DZ Q & A

Intense touring, consecutive shows from state to state and a burgeoning hangover. At this stage, having a momentary afternoon nap interrupted by a pesky reviewer prodding you with questions is enough to test your patience. Apologies Shane from DZ.  I promise I’ll buy the record. Didn’t quite make it to the merch table  though, when I began having Peter Garrett convulsions trying to film** the whole thrash/strobe light hullaballoo (see above). Think Bronx meets mobile disco, and you’re only halfway. Go here to check out a list of DZ  tour dates.

Who’s the best band you’ve played with?

Definitely Crystal Castles. We did a tour with them earlier in the year, it was out of the blue and we had a week to organise a national tour. They’re awesome – the way they approach their writing, also really funny guys. And when they came back for Sydney Parklife, we got to hang out with them again – the drummer came to a house party with us. They’re a pretty big band so it was good to see them just hang out.

Any rituals to amp yourself up before a show?

Usually just a few beers. But right now we’re having a nap at the venue, because we’re absolutely screwed from our tour. And drinking with the guys from Yacht Club DJ’s….

You’re about to tour with Howl soon…

Yeah, we were playing an EP launch in September and they rocked up to see us. We’re like  ‘What? You’re in high school?” It’s weird how sometimes you get matched up with bands, we met their manager Johann at a Presets after party a while ago, it’s a small world.

Favourite local bands at the moment?

We’ve become really good friends with Howl, and Yacht Club as well. And we’ve been mates with Ouch My Face for ages, so they’re a really great help when we come to Melbourne. We kick around with Comic Sans a fair bit too. And the other guy in our band is in another band called Running Guns who’ve just finished their album. I’ve been waiting to get a copy but the first song I’ve heard off it is freaking rad.

Looks like you had fun punching the shit out of Simon in the video for Blue Blood.

Yeah we had all these big ideas but we ended up just cutting it down to what we could do. We have a mate whos a film editor and we watched this show where there was a carpark fight where the guys rip each others hearts out. So we thought hey, let’s just do that and beat up on each other. 

Most embarrassing CD you own?

Probably a CD I stole from my mum that she probably bought in a bargain bin for five bucks;  ‘Hits of the Vietnam War’ with Crimson and Clover etc.

Where did you guys grow up?

We grew up in a town up North Central QLD in Bundaberg. School in Bundaberg is awesome, but once you finish you get into this cycle where you go the pub and work for the rest of the week. When we were up there you didn’t get much, it was just whatever was on Rage, Triple J and community radio. We listened to a lot of metal and punk. Matt from I Heart Hiroshima used to be in a band together in high school…

And what sort of music did you make?

Sometimes it was thrashy, sometimes it was weird, quirky rock, but it was really fun. We did all our own recordings, hung a microphone over the ceiling fan. Simon used to throw really good house parties back in Bundaberg and we used to play in the garages of those. In Brisbane theres a lack of them now, they get shut down straight away…

Well it’s a good thing that you’ve built your way up from houseparties, and through that brought that vibe to your live sets. There’s some interesting reviews of you guys floating around…

Yeah some people dig us and some people hate us. But we got this one review from this dude who was like “You know what this song needs? It needs a melody. And a bass guitar. Do you know what a bass guitar is? It’s a thing with four strings that makes a deep sound”. And we had a guy who was like “PRONOUNCE YOUR NAME RIGHT!”, because we say ‘Dee Zee’ –

Not ‘Dee – Zed?’

It doesn’t really matter, but we’ve always said it that way. And the guy was like ‘What! You call yourselves Australian? Get it right!’

**filmed using SamsungU10, vid & more at http://samsungcapture.com.au