We first played the catchy tunes of DOG IS DEAD in the summer of 2008, and they did their first Future Session with us over two years ago. Now they’re signed to a major label with their sights set on living out the musical dream. Mary Ann Pickford caught up with the guys to chat about death, Santa and their new single…
So Hands Down is now out! You guys excited?
Robert: Yeah it’s really cool. It’s pretty exciting and so far the feedback’s been really great. We hope we can get people to buy it rather than just enjoying the video and things.
I saw the video actually and it looks really cool. Looked like a lot of fun to make it…
DID: Yeah yeah, it was really fun.
What’s the decider for your songs to be a single then, do you guys know before you make it or is it like, ‘this is it, this is the one, this is the anthem’?
Trev: We’ll write a handful of songs that are potential singles. We’ll never write something to then say ‘this will be the single’ ‘cause it might not necessarily be the next single. That’s kind of the collective decision.
Robert: With a band like ours, we’re never going to sell a million singles. And bands are finding it hard to sell singles these days so it’s kind of like, what would I wanna put out as a nice taster and quite an easy representation of what we’ve got going on at the moment?
What was the idea behind the new single when you first thought of it, lyrically?
Robert: Well it’s weird ‘cause I wanted to have this like- I really wanted a big chorus with a really easy declaration, like a universal feeling of love basically. So that’s how it came about. But the verse lyrics are quite a bit darker and about death and religion and stuff, but it’s really hidden and metaphorical, and it’s still quite an upbeat Christmas sounding song. We want it to sound like Christmas basically…!
But it’s still got this undertone of-
Robert: Dying. [laughs]
Joss: It sounds like one of those really bad Christmas B movies – Santa’s coming! But he’s going to kill you… [laughs]
Robert: That’s perfect yeah [laughs]
Then comes an onslaught of alternative single names for Hands Down…
Joss: Santa’s Revenge. Rogue Santa. Santa of Death…
Trev: Santa Claws… C-L-A-W-S and he goes and slashes people with his claws-
Robert: [laughing] It’s like Scream…
Haha! So Rob, is it fair to say you usually write all the songs or does everyone pitch in? What’s the process behind the song and music writing?
Robert: Yeah I write the songs, the lyrics and the basic structure, then bring it to the table and everyone picks a part and adds their stamp to it.
Cool. On a different note, you’re all from West Bridgford, is that right?
DID: More or less…
Trev: Us three are [Robert, Joss and Trev] and Paul who’s not here, he’s from Stapleford and he [points at Harvey] is from bloody Epworth.
Harvey: Yeah I’m from about an hour and a half away from Nottingham.
Robert: But he lived in Nottingham for 17 and a half years.
Joss: Epworth’s got quite a good music scene…
Harvey: Yeah it’s up there with Leeds and Nottingham.
Joss: You’ve got those venues like the village hall…
Harvey: [laughs] And we’ve got a pub as well.
Conversation goes off on a tangent about Epworth’s world famous scene…
The point I meant was, with all of you being from Notts more or less, what do you guys think of the scene at the moment?
Joss: Awesome.
Robert: Well it was totally different til about, three minutes ago [laughs]. When we started out there was never a problem getting started, every opportunity was there. And it was very easy, very effortless being a young band in Nottingham when you’ve got a little bit of a base- college was like our springboard I guess. And there has never been a problem there but there had been a kind of limit to where everything could go. And I think recently that barrier’s been shattered because people are doing alright out of Nottingham now and it’s cool that we’re a part of it. I wouldn’t say there’s a scene but I would say there’s about four or five different artists doing very different things with a lot of support for each other and whether that constitutes as that, I don’t know, you decide. But now it’s raised the roof and there are no limits.
Yeah I met you guys quite a while ago, three years actually, while you were doing the then Notts Unsigned Future Session. What was the transition like from becoming unsigned to signed?
Robert: Well everything goes in its natural progression and you get to different stages, and after a while you’re like cool we’ve been playing together for quite a while and we know we’ve got a few decent songs now’. It’s only a matter of time before someone takes notice if we get people from towns outside Nottingham to come to our shows. Then it’s like another career choice that actually comes about because we’ve been playing and working so hard. But it’s like a nice little mark for us to make it here so far. It’s all in those tiny little progressions and stages and we’ve got our own boxes to tick and things we want to do…
Did you guys have any expectations of what it’s like to be bigger, or signed?
Trev: I guess I didn’t really have a lot of expectations. I’m quite cynical of the whole stereotype where you get signed and it’s like ‘yeah it’s massive man, let’s go on tour and score some chicks!’.
Joss: You never really think as soon as you’re signed you’re in the top ten.
