It's No Drag Standing In TheSunlight

Wed 20th Jul, 2005 in Features

Not that he was unhappy, or at all unfulfilled in the band affectionately dubbed ‘The Finger’ but Darren Middleton, the front man of Brisbane outfit Drag was definitely itching to write and record some of his own tunes and see where they might end up. Besides, he isn’t the only one using the time away from the band to work on some other projects – Bernard Fanning’s solo work is expected sometime toward the end of the year.

But for now, Drag and Darren have a pretty full plate. Gigs at Splendour in the Grass and a support slot for UK wunderkinds Athlete, Darren is finding the shift in focus to him, as front man something quite interesting, but non-the-less a challenge.

“It’s a bit of a handful actually,” he explains. “On one hand it is a real handful, there’s a lot to do, and it’s mostly my responsibility as opposed to having it [the press] spread around, but at the same time I am really kind of flattered and excited that people actually have a lot to do – I guess it’s better than not having a lot to do…with once I’d done the album and no one was interested! So it’s really good.”

And people are interested. The first cut off Drag’s debut album The Way Out is the infectious You & I which is receiving both heavy rotation and garnering favourable opinion. It was part of the plan you see – to create an album which acts like a slow burn, redeeming itself and another layer to remain consistently interesting, enveloping you like a ‘warm, holey jumper’.  Working with producer David Nicholas (Pulp, Elton John) the four-piece found they were of like mind with the established Nicholas – even if there was a bit of a staring competition at the commencement of recording.

“It took about a week for us to suss each other but the was really good. He was open to ideas, and had plenty of ideas himself. And he come from that kind of old school, as he’s been around for awhile recording and producing, so he’s very much an old school ‘let’s record it organically as a band, to the old tape machines and then we’ll go into computer afterwards’ which suited us perfectly, because that was ideally how we’d like to do it as well.”

Working with an ideal producer, it was also an ideal location – as the Byron Bay recording studios afforded the group the type of aesthetic that has obviously permeated the recording process. “Byron is obviously a bit of a lifestyle,” Darren explains, “so where we were staying was right next to the studio. And I love going to the beach so I’d just go for a swim every morning – I’d love to go back and do something else there.”

Drag share a link with Byron Bay. Not only did they record their debut album there, but they also played one of their first gigs there – at Splendour in the Grass 2001. And Drag shall soon return – again – for the Splendour in the Grass festival this weekend. But will that ‘warm holey jumper’ keep the punters warm in a Byron Bay winter?

“I hope so yeah! I remember actually saying that. I come out with these silly things sometimes ‘a good jacket of sound with a few holes in it’ or something… I cant actually remember what I said now! Look I am just a romantic when it comes to music. I like to get lost in the songs, and just find myself immersed in them when I am listening to them, and I guess I kind of hope that’s what kind of happens in Byron Bay on a winters night …or winter afternoon.”

But the band won’t have long to dwell in Byron – aside from seeing Queens of the Stone Age and Ryan Adams after their performance in the Supertop on Saturday, Drag shall have to hightail it out of Byron on Sunday in order to start their support slot commitments with Athlete.

Darren does hope to have a Drag tour happening, probably in October, but for now the ever humble Darren Middleton is content to deal with what’s immediately on his plate, in front of him.

“It’s a little bit of an unknown road as to how the record will do, or whether people will want to come and see us play, or want us to play. I guess we’re just going to wait and see what happens, but we are pretty keen to get out there and try and play some of these songs live. I think we’re going to. Maybe in October we’ll try and do a few gigs in every city.”

But for now you can catch Drag and Athlete at:

Sun 24th July – The Metro, Sydney
Mon 25th July – Hi-Fi Bar, Melbourne
Wed 27th July – Monkey Bar, Perth

Drag’s debut The Way Out is out now through Dew Process/Universal.