Maverick Michigan musician and singer-songwriter HENRY DOSS, at the age of 47, turned his back on his career in banking with the intention of boldly making a name for himself with his music. By the fantastically unique sounds of the material he has so far produced - both on his own back, and in collaboration with Hull's own soul-baring songwriter extraordinaire Emma Rugg - he might just realise such a dream sooner rather than later. Here 'JUXTA!' is proud to catch up with Henry and his inspirational story so far...
HI HENRY, HOW ARE YOU?
Wonderful! I'm sitting in my office at home, staring out the window at several feet of snow, Absolutely beautiful!
YOU A SINGER-SONGWRITER FROM MICHIGAN IN THE USA. PLEASE TELL US A LITTLE BIT MORE ABOUT YOURSELF...
Briefly, I was born in Johnson City TN, raised as a kid in Marion VA and then spent most of my adult life in Charlotte NC. Moved to Pittsburgh, PA in 1997 and then "Up North" in Michigan a couple of years ago. I spent most of my working life as a banker, and retired in 2002 from my job as Senior Vice President, Retail Banking, PNC Financial Services. Along the way, I was very active in politics here in the States, in the Democratic Party, raised two children (two daughters, Catherine and Elizabeth), nurtured the single most wonderful marriage in the world (to my gorgeous wife, Christine), traveled and generally had a pretty good time. Oddly enough, I only took up music seriously about four years ago, a couple of years before I retired from banking. I played guitar for a couple of years when I was a teenager (like everyone in the 70s!) but quit and went to work. On the spur of the moment in the summer of 1999, I bought a used Gibson Nighthawk and a Peavey practice amp, took it home, turned it up and played an Emaj chord as loud as I could. I thought it was the most wonderful sound in the world! So I just started playing, and then I started writing, and so on. The rest of that story remains to be written...
HAVING WORKED IN THE BANKING BUSINESS BEFORE SETTING OUT TO MAKE A SERIOUS GO OF SONG-WRITING, DO YOU THINK THE BUSINESS OF BANKING AND THE MUSIC INDUSTRY SHARE ANYTHING IN COMMON?
Probably. If you mentally separate "music industry" from "music" the answer is yes. That is both banking and the music industry exist for one purpose, and one purpose only. And that is to make money. In that dimension, they are basically the same thing . . . business models that create products and services that they want to sell at a profit. I don't have any fundamental problem with any of that. But there's a whole other dimension called "music" and that's the world where really important things happen that you can't really measure in financial terms. This is where you might put heart and soul into a word or two, or a melody or something that at a fundamental level is "important." This is where the artist lives. And this is where I want to be. Where the problems occur is when these two worlds collide, and the "art" gets transformed into the "product." Somehow, we need a better dialogue between "art" and "profit" and we need to create ways that music (and all art forms, for that matter) can find a place to prosper. This is kind of the Holy Grail of music and industry, from the artist's perspective.
WHAT COMPELLED YOU TO QUIT BANKING AND TURN YOUR ATTENTIONS TO SONGWRITING?
You know, to this day I really don't have a clue. When I think about how improbable it is to do this, I'm still a little mystified. But I do remember when I wrote my first song (one that I recorded as a demo, but it has not survived beyond that stage!). It was a song about my eighth birthday, a trip my dad took me on, and what was, I believe -- really -- a mystical experience. The only one of my life. I worked really hard on the lyrics and the melody and all that, and finished it and played it for a guy I'd gotten to know at my local guitar store. Right now I can remember him saying "That's pretty good." What I heard was that something I'd written had actually "connected" in some small way, and that what I'd felt and experienced had somehow gotten across to another human being. Something about that experience compelled me to keep on doing this. And I still am.
Thirsty for more? Read on here...