Dappled Cities Q&A

I recently had a chat with Tim Derricourt of Dappled Cities. We talked ‘Zounds’, Chihuahuas, Beyonce and entertaining small children…

Well Tim – it’s no doubt that you guys have had a stellar year, with the release of your third album ‘Zounds’, two AIR nominations and an ARIA nomination for Best Independent Release – how are you feeling?

Pretty ecstatic!

Overwhelmed at all?

I guess so! But I suppose it’s not the be all and end all, even though everything is all up so close together. It’s just a patch of life where you go to an awards ceremony and dress up – and you might not win anything, so you can either get collectively disappointed or collectively excited at the one moment in time.

There’s a real maturity about this album. What was it like working with Chris Coady?

Well it wasn’t exactly easy! We wanted to make an album that was very different in each part – different drum sounds, different guitar sounds, nothing really the sounding the same. What you get when you do something like that is a pretty chaotic recording process.

You can really hear that coming through on the album, seperately – each song’s so different but ties so well together in a narrative sort of way.

Yeah, we wanted it to feel like a kind of cinematic story with every album we release, where you can follow a journey from the start to the end. I think we did a pretty accurate job with this one – it starts in a sort of underground, cavernous lair and ends up on the western plains at sunset.

What comes first in the song writing process – the lyrics or the music?

Usually sexual drive. Followed by days of mourning. Then a song usually pops out of your brain.

Tim Rogers did a fantastic job on the art direction on this record. How did that come about?

Tim’s been a good friend of ours through high school and we really wanted to work with friends on this album – that’s why we recorded the album in Australia, and got a friend to do the art direction. You can get the cool professional people to be involved with things all the time, but I don’t think there’s anything better than working with someone you’ve known for ten years.

Tell me more about what it was like prancing around with giant lightbulbs attached in the video for ‘The Price’.

Hot! And tiring. And ridiculous. And in that way, very rewarding!

What sort of music were you exposed to growing up?

A lot of folk and country – Emmylou Harris and Van Morrisson and that kinda stuff. And then I discovered Jimi Hendrix at an early age…

Were you a music geek at school or did you fall into making music by accident?

My mum made me get the guitar. I was eight years old and wanted to learn the French horn but she figured the guitar was probably better because it was cheaper. I discovered the Smashing Pumpkins when I was eleven and since then, have had ambitions to be a world superstar…

What would you be doing if you weren’t in Dappled Cities?

Probably be in another band doing the exactly the same thing.

You guys lived in the Big Apple for a while. What’s the local music scene like over in New York?

We spent about six months over there so we got to check a bit of it out, it’s very strong and striving – it’s somewhere I’d love to go back.

I was scouring the net a while back and recall seeing you guys appear in Alphabreaks, a kids program…

We were just about to record an album and Disney got in touch with us and said “Hey we’re doing a thing, its like a version of a cool indie kids TV show and we were wondering if you like to be a part of it?” So me and Dave sat down, and then for a couple of weeks we entered the world of kids entertainment, got dressed, danced with the kids and wrote kids songs!

Perhaps the highlight of your career.

To tell you the truth, it probably was! It was good fun and genuinely rewarding. 

 The Hopetoun sadly closed its doors for the final time in September. How did the Hopetoun play a part in the life of Dappled Cities?

Well it was the place we went to all of our first gigs. I remember wandering the streets of Surrey Hills in my last year of high school and by chance came across a pub with music playing, walked in and it was the Hopetoun. Alex had been working there for 6 years, Dave’s worked there, Ned’s worked there, Hugh’s worked there, its where we did our first launches when we started off as a band. It’s the pub that made us and we wouldn’t be anywhere without it – so its closing was a bit of a devastation to us. We look forward to it being reopened – so young bands can get away from grimy halls.

With more established venues like the Hopetoun closing down and with newer venues springing up everywhere – where do you think local music is going to go from here?

I think local music’s in a pretty healthy state to tell you the truth. Sydney will never have the same sort of music scene Melbourne does, because Sydney doesn’t have as cool a bar culture and you know, an independent music culture but there are small places popping up. And every couple of weeks there’s a new band I haven’t heard of in Sydney that are really good. So it’s only in the last three years I think that I’ve become really impressed with Sydney music in the way I’ve become impressed with Melbourne. I think it’s only going to get stronger.

Talking local, what Australian bands have you been listening to lately?

I really like this new band Canvas Kites…and ah, Kieran J Callanan who’s also from Mercy Arms is doing a solo project. I really love Jack Ladder, I think he’s fantastic. Also, Adrian Deutsch who’s just launching his own thing and I think that’s really cool. And Deep Sea Arcade. So many good bands coming out of Sydney.

Whats on your record player at the moment?

I’ve been listening to a lot of Ratatat a fair bit. Loving my Stone Roses, got back into them again. And I’ve been listening to Beach House for a year constantly.

I read on the Dappled blog that you had a pretty phenomenal experience at the Beyonce concert?

I sure did. Concert of my life.

Copious booty shaking…

Oh, it was a spectacle. It was thrilling. It was adventurous. She sang so hard my pants fell off. It was so good I almost cried. It wasn’t the most deeply musical experience but it was certainly an adventure. Kind of like going to Imax 3D, but without the glasses. And not a boring movie about the ocean either.

Advice for Australian musicians?

Generally beer bottles, piers in the afternoon and mid afternoon swimming and well, just go to …your local pub and play. And don’t Heimlich maneuver a Chihuahua or you’ll go to jail.

What lies ahead for Dappled Cities?

We’re gonna do the summer festival circuit – Falls, Peats Ridge and the Laneway festivals, so we’re pretty flat out. I think between that we’re fitting in a trip to Japan and England and jetting off to America after that, so we’re having a tiny couple of weeks’ respite. Ned and I are making an electronic dance album which will come out next year, so we’ve got a bit of time off to do some fun stuff! And we’re gonna hit the world with Zounds again next year.

Good luck with nominations and the hectic round of gigs you’ve got coming up over summer. Looking forward to seeing you guys play at the AIR awards next Sunday…

Yeah it will be fun! We’re just trying to work out a costume at the moment!

Oh really? What ideas do have you got down?

We’re probably just gonna wear socks in various places. We’ll see what happens.