The Dancers… Venetian Astaires
Showcase: The Dancers
Published on November 13th, 2012 | Jonny Abrams
Venice rockers The Dancers are set to record their debut album, so we fired them over some questions to find out a little bit more about how they operate. First, though, check out the thrash-along fun of their recent single “The Box”, with its tremendous “live into The Box” video motif…
What’s the line-up of the band? How did you all meet, and how long has the band been going for?
Line up is Matte on guitar and lead vocals, Jule Winchester on drums, and Nick Teller on bass. Actually the line-up is changed during these two years, Matt & Jule are in the band since the beginning, when we all met Teller came last year, but we’ve been friends for a long time.
How would you describe your music?
It’s like a wall of sound, in tune, with garage, punk, blues and some indie-ish influences. I mean, we like many good bands, there are really tons of records and bands that we like, but I think that these are the main influences of the band.
Where are you based, and what do you use to record with?
We are based in our hometown of Venice, Italy.
We produce, record and make every little noise with tape machines. We have some reel-to-reel analog recorders, a 2-track, and an 8-track machine, some vintage microphones etc. We like so much the old days and the old school productions, so there is no other way to do our music but analog!
Are you signed to a label? If so, how did you come to their attention?
Yeah, we sign to VID Records, a really small label of friends that we also collaborate with. It’s great to do things with friends with passion and love for the music, like us they see just music in their lives, so it is easier to create a good friendship.
Is there a full album in the works? If so, what can you tell us about it?
Yeah, we have a full album in process, a single (“The Box”) already came out in September. We finished the demos in these days, we’ll record the album in December, there will be ten or twelve songs. We’re still finishing the production idea, but what I can say is that the songs have more good hooks, but we always want to preserve the rawness of our sound.
Where can we hear your music online?
On our website, you can hear all our EPs and download each single of each EP. We have also a SoundCloud page where you can listen to the complete EPs.
Which have been your most exciting gigs and/or overall moments so far?
Almost every gig we played this year, we had really a lot of funny moments, also when we gigged in London, it was our first time, but was fun; the day before the flight we met in our rehearsal room for packing up our stuff, we were figuring out how to carry our stuff on a plane and we finished to disassemble our instruments (snare, guitars) and carry little cymbals with us so we could have everything with hand luggage. Ahah was funny.
Got any more coming up? (Gigs, that is…)
Yeah we had other couple of gigs in November and early December, then we’ll record the album and in January we’ll start touring a little bit, we got some dates in Europe again too.
Are there any obscure and/or up-and-coming acts that you’d like to recommend or give a shout-out to?
Yeah, we have some friends that are making good music and are really good people too: Supertempo, Sportivi, we listen a lot to the Mojomatics also, but I actually think that you might know them!
http://supertempo.bandcamp.com/album/to-the-sea-by-walking
http://glisportivi.bandcamp.com/album/gli-sportivi
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?
I think we are really into classic stuff when we hear this kind of questions:
The Rolling Stones. How can you possibly get bored from the best living band? Their records sound current in every decade.
Back from the Grave compilations, they are always the best to put up a party in solitary confinement!
The Reigning Sound, we love every album they made. Well, every song they wrote.
The White Stripes, not everyone in the band is a die hard fan of them but two of three members are, so we bring’em with us!
-The Ramones. It might sound dull you know, but we really love them, and can you actually trust some musician, musical journalist or record collector that doesn’t like The Ramones?
The Dancers, 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.
