G: Well your first album was really focused on the church and all that. Your second album was focused on brokenness and relationships. And, you know, it was not necessarily anything that resolved, you know…it was kinda like…

D: It wasn’t topical, as much, it was just like a hodge-podge, yeah.

G: Yeah. So, do you have anything in mind for what’s the…you know, that you’re willing to share, obviously…

D: *laughs*

G: I mean, you gotta keep some cards…

D: I can tell you what I know. I mean, I’ve written, not half of the new record, yet, but I’ve written almost half, probably. And the new record is gonna be…it’s gonna be more topical than I See Things Upside Down was, for sure. But I think that’s…Upside Down wasn’t a topical record at all, I mean, it was just–it’s just bunch of songs. But, um, the new one is…I’ve just had a lot on my mind lately; I’ve been thinking about a lot of things.

And so I’m gonna process some of that on the new record, I’m already starting to do it, and, I mean the new record, so far, is about art and politics. That’s what it’s about. And that’s what it’s gonna be about. So…and you know me, I’m always looking for hot buttons. And anything that I feel like I’m not supposed to talk about, in subculture, in subcultural terms, are generally; I want to find out, well, why? Why does nobody talk about that?

G: Why’s that taboo?

D: Yeah. Why is that? Why is there a signal on certain topics, and why can’t we talk about that? Why can’t we–why can’t we talk about alcohol? Why can’t we talk about the moderate consumption of Christian adults drinking alcohol? Why can’t we talk about that? What are we all so scared of? I know we went through Prohibition, but, you know, it’s 2005 now. Why can’t we have an intelligent discussion about this? Why can’t we talk about sexuality? Why can’t we talk about politics? Why can’t we talk about art?

And so, in as far as I can determine what those taboo issues are, I’ll try to have a song for every one of them. You know…but so far art and politics tend to be things that I have the most interest in right now, and that I feel like are probably the most pressing, as far as the way that the church in america is engaging with culture, and the ways that we are appearing irrelevant, not because Scripture is irrelevant, but because we have such a narrow kind of…rigid…

G: Formula…

D: …formula to go at culture, you know, with answers on these things. And I think we can do so much better, and…you know, and so I’m dreaming again about where we could all be and how we could all, kind of, think about some of that. And so that’s what I’m writing about, and we’ll see; that’s the idea now. But if you had asked me earlier, on either of my first two records–what it was gonna look like, what they were gonna be about–you woulda gotten different answers than where they ended up, so who knows where this one will end up? But right now, the songs I’ve got are very pointed towards art and politics.

G: Do you have a timeline?

D: I’m hoping, if I can get it all written, if I can get it all done, I hope to record it over the summer…if I can. And I’d love to try and have it out by the fall.

G: Okay.

D: Like, I’d like to not go a year between my last and my next, cause not including The House Show record, it was almost two years between my last two records. And that was just because I was touring so much I couldn’t write, I mean, that first record was just…consumed for me, to go out…it was me completely forming my identity as a solo artist…

G: Certainly, certainly…

D: …and it took two years to do it. And so it seems like that does make it … but, I hope … if i can, it’s still dependent on whether I can write the songs. If the songs are written, I’ll record in the summer and I’ll put out in the fall. If the songs are written. And that’s something, that’s a variable I don’t have any control over.