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Creative Journeys with Robert Dixon: Songwriting and Overcoming Challenges · The Scene Projects

• 0:02
  Welcome in to a very exciting episode of the scene.
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  I am your host, Bubba Starts, and with me today is singer songwriter Robert Dixon.
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  Welcome to the show, Rob.
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  Thank you.
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  Thanks for having me.
• 0:12
  Oh, this is great.
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  Before we get too far into the interview and talking about what you're up to, why don't you
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  go ahead and, introduce yourself and give us a little backstory?
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  I'm Rob Dixon or Robert Dixon as we discussed earlier.
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  I've been writing music for, oh, thirty thirty some years.
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  I was thinking about this.
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  This all started when I was in a car accident in 1990, and I was stuck in bed for, like, a
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  month because I fractured my hip.
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  And I remember my brother not having any cable TV, so I was stuck watching, you know, soap
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  operas of the antennas feed.
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  But one of the things I always enjoyed doing back in high school, this was post high school,
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  like, two years out, was writing.
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  And I really enjoyed writing.
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  And so I got a notebook, and I just started writing.
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  And so excuse me.
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  And from that, I I end up picking up a guitar a couple years later, and and my cousin taught me
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  some chords.
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  And I was like, I'm good to go.
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  And I just kept writing and writing and working on music.
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  And and then I performed one of my first times in 9495 in a little coffee shop, and I was just
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  nervous and scared and uptight about it.
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  But, yeah, I I I did it, and I kept doing it.
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  And then I it's it's been a fun journey for me as a songwriter, and I it's been healthy for me
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  too.
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  I have been performing on stage since I was a teenager, and I forget that for people that
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  didn't grow up without the anxiety of being in your twenties already or even older, right,
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  having all of your life history following you to the stage.
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  Right?
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  Like, my life history is being on stage.
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  So I kind of forget about those nervous energies and everything coming up.
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  So, yeah, nice to hear you touch on that.
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  So a car accident gives you some downtime.
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  You start writing.
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  You pick up a guitar.
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  Now you've been performing on stage and playing music ever since then?
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  Well, I I I knew it was I would the time excuse me again.
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  At the time, I was in Bismarck, and you don't get a record deal in Bismarck.
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  So so I was like, well, I know.
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  And I'm gonna get a full time job, and I went to IT, and I was able to do that as a full time
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  job.
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  But music's always been my my go to, my fallback to that's something I really enjoy
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  doing.
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  And now at at times when I'm for for me, for as it if you write music over time and you look
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  back to what you used to write and how you write now, they're they're two different
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  things.
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  Because when I was younger, was just everything I wrote, I was just like, oh, this is the best
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  song ever, you know, kind of stuff because it's perfect.
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  And then as you get older, like, you know, I could rewrite this and it could be make it
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  better or make it more focused, that kind of stuff.
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  So you grow as a songwriter because you also, you learn from listening to other songwriters
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  and how you grow off that stuff.
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  So I don't know if there was a question there, but I'm I'll wander off and talk about myself
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  forever.
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  You know how musicians are.
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  But
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  That's why this show has been so successful, Rob.
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  Yes.
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  Exactly.
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  Anyway, so yes.
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  The songwriting is is been I I I joke with my wife.
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  It's been my it was either either go to a shrink or or write music and write and write
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  what I'm going through and what I'm dealing with.
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  And what I see in society, how I think.
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  And some songs that, you know, are good, some songs are bad, but it's it's always been the
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  the trial and error of trying to get through what you wanna write and what you wanna try to
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  get to.
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  It's always been your expressive outlet.
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  Yes.
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  Exactly.
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  It's the it's the way that you, diffuse the world around you and to tell your experience.
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  Right?
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  Which is what songwriting is to all of us.
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  I have a lot of these conversations.
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  Sure.
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  And, it all kinda comes back to the thing is that, like, you almost sort of a choice if
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  you're chosen to be a songwriter, whether you do it, you know, professionally or it's just
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  something that you do your whole like, you were chosen for this.
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  This is the way that you are going to be, you know, expressing yourself.
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  I don't think I I go chosen.
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  I think everybody can if they want to.
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  I think you you're you you get to a point where in your life, you were you wanna say something,
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  you wanna express yourself somehow, and you're able to open open this pipe up a little bit and
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  let some of those ideas flow.
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  And in that, you'll discover more about yourself and more about creativity in yourself.
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  And as you open that gate a little more and more, you discover more and more talent that
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  you have.
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  And this is just a great example of this was two months ago, we ended up moving a piano in
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  our house, and I haven't played piano since I was a kid.
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  I've been playing guitar all my life kind of stuff.
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  And I was like, well, I'll play around the piano and now I'm I'm I'm just in love with
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  this instrument that I've never played and never got involved with before.
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  And I'm and I'm in I'm growing on it.
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  I'm I'm I'm experimenting on it.
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  I'm I'm my synapses are are just bouncing all over the place.
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  And then and I think that, for me, especially, has always been something I've always kinda
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  pushed myself forward trying, like, what else can I do?
