On the back of supporting indie rock legends Death Cab For Cutie, Sydney’s very own DAPPLED CITIES is back with an album that’s smaller and tighter than your space in a mosh pit. CORMACK O’CONNOR chatted to singer/guitarist DAVE RENNICK about indie kids, songwriting workshops and playing gigs in people’s garages.
You guys have had a couple of name changes. How come?
We haven’t had a name change for quite a while but I guess, like every teenage band starting out, we did change our name. Maybe we were unsure of ourselves.
When you guys started you were underage. What was that like in terms of getting gigs?
We grew up in the suburbs so, as teenagers in a band, we played at our local youth centre and put on gigs in garages and stuff. It was the best part about being in a band.
Can you tell me about Hugh Boyce (drums) leaving the band?
He left after our second record and he had just done his dash, basically. It was all totally friendly. We’re very reasonable people. There are no egomaniacs in Dappled Cities (laughs).
Zounds was pretty successful here in Australia. How did it go overseas?
It went just as well in the USA, which was fun because we did a little tour there. We then took it to the UK where we lived for a few months. It didn’t take off there quite as much as we had hoped. But here’s to trying!
Can you tell me about the new album Lake Air?
Sure can! I’ve been talking about it all day (laughs). Zounds was a really big and extravagant record, so this time around we wanted something really small and tight. We didn’t want to get bogged down with layering – we just wanted a small record that could breathe. We spent the majority of our time between records discovering the nuances of songwriting – trying to crack what makes a good song without any production. We wanted something simple to get our message across. It’s just really modest and natural, without any effects, or as few as possible.
Who recorded the album?
We worked with a new, very good friend of ours Jarrod Kritzstein who is a young dude from Los Angeles. Tim (Derricourt, guitar/vocals) and I met him when we were doing a songwriting workshop over there. That was a couple of years ago… We wanted someone really energetic doing the job, so he was our man.
How was the songwriting thing in Los Angeles?
It was good! It had varying degrees of success but basically Tim and I just got a hotel and had all of these appointments with other songwriters. It was good to just work on songwriting and it was something that we’d never done before.
How do you think Lake Air will translate into a live performance?
Initially we had a bit of trouble playing these songs live because they are so tight and detailed. When you’re playing a song like that you can’t afford to muck around and make mistakes, quite frankly (laughs). In our previous, more expansive sound we were able to psych it out but now we have to rake it in and concentrate. Once you get into the groove, it’s all good though.
Do you think the new material will appeal to more people?
Well that’s the intention, isn’t it. We’re certainly not trying to appeal to less people than [with] our previous work (laughs). We write pop songs and we want more people on the bandwagon!
How was supporting Death Cab For Cutie earlier this year?
Amazing! They have the nicest fan base. The audience turned up early and smiling and happy and they really dug our set. It can be daunting being a support band sometimes but it wasn’t on that tour. Young indie kids are nice people – they’re interested in the world and they like to open their minds to something they haven’t heard before. That’s my view anyway!
Lake Air is out now through Inertia.