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Dirty Skirts Go Disco
Reported by *antixa*
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Submitted 26-08-08 17:33
The Dirty Skirts have just launched a hot second album, Daddy Don’t Disco in their hometown - Cape Town - and it was a night Capetonians had been holding their breath for. Their prized homegrown honeys had done their nationwide launch tour and left the best show for last! HarderFaster sent our South African reporter Ant to find out more.
With Jeremy on guitar and synths, David on guitar, Markie D on drums and (the) Passion on bass, the performance was energetic and spicy as always. Their tracklist for the evening featured all the chart tracks and the usual punk bouncing behaviour we've all grown to love about them and their performance was electric with a sensational vibe! Jeremy’s zeal in his fronting the band was awesome and the Passion even graced female fans wishes by getting rid of his shirt half way through. As an added bonus they had a disco dancer complete with pink spandex as the Daddy Don’t Disco mascot entertaining by just generally strutting the pink stuff and showing off some rather tight assets.
The Assembly was crammed to the ceiling and with the pure size of the venue it felt more like a concert in a field experience than a club gig - which is of course an added bonus. Packing out the club was a smartie-box of fans consisting of kids draped in punk fashions, veteran rockers and music producers, hermits coming out for a good night, emo babies and even some nu electro DJs as supporting acts.
Having had four singles from their first album in the radio charts (Feeling The Pressure, Set Me Alight, Is This It and Homewrecker), their name has been thrown far and wide via the airwaves resulting in a massive and varied fan-base. Currently Can’t Remember Your Name is climbing up the radio charts as rapidly as Homewrecker did and it's rather clear that these guys have got the knack to make a tune to assault your ears with lush and make you shake that thang!
I caught up with the boys afterwards to get the low-down and find out about more about what makes them Dirty Disco Skirts:
You’ve said that you’ve always had a clear vision of where it is you’re going – where are you going at the moment with your sound? Would you still describe yourselves as being pop, punk, rock and electronic?
Jeremy: Erm, I’d say we’re none of the above. On this album we sought to break away from all local and overseas trends.
Passion: Every time we do a new album we try to move forward and experiment a bit, without being too influenced by the current genres of rock music fashion and flavour. We also love getting into electronica because it’s quite exciting to dream up, but we don’t force it if it doesn’t feel right.
How and why did you come about working with legendary Springbok Nude Girls guitarist and producer Theo Crous on this album and what is it you feel he’s contributed to your style?
Passion: We had a good look around for outstanding producers available to us and decided on Theo because, over and above his integrity and track record in the industry, he offered the much desired ‘producer’ role - he got us to listen and simplify, to lock in and lay it down solid. The process with Theo was really personal. We sat every week prior to actually recording, working with him through a preproduction phase. This really brought the songs to their strongest form until we were 90% ready to record. The other 10% was spontaneous resolution because at some stage you have to commit and let it go.
How’d the album title come about?
Markie D: Daddy Don’t Disco was a lyric that our guitarist David Moffatt came up with. We liked the sound of it so it made the shortlist of album titles. Its original context had to do with the exhaustion, fatigue and sacrifice associated with first time parenthood. But this holds no real relevance to its employment as the album title.
What is it you think makes your live shows so sought after and who’s the mascot in the pink spandex?
Passion: Our shows are really intense fun. I think that the band really puts their all into making the show, it’s a conscious commitment to deliver to our fans. I think that it’s very important that a band gets on really well together as this energy is immediately picked up by the crowd and this gets everyone relaxed and into the moment.
Jeremy: The pink spandex man is a friend of ours. Hi Seany!
Have you always intended to have your music make the top 40 radio charts? Are you keen to make the overseas charts?
Markie D: Making the overseas charts would be an absolute dream but with that said I don’t think it’s something that we have focused on.
David: Until April 2008 The Dirty Skirts have been completely independent so we have never really understood how this side of the music business works. But yes, it would be cool to feature on international charts.
You guys seem to be doing some travelling – where have you been and where are you off to?
Passion: We’ve just finished the SA Daddy Don’t Disco tour which has been a great success for the band thanks to all the amazing help we’ve been getting from some hard working people around us. We have a few more shows until we tour to London in mid September.
The infamous Rocking The Daisies three day festival is up next after your UK tour – have you been before and how do you experience the 'green' festival?
Passion: We love Rocking The Daisies! It’s by far one of our favourite festivals. We’ve played there since the first one in 2006. For me it’s the sign of Spring and a chance to get a listen to some of the new music in SA. It’s also probably the only weekend in a year where I can fall over backwards in the middle of the afternoon and not feel guilty for it.
Do you prefer a festival gig or a club gig or would you just settle for a good crowd?
Passion: I’d settle for a good crowd. No musician in his right mind wants to play to floors, tables and chairs.
Your catch-phrase: "Get your gloves on child, let’s get serious" has me confused and intrigued – can you elaborate please?
Jeremy: That song is a bit of an ironic take on modern girl-boy relationships. Especially the rather ‘emotionally adolescent’ ones where it’s always your partner’s fault and there’s a lot of fighting. The gloves referred to are boxing gloves. In context it goes:
I’m smiling as I shout about the washing undone
You’re laughing before the fight has even begun
Baby we can’t destroy the mood like this
Get your gloves on child, let’s get serious
It’s talking about a relationship where you get past all that BS!
What have been your collective musical interests/influences?
Brian Eno, Herbie Hancock, Stan Clarke, Pastorius, Depeche Mode, Level 42, The Cure, Justice, Interpol, Bloc Party, Pixies, Chilli Peppers, Janes Addiction, Joy Division, The Smiths and many, many more....
Besides the Dirty skirts, what other projects do you do in your daily lives?
Passion: We all do other things after hours to bring in the all important cash. I am into design on a retail and architectural level and entertain a few other musical projects.
Markie is a Creative Marketer/Writer. Jess makes sound, and more sound. Davie is a partner in a Digital Media company called Hello Computer.
Lastly - I'm of course also curious as to how you decided on the name Dirty Skirts?
David: The sub text to the name is naughty girls, which appealed to our sense of humour. You can interpret ‘naughty’ as you see fit.
Album available at Look & Listen (Nationwide) Musica Musica Megawarehouse (Waterfront, Cape Town) Subterania Music (Observatory, Cape Town) Rythmic Beat (Nationwide) Seedys (Hatfield square, Pretoria) African Music Store (90A Long Street, Cape Town) Canned Applause (Johannesburg) Music Moods (Nationwide) Top CD (Nationwide) Mabu Vinyl (Rheede Street Mall, Cape Town) Upbeat.
ALSO AVAILABLE GLOBALLY FROM: iTunes, Napster, Rhapsody etc.
Special thanks to Maurice for hooking us up.
www.thedirtyskirts.com
Look out for the UK tour in September on HarderFaster listings
Photos courtesy of the HarderFaster archive and The Dirty Skirts. Not to be reproduced without permission.
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Other Features By *antixa*:
Rampling on retirement and loving life
Cape Town psy trance gets Lockdown
Are you ready to get Max Normal
The views and opinions expressed in this review are strictly those of the author only for which HarderFaster will not be held responsible or liable.
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