About a Girl

Danielle Ate The Sandwich is a project that may catch you off guard with its charming stripped down tunes, but the impression those songs leave with you cannot be escaped. Their creator Danielle Anderson is a very unique person in the best sense of the word. Her sense of humor, playfulness and charm infect every song on both her records. This is the case in her live sets as well, she makes you glad you took the time to stop and listen. She has garnered some notoriety with her outstanding videos on Youtube, but at the core, Danielle is just a great songwriter happy to be doing what she does.

ALDM: Can you tell me a little bit about how you got started with music, and maybe some of your songwriting influences?

DATS: I was always encouraged to be active in band and choir from grade school through high school. My family is very musical, so I’ve always been around music. As far as songwriting goes, I have notebooks dating back to sixth grade full of songs and poems and what not, but I didn’t really think of myself as a songwriter until I was in college. I had always been writing songs, but never had the courage to share them with other people until I was older. And my influences are very general-I listened to the radio and a lot of terrible pop music when I was younger. In high school I listened to Sarah Machlachlan, Paula Cole, Simon Garfunkel, Ben Folds Five and Incubus. In college I got in to Regina Spektor, Joanna Newsom, Sufjan Stevens and Death Cab for Cutie. A couple of years ago I started listening to Bob Dylan and Joni Mitchell. I’m not sure if everything I listen to is considered an influence, but there you have it.

ALDM: You have a splendid voice, its not overpowering, but very warm and trust worthy if that makes sense lol. Have you always been comfortable with your voice or did you go through some phases before finding a comfort range?

DATS: I did have to learn to use it and love it. I was in choir as a kid, but wasn’t ever really a soloist, just a part of the group. I feared solos and having people really hear me. Me and my friends started a band in college called Backdraft:the Musical. We played small shows and open mic nights and that was my first experience singing original songs in front of people as a lead singer. It was TERRIFYING. When I started playing on my own and singing my own songs it was just as scary, even more so, because it was JUST ME and I was singing MY WORDS and THOUGHTS. I had to get the confidence to use my voice. I finally did, after a few rough performances and fits of nervousness. In the four or five years I’ve been singing I’ve tried to grow in to my voice, but it changes and matures as I assume it always will. I was a late bloomer, a shy kid and a sort of self conscious teen. Now I’m a freak and I love it!

ALDM: Your albums are great because you can just press play and let them go until they end, there's no filler or songs you would want to skip over. When you pick songs for an album is there a process or do you just wait till you have enough for an album and put it out.

DATS: Thank you! I’m always wondering what songs people skip and think of as “the stinkers”, so thanks for saying they’re all good. Two Bedroom Apartment is the first album I really planned out. The previous two were made because I just wanted to do it. The songs were there and I wanted to share them. For Two Bedroom Apartment, I went in the studio with 12 songs that I really liked and they all worked out and then we re-recorded “We Are Hot Dogs.” My manager told me people usually go in to the studio with 17-25 songs and record all of them and pick from the lot and maybe some day I’ll do that, but usually every song I write I’m proud of and I want to be album worthy. I’m not intending to write hit songs or filler songs. Some may be more popular than others but they all mean a lot to me. I’m their mother, ya know?

ALDM: Can you tell me a little bit about "Two Bedroom Apartment" in terms of your inspiration for the songs?

DATS: Most of the songs for 2BA were written after I had graduated from college and was feeling disoriented and not sure where I was suppose to go and what I was suppose to do. I had also broken up with my boyfriend for a few months and my grandfather died a year or two earlier, but I was still thinking about it a lot. I thought about moving to Canada, I thought about death and what happens to us after, I asked my mom about her father, who I never knew because he died before I was born. I was in a transition phase, I guess. Changes in routine, location, relationships and all that. I don’t think I was too sad, even though my inspirations all are pretty blue, and I don’t want it to be a depressing album, but I want it to talk to people and be lots of different things to them. I’ll always be a little bit serious and hopefully a little bit light and clever.

ALDM: How has it been carving out a space for your music locally, especially with the rise on quality of local rock music?

DATS: It’s been pretty easy to carve out a space for my music locally. I think I’ve been extremely well embraced. I love that there are so many places to play and bands to play with. I do sometimes feel like a lone wolf. I don’t do well in bars and feel strange opening for rock bands, but at the right venue with the right sound I feel very happy to live where I live and play all the places I get to play! Some days I feel like my music isn’t “cool” or “hip” and I want it to be something other than what it is, but most days I’m really proud of it and myself and am happy to play my straightforward, not ambient, non affected, regular sounding songs in front of people.

ALDM: Do you ever consider expanding your sound(not that you need to) or are you pleased with the way it is? I thought your Lady Gaga cover kicked ass by the way!

DATS: I don’t imagine my sound will change too much. I have no plans to start rockin’. And as far as expanding the band, I am playing more and more with a bass player and violinist. I also love the idea of having several different setups and variations so every show is a little different. I always want to be strong and remembered as the singer and the songwriter. That’s selfish of me and vapid, but I can’t help but want to take credit for what I do and at the end of the day what’s most important to me about my songs are what they say and how I sing them. (I’m a diva, huh?)

ALDM: What does 2011 have in store for Danielleatethesandwich?

DATS: TOURS! All over the U.S., maybe Canada and I hope to go across the sea sometime soon. I want to make lots of youtube videos and reach new audiences. I may go in to the studio again, but won’t release an album. To be honest, I just let it come to me. Right now I’m worried it’ll be a slow year, but all the success I’ve had has found its way to me, so I’m going to be patient and let it find me if I deserve to be found. Know what I mean?

As Danielle said she will be doing some touring soon, and below are some of the dates, as well as links to her albums on Itunes, and a video from her Youtube channel which I highly recommend you check out!

Things People Do - Danielle Ate the Sandwich
Two Bedroom Apartment - Danielle Ate the Sandwich

2/25 Sacramento, CA @ Coffee Garden
2/26 SF, CA @ The Brainwash Cafe
2/28 Turlock, CA @House of Java
3/2 Portland, OR @ Twin Paradox Coffee
3/3 Seattle, WA @ Piecoras Pizza
3/4 Hood River, OR @ Gorge Ukele Fest
3/5 Hood River, OR @ Gorge Ukele Fest
3/16 Santa Fe, NM @ Backroad Pizza