Trev: Yeah exactly, it isn’t really like that but I love how it’s going. It’s just like, you get signed THEN the work starts.
Robert: You get so many bands that get signed and they think that they’ve done their piece and they’re like ‘that’s it’ and they can be rock stars, but it’s totally what it’s NOT about for us. We’re kind of like, thanks for giving us this bit of opportunity to bring out an album which is what we’ve always wanted to do. So far everything’s great. It’s hard work but we’re putting that pressure on ourselves to make sure that everything goes right.
What’s the hardest thing about being in a band and touring?
Trev: I think one of the things I find hard is staying healthy and maintaining your voice, ‘cause we all sing in five part harmonies. If you go out drinking and smoking all day, it wrecks your voice.
Joss: And when we all start to go on tour, then we come back, and we’re really fat…
Robert: [laughs] I wouldn’t say really fat!
Joss: Well you know what I mean, compared to how we were.
Robert: If you’re doing a tour or something you’ve gotta look after yourself.
So what’s the main ambition for you guys collectively?
Joss: I’d just like to make an album that a lot of people enjoy.
Robert: That we’re totally proud of too. Making a record is just gonna be the biggest thing ever, ‘cause we’ve been together three years -longer than that actually – just jamming about, and it’s like, when are we going to make this album? When are we gonna do it? So it’s going to be great to put that on first time and go ‘I’m totally proud of this, I have faith in this, get really ambitious and see where it goes’. You’ve done your bit then in that sense and it’ll be up to the world to decide whether you’re going to be a success.
Any last words to your fans?
Robert: We’re not dying… [laughs] Well, we’re having a good time, we hope everyone else is, oh and buy our new single!
INTERVIEW ENDS.
DOG IS DEAD‘s new single Hands Down is available to download now PLUS a limited edition signed 7″ vinyl is available from roughtrade.com or FOPP in town.
We’ve also teamed up with the band to give one Nottingham act the chance to support them at their Rock City headline show on December 17th. Entries have now closed but you will be able to vote on which of the ten semi-finalists make it through to the final five. The public vote will launch on Monday 7th November.
What’s up Comrades!
There’s an awesome mish mash of gigs for you this week!
First up is ACOUSTIC TOMBS at The Rescue Rooms on Monday 31st October.
It’s an all female spooktacular at ACOUSTIC ROOMS for this Halloween Special!
LEAH SANDERSON is up first with her lovely country-like voice and her sweet songs. Get down early to see her.
BECKY LOVATT is on next who is best known for having a feather boa as her guitar strap. I wonder how she’ll collaborate that into the fancy dress? Anyway, you’ll love the emotion she puts into her songs.
On next is ALEXA HAWKSWORTH who sings witty lyrics to make the whole room smile. She’s got a right pair of lungs on her, her voice is amazing!
Next is our Future Session superstar OPIE DEINO making her big comeback to the place she used to work. I absolutely love Opie, she’s beautiful, she’s funny and she writes amazing songs. Check out her mesmerising Future Session here.
Tickets: FREE
Doors: 8pm
Our next gig of the week is the GLASTONBUDGET AUDITION at The Maze on Tuesday 1st November.
RICHARD JONES & NAM STANTON are up first, keen to gig outside of Richard’s lounge, according to their Facebook. They play anything they feel like and take their influences from “Boobs and Geckos”. Nice.
Auditioning next are LESS THAN NOTHING who play chilled, easy-listening melodies. Another one of Notts’ alternative bands to look out for.
HARDBACK FICTION will rock The Maze next. They’re like Nottinghamshire’s very own Queens Of The Stone Age…and that can’t be a bad thing.
THE BYSTANDERS are also auditioning at this show. They came and did a Future Session with us a few months ago and we loved having them almost as much as they love our Future Sound of Nottingham winners! Check it out here.
EMILY AND THE MARTENS mix blues and soul together to perform a heart-warming set every time.
Tickets: £4
Doors: 7.30pm
Our final gig of the week is SOUNDDHISM at The Bodega Social on Saturday 5th November.
Well done to the Sounddhism team because for Notts, this line up is absolutely BANGING.
LOUIS SCOTT, an all-time fave at Nusic will warm us all up on a cold autumn night. His voice is undeniably hypnotic, he’s just so charasmatic.
KIRK SPENCER will play with his full live band including MARITA MELIA on vocals. This set is definitely not one to miss.
Also HARLEIGHBLU will get the party rolling with her awesome live band. Listen to her track ‘In Love With Love’ on last week’s podcast here.
Tickets: £5 adv.
Doors: 9pm
Yours In Love Of New Music,
Danielle
x
Having listened to the feedback from the FUTURE SOUND OF NOTTINGHAM (and our friends at LeftLion) we have compiled a list of all the acts that have successfully applied to our Dog Is Dead competition SO FAR. If you are not in the list below but have applied we HAVE NOT received your entry.
