Part of tour is being willing and open to the unexpected. We played a nice little set at Knust in Hamburg — but Hanna from K&F said that her friend was going to come and see the show. I noticed a slim man with wild dark hair watching in the middle, nodding along. This turned out to be her friend Dave Doughman

He grew up in rural Ohio, and moved to Dayton (my hometown) after falling in love with records by Brainiac and the Pixies. He quickly fell into the scene as an engineer, then as an artist himself. He makes music under the name Swearing at Motorists, and he toured with some of our personal songwriting heroes during his time signed to Secretly Canadian. But, to keep this from sounding like a resume, I’ll just say this: he’s full of stories, love for songs and songwriting, and a bounding enthusiasm for supporting artists and art in the middle of a chaotic world.

After the show, he made us an offer we couldn’t refuse: “want to come see my recording studio in the football stadium 5 minutes away?”

And all the sudden, we were walking on the field. 30,000 people gather there every game, and they had just finished a winning season — they would be moving up to the Bundesliga next year due to their success, and he described the city as collectively sleeping off a hangover from the massive celebrations. Just two days prior, he had played for a crowd of 50,000 revelers — “St. Pauli Til I Die” was the hook.

And then we were in the studio overlooking the field as artists pained “water is life” on the field, while phrases like “no human is illegal” and “no football for fascists” adorn the stadium. Even during losing seasons, they stood for the right things — this is what made Dave such a fan of the club over his past 20 years in the country, eventually finding work there.

As part of his job with the club, he teaches music lessons to kids in the space overlooking the field. I kept looking at our night’s host Andre, a fan of the club, as if to ask, “is this as cool as I think it is?” His eyes would meet mine as if to say, “absolutely.”