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In the last two years, well, the band got back together, we decided to do a new album and we did not want to do anything till the album came out. But then Download Festival in the UK offered us a really nice slot, headlining with Def Leppard last summer. So we came back with that gig and since then we have toured the States twice, we have been to Australia and we have done all the European festivals. We have our album coming out in a couple of weeks…evidently, Lady Gaga asked us to support her on her world tour, so we are very pleased with the way things have worked out.

What is the band’s relationship with her?

It’s one of mutual admiration and respect because she does not care what people think of her and she is ready to be ridiculed and, I think, having the courage to be different is the most important thing.

I read somewhere of the groups idea – while touring with her – of having everyone dress a different historical era, why would you have you been a Greek Philosopher?
(laughs)
Haha, well, properly because I am the Philosopher of the band, Bass playing is black art, it’s a different mystery, and for that reason Bass players hold the key, which unlocks the portal of dreams.

What’s your philosophy on life?

Time is a human mind construct and the future and the past are intermingled, that’s what I believe… Deep in our subconsciousness we know what is happening next.

image: The Darkness

Have you ever been to South Africa?

Justin has been there on holiday and he said he had a great time – really nice lifestyle great people, fantastic food and just freedom to be what you want to be. But that the water was really cold!

Did you hear about ticket servers being crashed in a ticket frenzy for the concert here in South Africa in December?

Frankie: Oh? No, I did not hear about that… but that great.
oss: Yeah, fans rushed to web retailer ‘computicket‘ so hard that servers shut down after being overwhelmed by traffic.
Frankie: So there are two gigs? One in Joburg and one in Cape Town.
oss: Yeah
Frankie: It’s the first gig that we picked in the whole of Africa, we are really excited… I remember in 2004 we got a lot of emails from fans in South Africa asking why we had not been there, so this is long overdue….

With your new album ‘Hot Cakes‘ to be realized soon, any chance we can get a sneak peek/favorite line or lyric?

Well, what I can tell you that one of the songs is called ‘She is Just a Girl Eddie’ and it’s all about our younger time and Justin is singing the song to him, on his relationship when his girlfriend broke up, and I think that characterizes a lot of the album because, even though we are being perceived as a cult help-band, our songs are not about fast cars and fast living, although we have a lot of bravado on stage.

image: The Darkness

Who would win a match of tennis between you and Justin?

I used to beat him! But the very last time I played him…his sheer level of fitness…he is such an amazing physical specimen these days he managed to overpower me with sheer stamina. It’s close between us, we have not played this year… We will properly play in South Africa because we will have a lot of time on our hands. It’s quite a big production this Gaga tour, which means there are quite a lot of days off in between two gigs.

Wikipedia tells me that you had worked as a tour guide in the Venezuela mountains, any truth to this?

Yeah it’s true, at one stage I was staying in the Del Orinoco Delta, with a bunch of students, we were sleeping on hammocks in the jungle for two weeks, with the one-eyed Indians – very gentle type of Indians…
And basically I went to collect some wood and I went to pick up a machete in the middle of a wasps nest, there was this jungle of brow bees and I was stung over 30 times by these bees, and I almost died, so I had to give up tour guiding. I came back to the UK and that was when Justin told me he had started to be a singer in The Darkness.

How would you sum up your comeback?

I would say it has to do with the collective responsibility to repair the damage we did to ourselves and the band, our reputation towards the end, we are very lucky to have a second chance to come back and hopefully fulfill our potential and repay the fans for believing in us. We are 100% focused on being a great roll model for what we believe rock and roll to be.
You know everyone’s idea of rock and roll is different, our vision of rock and roll is something which advocates/accumulates the ludicrous aspects. So with bits of Jeremy lewis, Lewi Richard and moving along to the more modern aspects ACDC, Queen.

In a dream world, lets go back 30 years, who would you have liked to tour with. ’60/’70

Yeah that’s a good question, 1970s would have been maybe ABBA?! They were actually really amazing, some of their elements were kinda rocking, just the tin planet pop, you know, the aspect of that, to do what we do, just the song idea and the euphonic nature, the songs…

What are you wearing?

Funny enough, now I am wearing the same underwear I did for our Funny or Die sketch, you can check it online, they gave us brown underpants to wear to accentuate what we were doing. I actually kept them and put them on this morning.

It was a great honor to speak to you, the whole of South Africa is very excited for you to come!

Interview by: David Plenderleith

image: The Darkness

image: The Darkness

image: The Darkness

image: The Darkness

image: The Darkness

High on Fire by DeadAlphabet

Having started out in 2009, Dead Alphabet has evolved a dirty rock sound with a hint of garage and punk, and throbbing riffs and prodigious lyrics; they have climbed steadily in popularity and swelled their fan base. The band credits electronic music for re-shaping the way they see rock music and pushing the walls out with regards to what instruments they use to create their sound. Most recently they were nominated in the 2012 MK Awards under Best Rock Video category for the ‘Eat You Alive’ music video.

The Kill by DeadAlphabet

When asked how they felt about the nomination, Adam Edwards the vocalist and visual creator of the video explained, ‘It actually feels really great, we were selected as a defining video and song in a calendar year full of bands and artists trying their mightiest to be rock ’n roll. We would also like to have the opportunity to win something other than a beer drinking competition or the genetic lottery.’

So how did the actual video come about? ‘I went to the band with an idea and we all piled our cash together on a bed. After we were done throwing it in the air and slipping 10’s into Phil’s jockstrap we hired a forest and some rather fancy looking equipment and started shooting us playing a show in the dark.’ The cinematography was done by still photographers, Paul Shiakalis and Huw Morris, and Adam along with a colleague, Philip Davies, approached the visuals with trippy animation and kaleidoscopic effects in mind. I had to enquire about the inspiration for the lyrics. ‘It’s a story of dangerous courting and the promise of even more dangerous sex.’ The end result was a video focused on a live performance which engaged, entertained and used visuals to tie into the lyrics. Adam added, ‘This is no revolutionary idea, hopefully people think it looks cool and they listen to the song long enough for the subliminal messaging to do its work.’

Even though 2012 is not even at the teething stage, the band has not been resting on their laurels or recovering from any New Year’s benders, they are in the final stages of editing a music video for a song recorded late last year entitled ‘Blood on My Fist,’ due to be released as a single on radio and television with the video featuring footage of their recent European Tour. They are also currently booking a tour in the United States in June, ‘The U.S. is an exciting prospect because it is such a massive market with plenty of venues and a hunger for rock ’n roll.’ Accompanying them will be the shows unofficial extra band member and their very own paparazzo, Hanro Havenga, who was responsible for filming and photographing their European tour. Adam describes how his photographic work really captures the nuances of being on a tour and gives people a sense of what it’s like to live with them day to day.

The band is completely D.I.Y, with Adam on visuals and Philip controlling the engineering and mixing the recordings and the logistics and organization. ‘Phil likes to think he‘s in charge so he is quite good at that. Hugh and Justin buy the beer. This cannot be underestimated.’ Adam is quick to add that on a more serious note everyone contributes to the music. I had to ask if he could ask any musician a question, who would it be and what would he ask? ‘Lady Gaga. You show me yours, I’ll show you mine?’  Follow the band on their Facebook page, http://www.facebook.com/#!/DEADALPHABET
Lick Yourself Clean by DeadAlphabet

Produced by Dead Alphabet, recorded live at the SABC. Co-engineered by Graham Klawansky and Kyle Sutcliffe. Featured in South African horror film Rancid

Rancid preview

Rancid First Look from Kamikaze Motion Pictures on Vimeo.

Words: Angelique Redmond

Photography: Mr Hanro Havenga