PHOTOGRAPHY BY CHRIS PREYSER
WEBSITE: www.myspace.com/danceyoureonfire
COUNTRY: South Africa STYLE: Indie / Progressive
“DANCE YOU'RE ON FIRE” IS ONE OF THE BEST BAND NAMES I'VE HEARD IN A WHILE. IT SOUNDS LIKE SOMETHING A SERIAL KILLER WOULD SAY TO HIS VICTIMS AFTER SETTING THEM ON FIRE, BUT SOMEHOW I THINK I'M MISSING THE POINT?
ADRIAN: Our singer came up with the name. We were all sitting around at one of our first practices together, I'd heard him mentionbefore that he liked it as a band name. So we put it to a vote and decided that's what the band would be called Dance, You're On Fire. It doesn't really have any specific meaning we just really like it. I guess people can give it their own meaning.
HOW LONG HAVE YOU GUYS BEEN PLAYING TOGETHER AND HOW DID “DANCE YOU'RE ON FIRE” BEGIN?
The band began with Nic, he wanted to start playing music again after taking a short break from it when his previous band ended. So he spoke to Tom, our other guitarist, and myself and we were very keen seen as we were looking to start playing again too. So we organized to meet at a small bar with James, our drummer, and our previous bassist, Andre, and started writing together a
week later.
The original line-up was together for about 1½ years before Andre emigrated and we've had our new bassist, Paul, now for about 2 months now which is going great.
INDIE MUSIC HAS EXPLODED ONTO THE SOUTH AFRICAN MUSIC SCENE LIKE NOTHING ELSE IN THE LAST FEW YEARS. HOW WOULD YOU SAY “DANCE YOU'RE ON FIRE” HAS MADE THE SOUND IT'S OWN?
Indie kids have told us outright that we do not play indie music, so we're only indie in that we are independent. When we write we like to make the music as interesting as we can without seeming very far up our own asses, but sometimes it means we throw in some complexity, we like complexity, but that makes us seem very far up our own asses, which we are, so I guess it all works out in the end.
YOU GUYS HAVE A SELF-TITLED EP OUT, WHERE CAN PEOPLE GET IT AND HOW MANY SONGS DID YOU COMPLETE FOR YOUR FIRST RELEASE?
So far the EP is available at our shows and through local distros such as Canned Applause Records and Hope Haven Records. We're looking at getting online distro soon. It's a 5-song EP and it goes for R50 at our shows.
HOW DID YOU GUYS DECIDE ON THE DIRECTION THAT THE MUSIC WAS GOING TO TAKE AND WHERE DID YOU RECORD THE SONGS FOR THE EP?
We never really decided that our music should go in any particular direction, we thought that as long as we enjoyed it, found it interesting and were happy playing it others hopefully would too. We recorded at Anti-Motion Studios ( www.myspace.com/antimotion ) in Rouxville, JHB.
IS THERE SOME KIND OF COMPETITION IN THE BAND TO SEE WHO COMES UP WITH THE WEIRDEST SONG TITLES?
Haha, we know some of our song titles are weird, what happens is we'll just be talking and say some pretty ridiculous shit and then come up with song names from those conversations.
If people only knew some of the names we suggest and throw out they'd think we're pretty screwed up. So yeah, I guess we have our own little competition to make names that will make us laugh, while still having some connection with the songs.
WHAT WAS THE IMAGE YOU GUYS HAD IN MIND FOR THE PROJECT AND DO YOU THINK IT WAS ACHIEVED WITH THE DESIGN AND LOOK OF YOUR EP AND MYSPACE?
We wanted the whole thing to be about the music, and how we're really proud to have made it. It's not about us; it's about what was created, and how we wanted to share it. In order for people to notice it without hearing it, the design to stand out from other standard CD case designs, so we had the idea of a sleeve with a fold out inner containing the CD. It sort of resembles the packaging used for LPs, only CD sized. As for the artwork, we wanted something simple but effective.
The inner has a pretty abstract piece of artwork shown in the stages of its development. We wanted this to be representative of the songs and how they are a little abstract and how they developed a lot from the beginning. We then took that artwork and had it translated through to our Myspace to have it all tie in together. A big thanks to Jacques at Zoology for the design.
EVERYBODY IS TALKING ABOUT “FREE MUSIC” THESE DAYS AND THAT BANDS SHOULD FIND NEW WAYS OF MAKING MONEY FROM THEIR MUSIC. DO YOUTHINK IT IS PRACTICALLY POSSIBLE?
It may be practically possible for overseas bands, signed to established Indie and Major labels, but in South Africa , where most bands have few ways to make up the costs of recording and production, it's another story. That being said we don't play to make profit, but it would be nice to be able to cover the costs of the EP because that shit's expensive.
IN WHAT WAYS DO YOU THINK THE INTERNET HAS MADE IT EASIER AND HARDER FOR BANDS TO HAVE A SUCCESSFUL MUSIC CAREER?
The Internet's great because it makes it possible to get your music out to the whole world but at the same time anyone can go and do the same so a lot of really great bands are often dismissed without even being heard because it's just so saturated out there now.
DO YOU THINK THAT THE LOCAL MUSIC SCENE IS FINDING ITS OWN IDENTITY AND THAT MORE PEOPLE ARE FOCUSING ON BEING ORIGINAL RATHER THAN SOUNDING LIKE A BAND FROM OVERSEAS?
The local scene has a little diversity but we find that there are still a lot of bands trying to emulate what happened overseas. It seems like South Africa is always one step behind the big overseas scenes, like the States and Europe . When a certain genre explodes here, all of a sudden dozens of those bands appear, and that's pretty normal of course but the problem is that when that genre explodes here it's either dead or dying quickly in the overseas scenes.
That may be a reason why a lot of South African bands never get out of here. Finding a band doing something really original is hard as it is, and in South Africa it's damn near impossible. Even if they do something different, they just don't get the recognition from South Africans because they're more than likely not in the genre that has just exploded here, and therefore get ignored by overseas labels. There are South African bands that are being damn original, but they get overlooked because they usually don't fit into what's popular here at the time.
IN THE “ ABOUT DANCE, YOU'RE ON FIRE” SECTION ON YOUR MYSPACE THERE IS TALK OF A MUSIC VIDEO AND EXTENSIVE COUNTRYWIDE TOURS. HOW MUCH OF THAT CAN WE EXPECT FROM YOU GUYS IN 2009?
We're just beginning to organize the rest of 2009 now, because of the line-up change, and all of that is included in our plans. We're looking at releasing two videos by mid-year and we're definitely going to try play in as many different towns as possible.
I READ AN ARTICLE THE OTHER DAY ABOUT HOW PEOPLE ARE GETTING ADDICTED TO FACEBOOK. DO ANY OF THE BAND MEMBERS HAVE THE SAME PROBLEM?
Haha, not really, we mostly use it to promote the band, but 4 of us are definitely on
there every day.
ANY LAST COMMENTS / ADVISE OR PEOPLE YOU WOULD LIKE TO THANK?
Just a huge thanks to Project RFS for this interview. The questions are great and we had a good time answering them! OH, AND CHECK OUT www.myspace.com/danceyoureonfire FOR UPDATES AND NEWS ABOUT DANCE, YOU'RE ON FIRE!!!
Sunday, March 22, 2009
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
No comments:
Post a Comment