What are your names?
Daniel, Sarah, Danny and James.
What is the band’s name?
The Novel Ideas
How did you come up with the band’s name?
The story goes that Daniel came up with the name when he started writing songs because he wrote about books instead of his own feelings. Clearly that isn’t the case anymore though… 😉
What is your genre of music?
Americana-Country-Folk
Give us a little background on the band.
The band formed around an album Danny and Daniel wrote and recorded in 2012. James joined right before the album came out and Sarah right after. Soon after we started writing songs which would become our new self-titled album.
Are you signed?
Nope
You have a new track ‘I’ll Try’ out, tell us more about it.
‘I’ll Try’ is one of the first songs we wrote together as a band. It’s one of our songs that came easiest actually. We were at practice one day and our drummer at the time started playing a groove, James joined in on bass, Danny on guitar, and then I started singing this repeating line (which would become the chorus) with Sarah harmonizing. Most of the time songs don’t come so easily to us but for some reason ‘I’ll Try’ did.
Will we see a video for the track?
Not for that song but possibly another…
You have a self-titled album set to release on September 8th, tell us more about the album.
This album is a long time coming. We recorded the songs just over two years ago and spent forever and a day getting them to a place we felt represented how the band sounds. It’s also our first full-length effort as a five piece band so we wanted to make sure if people listened they’d get a good idea of who we are and what we sound like live.
Do you have any other gigs coming up?
We’re going to be touring for the foreseeable future in support of the album, playing the eastern seaboard and midwest in September and heading out west in October and November.
Who are your influences?
We all draw from different places. Everyone from Barbra Streisand to James Taylor to Emmylou Harris. We also listen to a lot of modern music but definitely tend to draw heavily on classic Americana and country music.
Where do you see yourself in 5 years?
5 years older! Just kidding, ideally still touring, recording and making sad music!
When you’re not doing music, what do you do?
We all have different hobbies and side hustles. Danny is a videographer when not on tour (or sometimes while on tour too), Daniel is a producer and sound engineer, James loves beer, Sarah loves fashion. While on tour we love checking out antique places or the best vegetarian restaurant in town.
If you could collaborate with one UK Artist or band who would it be and why?
Lisa Hannigan would be incredible to sing with, or maybe the Staves too!
If you could collaborate with one US artist or band who would it be?
I’ve always wanted to harmonize with Emmylou Harris, that would be a literal dream come true.
What’s the best advice you have ever been given?
The best advice I’ve gotten is to surround yourself with people you admire and/or view as more talented than yourself. It’ll make you a better person.
What quote or saying do you always stick by?
At one of our first shows we had a soundcheck and were walking back to get a coffee and someone who was setting up the show stopped us and said “That actually didn’t suck.” We hold that close to our hearts.
Do you have social media accounts so your fans can follow you?
Yes!
