Interview: Michael Nau (Dream Sitch)
In the early 2000s, Ben Gibbard of Death Cab for Cutie and Jimmy Tamborello of Dntel formed the unique long-distance collaboration known as The Postal Service. Tamborello would create and burn instrumental tracks to CD-R, then mail them from Los Angeles to Seattle, where Gibbard added vocals and instrumentation. Their co-created electro-pop tunes eventually became the defining indie album, Give Up.
Nearly two decades later, a pair of two other like-minded artists separated geographically by 470 miles — Cumberland, Md.-based Michael Nau and Seth Kauffman (Floating Action) of Black Mountain, N.C. — took a similar, if not more modernized, message-in-a-bottle approach to writing and recording together during the bleak, late-2020 months of COVID-19 pandemic isolation.
Nau would get the ball rolling with the seeds of a song — usually rough vocals layered over an acoustic guitar chord progression and a looped synthesizer — and send it to Kauffman, who added drums, bass, harmonies, and assorted Floating Action-esque trappings.
“I’d get in and add the first thing that popped into my head,” Kauffman recalled during a December 2023 interview. “Your instinct was what ended up on the track — that was kind of the rule. Even if I thought I could make an arrangement better, I wouldn't.”
The guinea pig collaboration, “Now On,” began as a slow piano ballad but morphed into a thumpy, bongo-peppered piece of blue-eyed soul with a catchy, call-and-response chorus. Stoked with the result, the duo kept the game of musical ping-pong going, finishing nine songs in the next nine days.
Nau and Kauffman didn’t set out to make an album; it was purely a fun experiment to quell the monotony and uncertainty of quarantine with off-the-cuff creativity. They took social distancing a step further, vowing not to speak or even share notes.
“My goal was to have something to him every day by noon or so, and he’d have it finished by that evening,” Nau says. “There wasn't any discussion.”
The experience was so fluid that Nau has trouble remembering the minutiae of making what materialized as Dream Sitch, which pairs Nau’s hushed, honeyed delivery and dream-folk compositions with Kauffman’s tumbling, quasi-tropical grooves and translucent production.
In addition to their complementary styles and sounds, the two prolific songwriters have known each other for years — Kauffman has recorded with Nau and plays drums in his touring band — and are self-described introverted dads and homebodies who prefer quiet lives away from the spotlight. Nau credits this natural chemistry with creating both a seamless and fulfilling creative process.
“It worked because I totally trust Seth,” he says.
Asheville Stages spoke with Nau about the genesis of the collab and what he sees as the key ingredient to the dynamic he and Kauffman share ahead of what will be the first full Dream Sitch performance — they played a short in-store set last August as part of Harvest Records’ 20th anniversary celebration — on Friday, Aug. 8, at Zadie’s in Marshall. Nau and Kauffman will be joined for this free show, and another the following night in Charlotte, by multi-instrumentalists Mat Davidson (Twain) and Michael Libramento (Bonny Light Horseman; Dr. Dog).
Jay Moye: Rewinding back to the pandemic, can you remember how this partnership came together?
Michael Nau: Seth reached out to me with the idea of doing some stuff remotely. He’d just done something similar with [Texas-based singer/songwriter Israel Nash]. At first, we planned on doing just one song, but it turned out so well, and was so smooth and easy, that we decided to keep going. Every day, I’d ship something off to Seth, and he pretty much did everything else. He’s so quick at finishing things. Whenever I'd get something back from him, it was pretty much done. [Asheville’s Jacob Rodriguez added saxophone to various songs, and Whitney Nau (Nau’s wife and collaborator in Cotton Jones) sings on “Peace Be.”] After we got nine or 10 songs down, we thought, “OK, I guess we have an album.” By the time we were done recording, we pretty quickly had a plan in place to put out the record.
JM: Were they just scraps, or rough drafts of full songs?
MN: I'd have the structure and scratch vocal down, for the most part. Generally, that scratch vocal would be what ended up on the record. That exercise helped me to not overthink or over-edit, which was just what I needed at the time. I was having a hard time tying up loose ends, so it was really cool and encouraging.
JM: Is that process different from how you usually create?
