We were lucky to catch up with Daniel Crisp recently and have shared our conversation below.

Alright, Daniel thanks for taking the time to share your stories and insights with us today. Can you open up about a risk you’ve taken – what it was like taking that risk, why you took the risk and how it turned out?

I worked as a bartender in a small town for several years. The monotony of it ate at my soul after a while. I felt life had little meaning and my potential for life decreasing with each passing day. I read a lot of books about adventure and esoterism. The narratives always seemed to suggest that a main character could succeed against all odds with just a willingness and a little bit of faith. I wanted an epic adventure of my own and was starting to realize life wasn’t going to put one in my lap. I had a longboard I loaded down with camping gear, a road atlas (this was prior to smartphones), and a backpack with clothes and other things. I had a strong staff with large rubber balls on either end that helped me balance and worked a lot like a paddle. My longboard was extralong at 46″ inches. I got a good friend of mine to drop me off in north Knoxville about an hour from home and I set off into the night for California, or however far I could get. I ended up traveling with a guy all over the country. He picked me up in Louisville, Kentucky when I was feeling about ready to give up while sitting exhausted outside a gas station. “Hey what’s your story?”, as he jumped to the little concrete parking-space barrier and set perched like a bird. I gave him the brief rundown, “You want to go to Texas?” he asked. I agreed with enthusiasm and in all I think we spent about two weeks together. Oddly we shared the same name and other not so obvious parallels. He had a lot of money compared to me; we stayed in nice hotels and tried out several bars in every town between Louisville and Dallas. On our last night together, we were in a hotel hot tub in Fort Worth when the ladies rodeo team came in. It was like a scene from a movie, and I was in it! The whole experience really showed me that when we take a leap of faith the universe or God, something on the other end of the void will at least sometimes catch us. That little voice inside that beckons you to strife for towards something is in a way a compass. I never really spoke to him after that. Last i saw he had been riding motorcycles across South America. Goals.

Daniel, before we move on to more of these sorts of questions, can you take some time to bring our readers up to speed on you and what you do?

The Merlin’s Nest begin originally as a wildlife photography project that morphed into a band after a previous project I was in fell apart. It was a mash-up of members from bands I had played with over the last decade or so of playing music in the greater Knoxville area. The name derives from my admiration of life and the many wonders of the mind and experience of consciousness. The wizard’s nest is the seat of one’s mind; the very center of one’s awareness. It is the place in all of us that is aware of thoughts and feelings that encroach the psyche like arrows from a void. This wizard is charged with raising our orphaned meat suits. From the wizard is born dreams for what is possible with our lives. A wizard’s currency is our attention, the most valuable thing we posses as living beings. Where we decide to pay our attention can alter the outcomes of our character and thus our lives. “Character is fate,” as stated by Gus in The Lonesome Dove. It’s rare, if ever, that any of us have control over the happenings of our lives, but our character and how we choose to interact with the world is the one thing we can control. I simply must create art. If I don’t I feel I will surely wither and perish in short order. My dreams for what The Merlin’s Nest might one day become center around telling a story through visual art, music and dialogue hinting to the magic present within every seemingly normal moment of everyday awareness. Our performances center around positive vibes and comradery. We may be merely the hired entertainment where ever you might see us out, but we hope to bring a sense of familiarity, mystery \, and belonging like that only found at home, in nature, or amongst close friends.

Can you share a story from your journey that illustrates your resilience?

Full disclosure, I am type 1 bipolar. At times the simplest of tasks cane be a real challenge. There is an immense amount of personal investment involved with starting your own band. I work a full-time job that’s physically demanding and getting through a typical day of work is often mentally taxing. In The Merlin’s Nest band, I am the bass. lead guitar and singer. I also do all the writing, booking, and marketing for the band. I’m not even sure where I find time, but lack of sleep likely helps to some degree. I also live more than an hour away from Knoxville where our band is based. On the weekend it’s common to find me sleeping in my car in order to save myself from having to drive back and forth. Typically, all the work I do creatively cost more than it brings in. The only reason I have been able to keep this up is from sheer perseverance. Sometimes my never-ceasing internal dialogue is my worst enemy and even when it’s not it can sometimes encourage delusional thinking about “divine purposes” and all that. There is also a tiny voice whispering in my mind that all my struggles have meaning, and the cause is worth all the sacrifice and work, even if i don’t fully comprehend the ‘why’.

Is there a particular goal or mission driving your creative journey?

I try to remind myself often that it’s important that I don’t take myself too seriously. I’ve got a laundry list of personal goals and I feel I have to be careful not to mix them with every creative endeavor I take part in. This is especially true with the band I feel, as there are other members in the band that might not align with every single one of my personal goals and beliefs. This also extends to any fans we might have. As humans we don’t typically go to a seedy bar to see a band play because we want to be preached to about the singer’s personal beliefs, especially politically. Understanding this has helped form my goal of making the Merlin’s Nest something that blurs borders; something that feels good when you’re in it for being mysterious and fresh, yet familiar in all the right ways, like a good cup of coffee at a stranger’s house that tastes a little like home. for basically all my life all I’ve ever wanted and prayed for is to somehow be of service to my family and all of humanity. So much so that I often bite off more than i can chew and for that reason or another I have failed many, many times in my life. I read once, +the highest title one can achieve is that of a true friend”. I can’t’ remember who, perhaps it was Winnie the Pooh, but that sounds pretty alright to me. So, to answer the question pointedly, I just hope to become more genuine as an artist and a person, a true friend to humanity.

Contact Info:

• Instagram: @the_merlins-nest
• Facebook: The Merlin’s Nest

Image Credits
Daniel T Crisp