Dark Stares… Night vision
Interview: Dark Stares
Published on July 2nd, 2012 | Jonny Abrams
St Albans rockers Dark Stares are set to release their debut EP Tell Your Friends in September, so we fired them over some questions to find out a little bit more about the whole operation…
How did you all meet, and how long has the band been going for?
Dark Stares has been official since early 2011, though we’ve all been jamming and gigging together for a while longer in various friend groups and different guises. We’re brothers so meeting each other was pretty easy and normal. We’re not an internet band; we met on the living room floor.
How would you describe your music, if pushed?
We’re somewhere in the murky boundaries of rock and have been called indie rock, alternative rock, grunge rock, blues rock and of course rock ‘n’ roll. If pushed, we’d go for a delicious blend of all of them. Plus some funky acid house.
Where are you based, and what do you use to record with?
We are born, raised and based in St Albans, United Kingdom in a county called Hertfordshire just north of London. As of June 2012, we have recorded all our officially released material at Outhouse Studios in Reading, though of course we’ve done some scrappy demos and live recordings in our time as we learnt our craft.
Is there a full album in the works? If so, what can you tell us about it? (Feel free to be as abstract as you like!)
There most certainly is a full album in the works, but we haven’t got much to tell you about it other than it’s going to be the absolute best debut album we could possibly deliver. We have a lot of reverence for the ‘debut’ album, and most of our heroes have had an important impact in their genre with their first full length release. So in the meantime, we’re due to put our second EP out there and aim to just keep building on our momentum and the attention we’ve receive so far before taking that final step.
Where can we hear your music online?
Lots of places, Youtube, Facebook, Soundcloud, Myspace etc – Best place to go is to our official Facebook page, which has links to all these magical places: www.facebook.com/darkstares
Which have been your most exciting gigs and/or overall moments so far?
Definitely opening the bill for Enter Shikari in our home county of Hertfordshire, at The Forum, for a few thousand people. That was an awesome experience and baptism of fire. Being sole support to The Darkness at The 100 Club was another immense one; extremely different but another great opportunity and experience.
Got any more coming up? (Gigs, that is…)
Yeah, we’re always playing shows, best way to keep up to date with our tour diary is on our official website: www.darkstares.com/shows
In terms of more exciting gigs/moments on the horizon; we’re really looking forward to sharing the main-stage with Fun Lovin’ Criminals and The Subways at CockRock 2012 in July.
Are there any obscure and/or up-and-coming acts that you’d like to recommend or give a shout-out to?
Yes. Code500 are a brilliant band from Northampton. They deliver this massive atmospheric wall of noise and can also be quite chilled-out at the same time. Pretty epic. Check ’em out at www.code500.co.uk
Finally, if you were forced to spend the rest of your days in solitary confinement, but were allowed to bring the entire works of five different artists along to tide you over, whose would you choose?
Tough one. This wouldn’t represent our recent influences much, because you really would want the best five artists of all time, rather than a band that just gives you a bit of a buzz. So… Led Zeppelin would be an absolute must. The Beatles would be a no-brainer. Maybe a wild card like Queen in there, that would be more childhood-based and has songs you could always find new parts in to enjoy.
Catering to the whole band, I’d go for Jeff Buckley as well, something ethereal and mystic to keep you interested, and then throw in something completely different and uplifting like Simon and Garfunkel. We’d miss the indie/alternative rock of recent years, but you’ve got to make sacrifices… Who the hell has done this to us?
Dark Stares, thank you.
About the Author
Jonny Abrams Editor of Rocksucker and the website's founder, Jonny is passionate about the music he listens to, both good and bad, as well as interviewing his favourite musicians.
