Lots of musicians did a lot of writing during pandemic lockdowns. But Django Haskins? He wrote more than 100 songs, at a clip of one per week.
The frontman for The Old Ceremony has whittled those songs down to eight for his new solo release, Lost World.
Haskins decided to feature his piano playing for this collection and the result is a rumination on things lost, mortality, and the need to push ahead creatively.
Haskins talked with WUNC recently about his new record.
This is an excerpt of an edited transcript of that conversation. You can hear the full interview by clicking the LISTEN button at the top of this post.
The title song "Lost World" takes note of things that disappeared for the protagonist from a favorite deli to an expired promise. I think most people have experienced something like that, maybe when they revisit their old hometown or the house they grew up in. Do you think most people have an idealized world that they're attached to? How do you deal with that?
"That was kind of the idea, that everyone's kind of carrying around their own personal lost world. I do think, for a lot of people, that is the case. I think there's also a process that you go through to untangle that lost world and hopefully see it a little bit more realistically and realize that you've kind of created this lost world yourself."
In "I Dream Of Cities" you reference Milan, Berlin and New York. I really like the line about someone handing you a ticket for the opera, but you're not dressed for la Boheme. You also state that you're alone in these dreams. Who are you missing or looking for?
"Very, very often, the setting for my dreams — for years and years and years — have been cities. And often the kind of foreign cities that I don't even know that well, or don't know at all, and I'm trying to navigate — and I'm sure there's some metaphor very easily untangled there. But that is a recurring dream of mine. And so, that kind of sense of dislocation in the sense of trying to find your way, you know, metaphorically and physically is I assume what my subconscious is telling me and what it tried to tell me when I wrote the song."
You've chosen to use a minimal instrumental pallet for this record, with your piano playing at the center. Why did you make that choice?
"I love records that are spare. ... There's something about solo piano that just has such a vibe. I've written on piano for 25 years, but I don't really perform on it very often. And I certainly haven't done a whole collection of just piano songs. And I listen to a lot of piano when I'm allowed to control the music, which in my home with young children, it's very rare. Almost never. ... That's where I go for pleasure. I think I let my limitations on piano allow me to create some coherence to the group of songs. If I knew how to do more things on piano, my kind of White Album brain would would do that. But since I'm fairly limited, I think it's allowed me to kind of have almost like musically thematic styles."
Most people think they've got lots of time left to build a life, raise their kids, travel or whatever, but you point out that might not be the case in "Will There Be Time." Did writing this song make you want to live more in the present, or are you frantically trying to set things up for your departure, whenever it may come?
"It really depends on the day. I am very much trying lately to be more present and mindful of the present moment — which is, of course, the only moment — but basically, my whole adult life has been with this awareness of mortality nipping at my heels. And I think that is a big driver of my creative energy. I don't want it to necessarily be that way, but that just is how it is. But I think also being a parent has made me so much more aware of time and I kind of find myself projecting forward as my kids get older. I started pretty late in life — relatively speaking to have kids — and so, you know, I'm going to be quite old when they're when they're my age; I'll be lucky to be alive. And so, thinking that way, it really kind of narrows it down and focuses the mind."
Django Haskins' new solo recording is called Lost World. It's out now wherever you buy digital music.
