Daniel Markham has been writing compelling songs for over 20 years now. Ranging from the Alt. Country heavy hitters of his youth to the sprawling soundscapes in recent years, Markham has never been one to be held down by genres. Still, there was always a correlation between those albums that made it distinctly Daniel Markham. His 4th LP, Burnout, takes a match to all those amalgamations and torches all remnants of his past through a blistering set of 12 songs.
Markham states “I felt like I’d come to the end of something with my music. I’d been working in the medium of alt.country and power pop for so long that I’d almost forgotten my roots as a full-on fan of hard rock and heavy metal.”
“After a heavy year of loss and isolation I naturally went back to the music that made me happy when I was growing up. I saw an ad for a Dimebag Darrel guitar online. The tagline was “unleash the lightning inside of you.” I knew immediately I had to get it. The first thing I played on it after pulling it out of the box was the riff for Burnout. That opened me up to writing a full album of songs in the style of hard rock with some power pop influences here and there. I quickly wrote and demoed all of the songs in a week.”
“At the end of the day the record still sounds like Daniel Markham to me.”
Burnout is more a movement than an album. Engulfed with themes of loss, the album touches on letting go of the people and things that only hold you back. Then and only then can you reinvent yourself. It is, in essence, the perfect album for these tumultuous times. Markham adds “I decided to play everything on the record by myself as I had done on the demos. The record was recorded in just under 21 hours, and I think that reflects the nature of the record itself. Capturing lightning in a bottle.”
“Burnout also represents the turmoil I saw in the world where everyone seemed to be pitted against one another with no real solutions to anything. Venom and vitriol in place of peace and understanding.”
It’s ugly music for ugly times.