Concert preview: Career changes not ‘Dangerous Things’ to Dan Layus

It's the first week of January, and Dan Layus is on the phone, explaining the changes in mentality and practices he needed to make in order to transition from his former band, Augustana, to writing his first solo album, "Dangerous Things," when, suddenly, the shrieks of his three young children marauding through the room interrupt him midsentence.

"It's a snow day here in Nashville. The kids are really excited," Layus explains sheepishly. "You can't go out in sandals, sweetheart! Our 5-year-old is trying to go out in sandals."

Two inches of snow on a day in January doesn't move the needle in Utah, but in Layus' new world in Tennessee, it's yet another momentous change to process and adjust to.

But they're all changes he's been happy to make, especially as they have subsequently enabled him to fall back into the familiar routine of touring the country to play his music to audiences, including a Friday stop at The State Room in Salt Lake City.

First came the lifelong Californian's sojourn to the South: "Nashville just really has a nice space to it. … My wife and I have three kids, and we were raising them in L.A., and it just felt like we wanted to get some open space and some fresh air and a little more room for them. That's proven to be pretty fantastic for us, as well."

Then came the inevitable stylistic shift from Augustana's alt-pop to Nashville country, even if Layus maintains the change in geography did not alone precipitate the change in genre.

"Yeah, I think this [would have] happened whether I was in Nashville or not. I think something was in the air," he said. "… This is nothing new for me as far as what I've listened to over the years, as far as what I've been influenced by. … In some ways, I was just being more thoughtful about what it was I was creating, and it felt very natural and authentic and just sort of seeped out."

The biggest adjustments for Layus along the path to making "Dangerous Things" involved altering his songwriting habits.

At the behest of his old label, he'd spent much of his latter days in Augustana crafting tunes with teams of collaborators. Once he decided to put the band to bed and do a solo record, Layus said he was compelled to handle all the heavy lifting himself on his music once again.

"I felt that I needed to relearn how to write by myself again; I needed to take that crutch away of relying on somebody else's ideas for the day and try to work out the thread on my own," he said. "And that proved to be a really invigorating experience, and challenging, of course."

The irony is that in spite of Layus taking a more hands-on approach to this album than he has in recent years, it is, in many ways, perhaps his least personal, due to a shift away from his usual subject matter.

"I'd written so much in a journal-type, diary-type way over the years, with a very self-involved songwriting quality — I guess I'm a little self-involved as a person! However, I wanted to break out of that," he said. "I remember sending songs over to my manager, another one about me, another one about me and my wife, or whatever it was, or me and my career, or my shortfalls, or whatever, and he said, 'I love you, but can you please write a song about somebody else for once? Make a story up.' … So I kinda went on a tear of writing songs about other people and other things and made-up characters — and also nonfictional characters, people I know in my life — creating a landscape that wasn't just about me and myself."

The same mentality Layus applied to changing up the lyrical content carried over to the music, as well.

Years of doing things in a certain fashion suddenly gave way to new ideas and new challenges. The result is that "Dangerous Things" has a simple, sparse, stripped-down vibe.

"I was coming off so many records with so much, for lack of a better word, sonic production — I think, at times, unnecessary and oversaturated production — with my previous band, and I felt like maybe it was time to kind of burn the house down and start from scratch sonically, as well," he said. "I'd had stripped-down songs on albums, but I'd never cut a whole record with no rhythm section. … There were a lot of moments where I thought, 'OK, I could put drums on this, I could put bass on this. Even a shaker. Something!' But … you get yourself in a mindset of, 'I'm going to create these rules and restrictions to contain myself to not overdoing it.' And so, that's what I did. I made myself limited to two instruments on any one song. 'There's gonna be acoustic guitar and pedal-steel, or there's gonna be a piano and a fiddle, but there will never be anything more than that.' "

Layus recognizes there's a certain irony in him becoming a more dynamic musician as a result of simplifying his process. It's yet another change in his life, but certainly nothing to make a fuss about.

Unlike, say, a snow day in Nashville.

ewalden@sltrib.com

Twitter: @esotericwalden

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Dan Layus

When • Friday night; doors at 8, show at 9

Where • The State Room, 638 S. State St., Salt Lake City

Tickets • $22; Ticketfly