Savanna Dickhut is a local singer / songwriter known for both her solo work under the name Burr Oak, as well as her work with the phenomenal folk-rock ensemble Elk Walking, which she co-leads with her collaborator Julian Daniell. Elk Walking is debuting their brand new single “Over the Hills” on Chicago Crowd Surfer this Halloween and Savanna was gracious enough to sit down with our features interviewer Mick Reed to talk about the new release, her inspirations, and writing style. Check out the interview and the world premier single below, streaming everywhere on Nov. 1st. 

-Mick Reed

(The conversation has been edited form the original transcript for both clarity and brevity.)

CCS: Thank you for the interview Savanna, it’s a pleasure to speak with you about your upcoming premier. 

Savanna Dickhut: For sure. 

CCS: Let’s get some preliminary stuff out of the way. The name of the band is Elk Walking. That name is so perfect for capturing the mountainous, folky vibe of what you and Julian (Daniell) have cultivated. How did you come up with that name? 

Savanna: I think Julian having been born and raised in Boulder does effect the sound. The name has a much more spontaneous origin. 

CCS: Are you named after a mountain tail or something? 

Savanna: Haha. No, I was actually listening to a lot of Grizzly Bear at the time and that’s actually what inspired it. I wanted an animal name and Elk Walking is something that we came up with together and it worked for the project. 
Before we were Elk Walking we called ourselves The Weather. But we realized that it was hard to Google a name like that, and there was already a band with that name. But no one had done anything with elk. It tacked on the word “Walking” and Julian said he would sleep on it. He woke up still liking it so it stuck.

CCS: Elk are somewhat mysterious aren’t they? Almost mystical even. 

Savanna: Yes! They really are animals associated with a lot of mysticism and spiritualism. Which works for us because both Julian and I are very spiritual people. Julian will go up to the mountains and hike for a few weeks and contemplate life. I feel like that’s a very elk like thing to do. I will meditate, or try to. Julian is pretty good at that as well. He has a thing called a singing bowl from Nepal which he used every morning during meditation while he was over there. I’m not that dedicated. I usually just do yoga and meditate when I can. 

CCS: What is a singing bowl? That is a new concept to me. 

Savanna: It’s a metal bowl that you use to create a harmonic tone by running a wooden rod around the edge. It’s a lot like when you run your figure around the rim of a water glass. When they do it with glass though, you can end up with a piercing sound, but with the bowl you get a lovely tone. I think Julian’s produces a perfect A major note. It’s very cool. You have to find the right groove on it but the hum of it is very calming. 

CCS: The music that you and Julian have written for Elk Walking has a really classic sound, which feels like it has always sort of been there. I usually associate that kind of feeling with the 90’s, especially that era’s alternative folk like Ani DiFranco. How did you two come up with such a timeless sound? 

Savanna: Both Julian and I listen to very different things, but for me, I grew up listening to a lot of folk music like Bob Dylan and Joni Mitchell. It was in my 20s that I started listening to more rock ‘n roll like the Stone and the White Stripes. Julian prefers soul music and doesn’t listen to a lot of contemporary music. 

CCS: That’s really interesting, because one of the artists that came to mind while I was listening to your music was Joni Mitchell. She has a very mature blend of rock, pop, jazz, and country which I find descriptive of your sound as well. 

Savanna: Hell yeah, I love Joni. And yes, we are going for a vintage sound, especially on the new single. The new single is more 70’s rock ‘n roll. I wouldn’t say its classic rock, but it’s got that vibe. 

CCS: The new single “Over the Hills,” which will premier here on Chicago Crowd Surfer on October 31st. Is it from a forthcoming album, or will it be a standalone single? 

Savanna: No, as of now it is just the single. Recording an album is something we’d like to get back into the studio to do, but right now we’re just releasing the single. Premiered on Halloween, and available for steaming on Nov. 1st. 
We’ve been playing the song for over a year at our shows, and people know it pretty well at this point. It’s a good representation of what we sound like as a band at this point. We’ve been drifting towards becoming a rock band, but the folk elements are still there as well. 

CCS: Yeah, it is different than your past material, from Between Us and your early singles “Drift On” and “Out of My Mind.” I really love the album art for all three of those releases as well. Were they done by the same person? 

