Howie Day is more than just the latest in a recent line of perpetually sensitive, cute-but-non-threatening singer-songwriters, though he’s that too. And while Day knows that the popularity of compatriots like John Mayer, Jack Johnson and Jason Mraz has contributed greatly to the growing success of his own full-length debut, “Stop All the World Now” (Epic), he’s not yet sure how he feels about it.
“I’m getting those kinds of comparisons a lot, and in some ways it helps me,” he says. “But in some ways it makes it harder for me to be seen as my own person, I think.”
“Like John Mayer, Howie Day is cute, but not dangerously so,” is how Karen Glauber, president of record industry trade magazine Hits, figures it. “He’s cute in a relatable, hold-hands-and-make-out kind of a way. That’s part of his appeal. He’s not the sort of guy a girl’s parents would lock her in the house over.”
Though it exemplifies the sort of romantic, highly personal pop with which artists like Mayer have become synonymous, “World” is lush and dramatic enough to suggest U2. Several tracks heavily feature pianos and a 25-piece orchestra, a distinct departure from the coffeehouse folk of Day’s 2001 debut, “Australia.”
“I feel like as an artist, I’ve earned the right to experiment,” Day says. “The day the orchestra came in to record, I was in the studio with my face pressed up against the glass, like, `Wow, they’re playing my song. How cool is that, for me to wind up here?'”
Day, 22, started playing bars in his native Bangor, Maine (best known, until now, as the home of Stephen King), when he was 15. “I’m sort of embarrassed looking back on it now,” Day admits. “I don’t know if bars were such a good place for a 15-year-old kid to be. I never drank, though.” He left home at 17, playing bars and college campuses and eventually scraping up enough money to record and release “Australia” on his own. “It was a huge financial risk, but I never had any doubt. I was just chasing the dream, I guess.”
“Australia” sold more than 30,000 copies, an impressive enough figure to land Day a contract with Epic Records. His reputation as a live performer was equally impressive: Day, touring solo, would create a makeshift band using a series of increasingly complicated tape loops and distortion pedals. He recently decided to bring a band on the road for the first time; he had reached the limits of what he could do on his own, and hey, the road gets lonely–something he says he’s still getting used to.
“I thought it was going to be scary, but it was pretty cool, though there have been some growing pains,” says Day, who now incorporates a mini-solo set into his full band shows. “I look at it like I have two shows–the band show, which rocks, and a more intimate show. Sound-wise, I feel so much stronger. I have a lot more muscle now, is how I like to look at it.”
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Howie Day
When: 7 p.m. Thursday
Where: Congress Theatre, 2135 N. Milwaukee Ave.
Price: $19.50; 312-559-1212
