John Mellencamp Community

"Dream Stealing Town" from Postcards From The Hard Road	"Over It" from Postcards From The Hard Road
"Lucky Guy" from No Apologies	"Lady Blue" from No Apologies

                                                                                                                                    
Dane wrote "Robert Johnson" and "Waylon And Johnny" in the same day. He explains that they are similar songs but go in a different direction. "If Robert Johnson comes after you that means you're dying, right? But didn't he sell his soul to the devil? So if Robert Johnson is coming for you it might not be a good thing. I wrote that song really quick and I'm really happy with it. But I thought, I'm not sure this is how I want to go out. But then I thought, going out should be more of a celebration, so let's go to a good place. So then I wrote "Waylon and Johnny" where it says, "I'm going to live my life, have fun and be free, till Waylon and Johnny come looking for me"

Dane explained that with the songwriting process, for him the words and music both usually come about the same time. "Occasionally there will be songs I write where the music comes first. Those are usually the most complex. Then there will be songs where I'll get an idea and I won't have an instrument and I'll have to get the melody for it later," he explained.

He also explained how he has notebooks full of lyrics and ideas. "I found one the other day from about 20 years ago. I didn't really like the chorus, then I realized what it could be, and I finished it in about a half-hour and it's great. I just didn't have the stamina, or whatever it took at the moment, to finish it. But after a fresh look, it came together. Songs come in all kinds of different ways. Usually the quick ones you can trust and then you have the long distance ones you can figure out later," he explained.

The Music Development Process
He said he enjoys all the stages of the development of music, from writing to recording to performing. "I will say the mixing process can become very grueling. I don't really like that. The problem is you've already heard the song a million times. Because you are trying to figure out what parts are sounding right and what aren't. After one of my records comes out, I won't listen to it for a year. I'm usually off on my next project," he explained.

He also talked about the challenge of taking 18 or 19 songs and narrowing them down to 10 or 12 for a new record. "It's a big challenge. I'm not very good at it. I think you need other people to help you and say "this one should go, this one should stay." Bob Dylan is a good example of that. If you are familiar with the Bootleg Series...all those songs he left off Infidels like "Blind Willie McTell" and Foot  Of Pride...I mean, are you kidding me?" He left "Series Of Dreams" off of Oh Mercy. I've tried to learn from that with my own work. 

With John Mellencamp
Dane joined the John Mellencamp band in 1996, but it wasn't the first time he had worked with Mellencamp. He did a lot of work on 1992's Falling From Grace soundtrack. Dane was playing with Larry Crane in 1990 in a side band while Larry was still with the Mellencamp band. "Kenny was off playing on...I think it might have been an Elton John record in 1990, so he was gone. They needed somebody, and I'd done a ton of studio work in Indiana. I did five songs, maybe six on that soundtrack. I was there for three days," he said. "I added drums to a John Prine song "All The Best". A few months later down at the Blue Bird bar in Bloomington, IN drinking a beer and leaning against the cigarette machine, talking to John Prine and he was telling me how much he liked what I did on his song. That's one of my favorite moments in time," he said. 

Before that, Dane had played in a band called the Indy All-Stars which had Toby Myers on bass, and John Cascella was in the band. "So I knew all these guys. So it was a situation where Kenny was leaving and they auditioned all kinds of guys. I prepared two songs. One of them was the original version of "Love And Happiness" and the other one was "Paper In Fire". I went in very prepared," he said.

"When I got there the band told me that John wasn't even going to be there, I was just going to play with them. And at the last second John walks in and sits right in front. I played "Love And Happiness" first and then John said "hey why don't you come up here" where he was. I had pretty long hair at the time, what John called my Contemporary Christian cut. He said "I think you'd look pretty good with that hair cut off"; and I said "I'll shave my whole body, I don't care."

"The thing was, he thought I was funny, I went in there and did great on the drums, and they all knew me," he explained. So those three things all made it make sense for him to choose Dane. He explained how it's important for band members to be able to get along. "You're going to spend more hours talking about your families than you are playing the songs. We all got along, so I think that helped with me getting in the band," he said.

Dane talked about the first time he played in front of an arena size crowd. "I'm not going to say it wasn't a rush, because it really was. But once that's what you do, you'd flip yourself out if you sat around and thought about what you were doing. Hey I'm going to go out and play for 40,000 people tonight...wow! You can't sit around and think that way, you have to just be like "hey I'm going to walk in here and play the drums today." That's how I approach those things," he said. 

Dane has played Madison Square Garden in New York City and then played a street fair in Illinois the next day. "I've enjoyed both, they both pay and both were fun," he said.

