With 27 gigs between now and February – Dallas Crane are living up to their reputation as the hardest working band in Australia. Stephen Iorio talks with Dave Larkin about the band’s On the Beach tour.
Steve: So how did you come up with the idea for the On the Beach tour concept?
Dave: It was my idea, but really we were there anyway. We spent a lot of time on the beach in the summer anyway and of course it is fun.
Steve: So do you surf much?
Dave: Yeah I surf, but the other guys just like to be beach bums, and the tinnies.
Steve: And the view, I’m sure. So are the new songs going well live and will you be playing mostly the new stuff on the “On the Beach” tour.
Dave: New Songs going well. Yeah we will of course be doing a lot of new material, but we will be playing the old stuff too for certain. The old fans have got the new CD and they want to hear the new stuff as well.
Steve: The new CD is supposed to be more Stripped Back. Was that a conscious decision before recording or a result of the new producers, Jonathan Burnside and Wayne Connolly?
Dave: I don’t think it is really that stripped down personally. It is just a bit cleaner. We are also writing new material much quicker and that kept it leaner. So it is not really stripped just slimmed
Steve: My first exposure to Dallas Crane was the single Come Again Who was the weird woman on the cover?
Dave: The old woman was a file photo from the book of freaks. Nobody we know.
Steve: You are considered the best “Live band” and even won an ARIA to that effect in 2004. Does that push you to keep playing live and lead to you not putting out so many CDs?
Dave: We have done four CDs, but we would like to record more and tour less. Mainly because it does get hard being on the road all the time and we are writing more. We wouldn’t tour so much if we had more airplay.
Steve: I don’t listen to commercial radio much, so I wouldn’t know if you were on.
Dave: We really need radio and then we could tour once or twice a year maybe. We have had great support from JJJ, and we have had good support community radio, but not really big stations. Like MMM.
Steve: Keep You Head High Bella Mae is pretty quiet and ballady, maybe that will get you one the mainstream like all the other rockers did. So do you have any plans for going soft on us?
Dave: Going soft, I doubt it. Actually we tried Keep You Head High Bella Mae in a Punk style first then we tried it as Reggae and now it found a home in a ballady format.
Steve: Are there a lot of time when you have a song written that you really like in a style that you think wouldn’t fit into the CD and it doesn’t make the CD.
Dave: Albert (at the record company) didn’t think the song fit. We just decided to put it on anyway.
Steve: So being the best live cock rock band doesn’t mean it is all heavy.
Dave: The best…. Don’t go there. But really we started out doing so many different styles, because we like so many different types of music that it was hard to get signed to a label. Maybe we will do more varied music in the future possibly. It is much more interesting for the band. But I think a ballady soft CD would surely be the death of Dallas Crane
Steve: I can hear a bit of Ted Nugent in your song Two can play at this Game. It has a great classic riff. Are you a fan?
Dave: No I don’t really know his music really. The inspiration for that song was a new Gretsch guitar; a red double cut away Duo Jet. Fender and Gretsch have both been really good to us.
Steve: So how did you pick the other bands for the “On the Beach Tour”?
Dave: Airbourne is a great live band and they are really buzzing at the moment. Our booking agent also books them, so that was easy. The Vandas only got booked because he plays a Gretsch! No really, they are a great band and a bit different to Dallas Crane and Airbourne.
Steve: Would you like to tour with Tim Rogers and You am I again?
Dave: I would love to! We are still great friends and good to tour with. We have learned a lot from those guys in the past.
Steve: So do you have a favorite song from the CD?
Dave : When I wrote it, I thought God Damn Pride was my best contribution to the CD. It was the best for me. But then I got keen on Black Angels and then on Bella Mae, the harmonies really got me inspired.
Steve: Well, thanks for your time and have fun “On the Beach”
Dave: Thanks, see you there.
For all the gigs on the “On the beach” tour check out http://www.dallascrane.com/newsEvents/home.do?artistId=107552