We suggest listening again to the New Music Podcast to check you did everything correctly. We will update this list approx 3pm on Saturday.
ENTRIES RECEIVED AS OF 17:00 Thursday 27th October 2011:
ALLOTMENT DOGS
THE AMBER HERD
BAND OF JACKALS
BOOTS BOOKLOVERS
CAPTAIN DANGEROUS
THE CHASE
CLIMBING BABEL
DANIEL DOBBS
THE GOLDEN TROUBADOURS
GREAT BRITISH WEATHER
HARLIKINGS
KAGOULE
KAPPA GAMMA
KURT MARTINEZ
OLDBOY
PARKS
YUNIOSHI
ENTRIES RECEIVED AS OF 14:30 SATURDAY 29TH:
IN ISOLATION
JUST JAMES
LEE GOUGH
POCO POCO
TASTEBUDS
TRAY ELECTRIC
THE WAX DRAMATIC
You have till 10pm this Sunday to enter, for entry details listen HERE
For rules and other shizzle listen HERE.
ENTRIES RECEIVED AS OF 22:00 SUNDAY 30TH:
ANTICURE
THE BYSTANDERS
NINA SMITH
ROB GREEN
VANITY BOX
Good luck!
vlr
x
PS YUNIOSHI were forced to withdraw on the day of judging due to another live commitment.
It’s been an amazing year for the Notts music scene, quite possibly the best ever, yet there is one blemish on Nottingham in 2011…
No Hockley Hustle.
Major, major sad face.
Consistently one of our favourite days of the year, our October weekends have graced us with that traditional sunshine that always comes out for the Hustle but the Hustle itself is no where to be seen, we asked HH Founder Adam Pickering why?
“We tried to make it happen this year and there was, as always, a massive amount of support for it going ahead but unfortunately circumstances rendered this year’s Hustle a little too difficult. Funding was that bit harder to come by, I’d graduated so had some reality on my plate all of a sudden and all in all the team found it difficult to get into a proper flow with it all. So a couple of months ago, after much debate, we decided we had to put it to bed for a year and we have found it difficult to shout about that – hence camp HH being a little quiet lately… Many apologies for that.”
Yes we know what you’re thinking, we can just about handle one year off Glasto-style but is that it for ever Adam? Again we quizzed Comrade Pickering.
“I’d love to see it happen again, though whether it can go on with myself as the driving force I’m not totally sure – I think it needs new blood, fresh enthusiasm and people who can absolutely throw themselves into it 100%. The brand, universal good will and our experience are still there and we’ve some great ideas going forward but this is really me saying if you want it to go on, you can be a part of that.”
We at Nusic are really sad that there will be no Hustle this year, what other event will get us crowd surfing to ROYAL GALA in the Broadway at 3am on a Sunday night/ Monday morning? We’ve eveything crossed that next year Nottingham’s beloved Hustle, one of our favourite days of the year, will be back.
Whether or not it happens, is kinda up to you.
vlr
x
PS If you’d like to volunteer to help make Hockley Hustle 2012 a reality email hockleyhustle@hotmail.co.uk with a few words on what you think you could bring to the event, oh and bung ya phone number in there too.
The biggest ever headline show by a Nottingham act.
And you could be playing it.
DOG IS DEAD are aiming to make musical history by becoming the first Nottingham act to fill our most famous venue. Yes acts like PITCHSHIFTER and THE TINDERSTICKS have pulled decent crowds but no Nottingham act has ever filled the venue, to check our facts we went straight to the top and asked Rock City’s big boss George Akins:
“We’ve never had a Nottingham act sell Rock City out to my knowledge. Pitchshifter are the only band to do a proper headline Rock City show that I can remember and they never did more than a 1000 tickets, we’re expecting Dog Is Dead to beat that.”
1000, 1500 maybe even a sell-out 2000 Nottingham New Music Lovers and you as musical history is made in our fair city, and that’s not all. Breaking news we can announce DOG IS DEAD are not the only much talked about band that you’ll get to hang back stage with, we can reveal this lunchtime that TRIBES have been added to the bill too. Our most talked about band, one of the UK’s most talked about bands and YOU, yes YOU.
To be part of the crowd get involved HERE.
To be on stage as DOG IS DEAD’s opening support listen to the New Music Podcast HERE.
To find out more about the comp, the judges, the rules et check out the ‘Competitions’ tab on the right hand side, this way >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>
Please share this amazing opportunity with any of your musical friends, they have only 4.5 days left to act!
Yours in Love of New Music
vlr
x