MN: I write some on the guitar, but for the most part I'll record a bunch of instrumental stuff — a synth loop or even drums, bass, and organ — then sing to it later. Normally, I'm working on what would become a [Michael Nau] record. I’m left at the end with a lot of pieces to put together, so I spend a lot of time in the finishing phases. If I get off track, something might be gone until I rediscover it months or even years later. Having Seth in control meant I could move at a different pace than I'm used to.
JM: Were there any ground rules?
MN: Not really. Midway through, we realized there was not really much guitar. I think there's only a guitar on one or two songs on that first record, and we decided to keep it that way.
JM: Was there much back and forth, or was every song a one-and-done?
MN: There were one or two [where] we did two versions. It’d be the same track I sent Seth, but he’d mess with it in different ways and choose what worked best. But, for the most part, it was so smooth and easy. That's why I don't really remember too much about it. It happened really fast and didn't require a lot of discussion.
JM: How soon after finishing Dream Sitch did you start making [the follow-up album] Long Rattle?
MN: Maybe a year? We wanted to keep it flowing. That one even was quicker. We basically kept the same process. Maybe a little more synth stuff.
JM: When and how did you meet Seth?
MN: That's kind of blurry. A lot of mutual friends over the years knew Seth’s music. [Now Asheville-based] Scott McMicken [Dr. Dog; Scott McMicken and THE EVER-EXPANDING; The Hypos] introduced Floating Action to me 10 or 12 years ago, maybe longer. I played a show or two with Seth, but we really started hanging while doing my [2019] Less Ready to Go album out in Joshua Tree, [Calif.], which Scott produced. He facilitated getting Seth to come out and play on it.
JM: How would you describe your collaborative dynamic? You both seem pretty laid-back and lowkey. Is that fair?
MN: Yeah, I’d say so. Our goals are kind of the same, and he’s just so easy to work with. Seth's also really great at making you feel good about what you've done — whether it's a fist bump after a show or a “Dude, this is killer!” while recording a song. He's probably the funniest guy I know.
JM: How’d the band name come about?
MN: Me and Seth were texting, and I think it was in response to realizing we’d just recorded an album in 10 days in such an easy way. We were like, “Dream Sitch! That’s the band name.” Because it’s truly a “dream sitch” to make music this way. And I think that carries on as we're thinking about performing live. We’ll be a four piece, and everyone in the crew is a dream.
JM: Indeed. I can’t imagine two more suitable players to flesh out these songs live than Mat and Michael. Will there be much rehearsal involved, or will it be pretty organic and loose like the recording process?
MN: I think we’ll practice day-of, and we’re all preparing remotely. That's kind of part of the thing. A lot of rehearsal would feel off path for how it’s cruised so far. Similar to touring my songs with Seth, you don't want to over-rehearse too much so it can keep doing its thing.
JM: What's the separation between a Michael Nau song and a Dream Sitch song?
MN: For the most part, I think all but two or three [Dream Sitch songs] were written specifically to send to Seth for this project. Not that I approach it much differently when writing for a group or myself, but it goes back to not really thinking much about any of that stuff. And I'm excited to play these shows for that reason. The music's pretty fresh to me, because not a lot of time was spent making it. And we’ve only done that one gig at Harvest [Records] where we played six or seven songs.
JM: Have you been to Zadie’s, where you guys will be playing? It’s a magical spot, right on the river.
MN: No, but that’s what I hear. I don’t even think I’ve ever been to Marshall. But I know a lot about it through Mat and [singer/songwriter] Natalie [Jane Hill, Davidson’s partner and musical collaborator].
JM: Besides your connections with Scott and Seth and others, what are your ties to the Asheville area?
MN: Through those dudes and a couple other friends that moved there from western Maryland over the years, I just feel at home there. It’s nice to usually bring the whole family with me when I come play there. I’ve tried to move there several times and, for whatever reason, it didn’t work out but I love it there.
JM: Well, we’d love to have you.
IF YOU GO
Who: Dream Sitch
When: Friday, Aug. 8, 6 p.m.
Where: Zadie’s (inside the Old Marshall Jail), 33 Baileys Branch Road, Marshall, oldmarshalljail.com/zadies
Tickets: Free
