THOMAS DOLLBAUM'S darker shades of the Sunshine State
Photo by Cora Nimtz
Thomas Dollbaum was born and grew up in Tampa, Florida. In 2015, Thomas moved to New Orleans to study at the University of New Orleans for his master’s in poetry. While in New Orleans, Thomas worked as a carpenter and began writing the songs that eventually became his new album (out May 20 on Big Legal Mess Records), Wellswood. The album was recorded over many sessions during the pandemic in New Orleans in an old hotel suite turned recording studio by friend and fellow musician Matthew Seferian. Thomas still resides there, running his own carpentry business.
Interview by Interlocutor Magazine
You’ve said that you “grew up in a small town between nowhere and nothing,” and while you were growing up you became very curious about the people you saw struggling around you, “They are deadbeat fathers, drifters, prostitutes, gamblers, and drunks. They are the voices of the working class, and I am obsessed with the situations that affect their lives.”
What do you think has drawn you so strongly to these people and made you want to explore their lives so intimately in your songs? Has it been a way to give them a kind of voice and to also understand your own upbringing better?
This quote was part of my preface to my thesis for my poetry MFA, but I felt it applied a bit to the songs on the record. I was trying to build a world in the songs that I recognized that was also somewhat a mixture of the place I grew up in and my own sort of feelings and fiction I created from that place.
I kind of write to the melody and music of songs and feel that the things that I most often think about are one-off memories or moments that I try to build into worlds. I guess that the stories and images that I’m interested in are just a kind of way to explore different perspectives that I find the most interesting while trying to explore a voice that feels genuine to me.
Wellswood was recorded over several sessions in New Orleans with your friend and fellow musician Matthew Seferian, then it wound up being mixed by influential producers Matt Ross-Spang and Clay Jones in Memphis before reaching the legendary record producer and label owner Bruce Watson.
What were the circumstances which led to the album falling into the hands of people who have worked with the likes of John Prine, Junior Kimbrough, and Modest Mouse? What's it been like working with them and what did they bring to the table which you think took the record to unexpected places?
Honestly, I just got really lucky to work with such talented people. While working on it with my friend Matt we sort of kept trying things over about a year or two until we felt it was in a finished spot. My friend Kate Teague, who is a really talented songwriter, sang on the record while living in New Orleans and was really into it. She sent it to Graham Hamaker who was working at Fat Possum [Records] and he showed it to Bruce who really liked it.
Bruce, Clay, and Matt Ross-Spang really did a great job of looking at the album as a whole, seeing the potential of it and where things could be improved on. I felt like with them working on it we found a better sonic space for the songs to live in, as well as some just overall tightening up of place that I kinda had hit a wall on from working on it for so long. I’m working in the studio with Bruce now on some new songs and it has really been amazing to have a talented ear to work things through with and I feel overall just really grateful.
Wellswood, Big Legal Mess Records - cover photo by Cora Nimtz
Your songs are very character and narrative-driven with strong literary undertones – who are some short story writers and poets who have influenced your approach to songwriting?
I really like a lot of narrative poetry, which I think influences my songwriting. James Tate and Phillip Levine are two of my favorite writers that build worlds and stories in their poems. I think just reading, in general, is the only way to get better at writing and I pull a little bit here in there from a lot of writers and musicians. Being exposed to just a ton of different writers really helps me focus on what I like to hear or read, and it helps me kind of work out how I can get across what I would like to write about.
While getting a master's degree in poetry at the University of New Orleans, you also worked in carpentry, and now you own carpentry business. How do you think carpentry and writing (both songs and poetry) overlap in ways that might surprise people, in terms of craftsmanship or attention to detail?
I don’t really like comparing the two all that much, but they are both crafts in their own way, which I like. I like carpentry because it’s nice getting to the end of the day and having a tangible manifestation of what you did all day. Working on songs can sometimes feel like going in circles. I guess comparing them I would say that they both take a lot of problem-solving, just in different ways.
Your videos compliment your songs well in the sense of their low-fi aesthetics and rich views of the worlds and characters you write about (especially the videos for “Florida” and “God’s Country”). You’ve worked with Graham Hamaker and Alex Thiel on them – how did they get involved and how closely did you work with them in terms of creative development? There is a kind of wandering poetic aimlessness to them (so many shots of you driving!) – what were some fun or surprising discoveries while shooting these that wound up in the final cuts?
I'm glad you think so! The videos came together really organically. Graham and Alex met me in Tampa, and we just spent the weekend driving around to some of my favorite places growing up and filmed what we all kind of thought were good locations and brainstormed ideas. I really wanted to avoid a storyline music video because I thought it would be corny so we sort of just went with what we felt worked.
Alex and Graham were integral in being able to see shots that would fit the songs, I just tried to take them to places that I liked a lot. Overall we worked really well together and had a good time trying to capture just an aesthetic without overthinking it.
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