Interview with Dave Burn (vocals) and David Green (drums) from Detroit Social Club before their supporting act set for Twisted Wheel at the Rescue Rooms, Nottingham (18/05/09)
So how are you finding the tour so far? DG: It’s good, really enjoying it - it’s been getting better and better. It’s all very calm; we’re on top of our game, physically and mentally I’d say.
DB: It took a while to get going, because we’ve been writing the album, it’s been such an intense writing period. It’s weird getting used to going on tour because you go through very transient stages; you’ve got to be a writer, which is a very sensible, ‘in the zone’ kind of thing, and then you have to be an entertainer. It’s only the fifth date but it’s good, I’ve never really heard Twisted Wheel but their fans seem really up for it so it’s been good, enjoyable.
How have you got on with Twisted Wheel and The Answering Machine?DB: I haven’t had much chance as I’ve been having trouble with my throat, the last tour I was losing my voice because I was shouting too much, and smoking and smoking and that, so this tour has been a proper health kick, literally I’ve been coming off stage before I can talk to anyone. If you watch a band, people talk to you and that, and I don’t like to be rude and say “I can’t talk to because of my throat” – that just sounds crap, so I’ve just been getting out of there, but (the rest of the band) have been out with them a couple of times.
DG: They’re younger than I thought actually, but they’re really good lads. They seem quite interested in us though actually which is really good. Some bands keep themselves to themselves but they’ve been really friendly.
DB: I think there’s a mutual respect there, whereas normally when you play with someone you don’t really get to mix with them much, I mean we did with Primal Scream but a few of the supports we’ve done we’ve never really… I mean I wouldn’t have particularly wanted to mix with Razorlight to be fair though…
How was it with Primal Scream and Razorlight? How did they treat you?DB: Primal Scream were literally amazing, like a different level of people. Razorlight were good, I’m not going to say a bad word about them, but musically they’re not our cup of tea. Personally they were all right, we have no bad anecdotes about them, but Primal Scream were a totally different level – the tour bus was full, it was like a family; the merchandise fella, the tour manager, the production manager, the band, they’re all old mates, they’ve been doing it together for twenty years. On the last date in cork, there were a lot of what you call ‘hangers on’ but obviously mates of theirs, they all came up to us and said “look, we want to go out with you” so we all went out together, and I got a lot of advice which I still play by when we were going through the motions for this album. It was a big learning curve.
DG: I thought everyone would be in different places throughout the venue but they were all together like a proper band, and that was good – inspiring.
DB: They were just enjoying what they were doing. Razorlight were very professional, all very nice people but like “I’m the drummer - this is my job, I’m the singer - this is my job…” but with Primal Scream it was just like a group of lads who’d only just started, like they were just dong their first album. We couldn’t really say anything bad [about Razorlight], it’s just the vibe wasn’t there.
You mention Primal Scream as one of your inspirations – was it surreal touring with them so early into your career? DB: Oh totally. It’s weird, the way we got the tour – we’ve got the same management as Arctic Monkeys and The Last Shadow Puppets, and we were at an after-show party, and Bobby Gillespie was there. We were just all pissed, telling eachother to fuck off and that, and he was just laughing his head off and watching us apparently. It was nice to be personally asked by Bobby Gillespie as well, not many bands can say that. It’s not like anyone’s agent was pulling a favour, Bobby Gillespie asked us to tour with them – it’s amazing, it’s class. Watching them live as well, having the opportunity to watch them three nights in a row. If you watch them once, you go and buy a ticket and you just think it’s amazing, but [with three nights] you get to study them beyond just the volume and the music.
DG: you can watch them off stage, setting up and stuff. It’s good experience, the big venues for us this early on – we can get used to the big crowds, and being the support band you’re like the underdog, you don’t know how it’s gonna go down. It’s a good learning curve.
You’ve played in Nottingham before, at the Rescue Rooms – how did you find it? DB: It wasn’t a very good night – it was dead. The promoter was a piss-head…
DG: I like the venue though…
DB: It was a good night in the club after though, that’s my memory of it! There was a curfew on the gig so the club night could start – it was probably the most enjoyable club nights we’ve been to on tour – class. Loads of women too which helps! I can’t remember who headline band were – it was a shit band that’d had a bit of NME hype I think – they were headlining but they didn’t really do much, there was about twenty people there. The promoter brought his family along
DG: I think he got on stage with us as well!
What is the biggest venue you’ve played in so far? DB: Brixton Academy with Razorlight.
DG: Next week we’re doing Evolution Festival in Newcastle, that’ll probably be the biggest, but Brixton Academy up until now though.
It must be better to play in front of your home crowd…DB: Most of the people there don’t know who the fuck we are. The crowd at the Evolution Festival; there’s a lot of music lovers but generally it’s just a chav day out. There are a lot of people watching and it’s good, but I think as soon as they realise we’re from Newcastle the support will start coming through, because the Geordies are very regionalistic, you know what I mean, they’ll all be like “Wahey it’s the Geordies!” and I’ll get them onside by saluting Shearer or something - it’ll be a doddle after then.
