STACK NZ Jun #63

EXTRAS

MUSIC

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Sitting down with Justin Hawkins, the darkness

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Q1/ The clip for Open Fire looks like classic MTV: were you going for that? Those oceanic moments are instant. We drove around Ireland looking for places. Simon Emmett, who directed it, is a fashion photographer; he’s more about capturing moments with stills. It’s a bit different to other Darkness videos, it hasn’t got a plot. [It's] a video done by a fashion photographer who’s used to making things that aren’t beautiful, look beautiful. Q2/ Tell us about the speech on Barbarian , that opens the album. It was supposed to sound like somebody, generations after the Viking Invasion, sitting on a clifftop – that’s why you can hear all the wind. It's like the beginning of The Fog , when he’s addressing the children around the campfire. But the guy was Dan’s gardener! He was cutting the grass, into amateur dramatics, so we asked him to come in. He’s a Norfolk bloke in his mid-60s! We’re now on our fourth drummer. Not bad! Four albums, four drummers! Emily Dolan Davies did a great job on the album. We were looking to make it permanent, but when it came to negotiating, her and the band had different expectations – it was personal. It got out that we were looking for a drummer, and Brian May’s guitar tech said "try Rufus." He’s a bit younger, but he comes from a proud heritage of drummers. He’s awesome in his own right. You can tell his father’s a rock star, you know what I mean? Q4/ You left the band in 2006, in well-documented circumstances. Do you regret anything? Unless you’re prepared to take that journey, you might as well stay home. Not an option if you’re going to be in The Darkness. We had a f***ing great time, literally living the dream! It got unsustainable, damaging to my health, so I had to make a change. It definitely enriched my life. Q3/ How did Rufus Taylor, son of Roger Taylor from Queen, end up in the band?

Barry Saunders onTheWarratahs’ quickfire new album EASY COME, EASY GO

A lthough 2012’s 25th anniversary country-rock icons’ The Warratahs’ first new studio album in nine years. And Barry Saunders and the rest of the band – Nik Brown (violin, mandolin), Mike Knapp (drums) and Nick Theobald (bass, collection included a bonus CD of new songs, Runaway Days is New Zealand

he agrees. “I have started playing harmonica a bit more lately. I used to play the harmonica when I was a youngster in bands – it is a great instrument, but it’s an instrument that is much abused. I try and keep it cool, and don’t try and play massive solos. The first harmonica players I ever heard were people like Brian Jones, who played really simply but effectively, and I thought I would just try and do that.”

vocals) – didn’t waste any time in recording it; in fact, the bulk of the tracks were laid down over a couple of days. “We didn’t actually have a plan,” the affable Saunders explains to STACK . “We went into the studio in Devonport just to do

Saunders is looking forward to getting back on the road to promote the new album, although the days of big tours are long behind The Warratahs. That said, the band have recently been on tour with The Eastern, one of the

We just banged these songs down and sang them at the same time

something out of town because we’ve done all our previous stuff in Wellington. We just banged these songs down and sang them at the same time, so that’s what you hear, really. It was a bit rough around the edges but we liked what we heard and we brought it back here to mix it.” While still recognisably The Warratahs, there’s a rawer, more stripped back, edge to Runaway Days and with Saunders’ harmonica to the fore on a number of the tracks, there also something of blues feel to it. “It is a bit bluesier,”

leading lights of the new wave of Kiwi country/ folk bands centred around Lyttleton; in many ways, The Warratahs could be seen as our Godfathers of Country Rock. Saunders is not so sure, but is pleased that new local roots bands are emerging. “A lot of them say they got into us through their parents’ records – it makes you realise we are getting on a bit now! But that’s all cool – I take it as a big compliment.”

Last of Our Kind by The Darkness is out now via Kobalt/Inertia.

Runaway Days by The Warratahs is out on June 19.

JUNE 2015 JB Hi-Fi www.jbhifi.com.au

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