Dane Page Confronts Life, Love and Loss on New EP
Folk singer-songwriter's latest project is his most personal
Dane Page has been going through lots of changes in his life. With a new baby born in November 2022 and an even more recent move to Mooresville, one would think that he’s got plenty of inspiration for new music. But that’s just not how things work in the music industry.
The singer/songwriter took his time on his latest EP release, Fill the Fractures, a project consisting of four tracks that were all pretty much written by the time that COVID hit.
Luckily, Page had just finished building a home studio at the time the first stay-at-home orders were issued, so he went to work on Fill the Fractures. The first in a trilogy of EPs that Page has planned, the project sees Page at his most personal.
Having in the past taken a broader view of modern life, sprinkling in references to his interests in American history, English literature and the like, Fill the Fractures finds him ruminating on love and loss in a more introspective way following his marriage in November 2019.
Despite having lived with his wife Heather for years before the nuptials, he found that marriage brought new challenges, however welcome they were.
“There’s like a dynamic shift, something happens and it’s just like, ‘Alright, we’re in it,’” he explained. “It’s like learning how to love someone else whenever you don’t even feel like loving yourself that day, but you’ve still got to be there. You’ve still got to show up.”
Page has fine-tuned the folky sound his fans are used to, adding depth and a bit of darkness with the track “Don’t Bury Me in Roses,” in which he contemplates his own death now that he has a family.
In the song, he insists that people not dwell on him if he were to go, but instead spread love to and support his family.
Page said he has a fear of death that can keep him up nights, and he’s worked on confronting that in his life and songwriting as he’s created his family.
“I make jokes whenever I play live, where I’m like, ‘You get married, and the next thing you think about is death,’” he said. “I know it’s a joke, but it’s kind of true. And you start thinking about things in life a little bit differently.
“There’s no life without death, there’s no love without death, and that’s what makes it so important who you spend your days with.”
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