Dan Wilson Interview: Co-writer of Adele Songs and Semisonic Frontman

Photo by Melanie Nisson

When an opportunity came along to interview Dan Wilson for PopMatters recently, I jumped at the chance to discuss his newly Grammy-fied work with Adele as well as have a chat just being a fan of his 90s band, Semisonic.  It was a good ice breaker to be able to say pointedly how I was a proud owner of a Semisonic cassette back in the day, so with a chuckle of generational recognition we began the game of question and answer.  After the last prepared subject of his own work, I asked Wilson how he was going to find the time to finish his next album.  He told a story of a friend who ran into Bob Dylan at some nondescript grocery store, telling the icon how much he admired the music, etc.  Dylan reportedly turned to the guy and said, "No time for nobody."  Wilson laughed as he obviously related to the simple feeling of being way too busy, which in the world of music is a very good thing indeed.  

While doing my research, I came across a commencement address Wilson gave in 2009 at the MacNally Smith College of Music in his hometown state of Minnesota.  I just love his idea of jumping in the pool, whatever your pool may be... the world is constantly changing but there are still those who are going for it and those who stand around looking in, it's a choice to be made on a daily basis.

Link to interview on PopMatters here.