INTERVIEW: Home Blitz
For far too long now, Daniel DiMaggio has been working under the moniker of Home Blitz creating a matchless sound that can reference Big Star, The A’s, Anne Briggs, and Maniax..sometimes even within the same song! His brand-new release All Through The Year (Sophomore Longue) flipped my wig so much, I got in touch with my old pal to ask what the hell he was thinking. Here are the results.
Is there any reason you've followed up Foremost & Fair from 2015 with a 12" 45 release rather than an LP or 7"? Is material coming to you in a slower process and/or are you getting more meticulous with old age?
Daniel DiMaggio: I think both, I find that as time goes on it takes me a lot longer to work on what ultimately is a yield of less material, which is cool in a way cause I like short releases but also is kind of an agonizing process that doesn't really seem sustainable if this trajectory continues. But the record is supposed to have a 'seasonal' structure with one song corresponding to each season (specifically designated with symbols in the insert of the record) which is the primary reason it is like it is, plus I also love 12" EPs and that has long been one of my fave music formats. The theme is intended to be a take-off of similarly structured English folk records like the Watersons' Frost & Fire, Martyn Wyndham-Read et al Maypoles To Mistletoe, The Copper Family's A Song For Every Season box set, and the All Round England & Back Again and Songs Of Ceremony field recording LPs.
I don't think you can label me a hate criminal in saying your singing voice comes off a bit more feminine on this release. Do you agree? If so, what brought upon this vocal style?
Yeah, that is what I was going for pretty much, I've been trying to sing like that for the past like 8 years almost, even leading up to Foremost & Fair, and have hopefully gotten more effective at it. IDK why really, I guess I have liked and identified with more music sung by female vocalists as I've gotten older, plus I like most sounds in my music to be really bright and even shrill, so I feel like it fits in with this timbrally also.
Were there any certain artists that you had in mind while writing and recording this material?
The musical setting for "Real Green" is (pretty obviously I hope but maybe not) a pastiche of Dolly Collins' arrangements for Shirley Collins, which are some of my favorite music, and that song also has some direct musical and lyrical allusions to a bunch of other songs. Also "What I Say I Mean" uses bits from different English folk plays and interpolates the Morris dance tune "Sweet Jenny Jones". Besides those not really tho.
How long of a process was it to record All Through The Year? Were they songs you'd written and recorded that eventually got pulled together for the release or is there a concept behind the release?
I think it took like 3 years or something way too long, but I am also simultaneously lazy and OCD in a way that makes it take me a million years to do anything. I think the songs were conceived of individually but all developed in directions that allowed them to be slotted into the seasonal concept pretty quickly. These ones are all there are, except for the song "The Lawn" which was recorded at the same time and is on the Practice 2018 tape, and is sick but a little more 'basic' in my opinion.
Did you ever think Home Blitz would last as long as it has? Do you envision a time when you'll bring it to an end? Was there ever any point prior to where you thought about stopping Home Blitz?
I never thought about it one way or another when it started, but it does seem crazy now. I haven't ever considered stopping it because I always had an idea for the next record that I had to make as the previous one was being released, but now I feel like I need to try something different given how troublesome the process for making this one was. I bet there will be more records tho in all likelihood.
What do you think about Captain Meatball (aka Governor Cuomo) trying to bring down the Chainsmokers about this concert they had out here on the island last weekend?
I think it's too late now and he should have said something before it happened if he's so worried about it. I will say seeing pics of it gave me FOMO and made me nostalgic for the time I saw Chainsmokers at 7 am in Central Park in 2018.
I'm curious about the concept behind "Real Green". If you didn't answer this question already with the fourth question, could you walk me through the motivation behind the song? How long did it take to write? What is the song actually about?
The song is supposed to be in the form of an alternating verse to verse dialogue between male and female characters (or any two young people romantically/socially involved) that was inspired by participants I saw performing with the Millstone River Morris side in Princeton, NJ several years ago, as well as by the song "Closer" by the aforementioned Chainsmokers feat. Halsey. It also, especially in the third verse, uses a character's fatigue with Morris dancing as a springboard for general criticism of tradition which is sort of self-directed, like about how I shouldn't be so obsessed with the folk traditions of England cause they're stupid and I focus on them at the expense of more real and genuinely enriching things. This puts me in the mind of Mike Judge talking about (I think in your straight edge book) how some Judge lyrics are in essence him yelling at himself to not do drugs (maybe I'm remembering this wrong). It took too long to write.
What is your opinion on the new Taylor Swift album? What is your pick for the best record of the year so far?
I hated it when I first started listening to it and then by the end I loved it although that also coincided with me getting slightly drunk while listening. I feel like I hate that kind of music (like the National) but the album is an example of the alchemizing power of pop music (or maybe just my attachment to Taylor Swift) to make a bad style of music good. My favorite song is "Mirror Ball". My favorite album of the year is Sawayana by Rina Sawayama, although I don't listen to as much new music as I feel I should and the new music I hear is generally either pop music or music by people I know personally.