Dan Sartain is the man mothers wouldn’t want their daughters within kissing distance of, not out of protection, but because they want him for themselves. This seething crooner, all hollow cheeks and eyes like 8 balls. This expert exponent of the art of seedy and the best front-man-gets-himself-into-a-sexy-lather execution since Nick Cave last loosened his collar. 

There’s prolific, and then there’s Sartain: ten records under his belt in the space of 14 years, and each one of shimmering quality. How does he do it? We hear you ask. Some some he’s a devilish conspirer, others say he’s simply misunderstood. Ask him yourself and we expect he’d respond with a cock-eyed wink that implies all. It’s not an invitation, it’s a demand.

Where once Sartain ingested  and spat out straight up blues rock ‘n’ roll, his latest release Century Plaza sees him flick the switch and set phasers to electronic chill. Century Plaza invites you to become an exile in an utterly unsavoury world, where keyboards come colder then a well digger’s ass and sonorous croons beckon from the shadows. Welcome to Sartain’s manassery of badassery. Invites aren’t necessary, but please leave your inhibitions at the door. They won’t be required here.

Alex James Taylor: Tell us about the world of Century Plaza.
DS: I feel like what I do isn’t so precious it can’t be changed. I got comfortable with a formula and that came from reaching maximum ability at an instrument. In my case, the guitar and drums. Rock ‘n’ roll is physically painful and imperfect. That’s what makes it great, but it’s not the end goal while you’re doing it. The performer must try and be a perfect machine in rock ‘n’ roll. The failure is the reward. Often times electronic music can be perfect and painless and who doesn’t want that? Making an electronic album just makes a lot of sense to me at the moment.

AJT: And the lead track is an electro remake of your own song Walk Among the Cobras. Is this what kickstarted the new direction or did this come towards the end of the album? 
DS: That one came at the end. The album was already done and I was getting ready to debut it live and knew some people would want to hear the old tunes live. I retrofitted Walk Among The Cobras, and it was too good not to put on the album. We wound up using it as the first track.

AJT: It reminds me of the Kavinsky tracks on the Drive soundtrack. So seedy.
DS: I really like Kavinsky and all the soundtracks to Nicolas Winding Refn’s films, they’ve been an inspiration. The particular track you mentioned, I wanted the beat to sound like the old show The Hitchhiker. It was a horror anthology show, and it was plenty seedy.

AJT: And talk me through the new video for Walk Among The Cobras, what was the concept behind that??
DS: My fiancé and I needed to go a state away to Florida to get photos for the album. Alabama doesn’t have the kind of lights I wanted, Alabama doesn’t really look like the album sounds. The album sounds more like Florida looks. I know a hotel in Panama City that has these amazing blue lights. There’s a blue lightbulb outside of every hotel room door, it’s very photogenic – Florida is very neon, we shot the cover for the last album there too. We kept seeing neat stuff and kept filming. We went to a tourist trap laser mirror maze thing in Panama City and it looked like a million bucks so we filmed it. I was shirtless dancing around and random kids would come in to see the attraction and find us filming. We shot for a long time and never got thrown out. We filmed the whole video guerrilla style in places we weren’t supposed to be. We needed more footage, so we took some fog and lasers and strobes and things to a camp ground in Georgia. It was an old campground used to film one of the Friday the 13th movies, we weren’t supposed to be there really. Later we found out it was haunted. I’m not saying we saw ghosts. I’m not even a person that believes in ghosts, but we did hear footsteps coming toward us all night. Later I read that is one of the things the ghost does. We were running around naked painted like skeletons and stuff. It was pretty much the best night of my life.

AJT: Did the actual writing process change at all for this album? 
DS: I’ve never recorded an album the way we did this one. I composed and performed the album on an iPad in about a week. I just pretended to be in Depeche Mode. I did everything as if I were acting for that band and this allowed me to be kinda corny. I allowed things to happen that I normally wouldn’t allow. Being someone else is liberating.

AJT: And how about in terms of production, where did you record the album?
DS: I recorded it between two homes on computers. It wasn’t a long process.

AJT: I imagine it was fun exploring all these new sounds and instruments, it’s like a whole new world…Have you always played synth or was that a new thing you discovered?? 
DS: I’ve always played keys. Not very well, but I play them. I didn’t really play a synth on this album. Brad Davis played synth some but mostly it was just composed on an iPad in GarageBand.

