Photo by Brian Carroll
A frequent Cambridge/Somerville subway busker, Dan Blakeslee howls and croons his folk songs in a worn-in voice that’s true to his trade. With the release of his most recent LP, Owed to the Tangling Wind, Dan won “Folk Artist of the Year” at the Boston Music Awards. Soon he’ll travel to Texas to play South by Southwest.
Along with the considerable effort that went into his recent work, Dan has 20 years and 600 original posters worth of flyering under his belt. Colored pencils, markers, scratchboard and spray paint have all gone into the cause, but these days, Dan favors screen printing.
I met with Dan as he ate breakfast, a fried egg with thick slices of wheat toast, and he cheerfully told his tales of flyer making, posting, and collecting.
Allston Pudding: How much has your flyering route changed over the years?
Dan Blakeslee: Dramatically. Very very dramatically. Man, we’ve lost so many flyering spaces. There were tons. Now when I make flyers, I’ll make, like, fifty. I used to make 150—I used to put them everywhere. Everywhere. There were so many places you could hang them. Just hit all the frozen yogurt places now. There’s been a shift to frozen yogurt from record shops.
AP: What were some old spots you don’t have anymore?
[leaning into the recorder] DB: Telephone poles.
AP: You’ve had to take them down right?
DB: Yeah, yeah––I had just hung up 20 flyers around the Allston area for a show and I got a call about a half hour later from the Boston police asking me to take them down, otherwise there’d be a three hundred dollar fine for each one hanging in places they weren’t supposed to be, like telephone poles.
AP: Did they end up charging you for any?
DB: They said I left one up. And I know I didn’t but they still charged me three hundred bucks. SO [grinning] that was fun… especially because I made under a hundred dollars at the show it was for.
Maybe 15 years ago there were flyers on every single telephone pole in Boston, Portsmout NH, Portland, ME. Every place I played they were plastered. I mean––I can see the reason… people don’t take their posters once they’re done playing so they just stay on the pole and someone has to take them down. I can see that, but I miss those days. But it is kind of nice I don’t have to carry a staple gun anymore.
AP: How much do you reuse art when flyering? How many shows get a full set of original art?
DB: It used to be every show gets a new poster, but lately I owe so many people artwork that I’ve started reusing imagery. I still make original flyers––my favorite thing is that every bulletin board is like my gallery. So when I have a new piece of artwork, I can spread it all over as far as I want. Within reason. You know––I don’t want to get fined anything.
AP: How much time goes into design when you’re doing that?
DB: Between like 8 and 15 hours––something like that.
AP: What do you think took the most time of any flyer?
DB: I’d say 22 hours.
AP: Over like a week?
DB: Over three days.
AP: Do you think they’ve led to art commissions? Jobs?
DB: Mmhm. When I came back from college in Maryland I didn’t do any artwork, just music for a year and a half. Then the Portsmouth Brewery asked me to do some beer labels–-that was my first time getting back into art outside flyers.
Whenever I make a silkscreen poster no matter what I’m putting up a bunch of them for the public. Some bands do it just to sell it at the show… I like people to have it for free. Not all of them! They’re expensive to print. They take a lonnng time.
But I love it––I know when I’m going around flyering and I see a poster that I really like that’s past the date I’ll take it for myself for our archive–as you’ll see. [Dan gestures toward his hallway, which is in fact covered with flyers] And if I’m in a town that’s kind of far away from here flyering and I’ll see a poster that I really like but the show hasn’t come up yet, I’ll do it anyway. I’ll take it, photocopy it, and put it back up. Only with one I really like do I do that.
AP: Do you think people ever take yours before a show? Do you see them disappear at all?
DB: Oh yes I do. I know that in certain towns I‘ll go put them up and then I’ll show up a couple days later and half of them are gone. Some bands flyer over your posters. That’s happened way too many times to mention. I’ve never once in my entire career postered over anyone’s event that hasn’t happened. If there’s no room for me to put one up, I won’t put one up.
Over the years I once had this guy come up to me before a show. He goes, “I’ve been collecting your posters for like 12 years… I still haven’t seen you play!” I just wanted to knock. him. out––the first person in a long time i just wanted to knock. out. [laughing] I was like, “So they haven’t intrigued you at all?” That’s the whole reason I make the posters––so people will come to the show.
AP: And they do kind of look how you sound.
DB: They do?
AP: Yeah I think so.
DB: Alright! For a while I was doing kind of random stuff. I had these circus-themed posters and people were like, “What is it? What do you do? Is it magic?” Well! In a way… if you call it magic maybe it is.
So I was flyering in Portsmouth back when you could put flyers on telephone poles. I had finished putting them up, took about two hours––Boston takes about five or seven hours by the way. Anyway, I went back through the same route to walk back to my vehicle and I saw a band that’s not around anymore had hung up their flyers over every one of mine. [laughing] I lost my shit.
AP: That sounds so personal. What was that about?
DB: I have no idea this guy in this band didn’t like me. Whatever! It’s not a requirement. I spent another two hours ripping theirs down and putting mine up and went home and wrote a song called “Wizard Nor a King.” It’s about never giving up.
You can read more about Boston’s strict flyering laws and fees in this open letter to bands from The Middle East.