INTERVIEW: Burr Oak releases hopeful, personal demo “the crowd”
Interview by Eleanor Linafelt
by Alexa Viscius
Savanna Dickhut, who releases music under the name Burr Oak, was halfway through the process of recording her first full-length album when precautions in response to the coronavirus pandemic forced the studio she was recording at to close. But Dickhut was still feeling inspired to write and record, despite the circumstances. Working with the resources she had in her home, and the help of her bandmates, she recorded a demo of “the crowd,” the song we are premiering today. The message of the song, about coming out of a seasonal depression and finding things to look forward to, was present throughout this interview in Dickhut’s optimistic attitude and excitement to get back into the studio this week and finish recording her band’s debut album.
Can you tell me about the process of recording “the crowd”?
My band and I were in the studio, halfway in the process of recording our first album, and then the pandemic hit. About a month ago I wasn’t working at the time and I had a lot of time on my hands, so I was writing a lot. I reorganized my whole basement and made it into a studio. I wrote this song in twenty or thirty minutes; it just came super quick. I was originally just recording this demo via Garageband to send to the guys to learn and we were going to take it to the studio when we could go back, but after a few days of tracking everything myself, I liked how it sounded. I sent it to the guys and they were like, ‘you should put this out as a demo, it sounds cool with the drum machine and everything.’ So that kind of got me more excited about it and feeling like maybe I should think about putting this out.
I sent it to my buddy Jack and he took all the Garageband files and mixed them and I had Jeff, my guitarist, put down some electric guitar and my bassist Jake put down some bass and we kept the drum machine. So it’s pretty true to the original version but just added a few things and then mixed it and mastered it.
Have you ever written music with people like that before?
It was definitely different. This project is pretty much my solo project, but the guys write all their own parts. What usually happens is I’ll write a song—the melody and lyrics—and I’ll bring it to them, and it’ll be more like we’re in the same room type of thing. Tony who plays drums will lay down a beat and Jake will lay down a bass part and we’ll just go from there. It was kind of different because I actually live with Jeff and Tony but Jake doesn’t live with us, so he sent me the bass track and I ended up loving it right away. But usually it’s us in the same room versus sending parts through email. It ended up working out.
I love the message of the song that “it’s ok to not be ahead of the crowd.” Do you feel like writing this song let you finally accept this idea, or is it something you are still grappling with?
I think I’m almost just talking to myself and anyone else who might resonate with it and kind of just saying, ‘it’s ok, life isn’t a race, everything happens in its own time.’ I guess I do still feel like that. Being in the music industry, things have changed so dramatically. The competition of, like, ‘got to play that show with these people and got to get on the road, you got to put stuff out, you got to keep going, going, going’ is not there anymore.
You were in another band, Elk Walking, right?
I started that band in 2014 or 2015 with my friend Julian from college, but we’re on an indefinite hiatus. I don’t see us getting back together at any point. We all ended on good terms, there was no animosity, but as an artist I think you just need to keep growing and you need to keep exploring different realms of possibility. I wanted a different sound and I was writing for Burr Oak. I also tend to focus on one thing at a time, so I think just being able to do that with Burr Oak and really put all my energy into one project was super important to me. Elk Walking is no more but I’ve always loved that band and am on good terms with and talk to all the guys and they’re all doing their own thing.
When did you start Burr Oak?
April 2019 was our first official show and I did the recordings at my house. We recorded ‘Southsider’ and ‘Rosemary’ in two days, just in my living room, and mixed them the same weekend. It’s been now just a little over a year which is crazy because a lot of things have happened. I still look at this project as being a little baby, still so new.
What made you originally decide to start Burr Oak?
I was just writing a lot of sad songs and was going through a breakup and was depressed a little bit I think. I tend to use my songwriting as an outlet to get those feelings out of my system. It’s very therapeutic for me. The songs for Elk Walking were not very personal and I was writing all these personal songs and was like what am I going to do with these? Was I just going to keep them in my journal? Some of them were more like poetry and then I was putting music to them. Then I wrote ‘Southsider’ and I played it for a few people and they were like, ‘you really need to put this out there, you should start a project.’ But I think it was mainly for myself. I really wanted to just get the songs out into the world in whatever capacity. It was just something that I felt like I had to do.
by Alexa Viscius
Has your experience making music changed during quarantine? Are you able to still write?
I think it has changed and I’m definitely inspired even more by how the world has changed and still is changing and there is still so much uncertainty. I was having a lot of anxiety in the beginning, but I think I’ve kind of come into a different headspace and I feel relaxed. The first line of ‘the crowd’ is ‘I’m finally happy when I used to be so sad, I’m getting better.’ I had been coming out of a seasonal depression because it had been winter for so long in Chicago. The flowers were blooming, so I was feeling very inspired by that. At the time I couldn’t really go out anywhere except in my front garden, but even that made me happy. I haven’t been writing as much the past few weeks because we’ve been getting ready to go into the studio and record the songs but I have been utilizing the time and trying to write and not be stagnant with it. I guess I have been feeling inspired and there hasn’t really been a lack of creativity, so that’s good.
You describe this song as about being comfortable where you are and excited about moving forward. What are you looking forward to?
I’m looking forward to getting the momentum going again with this project and I’m looking forward to watching the world and not sitting back. I’m participating with what’s going on. Even today, there’s protests going on. And using the experiences that I’m able to have right now which are way different from any summer in the past. I guess I’m just looking forward to staying positive and hopefully at some point playing shows again which may not be for some time. I was really sad about that for a while but now I’ve just accepted it. Now I’m like, whatever happens happens and you can’t really be sad about it because it’s out of your control. We were actually supposed to go on tour right when the pandemic it and I was pretty bummed to not do that. We were going to go to New York and do all these fun shows, but it will happen in due time. I’m looking forward to that and doing touring with this group. That’ll be our first tour when that does happen.
Do you have any sense of when you’ll be able to get back in the studio and finish recording your full-length?
That’s going to be next weekend! We got the ok from the producer that we’re working with – our friend Nick – and we’re recording at Decade Studios in Chicago. They were obviously shut down for a bit but they’re opening back up on June 1 so we’re scheduled to go back in on June 8 and record two songs. One of the songs is going to be ‘the crowd’ and the other one will be our first official single that we’ll put out. I’m really looking forward to getting back in there and getting the momentum going again and looking forward to hopefully doing a music video sometime too.