album, at this point.
AH: Those steps must have been scary!
RD: Yes! I know a lot of younger songwriters now, and there’s so much online for them. But back then, I was flying down there with no idea what doors to knock on. That was scary. I was just this guy from Iowa showing up and saying, “I think I can write a song.” I’m lucky it worked out.
AH: Given your life story, was the song on this album, “Goodbye Nashville,” an emotional one for you to write?
RD: Incredibly so, yes. It really was. Honestly, I had to keep playing that one at home, because I couldn’t get through it. There’s that second verse, “The good old souls who pick guitars/Who write the words and bare their scars/Give all they’ve got to make someone else a star.” I couldn’t get through the next line. It was very emotional for me.
I remember one time playing it at a writer’s round, and I got to the next line, and had to stumble my way through it just to finish the song. I absolutely loved Nashville. I felt like I was just at home down there in the same way that I am at home in Iowa. It’s just the writers and the whole environment. You find your flock.
AH: The songwriters who do still live in Nashville who I talk to seem to primarily live there to be near friends, to keep up that community feeling. Do you find it’s still possible for you to keep a community at a distance?
RD: Yes, there are a couple handfuls of people who I stay in touch with. I’ve gotten to the point where I like writing more by myself than with other people. I remember that Hugh Prestood used to tell me, “A lot of people like co-writing, but if I’m an artist, painting on a canvas, I don’t want to hand over the brush.” That’s always stuck with me. But yes, I miss the people greatly.
AH: I notice that there are a few co-writes on this album, but there are also quite a few which you wrote by yourself. I like them both equally well. If they are written just by you, does that mean they are newer?
RD: It’s about half and half. Some of them, like “My Old Man,” I wrote a long time ago. And “Bullet Holes” I started a long time ago, but the rest are fairly new. “Dying Day,” I wrote within the past year.
AH: I really liked “Dying Day.” Did you find yourself in a reflective period about the past, or are the topics for these songs just determined by the song itself?
RD: The name of the album is Legacy, because I couldn’t think of a better name for it. And then, after I named it, I thought, “Oh, it’s really a proof of life.” As soon as I committed to the name, I figured it out. But “Dying Day” was absolutely about writing that final letter, which you write and say, “Open this in case of…” I was writing it to my wife and kids. I started reflecting on what a blessing my wife’s been in my life. I started thinking about whether I could capture who we really are in words.
I wrote “I’m a soul full of holes, and you’re a burning light.” I think that sums it all up and sets the tone for the song at the very beginning. It’s very autobiographical. I’ve written a whole bunch of other songs that were influenced very much by my wife, but this one was just she and I.
Thanks very much for chatting with us, Robert Deitch. You can find more information here on his website: https://www.robertdeitchmusic.com/
Enjoy our review here: REVIEW: Robert Deitch “Legacy”
