Three Q's with Dan Tedesco

Dan Tedesco is a singer-songwriter performing at 7 p.m. Thursday at Lefty's, 2307 University Ave.

Q: The last time I interviewed you, you had recently moved to Des Moines. How is it working as a homebase for a touring musician?

It's worked out really well. When we first moved here my initial thought was that it would be a pretty efficient place to live, being so central. It's worked out exactly the way I hoped and planned it would. It's a wonderful location for building touring circuits without having to go out for two months at a time. I'm able to hit three or four different regions very easily and hit most of what I need to hit in two to two and a half week runs.

Q: Any stand-out experiences from the recent tour?

There was a funny experience at the Saxon Pub in Austin. I was in the middle of my set and this guy wandered on stage from the stage access door. I caught him in my peripheral vision and he had an accordion on. He looked kind of gnarly. I looked at the sound engineer and thought he was coming up to get rid of the guy. Next thing I knew, he was setting up a mic for him.

He started playing and it was absolutely fantastic. I had him stay up the remainder of my set. Turns out he was one of the musicians who had played before me and liked what I was doing. I tried to get him to sit in for another night because it was really wonderful.

Q: What will you be doing while you're back in Des Moines?

I've been doing a lot of writing and demoing things here at home. This is nothing official, but I just put together a batch of songs in a lo-fi manner. I like the way they turned out sonically, vs. how they would sound in a studio and I'm going back on forth on releasing something. The concept is a three-part release, almost three EPs, doing six or seven songs in the fall, then again in the spring and next summer.