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  How else can I write this?
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  What else can I can I write about?
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  So
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  And and for me, like, every time I pick up the guitar, I kinda write a new song.
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  I'm always just kinda noodling around and doing different things.
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  And as the, you know, the experience, I've been doing it for twenty five years now, you know,
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  to pick it up and get going, then you can kind of hone that craft of the songwriting into
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  whatever it necessarily is that you might wanna speak about that day or whatever emotion is
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  bubbling up under the surface.
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  And so to have a new instrument at any point in your life can be, can unlock that.
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  Like you said, those new synapses and and just firing.
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  Yeah.
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  And my my my favorite story of of when I wrote a song was I was I had, like, writer's block in
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  a very few times.
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  I was just like, I I I got nothing.
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  I just I was like and I it's happened occasionally every couple years.
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  Like, oh, I'm done.
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  I I can't do anymore, and I'll just put all my you know, sell all my guitars and just walk
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  away.
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  But I was I was I was sitting there, and I was I had this large arcade that I built.
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  It had a bunch of arcade games from the eighties on it.
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  And I I was like, I gotta I wanna write, but I can't write.
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  I don't have I don't have anything.
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  And so I thought of artists who, you know, may you know, painters have a bowl of fruit, and
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  they may paint a bowl of fruit maybe to recalibrate their their attention to detail and
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  stuff.
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  And on the arcade was a a game called Miss Pac Man.
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  And so I was like, well, I'll I'll write a song about miss Pac Man.
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  And so I wrote this song called Ghost That Followed, and it turned into this this story of
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  you could if you didn't know the the story, you would think it's about a girl, a woman who was
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  having drug problems because she's, you know, going she's these things are chasing her.
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  She's always focused on, you know, these these pills that she has to get.
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  She's she's on on in an environment that was once owned by a man, Pac Man.
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  And it was just it was all these ideas that flowing in and has created this whole song
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  called the ghost that follow.
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  And I just like when I did it, after I wrote it, I was like, okay.
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  Okay.
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  I can still do this.
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  This is good.
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  So a lot times, I think you you may even lose confidence in your ability over time, and all
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  of a sudden, you, like, you it all the synapses, all all the things, ideas come
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  together, and and you create a song.
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  Well and something you kinda touched on a few minutes ago was that, you know, you're not
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  really chosen that anybody can do this.
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  Have you ever considered, you know, helping others write and having small groups of writing
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  sessions?
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  And
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  I've I've recently done that.
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  We have we have we have some artists that on Mondays, we have an open mic at the terminal
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  bar, and we've I've met some musicians, amazing musicians.
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  And we've gotten together, we've written some stuff before and hung up.
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  Yeah.
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  That's that's always fun because it's it's we may see something that you don't.
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  And and collaborating is something I've always enjoyed doing.
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  It's it's it's a kind of a it's it's fun because it's like you can take a song, one of
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  my songs or something else, and bring in other musicians, and it turns into something
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  completely different from what it recently started with.
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  So and that's always a fun thing about music.
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  You can it can be adjusted.
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  It can be changed.
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  It can be molded, know, and and recreated kind of stuff.
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  Except the ones that are really good and you don't wanna touch ever knowing you'd given it.
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  Only play it this way.
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  Yeah.
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  I don't know that I have that.
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  The way that I've run my band for the last twelve months or so has pretty much been
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  showing up into the different towns, finding local guys to play with, and throwing out the
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  cover sets and letting it hang.
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  It was really the only way that I could keep it interesting for myself because, you know, my
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  band typically plays, you know, a four hour bar set, and, you know, you're filling that up with
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  mostly cover songs.
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  Right?
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  And the the set list, because I was playing with different guys all the time, I couldn't
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  really afford to just change the set list all the time.
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  I didn't wanna think about it.
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  So in some ways, I kinda put that on autopilot.
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  And then the way that I was keeping it fresh for myself is that I was playing it with
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  different people every time I was playing.
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  So I was keeping it fresh.
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  Case in point, when I was in Minneapolis last month, I played, you know, two shows, one at
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  the Sherwood Lounge in Saint Paul, and then I was at the Midway Saloon, you know, a Friday
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  and a Saturday, and I played with a different bass player and drummer both nights.
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  Pretty much the same show, but with different players.
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  It was a totally different energy and, you know, special guests and different things
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  happening too.
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  But, it kept it fresh for me.
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  But that's also not a I don't know that that's something you can do with any longevity.
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  You know?
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  If I could do that the same way again next year, especially coming back and playing some
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  of the same venues for the same people.
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  Like, I can trick you the first time.
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  Like, oh, that was cool.
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  Can't believe you guys just met, but coming back the next time now that you've established
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  this expectation and you want to exceed that, you kinda have to maybe show up with a little
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  bit more rehearsal time or a rehearsal at all.
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  Well, yeah, when I had occasion when I go back to Bizmarck, I'll I'll be able to hook up a
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  show and do some I'll do a show there, and I'll contact musicians I know there.
