INTERVIEW WITH JD&FDCs AT RACPA EVENT – MFN NOTTINGHAM – SEPT 2016
30th September 2016We just saw you guys on stage here at the MFN supporting this fabulous event, how did you guys find it?
JD – Good Yea
What inspired you to form a band and put music together?
JD – We started in 2010, we had all been in other bands which had fizzled out and the time was right to hit the reset button and start again, and over the past 6 years we have followed what we did with our old bands where we did really well and then all of a sudden we have just hit that glass ceiling.
We got frustrated, audiences dropped a little bit, we took a year off and this is our first gig back in a year.
We are in a really strange place, I know that didn’t answer your question haha but that’s where we ar at now.
Do you guys have a record label?
JD – We do it ourselves, we have had record deals int he past where it has gone wrong and we have felt screwed over, so im very alert about doing things ourselves now.
So you guys have hit some bumps in the road while you have been going?
JD – oh god yes, that’s kinda why we have taken a year off because of a few bumps in the road.
JOEY STRANGE JOINS THE INTERVIEW
Hi Joey
Joey – Hi Linz
How you doing?
Joey – im good thankyou
you looked like you were having a good time out there on stage.
Joey – Yea its great to be back in front of a great crowd of people.
Who is the brains behind your lyrics?
JD – I do all the lyrics, i have to believe in what im singing.
Even when we do cover versions if i cant believe in what im singing than im not going to want to go out there and do it.
Joey – You have written lyrics with other people in the past outside of the band.
JD – I have collaborated with people in the past yes.
How do you go about your music process?
JD – Sometimes me and Joey will discuss new music by artists like Danko Jones or Antiflag, and we will discuss doing something like that, their music inspires us, you can’t go creating carbon copies of other people’s music, you have to feel the music and make it your own you know, if everyone went out and copied other people’s music then that’s not being a true musician artistically.
It’s the structure and layout and composition of a song that grabs me, it has to come naturally.
Sometimes we will play something and one of us will be like ‘yea that’s good we should use that’, but inspiration can come at anytime like when we are in the shower or when we are in the car, sometimes we might not have anything for months which can be really annoying.
Joey – You get some people who force songs out and their work can sound really sloppy, we work hard because we want our music to sound just right. It has to come naturally and evolve.
Once you start trying to hard like saying you’re going to pick up the guitar each morning and write a song before you do anything else in the day it just doesn’t work like that.
Inspiration can come at the most inopportune moment, sometimes it even happens when im packing for band practice.
Which song do you most enjoy performing?
Joey – I enjoy performing some of the songs that we havent played for a while like ‘Anti Destination League’ we havent played that in like 3/4 years.
JD – Yea they would be good to do again.
We have had a bit of a change of personality since loosing our drummer, we used to be able to pull anything out of a hat but now we are breaking in a new drummer.
We played a couple of Misfits songs tonight I quite enjoyed playing those.
Hows your new drummer settling into the band?
JD – He’s doing alright, he’s been part of the band family from the start, he actually directed all our music videos, and our first video we did here at MFN, so we deliberately hired from within. We didn’t want to get an outsider we tried that when our last drummer had another sabbatical.
Our new drummer, this was his first gig in 6 years since playing download with his old band, he showed to us tonight he may be a little out of practice but he’s the right man for the job.
How would you say your music has evolved since first starting out?
Joey – Our 1st & 2nd album have completely different vibes to them.The first album was basically us introducing ourselves to the world saying ‘look this is us, we have fun, this is what we do’. Then the 2nd album for more personal reasons took a darker route.
JD – It sounds like what the bigger bands do using life experiences and going down a dark route.
Joey – It’s the way we were all feeling at the time.
JD – It generally was.
We were surrounded by a lot of deaths, a lot of relationship breakdowns and a lot of bad life experiences, so when we started writing it felt like we couldn’t stop.
As human beings i think we were going through troubled times.
I think that’s pretty normal for everyone let alone musicians.
JD – So we continued writing and continued gigging, we were never miserable on stage, we were just more serious.
Things are better now, seasons pass and things change, we are bringing some more of the fun elements back.
We have just gone full circle with emotions as a band.
Whats next for you guys?
JD – We have a new music video coming out on Tuesday (video now released).
It is our 2nd video from the latest album.
Can you tell us a little bit about the video?
JD – It features a guy called ‘spunk volcano’ he wrote most of the song and he features in the video.
AATR – If anyone past or present could feature in your next album who would it be?
JD – Our first album is packed with famous people, but personally i would like to do a duet with ‘Brody Dalle’ from the Distillers.
AATR – How would you describe your music to someone who hadn’t heard your music before?
JD – I used to hate that question but ive got it down to a fine art now, for one you don’t know how knowledgable someone is when it comes to music.
If it’s a punk rocker and they know their stuff i say ‘oh we are like Degeneration and Antiflag’.
I don’t have any heirs and graces anymore i just say to people oh do you like Greenday? and if it’s a yes i just say oh we are kinda like Greenday.
Lets keep it simple its loud guitars and melodic riffs.
Joey – I don’t think we sound anything like Greenday?.
JD – Oh no we don’t sound anything like Greenday at al but if someone asks that then that’s what I will say haha!.
How would you say the music industry has changed since you started out?
JD – how long have you got?
How long is a piece of string?
JD – Too bloody long haha, i think the general consensus from the younger generation is that they aren’t bothered by the changes made as they see it, in a click of a button they can download whatever they want digitally now and they think that’s great.
Anyone can put their music onto iTunes now, it’s not about how hard you have worked to reach that level, it’s about how much money you have to pay the fat cats in suits.
If you have the money you can even get your video onto Kerrang
It’s far harder for the hard-working bands to get heard because of all the crap you have to wade through to reach the level you want to be.
It’s not about popularity anymore its all about the cash and that’s really sad, some people call it selling out buying their way onto big tours straight away instead of working your way up to to it and doing it the ‘old fashioned’ way of doing things, its easy for a crap band to buy their way on.
The industry has changed so people can fill their pockets while the hard-working get shafted.
I totally see that happen a lot, you watch a great band go from small pub gigs to playing small stages at major festivals then you see a band no one has heard of who don’t play particularly well support the headliners and you think how the hell has that happened, with hardly anyone their watching that band as no one has heard of them.
JD – Yea exactly and that’s how it is now.
Thanks for your time guys its been a pleasure speaking to you, we will have to catch up next time your gigging local to where I’m from.
JD -Definitely let us know ans we will hook you up.
AATR – Cheers guys
