One of my favorite aspects of music are local scenes; there is nothing like them. Much like how I prefer high school football over any other level, I will go to a local show before a national act, 75% of the time. There is something about local shows that make me happy. When I moved to Columbus in 2009 I wasn’t too sure about the scene here. It took a while for me to really dive into it. But now—almost ten years later—I will put Columbus up against any city in the United States. And I owe that to Bob Dawson.

At the time Bob and I were co-workers and anytime we could chat about music we did, as we had a mutual love of pop-punk and bands from New Jersey. So a few months later I went to my first local show, it was at Newport and Bob’s band was playing, at the time he was the drummer in a blues-rock band. That was the start for me here in Columbus. A few months after that, one day after work Bob asked me to come to his Jeep, he wanted to play something for me. I remember I was blown away, I asked who it was, and he told me it was a project he was working on called Teen Fiction, a one-man band. Over the next few years Teen Fiction become something great. By the way, if you’ve never listened to Teen Fiction, go give it a listen now. After that Bob started making music with his brother under the name Future Modern, a weird funky jam/techno mix. It was while with Future Modern that Bob started making music on his own again. That project became BobbyD. He recently released an album called Over Gold. This started out as another solo project, but he decided to go full band, and they sound amazing live.

In closing I’m glad BobbyD is playing the last Tuned Up show, because if not for him, I don’t think I ever would have gotten into the local scene to start with or as much as I have without him. And if you read anything I write about here, you know I write about local artists more than anything. Someone must; local artist need our support more than you know, so occasionally, try going to a local show. Trust me, Columbus has it all. This is a great place to be for music. You never know, you may find your new favorite band or act. I know I have found a few myself.

TUNED UP: How long have you been making music?

Age 13. The band was called Spork…it was myself and Ron Varod (Zvi, Kayo Dot), and we were awesome.

I know you have been in a few acts, how did this version of BobbyD come to be?

Bass!! I wanted to take the bass out of my samples but keep the super sweet electronic beats…and if I was going to have live bass, why not a cello player, keys, and some backup singers?!? Compared to what I used to play live, a lot of these songs were set in stone before I ever pressed record. They weren’t all “loop” driven like my older ones and the songs had far more instruments on the recording, so the addition of more humans to the live show seemed appropriate.

What is your recording process like?

I think all songwriters will agree—there’s a small percentage of songs that just happen. They almost write themselves, like they’ve been written a thousand times before, and you are merely catching and assembling the pieces. So! There’s that, which is always nice.

In addition, I have a few songs that I barely remember recording because I wrote them as I recorded them. That’s my favorite way to record.

99% of the time I sit down in front of a keyboard and look for new synth sounds. The right sound can give life to so much music! If it’s super synth-bass driven and can stand as an instrumental, it becomes a Future Modern improvisational piece. If a melody pops in my head, or if there’s a “mood” that I like, it gets written as soon as possible. I will live and breathe the song until it’s done being written (it’s never done being recorded though, it gets released…but it’s never really done if you ask me).

Every time I play a guitar or piano for a few minutes I write a song. Some are good, but one out of a hundred are keepers…so it’s rare that I sit down to record a song that’s already completely written. I am recording something regardless if that one out of a hundred songs have appeared yet.

When you succeed, it is absolute magic bringing an already completed song to life. When you don’t succeed, it’s weird. It’s almost impossible to figure out why it’s not right.

My process is long, tedious, repetitive, and I’m addicted to it. I also smoke a lot of cannabis.

Who are some of your influences?

Tears for Fears, Gwen Stefani, Saves the Day, Daft Punk, The Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Coming Out of Our Shell Tour

You are why I love Columbus. Back in 2010, my first summer here, you showed me what all this city has to offer. I call that summer one of the best of my life. What are some gems of Columbus? What makes it such a fun, great city?

Cities are great, I bet all of them are. Columbus has changed so much since 2010. There was something special going on in/around the Short North then. PromoWest is such a great part of the city, so are the bike trail and excess of bar/restaurants…. but Columbus’ gems are and have always been the people.

As I’m sitting here writing these questions, it is ComFest weekend, and I’m thinking about my times there, one of my favorites being watching you play in 2010 under the Teen Fiction name; what are some of your favorite shows you have played?

I performed on the Santa Maria boat for some couch surfer party, that was magical…and super-packed, like if we weren’t on a boat it would have been a total fire hazard. I played through just a Roland amp that night, turned it so loud that it kept cutting out—the low end would just totally disappear. I’d go back and shake the amp, and it would all kick back on. It didn’t affect the show at all, the crowd dug it, I was cool with it…now that’s a good show!

Comfest 2011 on the Gazebo stage, I accidentally invited everyone on stage during the second to last song. It was like an Andrew WK song without the blood, pure chaos party magic. So great! The power got knocked out perfectly on beat…then I ended the set with a ballad, and it worked. People were singing along by the end. Yessss!!

Comfest 2012, main stage. There were so many people out there, woah!!

Rootwire Festival (all of them)

Weird Wednesday events at Scarlett and Grey cafe, great vibes!

The Cosmic Cavern, The Frequinox and all of Illuminera’s events were the best. The entire venue would be built into an immersive environment like a space cave or neon jungle with music and costumes and Colin Martin!

Why did you decide to turn Bobby D into a full band?

Bobby D: See above: BASS!

You released Over Gold a few months back; what are some of the subject matter on the album?

Life: going big, embracing chaos, love, moving on, the problems we all create, the problems we all have, and the woman who buries all my problems: Cherie Blondell—all the happy songs are about her.

What are your Top 5 favorite albums?

BobbyD:

My favorite:

Return of Saturn – No Doubt

Clarity – Jimmy Eat World

Blakroc – Blakroc

In Motion – Copeland

808s & Heartbreaks – Kanye West

Albums that are good that I think everyone would like and are my favorite:

Discovery – Daft Punk

Dark Side of the Moon – Pink Floyd

Aja – Steely Dan

Graceland – Paul Simon

What is the best thing about the summer?

Blue mother fuckin skies

Who is your favorite GI Joe character?

Meh…I would always break my brothers G.I. Joes. Not on purpose, they would just explode. The two legs and the underwear shaped piece would always come apart…always, and with force. A lot of his G.I. Joes were just a body with arms and a hook hanging from their stomach…it was a mess. His favorite was Snake Eyes.