Multi-Hyphenated Artist David Deacon Releases Fifth Album Good Day Good Night
David Deacon is a singer-songwriter, poet, former champion race car driver, painter, entrepreneur, and an example of how to live life, really live it.
Good Day Good Night is David’s second album this year, following the late-winter release of Four, which has ended up on quite a few playlists and has over 400,000 YouTube views in the last 6 months.
Now in his 70s, Good Day Good Night (due Oct. 6), is a continuation of the journey started in Four where David’s collection of stories that reflect on the crashes and burns and dust-yourself-off recoveries we all experience to varying degrees is married to some compelling grooves and hooks.
He tells them with the veracity of someone who has often paid a price for his choices: They have a visceral realism, a touch of humour, and maybe even a touch of nostalgia for the losses.
Listen to the lead track and first single “Soldiers of The Universe” below and learn more about David via our Five Questions With segment.
Care to introduce yourself to our readers?
I have been writing and painting ever since I can remember, but only started to do music in the mid 90’s. It came out of a poetry reading I did in New York City when a folk singer opened for my spoken word/poetry gig. I thought I should try getting a band together and 12 months later I had completed my first album. Seven years later and after two more albums I had sold almost 10,000 CDs as a privateer, but was running low on money and had to return to spending more time on earning a living.
I have had a pretty diverse life, winning the Canadian Endurance racing championship in a Porsche RSR and subsequently racing at the 24 hours of Le Mans a couple of times: Once for the BMW factory team.
I also had a couple of art exhibitions as painting was the other artistic pursuit that engaged me. I have had a few crashes and burns and upside downs, on racetracks, in business and in love, but enough success to still be going hard.
Tell us a bit about your most recent release.
My new album Good Day Good Night comes just 6 months after releasing my last album called Four. Together they constitute a journey into more melodic and groove-driven work that sort of unraveled itself over the last 2 to 3 years. The prerelease single Soldiers of the Universe, and the featured song for the album And They All Sang Along exemplify my move into a territory that is less directly blues/roots and I believe accessible to a more mainstream audience, without losing any of the authenticity I strive for. Andy Ryan, who has co-written these songs with me is the guitarist on the pieces and when you listen, I think you will agree he is quite extraordinary.
Where do you tend to pull inspiration from when writing?
It’s very diverse. On Four there was one song called Poetry and another called Hard Time, which were bookends to the same relationship (And twenty years after the fact I have sent her both. 😊). Another song Arc of Life was provoked by my desire to have a secular song for memorials (including one day my own). In Good Day Good Night, the Song And They All Sang Along was inspired by my 10-year-old daughter asking me to write a song with that line as the chorus. It took me into some nice but not maudlin memories, which I think a lot of people can relate to. Moments of Joy was inspired by a cousin of mine who in fact gets a small writing credit on the song, as he gave me the initial image that drove its rather anthemic tribute to appreciating the joy that survives through even the most difficult times.
Do you have any upcoming shows you’d like to tell us about?
We are having a private album launch at the Rivoli on Oct 4th in Toronto and we would love to invite your readers. To enter click here
We have had over 400,000 views on YouTube for the album Four and I am hoping that we will continue to get increasing play on Spotify and Radio as Good Day Good Night gets launched. That will perhaps mean that we will be a strong enough draw in the future to be able to afford to gig without having to sleep in dives. 😊
What’s your goal for 2024?
Listenership and then some good gigs at festivals and such.