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  But they also know my music.
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  They a lot of times have been around me enough where they're like, okay.
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  And we can rehearse for an hour and just go through the stuff like, oh, this song, all that
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  song, that kind of thing.
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  And it's that's that's the nice thing.
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  Plus, when they have it recorded, when you have, like, either Bandcamp or you're getting
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  music online, you can just, like, here's the songs we're gonna do.
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  Here's here's what they sound like.
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  So
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  There it is.
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  So, Rob, you mentioned the terminal bar.
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  I know you got a show coming up there, January 24.
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  You wanna tell us about your spot there?
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  Well, I just played there last month, and we did a a a kind of a band format.
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  And I'm I'm I'm lucky where I can I've been there going there, like, the last three years
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  every Monday.
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  And, again, amazing musicians and fun people.
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  So I can kind of pull and and drag whoever I want to come jam with me if they if they're
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  available or come play with me.
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  And the the last time, I'm not sure exactly what I'm gonna do this time, which is kind of
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  fun.
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  I can do a whole show myself.
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  I can have a a friend of mine, Royce, who's an amazing guitar player.
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  He can join me.
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  I found this bass player who's a a college professor who who does amazing blaze parts on
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  my on my on my songs that just change them completely.
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  So it's it's I haven't decided what I'm gonna do, but we'll be playing on the twenty fourth.
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  And then plus I have I have new songs, and then I added the piano.
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  So I'm gonna bring the piano in and and maybe do some piano songs.
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  Maybe do some acoustic songs.
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  Maybe do a band song.
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  Maybe I'll yeah.
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  So it's you know, I would never imagine I would ever get to this spot where I was able to do
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  this and then throw in cover songs as always if if you want to kind of thing.
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  But being able to get to point where I'm playing all these instruments and I'm I'm able
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  to connect to what what I'm feeling in my head when I when I'm writing to what what I wanna
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  perform.
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  And there's a song I wrote on the piano or wrote before the piano, but Four Roses that's
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  on the Bandcamp site that probably my best song I've written in a long, long time.
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  And it just, like, it feels so alive.
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  And it it's a really I'm really proud of the song just lyrically and musically.
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  So it it's stuff like that that makes this that what I do is worth it.
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  And you're giving me a lot of confidence that maybe there is some longevity to the way I've
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  been doing things.
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  You just gotta, you know, reach out early and and meeting more people.
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  You know, all the guys I played with last weekend were like, yeah.
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  Whenever you're back in town, hit me up.
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  And if the schedules work, they work.
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  And if not, well, then you move down the list, I guess.
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  So Yeah.
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  Nice knowing that I'm not the only one out there doing it, and and, it it's a lot of fun,
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  man.
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  I mean, it's just so cool to get to go out and play our songs for people and and to have a
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  spot like, sounds like the terminal bar has been.
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  So every Monday, they have open mic, you're saying?
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  Every Monday, they have open mic, and I'm always there early up to set up and stuff.
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  And then, I usually go on first because it's like, no one ever wants to go on first.
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  Right.
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  And I'm like and then and then I and then I bring other music musicians up and we jam out
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  or I try out new songs.
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  So it gives me the chance, like, to to play around with new stuff and and and say, oh,
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  let's do this.
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  Let's do that.
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  And whoever's there.
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  And it's a great again, amazing musicians and fun people.
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  And yeah.
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  I I love it.
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  Coming up, I I ran a couple open mics back in the Black Hills Of South Dakota where I grew
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  up, and I've always loved that.
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  I live kind of out in the sticks now in farm country, so it's a little less, feasible.
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  But we do run a weekly in Sioux Falls, South Dakota that's kinda turning into that.
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  We're calling it a roundtable right now.
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  It was our weekly home of our songwriter showcase, which we did, up at the Midway Saloon
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  recently as well, kind of in a more of a marathon format where I did six episodes back
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  to back to back.
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  And that's something that I would love to feature you on in the future as well, Robert.
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  Anything else you wanna plug before we let you go?
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  Make sure you get the website and everything out there.
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  Yeah.
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  The website is the robertdixon@bandcamp.com.
• 15:06
  Yeah.
• 15:07
  Robert Dixon.
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  I'm on under Robert Dixon.
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  I'm under Spotify and all the streaming services kind of stuff.
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  So have a listen if you if you if you choose or you want to.
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  It's I've got I've written no.
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  I lost track.
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  How many songs and albums I've done?
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  I guess seven albums.
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  I'm working on two possibly two albums now where I wanna do kind of a piano organic kind
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  of album of some of my older songs and see how they collaborate or work with the piano.
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  And then I have a bunch of new songs I wanna I wanna create a kind of more of a rock album off
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  of.
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  So
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  It's gonna be an exciting year for you, Robert.
• 15:47
  I'm looking forward to it.
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  Thank you.
• 15:49
  Well, hey.
• 15:50
  Thanks for being part of the scene.
• 15:52
  Thank you.
• 15:53
  Thanks for letting me have you on.