Patience, according to the saying, is a virtue.
In Britain, it’s almost part of our genetic makeup. We queue pretty much anywhere that will let us, from toilets to supermarkets – although some of the latter’s larger names are trying to break this trend if you believe recent television adverts.
In most cases, we’re also wonderfully calm on the exterior about it all too, so it wasn’t a great surprise to learn that when learning of the twelve month wait for their album to be released, The Dead 60’s drummer Bryan Johnson was in a diplomatic mood – after all, Rome wasn’t built in a day:
“There’s that side of it obviously, where you’re sitting on this album that you’re proud of and you want to get out there to as many people as you can, but at the same time you want to set it up right and make sure that when you release it that you’ve got good tours going on and stuff – all that backroom stuff is really important.”
Plying their trade since their conception in 2003 after their previous band Pinhole had run out of steam, the four-piece re-formatted their punk rock sound to accommodate ska and reggae themes that were best displayed on 2005’s self-titled debut album.
With sophomore album Time To Take Sides released in January 2008, the group had more than the second album pressure to consider when stepping back into the recording studio. There was also the impact of their local surroundings to consider.
Coming from Liverpool can be a double-edged sword for a musician. The rich musical heritage and vibrant scene can be just what is needed to launch a career, but on the flip side it can also be something that is as useful as the plague when looking for creativity and influences.
According to Bryan, this has always been something that the band have been conscious of:
“From the word go we’ve always distanced ourselves from the whole Liverpool thing and any scene in Liverpool – we didn’t even do any gigs in Liverpool for a year and a half into touring. I think just taking ourselves out of the music scene in general in the UK was good for us just to get away, because it’s so trend based.”
So where do you go when you’re in need of a flip side of Liverpudlian life? For The Dead 60’s, it was over the Atlantic, in New York City – and it paid dividends, allowing the group to re-focus and enrich their own sound:
“In the writing process it helped, because being able to distance ourselves from Liverpool it gave us a different perspective on our lives back home and people we know and their lives.
“Sometimes you need to take yourselves out of a situation and see it for how it is, and that’s why we moved away from Liverpool. The first record was so focussed on Liverpool life and our life that we just needed to get away from that because we had exhausted all creativity from that. New York was as far away as we could get from that really!”
This approach has paid off handsomely for the band over their four-year stint so far. Being described as ‘genreless’ in a tag-happy press is somewhat ironic, and is something that Bryan describes as “probably a compliment.”
Sitting inside their record label’s silver-grey offices in southwest London, Bryan gave a frank assessment of the British music scene on show today:
“The band scene is good; it’s great that people are picking up guitars or drums or keyboards or whatever, it’s good that people are forming bands. I think that’s all healthy. I just think that the people that set the trends that isn’t always the bands themselves - like magazines and influential media - can destroy the music scene.”
The Dead 60’s have played with a vast selection of artists on tour. Do you think there should be more diversity at gigs?
“Yeah definitely, its good to have a varied assortment of bands on there, but its difficult sometimes because the headliner band has such a hardcore fan base you can’t take a group on tour who are of a completely different genre because you just wouldn’t go down well! We’ve been there, we’ve supported people and not been on the same wavelength as the main artist, but it makes you who you are.”
Do you ever get concerned about if there may be some media cynicism to the second album after the debut success?
“I don’t really think we’ve thought about it to be honest, but obviously the second album’s a classic ‘difficult second album’; but this one for us is a lot more focussed than the first one for us.
“The first [album] had a few songs ready, but mainly we just got into the studio and jammed. With this album we were a lot more prepared, and the songs come from an acoustic guitar upwards, so everything was a lot more finished and finalised.
“We’re really proud about what we’ve done – people are going to have their own opinions on it, but what counts for us is people turning up to our shows every night and getting a reaction from the fans.”
Your new LP, Time To Take Sides - how is it developed musically and lyrically?
“I think its definitely stronger lyrically, we just generally spent more time on the lyrics on this one. The situations that we wrote about are a bit more personal and deeper on this record, so the thought process into them was probably a bit stronger.
“Musically, I think the sounds’ just opened up a lot more, because we spent so much time touring the first album – I think eighteen months to two years in total – I think the more gigs you do, the faster you get and the louder you get! I think our live sound turned out to be “The Dead 60’s sound”, and we wanted to re-create that for the second record.”
For your video to Stand Up - how high was the tower you were on? Were there any special effects used?
“I think it was about 50-60 foot up, it was pretty high! I mean we were surrounded by ambulance crews on standby and we had to sign papers and stuff because it was pretty high up. Obviously there was a bit of trickery in the end production, but if you were scared of heights it wasn’t the right thing to do!
“It was such a sunny day but we were high enough for it to be really windy! When we were playing the scaffolding was just rocking! [Laughs].”
Do you still feel like a new band on the scene, or do you feel much more mature and grown-up now?
“I think we feel like a new band that are a bit wiser than other new bands! I mean a lot of the people who are coming out on this tour seem to be new faces, because the only song they seem to know is Stand Up that’s on the MySpace and the website.”
Matt (McManamon, lead vocals, guitar) revealed recently that he has a pair of lucky brogues. Is there anything superstitious you partake in on tour?
“I’ve got loads of those, seriously! There’s loads of things we all do in the dressing room before a show just to psyche yourself up and all get in the same frame of mind – just male bonding I think is the word! [Laughs.]”
Do you have any good drummer jokes to share?
“What do you call a drummer with no girlfriend?”
I don’t know…
“…Homeless! That one goes down really well every now and then! [Laughs].”