For those who don’t know too much about you at the moment, could you sum yourselves up and tell us what you’re about? DB: Erm well I don’t really have a manifesto! We’re experimental yet accessible, blue, rock, indie, drum and beat heavy, gospel-tinged, soulful – I’m trying to think of any more adjectives that’ll be of use! Nah we’re fucking just six scallies writing tunes – up to now it’s been quite good and people have been able to relate to us, and that’s all we are, and to be honest I wouldn’t want to really assess what we’re about because as soon as you start doing that you become a parody of yourself. We haven’t even recorded our first album yet…
DG: All will be revealed in time…
I guess you don’t want to be shoved under that ambiguous umbrella called ‘British Indie’… You don’t seem to stick to the guitar/guitar/drum/bass formula – Johnny plays the sitar – do you bring that on stage? DG: we used to, we used have an electric sitar, although that’s what I want to do, as well as a proper piano and all that, you have to be realistic – the stages we’re playing now, the size of the stage, we can’t have sitars and all that, we’re a six-piece band anyway. Touch wood, if we get to play bigger venues ourselves – even when you’re supporting in bigger venues you don’t get many sound checks so you’re kinda limited. So ultimately that’s what I want to do – and we used to but we found that the change between sitar and guitar takes so long, and tuning the sitar take so long that realistically on tour, unless you’ve got a specific guitar-tech who knows how to tune a sitar because we haven’t got time to do it. It’s kind of unrealistic for now but ultimately that’s what we want to do – have loads of interesting instruments on stage, because I don’t think anyone does that anymore, no-one puts the effort in. To get that breadth and multitude of sounds that hopefully our album will have, to get that on stage would be a great thing, and when people come to see us, even if we have a bad day at least they’ll respect us for our ambition and what we’re trying to do.
Dave (Burn), you said recently “without confidence it’s hard to be ambitious” – just how far can DSC go?
DB: There are always variables that you’re relying on, I don’t just think it’s the cream rising to the top and that’s it – but with a bit of luck and the right guidance, which I think we’ve got now, we’ve got an amazing team behind us now, I don’t see any reason why [we can’t go far]. You’ve got to be confident; there’s no point in being here if you don’t believe you could go and headline Brixton Academy in a couple of years time. If you don’t believe that then what’s the point in doing it? But at the same time we don’t want to appear arrogant, because we’re not – we’re proud of what we do. If it doesn’t happen, and we struggle to headline this place in two years time, then so be it, as long as we enjoy it, that’s the thing we always stick to – enjoy it and make the songs that we want to make, not the ones the label wants us to make. We’ve got the best management and the best R&R to allow us to do that, and they believe in us enough not to be patronising and say “you need to do this, this and this” so I can’t see any reason why. Our management’s acts are selling out Brixton Academy and some of those you look at and you wouldn’t have thought it, so fuck it – shoot for the stars.
When can we expect the debut album? DB: January. We’re recording it in Belgium in the summer, between the festivals, and the first proper single in September.
With subsequent albums, would it be important to you as a band to evolve your style of music, rather than produce the different versions of the same album? DB: I think it depends on so many things. If I’m listening to the same records I am now, and my writing’s the same I wouldn’t try and force it. I think the most important thing with writing and production is to be authentic and to be real. I don’t know how the first album will end up, that’s the most exciting thing but if it ends up as a blues/garage/rock album, I wouldn’t then say “I’m now going to make a hip-hop album” because I want to be seen to be different, but if I’m listening to a load of Detroit hip-hop from the seventies or whatever, and that’s what I’m influenced by, then that’s what it will be. You can only do what you’re influenced by so I think it’s just a case of ‘suck it and see’. Our albums might all sound identical, and if people want to rip us for that, I don’t really care to be honest - it’s about what’s real. A new band might come out and completely revolutionise music culture – there might be a bunch of eighteen year-olds in Wigan right now who totally change the face of music. I might get well into them and say “fucking hell – this is where it’s at”, or I might suddenly get into 1980s electronica… That’s what’s exciting though. We’ve written the songs that’ll be on the first album and I’m already thinking about the second album already. We might go to Japan and have a day off, go into a music store and find some instruments that we’re really curious about. We might go to South America and find some really weird things that drench the next album - never say never on anything.
DG: You can go anywhere – some small place in England we’ve never been before. We’ve been concentrating on the music for a year so we haven’t all got out and travelled yet.
Apart from the Futureheads, of the top of my head I can’t think of many Geordie bands out there at the moment – do you feel a responsibility to be a voice to the Northeast? Sheffield has the Arctic Monkeys, Manchester have Oasis…
DB: Not at all. I don’t apologise for it, we are our own, and Newcastle needs to make a scene for itself. If we set out to be Geordie heroes and revolutionise the Newcastle music scene… it’s unnecessary pressure and there is no scene in Newcastle as far as I’m concerned – we’re here despite Newcastle, not because everyone else has helped us. There are a lot of small-minded people in Newcastle – we’ve got a lot of support and there are a lot of people rooting for us and we want to do well for them but I feel no loyalty to represent them or anything like that. I’m a proud northerner, I’m proud to be from Newcastle but I think it’s got to pick itself out; too many people in the Northeast look to other people and rely on other people – football included – instead of looking at themselves.
DG: Nobody thinks we’re from Newcastle though, everyone thinks we’re from America! I always get pulled for my Geordie accent; people are like “I thought you were from Detroit! I’ve been called Scottish as well…
I understand the band’s name has no specific meaning, you just though it sounded good…DB: Aye, that’s all there is to it. I was into Detroit music and Motown, I think I’ve always had a fascination with American culture – I’ve done it at university - Detroit especially. I think it just came up, and we stuck with it.
Did you meet any of the band at college or uni? Or was it after?DB: I had a recording studio, and there were bands coming in. I’ve known Greeny (David Green – drums) and Welshy (David Welsh – bass/guitar) and Chris McCourtie (bass) from school, I’ve known Greeny and Welshy just basically from getting high in living rooms, staying up for 48 hours and talking shite basically for about three years! So they were the obvious choices really. Bondy (Johnny Bond – guitar/sitar) and Dale (Knight – keyboard/guitar/bass) were obviously a lot younger and they were just customers in the studio. I was writing songs and they were just coming in and listening to what I’d done during the day before they started practicing, and when it came to the point of forming the band it was an obvious choice really to get them on board.
Interview by Drew Heatley
