Dananananaykroyd | Artist Profile

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Dananananaykroyd | Artist Profile

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ARTIST INTERVIEW

Access All Areas.net.au: Hey David, how’s it going?
David: Yeah pretty good thanks…
Access All Areas.net.au: Congratulations on your debut album! How are you guys taking the excitement so far?
David: Yeah it feels like actually having something like that out makes touring so much easier. Yeah yeah we totally like it…I never thought I’d get to complete it…In the take between recording the album, really wishing it was out already…finally came out.
Access All Areas.net.au: With ‘Hey Everyone’, is there a specific message you’re sending out to your audience?
David: I think the only message is about having fun and enjoying everything you can. Certainly not any grand political message…it’s kind of a message pretty much for anyone else listening to the album.
Access All Areas.net.au: Which songs on the album are most meaningful to you?
David: There’s a song called ‘Totally Bone’ on it, which was written maybe four years ago or something…that’s the only song that’s actually pre-date the band.
Access All Areas.net.au: What was the inspiration behind the song?
David: I just wrote the music for it, the guys wrote the lyrics…I’m Vegan so it makes it quite strange. The song’s about hunting animals and having a celebratory sex afterwards (laugh), that’s the main idea of it…weird idea for fun as well, quite a strange topic for a song.
Access All Areas.net.au: You guys will be playing at Splendour in the Grass festival in Sydney! What would this tour mean to you?
David: Just it feels totally insane to have the opportunity to come all the way across the world and play some shows. I’ve got two cousins in Australia who are gonna come down to the festival I think. Yeah it just feels like you wouldn’t ever dream that we’d get to go all the way to Australia.
Access All Areas.net.au: Which songs are you dying to play?
David: I think ‘Totally Bone’ again, but also ‘Some Dresses’. We’re playing a few songs quite a lot...We don’t ever get sick of playing ‘Some Dresses’, we’ve got a few tricks for the middle of that song, which get the crowd going a bit more. I’m always waiting during the set to get to play that and it also gets a little bit easier after that…usually (laugh).

Access All Areas.net.au: You’ll be performing with Sydney band, Regular John at Splendour, are there any more surprises in store for the show?
David: I don’t know too much…but we’re totally delighted to be going over. I think we’re supposed to be playing a separate show before Splendour in the Grass festival just to get acclimatised and get settled, haven’t been told much about that yet.
Access All Areas.net.au: It’s interesting that the essence of the band and your music is based on your captivating live performances. We don’t see that often in the music industry nowadays. Is it always easy to keep each show as fresh as previous gigs?
David: I think sometimes the bigger shows, you feel worried about keeping the energy up but I think the fun that comes from the shows is as much for us as it’s for people watching. I kind of feel bad when I think about other bands that are going through it and really not enjoy playing live so much. I think that’s really…I mean truly, not definitely the worst thing you can be doing but there’s times when it’s quite hard. As we know to have fun when we’re on stage, just keep everyone upbeat…We didn’t think…when we started the band that we wanted to be fun live, but since we even started thinking about that stuff, it actually comes quite naturally. It’s hard not to be jumping about and having fun.
Access All Areas.net.au: What was your most memorable experience of performing live so far?
David: We’ve played at a place called the Barrowlands in Glasgow, which is close to where I grew up and everything and it’s where I saw loads of bands as a teenager…like total grunge, classic gigs and sort of mid-90s…there’s a nice old ballroom…and we haven’t played in Glasgow for quite a long time before that…one gig…went remarkably well…I guess it was kind of like because you’re a local band…it was just insane.

Access All Areas.net.au: Does touring help to inspire the creative process of new songs?
David: I think it has…I’m not really enjoying the idea when a band releases an album they have had their whole lives to record, that’s the classic idea and then the second album’s about being miserable in tour buses and hotels. I feel like it’s a pretty tired subject, not exactly an exciting one to start with. But we’ve just started some new songs since the album. We haven’t toured all that much…I don’t know we have to wait and see how the touring affects the rest of the band but there’s some demos being done and passed among ourselves…Yeah it sounded good to me.