AJT: Have you played the new tracks live yet?  Can we expect a Gary Numan-esque performance from you?
DS: Yes, I’ve played it out live. They’re the best performances I’ve done in a long time. I’m really excited to be doing it and when I’m excited the audience is excited. I’ve been kind of antagonistic on stage with this set. I’ve been hitting people and stuff. I don’t want to and I’m not proud of it, but its been a different kind of show. As far as what I do in the future, it’ll depend on what we can afford. I’d really like for this show to be a big setup. But if it comes down to just a house party and a PA, we can do that too. What I really need is dancing lessons. I kinda took one dancing lesson from a lady who’s old man is an Elvis impersonator. I’d like to see them again. I’ve been dancing around shirtless in leather pants like Iggy or Lux or something. I want to dance and I want people to dance. I want it to be like fucking Saturday Night Fever. I want to do – and probably should do – the old songs. We did that on New Years with guitars and drums and stuff. I’d love to take that show on the road, but it really just depends on what we can do.

AJT: In previous interviews you’ve spoken about the importance of musicians trying different styles and stepping outside of their comfort zones, and that’s obviously something you push yourself to do, throughout your career. It also explains your love for Alan Vega, a man who never went for the easy option. Do you believe that there is a lack of this nowadays? I think the recent deaths of Lemmy and Bowie have made me think more and more about this, there seems to be a certain comfort amongst many musicians nowadays to stick at what they know and not challenge themselves, perhaps for fear of failing? What’s your opinion?
DS: I mostly agree with that but I’d like to play devil’s advocate. Sometimes I listen back to what I say and I’m full of shit. Sometimes you need boundaries. This is why rap/rock never really works. You gotta keep the chocolate off the broccoli. I’m enjoying doing new things but what if you went home one day and your dad had a mohawk? Dad’s just not a mohawk guy and we’re all better for it.

AJT: And what sort of music did you grow up on as a kid? 
DS: When I was little cock rock hair metal was still a thing. The guys that still play that kind of music have been through a lot. They were all humbled in the 90’s. But if you’re still doing it in 2016 its not a game. It’s what they did with their lives, I still love that stuff. There’s some real musicianship there. in those hair metal records.

AJT: Been to any really great gigs recently?
DS: I saw Van Halen and cried a little. Eddie Van Halen is the best in the world at something. And David Lee Roth isn’t even close to being the best singer in the world. But Dave upstages him every show. He’s cool and hilarious. That is more important than talent.

AJT: What about ever? Was there one particular gig in your life that changed things for you? 
DS: There are too many to mention but I once had Chuck Berry duckwalk toward me. It was at a casino and everybody was seated. I didn’t see anyone there who would stop me from standing and going closer to the stage. I got right next to the side of the stage and Chuck just duckwalked over and sang at me. Chuck Berry knew who I was for a little while.

AJT: That’s big. I read that you’re really into your comic books, what are your favourites?
DS: Well, that’s not entirely true… I was into one comic book and I tried to collect all of that one. It wasn’t even a good comic book.  Comic book guys laugh at me when I tell them what it is, so I won’t repeat it here.

AJT: Lastly, tell me your ideal gig to play at; give me the line up (dead/alive) and venue.
DS: I’d like to tell you that I wanna play with Elvis or something but that would just be weird…It wouldn’t make any sense. Like, would I go back to the 70s or would he come to now? Or what would the scenario be…? ‘Cause if I could go back to the 50s and play with Elvis, I would play a bunch of Beatles and Doors songs. I’d blow everyone’s mind. I’d invent like psychedelic music and hip-hop. I would basically be a god. I would write all of David Bowie’s songs and all the Beastie Boys’ albums. If it was the other way around and Elvis were to come here, who would give a fuck that I was on the bill? Elvis needed to die. We as a society have moved past it. Or- is it some Quantum Leap style scenario where Elvis has never died? He’d be pretty old now. If Elvis hadn’t died he probably would’ve done an album with Rick Reuben. Elvis might be a nightmare if he were still alive. As far as the venue, I would wanna play at Pasquale’s Pizza in Alabama.