Brett Dennen, interview

Astonishingly tall and surmounted by a luxuriant clump of dramatic red hair, Brett Dennen couldn't be mistaken for any other singer-songwriter. It's possible to detect any number of musical echoes in his songs - Neil Young, Dylan, Paul Simon - but thanks to his huskily soulful voice and a gift for conveying complicated sentiments in a resonant phrase, he manages to stand apart from the crowd here too.

As a songwriter, Dennen was a late developer, hardly getting started until he was 21 or 22. "I think it's one of those things where it was just brewing for a while," reflects the tunesmith from Oakdale, northern California. He turns 30 on October 28, right after a return visit to the UK for an appearance at Dingwalls in London. "I've done many other things that require creativity in other forms of writing, so when it came to songwriting I think I felt fairly comfortable."

Which is a bit of an understatement. His latest album, Hope For The Hopeless,  was released in Britain last summer, and distinguished itself by possessing that rare quality of seeming to speak to you as if the songs had been written specifically with you in mind. They ranged from the delicately sculpted introversion of "So Far From Me" or "Ain't Gonna Lose You" to the idealistic musings of "Heaven" ("Heaven ain't got no prisons... no armies and no police"), while the chunky rock swagger of "Wrong About Me" seemed to mix Moondance-era Van Morrison with some high-octane bile from Bob Dylan, circa 1966.

Dennen had earned plenty of kudos for his previous album, So Much More (2006), though some of its songs were almost too exquisitely sensitive for their own good ("In a world of suffering, why should I be so blessed?" he sang querulously in the title track). Nonetheless, Dennen's perceptive, heartfelt writing began to find favour with the music supervisors at the Hollywood TV studios, and his songs were used in such ratings-leading shows as House, The Unit, Scrubs and Grey's Anatomy.  As Dennen notes, “it’s becoming a new way for artists to be discovered, and it’s definitely good exposure.”

Hope For The Hopeless was a more rounded and confident set of songs, hitting an assured balance between lyrics which could still be questioning or socially aware, but were carried by punchier, even poppier, tunes. The single "Make You Crazy" was a case in point, with its Afro-styled beat and guest rap by veteran Nigerian musician Femi Kuti.

"It was the greatest musical experience I've ever had, working with him in the studio," says Dennen. "I already had the main part he does, which is the 'woo-oo-oo' bit, but the rest of it he just improvised, like he'd repeat lines or do a call and response. Then there was a space in the middle where there was a break from any vocal, and he said 'do you want me to sing something there?' So he wrote a little part for it, and I can't believe how good it turned out."

But wrapped inside the song's chart-friendly exuberance are Dennen's observations about creeping electronic surveillance and kidnapped children who are forced to fight in wars. Dennen devotes himself to several charitable initiatives, particularly The Mosaic Project in San Francisco, which aims to break down barriers of race, religion or social class between the city's children. He admit's it's "very lofty and idealistic", but these kinds of concerns permeate his songwriting.

"What I'm trying to say in 'Make You Crazy' is I don't know what's scarier, how scary the world is or how scary it is that people put up with all this," he ponders. "Before, I'd always put a song like that in a more folk-song style. This time I wanted to do it in a pop-sounding band song, so even if people don't hear the lyrics they're still going to listen to the song because it's got a groove."

The rocked-up feel and sense of smouldering indignation in "Wrong About Me" also indicate a broadening of Dennen’s musical palette. The song is an angry response to someone who has evidently had a bout of emotional fisticuffs with the songwriter, and its message might be loosely summarised as "fuck you". Quite a change from beatific, hippy Brett. Some listeners have even detected echoes of Dylan's famous scorched-earth put-down, "Positively 4th Street".

"Well yeah, and other people think it's a kind of Van Morrison thing where I'm telling the industry to buzz off or something. But the idea is just 'don't put me in a box, don't put boundaries around me because you think you know who I am or you've got me all figured out, because you don't know and you're wrong'. I've heard a lot of people mention 'Positively 4th Street', but to tell you the truth I was aiming for the Rolling Stones on Exile On Main Street! I wanted it to be kind of slammin' but also pretty loose and I wanted it to be piano-driven. I wanted to go in and sing my guts out and not care about the notes. Have a lot of attitude."

If you can measure somebody's talents by the company they keep, Dennen is doing very nicely thanks. His studio band for Hope For The Hopeless included much-admired guitarist Mark Goldenberg and omni-capable drummer Joey Waronker (touring drummer with R.E.M. and now part of Thom Yorke’s new band), while production was handled by John Alagia. He brought a wealth of experience from working with John Mayer and Jason Mraz, artists also treading melodic folky-pop turf and with whom Dennen has often shared bills.

"John is a good friend of mine and he's a Beatles and Paul Simon junkie," Dennen reports. "I think the best thing about working with him was the way we treated the vocals. He just focuses on getting the right mood or creating the right atmosphere of players around me so I could sing live in front of the band and my natural voice would come through. We added a few overdubs, but mostly we used live takes and I think that is the best part of our work."

Though he has lived in San Francisco and currently bases himself in Santa Monica, Dennen is something of a nature boy at heart. He grew up exploring the natural fastnesses of northern California, since his home was close to the Yosemite National Park and the Sierra Nevada mountains. This seems to have imbued him with a stoical sense of self-reliance.

"I started backpacking with my father when I was 10, so I've spent a lot of time on the trails. I just enjoy being out hiking, breathing the air and climbing up mountains and writing poetry and swimming in rivers. Fly fishing and stuff like that."

Conveniently, this has all helped to feed his songwriting.

"Yeah, when you're in any wild area it's really inspiring. You're hiking and there's less oxygen in the air and it's hot and all the comforts of your home life are gone. Plus the chances are you're alone, at least I am usually, and it forces you to be really reflective and to internalise things. I also think with songwriting in general,  I write my best songs when I'm completely alone and there are no distractions. The mountains for me are a good place for that."

A fine example would be "So Far From Me", a jewel-like love song lit by some genuinely poetic imagery - "Crows ravaging a field of wheat, stars jealous of the moon... If your heart wasn't such an ocean, I wouldn't sink like a stone". He must have been pleased with that one?

"Er... yeah. I think at first I had 'if you were such an ocean I would sink like a stone', then maybe 'your heart', and then 'if my heart wasn't such a...'  Then I spent a long time trying to figure out what my heart would be. But I'm one of the most critical people I know when it comes to songwriting. I consider some of
the songs I’ve written to be throwaways, but people still love them. I think other people are much more forgiving about a bad song I've written than I am."

Brett Dennen plays at Dingwalls in London on 26 October. Book online here

Purchase the album Hope For The Hopeless here