Access All Areas.net.au: Is the experience of touring live, compared to recording in the studio very different for you?
David: Yeah yeah it felt…we’ve always recorded…in Glasgow so it was like a favour, no other money changed hands so it wasn’t like there’s a production or anything, it was like just getting the songs down. Strangely, felt more pressure doing that I think, feels like someone’s making favour and everything…and it’s totally amazing…but from recording the album, our producer Machine in New York, he was really keen on a sort of live atmosphere in the studio, he feels quite intensely about studio-playing and feels like most of the record just sounds dull because no one’s excited as we’re recording them so he was like part-producer and part-cheerleader in the studio…We just try and make everything as fun as we can. Even the aspects of the band that people don’t enjoy so much, just try your best to make it fun…and having Machine there cheering us on, feel like we’ve got the results we want.

Access All Areas.net.au: 1993 sounds rather different than other songs on the album, the dynamics change slightly towards the end of the song, what was the inspiration behind this song?
David: I think even the start sounds quite different, a little bit more sort of 70’s rock thing going on…I think the lyrics at the end of it…it’s kind of what I’ve been talking before about trying to find the best in everything…those frustrations…and turn them into our songs…

Access All Areas.net.au: How’s it like when you guys get together to write songs?
David: Usually I’ll come up with a basic idea for a song. Sometimes it’s more developed and sometimes it’s less developed…just come into the studio and write. It doesn’t take that long, kind of like walks in the parks…It takes like one rehearsal, one three-hour rehearsal and the song’s pretty much set. John and Calum have been working on vocals before so it’s been quite fast so far…

Access All Areas.net.au: What has been the most challenging part so far in your music experience?
David: We were on a tour with the Kaiser Chiefs in Europe and our tour bus broke down in France…it actually broke down in an industrial estate. There was no shops and there was no proper-working toilet. We were stuck for…I think it was total thirty hours in the end. (Laugh) on our tour bus…there was some food but it was all sweets and crisps…so it was like everyone getting grumpy and not eating properly. We became a bit sugar high on sweets and soft drinks…In the morning we got to eat some pizza after…It was the greatest pizza we’ve ever tasted. So that was probably the worst.

Access All Areas.net.au: You’ve mentioned in another interview with that success is hard to come by financially, and that your music is not exactly radio-playlist material, would you have it any other way, or would you change the direction of your music in the future?
David: No I don’t think we would. I mean we’re naturally gonna change a bit anyway but I don’t think we’re gonna be mortgage-rock like band, like when you get a mortgage and you have to write hit songs after like a mortgage sort of thing. I think we will change for the second album and we’re kinda talking about…what we might want to change to but we don’t think it’s gonna affect it too much…I feel like we’re getting a lot more radio airplay than we ever thought we would so it would become less of an issue. Like my cousin, the one I mentioned before has been messaging me on Facebook that he’s heard us on the radio in Australia, which seems ridiculous to me but yeah I think we’re getting more airplay than we initially expected.

Access All Areas.net.au: So will your next album be ‘fight-pop’ as well?
David: Yeah, we feel like whatever we do will be what we define as ‘fight-pop’ (laugh) we found the idea so mostly, yeah.

Access All Areas.net.au: Lastly, what would you like to shout out to your fans?
David: Well I’m very hopeful…and thanks, thanks for listening to our music.

Access All Areas.net.au: Thank you, David. See you soon!

Interview by Sandy Tan

ARTIST BIOGRAPHY

After causing a ruckus at South by Southwest and being named “The Best Live Band in Britain”, DANANANANAYKROYD are now looking to unleash their live show (at Splendour 09) and debut album in Australia (via Dew Process). The six-piece from Glasgow have demolished all stereotypes of the post-hardcore/indie-rock scene to the UK in 2008. NME attempted to capture their sound by comparing the band to Sonic Youth, At The Drive-In and Fugazi after the UK-only 2008 release of their mini-LP “Sissy Hits”. Australia will be introduced to this powerful and rocking indie pop in the coming months and, if the critical acclaim in the UK is anything to go by, Aussies will be screaming for them before they can pronounce the band’s name (Dana-nana-naykroyd). The band’s ferocious excitement was captured by producer Machine (Lamb of God, Fall Out Boy) on their New York recorded debut album Hey Everyone that is set to smack our shores in the second half of this year. Having already completed a hectic support schedule sharing the stage with the likes of Kaiser Chiefs, Foals and The Futureheads the band have scored the kind of press that would make others weep including being called “the best fucking live band on the face of the fucking planet” by Clash Magazine.

www.myspace.com/dananananaykroyd

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