I Wanna Turn You On To...
www.daytrotter.com
Words: Ashley Marie Sansotta

Who it is...
Mastermind: Sean Moeller, and others.

What’s their story...
Sean describes his Daytrotter Sessions better than anyone else ever could:   

“These fine people – as they’re traveling through America’s heartland – take two hours out of their travels between shows to stop in for a Daytrotter Session at Futureappletree Studio One in downtown Rock Island, Illinois. The name of the city is not ironic. They use borrowed instruments, play with their touring mates, utilize an often unkempt toilet, eat some food and then cram back into their vans for the last half of the drive. What they leave behind is a pile of ashes, sometimes a forgotten stocking hat and four absolutely collectible songs that often impart on whomever listens to them the true intensity that these musicians put into their art, sometimes with more clarity than they do when they have months to tinker with overdubs and experiments. These songs are them as they are on that particular day, on that particular tour – dirty and alive. We want you to make this your new home as it is ours. We promise that you will love it here.”

Why I want to turn you on to it...
Daytrotter brings our beloved musicians to life with raw recordings, candid interviews, and beautiful illustrations.  I was fortunate enough to pick the brain of Mr. Daytrotter himself: Sean Moeller.

REAX:  Of course, I have to begin with (probably) the most common question you are asked: how did you get the initial idea for Daytrotter?
Sean Moeller:  It came out of thin air, really. I believe I was talking to a diehard Bob Dylan fan, just shooting the breeze as we Midwesterners are known to do, and the idea formulated and came down from on high. It was divine intervention
of the indie sort. I just wanted to do something different. I had no idea it was going to be so encompassing and so much hard work, but this idea of ours has been such a phenomenally exciting little beast that I'm not complaining.  After the idea occurred to me, two weeks later we were recording our first sessions with Catfish Haven and Someone Still Loves You Boris Yeltsin. We were learning on the fly.

REAX:  How would you describe Daytrotter to someone who didn't know what it was?
SM:  I'd probably use some phraseologies from Good Will Hunting, A Few Good Men, Disorderlies, every DJ Jazzy Jeff & The Fresh Prince record, plus select bits of lyrics from Atom & His Package songs like I would in describing pretty much anything else in my life. Oh, and I'd use Wiffle Ball as another reference point in telling people all about our world record breaking passion for sweet ass music and analog recording, as well as giving these one-of-a-kind, collectible musical sessions away for free, like North Pole elves.

REAX:  What do you want people to get out of Daytrotter?
SM:  I want people to understand that we don't care about hip, trendy or cool. If we want to have Garth Brooks on Daytrotter, we're going to do it. And if we do put Garth on Daytrotter, it's because we think he's great, not as a bit of sarcasm. The way that I've always approached music is by trying to get something out of everything. All of the people that we bring in for sessions affect me in a different way – from song to song and from album to album; and all of that changes from day to day. I just want people to appreciate all these writers and artists for their contributions to the greater
library. And I hope that people listen to our sessions and then go out and support these bands, buy their records, go to their shows, so that they can keep making these songs that we love.

REAX:  What is your reaction when people compare what your doing to the legendary John Peel sessions?
SM:  It's flattering and a little daunting. Having read up more on Mr. Peel since those comparisons started happening, we've realized that we do things quite dissimilar from the way he did them, but the thing that I'm honored to have
compared to him is our love for genuine, true blue music. We're championing the bands we're fond of and we believe in them more than anything – without being swayed into liking anything. We like a band because our heart tells us to, not because a web site did (though I see the irony in being a web site). Though I also see a difference in that we present bands that we like, but rarely if ever do I tell bands that anyone is the new cool or that they just HAVE to like someone; I consider Daytrotter to be a fair and level platform where we present and then let you go for it.

REAX:  What are your favorite sessons you have recorded so far?
SM:  I really would have to give you a list of 250 or so, but I'll say the two
Delta Spirit sessions because I perform bottle-banging and singing in them,
Will Oldham and then all of the encore sessions because we have so much more
fun the second time around.

REAX:  Daytrotter has such a positive impact on the bands that stop in.  What's your personal, most rewarding experience that you've had making this happen?
SM:  We've just made so many damn friends in these bands – real friendships – and I think most everyone who comes in contact with us and the site understands, and can really grasp, that we're doing it for the right reasons: for others. And maybe that's a lost notion these days: the thought of not doing something for greed. Doing something for others out of the goodness of your heart because you believe in it and in them so much. I think people see that we're going out of our way to make something special and it feels good – all of it.

REAX:  Who's an artist you wish to come through in the future?
SM:  Willie Nelson, more than anything. And Neil Young, about the same amount of more-than-anything.

REAX:  What are some projects you have coming up that your excited about?
SM:  Well, we’re partnering up with some really tremendous people – the people who run Wolfgang's Vault (www.wolfgangsvault.com) – and they're going to make it possible for us to do some really dope things that we couldn't do before.  We're trying to buy an old theater on the same block as our studio. We're working on getting a weekly radio show on NPR and we'll be teasing people with live webcam video shooting onto the site at random times when we have people in for recordings. It's going to be fun.

daytrotter.com