Healthy Baby

Hailing out of Chicago, the band Healthy White Baby will be playing at Second Story Nov. 4. The three-member band boasts sounds of alternative rock, and the name comes from a line in the Cohen brothers' "Raising Arizona." Lead singer, songwriter and guitarist Danny Black pulls lead vocal duty and the other two members, Laurie Stirratt and Ryan Juravic, provide instrumentals and backup vocals. Black took time out of HWB's touring schedule to chat with us about the band, their influences and their eponymous album. \nWEEKEND: How did you and Laurie come to decide to start a band?\nDanny Black: Laurie moved to Chicago and we found ourselves both working at The Hideout, this great Chicago bar. We drank and listened to songs together. It seemed the obvious thing to do.\nWK: I realize that you are the dominating feature of this album. Is there a reason for this?\nDB: That's very astute of you to pick up on that. Well, most of the songs on the record were all written/arranged prior to Ryan and Laurie joining, so there were some parts that needed to be played how I wrote them. I'm sure on the next record, which will be done in March, they'll have their meat hooks all over the songs.\nWK: What were some of your influences growing up?\nDB: Unfortunately, I grew up in the 80s. Thank God for the classic rock radio stations that played the same 42 songs. That's where I found CCR (Creedence Clearwater Revival), Cream, (Led) Zeppelin, The Doors, which led to Howlin' Wolf, Ledbelly, John Hurt and Otis Redding. Then I heard the Velvet Underground. Then I found a Hank Williams 24 Golden Hits in an apartment and was changed by that. Woody Allen movies turned me on to Louis Armstrong and jazz. Then this crazy girl who was from Indiana gave me Tom Waits' Frank's Wild Years and that blew me away! I thought that was a whole new kind of music in a time when I thought that there couldn't be a new kind of music.\nWK: On the album, there is a very awesome yet angsty song called "Soul." What exactly was the revelation for this song? \nDB: Thank you very much. The only thing I can say about the song is I'd just gotten out of an extremely destructive relationship and I even stopped drinking to clear my head. I told myself there is no fucking way I'm ever getting myself into a relationship like that again; I'll kill myself first. Then four months later I ended up in an even worse relationship. Now it's funny, though.\nWK: The last song on the album, "Home," takes quite a turn from the first nine angsty songs. Did you mean to do that?\nDB: Yes, I meant to do that. I'm very happily married now, which worked out well because I was really sick of writing those depressing songs about misery and deception, but I still wanted to release those songs. I'd been experimenting with writing happy songs. It was a foreign thing to do but I just listened to a lot of Paul McCartney songs and I think I got the hang of it. "Home" fit in musically at the end of the record and I also wanted to end the record on a good note, because I'm in a good mood now.