Interview: Wolverhampton's Dan Whitehouse talks new album and upcoming show in Shrewsbury and Birmingham

Dan will be promoting the record with a major UK tour, including shows with Boo Hewerdine at Shrewsbury's Henry Tudor House on Wednesday and at Birmingham's Kitchen Garden Café on October 5. He'll also return to Birmingham on December 10 to play St Paul's Church with Katherine Priddy.

"Black Country Soul seems like a good description," he says. "Danny Champions of the World played on it and I recorded it at their studio.

"They love their soul music and Muscle Shoals and that's what they were getting at."

Dan wrote the songs for his new record, That's Where I Belong, during a six-month burst in 2015. "It was the first time I'd allowed myself the time and space to specifically write," he adds.

"I used to think the songs would just come to me in fleeting moments of inspiration. But this was a little more considered.

"I gave myself the time to do it. I wanted there to be some joy in the music and it turned out good."

He enjoyed working with others and being able to take their ideas on board. "I like the traditional recording method of collaboration, of getting a group of musicians together in a nice acoustic space where you really kinda get beneath the lyrics and inside the song.

"Recording becomes about capturing a performance, rather than cutting and pasting. It's about making real music, it's not about making records as though you're in Photoshop."

That's Where I Belong was fuelled by love and family life. It's about the daily grind and the brick-building that goes on in normal relationships.

"There's a song called Work, in which I sing 'I will work for me and you'. It comes from my mom, who used to say 'if you want to make it work, you have to make it work, put the time in, make the effort'.

"That's what real life's about. It's not like the movies."

Dan recorded his first EP in 2009 and albums followed in 2012, 2013 and 2014. His 2012 album, Reaching For A State Of Mind, has been a calling card, earning praise for its lyrical vulnerability and imaginative musical settings.

He made it with Chip Bailey, the percussionist who is a collaborator of Duke Special.

And while he's not yet playing vast stadiums, he's grateful to be making a living as a musician.

"It's become easier because of the internet. The good thing about being online is that it's given songwriters like myself the opportunity to connect directly with people.

"It's likely to be a smaller pool of people than in previous decades, but the people are still out there. Things have moved on for me since I signed to Reveal Records. It's a cool label. They put a lot of good stuff out. They work with people like Eddie Reader and Kris Drever and Boo Hewerdine.

"A Reveal show always attracts an attentive audience and I'm pleased things have developed in that way."

He does a number of other things to make ends meet, including a lot of community workshops. Dan believes music is magic. It can transform people's lives. "I've seen real transformations in people, especially young people and those with learning difficulties. I do a lot of workshops and that allows vulnerable people to express themselves.

"There's a lot of cathartic work. I do a lot through MAC, in Birmingham. We allow the young people to take their own paths.

"I try to do as little as possible, to enable, to just point them in the right direction. I like to introduce them to this wonderful world of songs."

Dan has worked with some of the most original folk/roots/alternative singer/songwriters of the past 30 years, including people like Mark Eitzel, Richard Thompson, Sun Kil Moon and Julian Cope. Simon Felice has also been a regular roadmate.

"I play Simon Felice's electric guitar these days, he gave me that. I did a lot with him in 2012 to 2014.

"He puts in some stunning performances. When he's done his solo records I've been out supporting him.

"He's been a big influence. Playing with Sun Kil Moon was interesting, too; that was the night I signed to Reveal. I gave them a CD of the new record.

"Julian Cope was amazing. He was dead friendly, you know. I was a little bit nervous because of his reputation and the extreme outlandish work he'd done. But he was really down to earth and friendly.

"He's got crazy fans. He's got people who are fanatical about him. He's a forward-thinking individual. He's a British eccentric."

Dan has kept his Black Country roots. He has a studio in Dudley and says his music has been shaped by the region.

"I love the Black Country people, I love their humour, that dry sense of humour. I moved away to London when I was 21 but I came back.

"Growing up as a teenager in Wolves was great. I used to work behind the bar in the Civic Hall and in the cloakroom so I'd get free tickets for shows and could hang out with the bands.

"My parents lived in Chapel Ash. That gave me so much freedom because I could walk out of my house and play the local pubs or the concert hall.

"There was a great pub called the New Inn by the market. The gaffer was really supportive of young bands. Looking back we must have caused havoc for him.

"But there have been lots of good musicians coming out of Wolves, not least the great Scott Matthews. We've known each other since we were 15. We were both in bands. Everyone always whispered about how good he was back then."

He's looking forward to taking his show on the road to promote That's Where I Belong.

"I can't wait," he says.

By Andy Richardson