Double Dagger Interview

First things first, your May tour starts really rather imminently. Are you looking forward to it?

Definitely! It's our first time touring overseas as a band. Denny has previously toured Europe as the lead drummer in Dan Deacon's live Ensemble, but Double Dagger has never gone to Europe until now (I really mean "now" ...we leave for the airport in just a few hours!). I'm really looking forward to playing for a totally new audience.

Now about your live shows, from what I've read/Youtubed, they can get pretty mental. Have you ever found yourself wishing that everyone would just stand still and appreciate your music?

If people want to move, why would we ever want to make them stand still? We're not dictators, we're a band.

Or, by causing a bit of a ruckus, is that appreciation enough for you?

There's no better appreciation, even if I'm down in the audience and I think some kid stagediving just severed my spine by landing on my head (this only happened once).

Do you find that the crowds in Britain react differently to those in America

We have no idea how Britain's crowds will react. Some friends over there have said British kids mostly just stand still at shows, but hopefully that will be proven wrong over the next week of shows.

You mentioned in an interview that sometimes, you'll just do the stupidest thing you can think of on stage. What do you think has been the most outrageous thing you've done?

Well, I think I mis-spoke there, because the stupidest things often happen when we're performing, because I'm NOT thinking. Like one time we played this local bar (or pub as you would say?) and my shoe was coming loose, so for some reason I ripped it off my foot and started licking the entire length of the bottom of it. It tasted like what you imagine the floor of a sweaty, packed bar would taste like. Gritty + wet + beer + sweat + who knows what else.

And did you regret it?

Being sick the next day wasn't something I regretted, but licking that shoe wasn't the smartest thing I've done.

Something which I personally love about Double Dagger is that music is not your only vocation. Nolen and Bruce, you are also very talented typographers. Do you feel that music and typography run alongside each other quite smoothly?

This is just me, Bruce may feel differently, but I'm going to say no. Typography is almost always about control, and while writing music takes control, I think of us as more of a live band, and there's very little control there (hopefully).

Are there ever times when you just want to do one and give the other up for good?

Sometimes I wish deadlines would move, or shows were on different days because the schedules conflict, but other than that, no. It's like asking, are there ever times we just want to give up up pizza or hot dogs, and just eat one? No! Well, I've heard British pizza is bad, but you understand what I'm trying to say...

The idea of the eye on the front of the CD/LP changing colour is really quite cool. What made you choose to do something like that rather than just the normal photo and band name image?

Photo + band name? Who are we? The Ramones? Kraftwerk? We got the idea almost as soon as we came up with the title. Plus, we've always wanted to do a cover with a die-cut, and once we got this idea, and the label said they had the budget for it, we just went for it. Also, and this was more of an afterthought, our live shows are very interactive, and now we have a record package that's interactive, that engages the record owner on more than one level as well.

The band consists of drums, bass and vocals - no electric guitar - yet your sound is by no means empty. What do you think helps fill that space that the guitar would take?

Lots and lots of very loud amps? Plus Denny's a beast on drums. Wait, in England is "beast" some kind of weird slang term that means something different than it does here? In case it is, Denny's a monster on drums. When he joined the band after our first drummer left, Bruce actually had to get more amps to compensate for how much harder and louder Denny plays. Bruce has been layering his playing more the last few years, using loops and all that so that he can "play" more than one thing at once. Technical trickery and volume, there's your answer.

Or maybe, is it just because we're all used to the image of a four-piece rock band, thinking it to be the right and only way to make music, that it seems so unusual?

It does seem like Brits love a 4-piece, what's that about? There's nothing wrong with being a trio (see: Nirvana, Enemymine, etc). As long as we don't become yet another boring 37-member indie pop collective, I think we're okay.

Festival season is coming up. What festivals are you playing at/going to and who else are you hoping to see?

We're playing Sinxen Vlas Vegas in Kortrijk, Belgium, and Free Dim Fest in Tabor, Czech Republic. We're all pretty excited to see Trans Am, who are on the same record label as us, because they haven't played live shows in several years. I'm interested in seeing all these European bands that we don't really hear about in the States. Oh, and we're also playing Whartscape and Hopscotch on the east coast of the US, so if your readers have some extra holiday time saved up they should hop across the pond for those.

You've made it as typographers, you've made it as musicians, what's next for Double Dagger?

Cosmonauts. We're taking the billions we've made in our careers so far and are buying our way onto the next Russian space launch.

http://www.posttypography.com/doubledagger/

Interview by Rosie