Savanna: Yes! That’s Mairead Zigulich. I love her artwork. She was a friend of our producer and when I saw her Instagram I realized that I wanted to use her work for our album art. It was so colorful! Both the covers for “Drift On” and “Out of My Mind” were works that I bought from her and then the cover for Between Us was made specifically for the album. It you look closely you can see that the cover of Between Us is actually two faces. 

CCS: And Between Us is an album about two people learning to come to terms with each other, and themselves, within a relationship, right? 

Savanna: It doesn’t have to be about that, but that’s a true interpretation of it. It’s very much about people being to love, falling out of love, it’s pretty relatable. 

CCS: The music on that album is something I would describe as very earnest, and straightforward, and I think it works in juxtaposition with the art because the image is so abstract. 

Savanna: Yeah, I love that painting. I have it at my house and look at it every day. And it works for the music, because a lot of our songs have direct meanings, but they are also open to interpretation. It can be about what every a specific person wants it to be about. 

CCS: How important is authenticity to you in music? 

Savanna: Very important. I think to be genuine, real, and vulnerable helps listeners get to know you and relate to your music. We don’t want to hold anything back or pretend to be something we’re not. 

CCS: Is most of the inspiration from your songs drawn from your lived experience? 

Savanna: A lot of what we write about comes from our personal lives. Being in a duo is so interesting, even though we write separately, we always come together and show each other the songs we’ve written and bounce ideas off each other. For instance, on Between Us, he wrote 5 and I wrote 5, and then we brought them together to form a cohesive album.  All of the songs were drawn from our personal experiences. 

CCS: Is that still the approach you had while writing “Over the Hills”?

Savanna: That song, is less from personal experience. “Over the Hills” is a story Julian made up about burying their lover on a hill. I love singing the song. It’s dark, but I don’t interpret it in a literal sense. When I sing the song I approach it as an extreme metaphor for dealing with a break up, rather than a literal death. You are burying your lover so that you can move on, not because they literally died. I think to Julian it is more literally about a gruesome death. But it’s open to interpretation. As a writer, I am more direct: I had a relationship and now I’m going to write about. I can be more obvious about what I’m talking about when I’m writing, especially for Burr Oak, but with Elk Walking, I meet Julian half way to write abstractly. Julian will create a story, sort of a David Bowie thing where he will write from the perspective of a Ziggy Stardust character, and go outside of himself and write something there. But there is still a part of himself that is intertwined with that character, so it’s still coming from a place of authenticity.  

CCS: When you perform in Chicago, what are some of your favorite venues? 

Savanna: Julian and I both love Schubas. The Hideout is great. Space in Evanston is such a nice venue, the sound is great, we played there opening for a band and everyone there was so lovely and hospitable. 

CCS: You definitely seem like a band that is best experienced in an intimate club or theater space. 

Savanna: You’re right about that. 

CCS: One last question: since you don’t have a release show lined up for the new single, I’d like to know, what is your dream Chicago bill? If there were two or three local bands you’d like to have on the bill with you on a given night, who would they be? 

Savanna: All local bill? Rookie and Jungle Green. Those are two band that sound really good and I think would sound good with Elk Walking. That’s a hard question though, there are just so many great bands in the scene. Rookie is very classic rock sounding and Jungle Green is something out of the Lou Reed school of 60s and 70s song writing. But there are so many others that who would be good to play with as well. 
Both Julian and I have been so busy with our own projects, it’s one of the reasons we didn’t get a show together for the release. I love Julian like a brother but I it’s good to have the creative space. I think of it like Adrianne Lenker, she has a great solo record and her band Big Thief just released an album that is amazing as well. A lot of indie bands are doing this sort of thing. Phoebe Bridgers for instance, she has a career and is also in boygenius and Better Oblivion Community Center. It’s cool to be able to have multiple projects and creative outlets. 
Julian’s project is coming along great by the way. I stopped by his place recently to wish him happy birthday and was able to listen to some of the demos. The lap steel sounds phenomenal. As for Burr Oak, I’ll be headed into the studio with my band to record an LP later this year. 

 CCS: That’s exciting news Savanna. I’m looking forward to hearing both those project once they’re ready to be released. Thank you so much for your time today, this was a great conversation. 

 Savanna: No problem. It was my pleasure.