Clark said when he first got in the band, John was a little tough on him. "He was wanting something different. He was tired of the sound of the 80's. Those records were great, but John didn't want to hear that anymore. He wanted to deal with the groove, and have something a little more earthy sounding. It took me awhile for me to figure out what he was wanting, but not too long. The VH1 Backyard Barbecue (one of Dane's first public gig's with John) went over real well," he said. Rolling Stone magazine gave it a good review and said positive things about Dane's performance. "I was never trying to compare myself to Kenny Aronoff. I was just trying to do my thing and give the music what John wanted. There are great drummers everywhere. There are guys in their 20's that would make you want to quit drumming and start selling bumper stickers," he said. "Many times John wants something that he's never heard before, especially in the studio. And that can be very challenging, but it's cool," Clark said.

No Better Than This Tour
During the very long and successful No Better Than This Tour that took place over the last three years, Dane spent two-thirds of the two-plus hour show playing a cocktail set. A smaller and simpler drum set that is played standing up, often seen in lounges and quieter musical settings  than a rock show.  "I loved it. People kept telling me that they hadn't heard that thing played like I played it on that tour. I haven't seen that many guys play it. Obviously Steve Jordan (who's played with Saturday Night Live Band, The Blues Brothers, Keith Richards, and Eric Clapton among others) plays it. He approaches it a lot more mellow than what I do. I'm hitting that thing like a rock drummer."

Dane said he thinks part of it might be a visual thing that Mellencamp likes, with the cocktail set and the upright acoustic bass. "But it also pares things down. It';s cool to try to figure out how to do something different with less. And John's always been for that. He took all of Kenny's toms and cymbals away...well he did the same thing to me. That was fine, I didn't mind that," he said.

Describing the challenges of playing the cocktail set, Dane explains..."you're leaning on one foot, so you can';t use it. You basically have a snare drum and a little tom drum, a ride crash cymbal, a hi hat cymbal and a piece of wood to bang on...good luck pal. I think I might have invented a different way to play that on that tour.

Dane said that always recreating the sound and style is a cool thing to be a part of. "I think that's what has made John a strong survivor of the music business all these years, is that he has changed and tried to do things differently. 

Favorite Mellencamp Record He's Played On
Dane has played on eight studio albums for John Mellencamp, not counting the Falling From Grace Soundtrack. When asked if he had a favorite he mentioned a couple. Trouble No More was a fun record to make. That one was very cool. We did it really quick. I think we rehearsed for a week with just Andy (York), Mike (Wanchic) John and I. I think Toby still played upright bass on that. So we brought him in for a few days and Jon E. Gee in for a few days. At that point we were two weeks in. We brought an engineer in and then I think we recorded for a week and a half. The whole thing only took a month," he explained. 

Another favorite that Dane mentioned with Life, Death, Love And Freedom. "Working with T-Bone Burnett, he was really fun to work with. I thought those tracks really came out unique and cool. And I used the cocktail kit on that record," he noted. "It was cut in less than 10 days. I don't think we played any song more than twice...maybe three times. And a couple times, he'd take the first half of one, he'd snip it and take the second half of another take. And he already knew what he wanted to do when we came back in the room. He's pretty amazing," Dane said describing Burnett. 

Ghost Brothers Of Darkland County
Dane played live during the performances of John and Stephen King's musical Ghost Brothers Of Darkland County. He describes that experience and what all it entailed. "I used a different drum set on that than I've ever used before. That's a hybrid cocktail drum set. I deliberately used bigger drums and a deeper sounding snare. I didn't use any drum sticks at all, except on the last song I used one. The rest of the time I either used mallets with rattles in them or brushes. It was an entirely different kind of feel, and I wasn't playing very loud at all. I never had a bead of sweat on my forehead. It's because of the nature of what you're trying to do, you have to be quiet. It was just creating an entire different thing and T-Bone loved it. It was a really fun band, we had Dave Roe (Johnny Cash, No Better Than This Sun Studio sessions) playing bass. He is a master of the rockabilly bass sound."

"I was down in Atlanta for a couple of months. I was recovering from (shoulder) surgery, rehabbing my shoulder. It was a great way to play drums, but I didn't have to work so hard. It was a great thing, I was able to keep my chops up and at the same time I really enjoyed it."

He explained that the musical was a very dark thing. "It's been re-written since we did it down there and it's been workshopped in New York City. The changes are fantastic that Stephen King did with the dialogue. I hope it goes to Broadway," he said. 

Meeting Others Through Mellencamp
Dane talked about some of the people he's had a chance to meet and work with while playing with John. People such as Bob Dylan and Donavon. "Donavon and I have worked together and wrote some songs together for his last record. It's incredible. It's like when Fogerty toured with us back in 2005. He got up on stage with us every night and I got to play "Green River" with him."

LEARN MORE ABOUT DANE - www.daneclark.com

Very nice interview. Very impressive.  ;D

Great Article.

Interesting story that he started with piano and guitar when he was young. He seems to be a multi-talented musician, not just a great drummer!
Thanks for this informative article!