Early Day Miners [rank: 939] based on users subscribed

"Early Day Miners (EDM) is an ambient, post-rock unit from Bloomington, Indiana. The core of this musical collective includes Ativin's Dan Burton and Rory Leitch, along with their mutual friend Joe Brumley. In 2002, the band collaborated with Unwed Sailor to release the Stateless EP as an accompaniment to a short movie by filmmaker Chris Bennett. The collective's third full-length 2003 release, Jefferson At Rest, had Burton sharing engineering duties with several prominent independent artists, including Cheree Jetton (The Pilot Ships, Bees Are Black) and David Pajo (Slint, Papa M)."

[reproduced or excerpted from the Wikipedia article "Early Day Miners" and its use is thus licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License]

Bandega Interview with Dan Burton of Early Day Miners (August 2008)

Early Day Miners, blurring the line between recorded and live.

Q: How have your shows changed over the years? Has your perspective on performing live changed?
A: If anything I think we've become a much more fun band to see live. In our early years we were guilty of taking too long between songs, and frankly we'd often play too much dirge. Overall I'd say we were sort of unaware that just because you play a song precisely doesn't necessarily always make for a great live show. We've been at this long enough now that I'd say we're all confident that although we're definitely not making music for everyone, we'll certainly reach a few people and get a solid, positive response from them.

Q: Describe the most memorable live show you've played.
A: We had a great time in Santander, Spain performing at the the Tanned Tin festival. We performed our album, "Stateless" in it's entirety and that was one of those shows where just about everyone in the room 'got it'. Opening for Wilco for a few shows here in the midwest was a great experience.

Q: What venue do you consider to be your "home", where you feel most comfortable, with the crowd and the place itself?
A: Our home bar was Second Story here in Bloomington, IN and it was our favorite place to play. We played our first ever show there opening for Cat Power back in 1997. Unfortunately the bar closed a few years back. It was a dive. The town hasn't been the same since the bar's demise.

Q: Describe the most enjoyable show you've ever experienced as a fan.
A: U2 - Achtung Baby tour, 1992, Cleveland, OH. Stars of the Lid - Empty Bottle, Chicago, IL - 1998 maybe? Great live projections, excellent blissed out drone. Slint - first reunion show in Louisville, Feb 2005. Rodan and Crain - numerous live shows in Louisville from '92 to '94. Really powerful dark rock n' roll. Lisa Germano - Indiana Theater here in Bloomington. Last year I guess. She's sickly talented. Great songwriting. Daniel Lanois - SXSW. Terrible back up band at the time but he pulled it through regardless.

Q: You have stated that, with EDM recordings, there is an attempt to avoid premeditation, and by doing so, enable creative freedom. Do these efforts blur the line between recording and live performance? What difference (if any) does the presence of an audience then make?
A: Well for particular songs we've chosen in the past to just open up while tape is rolling and 'feel it out'. "Summer Ends" from "Let Us Garlands Bring" is an example that comes to mind. All of our songs are usually performed differently live than what appears on the albums. The line is definitely blurred. I'd say as a band, we're the kind of people that want to hear a band play their songs in the way that best works for them live. So many times bands are like a jukebox...just rehashing the overdubs on their albums. That's no good.

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