Dappled Cities Back To Sing and Dance

By Eliza Sarlos

Flipping through my record collection it’s close to impossible to find a band with 10 years under their belt, who are only 25. Close, but not entirely impossible. Having formed as tender teens Dappled Cities (take or leave the Fly) have gained a member, supported everyone, ever, and are working the most ridiculous band name into households everywhere. They’ve built a legion of fans along Australia’s East Coast and – over the last year – have taken the gospel according to Dappled offshore, having been based in New York and touring like crazy throughout 2007. Following on from Big Day Out and LCD Soundsystem tours, and ahead of a string of dates with Sparkadia and the Seabellies, Dappled Cities’ singer, songwriter and guitarist Dave Rennick shed a little light on their own shot at indie imperialism.

“I might be going back on my own for a holiday, but as far as the band goes we’re here to record our third album,” Dave answers to the obligatory “welcome home – what now” question.

How was the living in New York thing?

Dave: The whole thing was really amazing – it was a really intense period of all our lives. We went on three tours around the States and in between we were in New York with a daily budget of about $10. It was really gritty and intensive, but on the other side of that, of course, it was hugely rewarding.

At one point there were five of us living in a one bedroom studio apartment so we were forced to write, because there was nothing else we could do together. We’re past the point of playing board games together. We’re not really afraid to be close to each other.

Tell me about America, and touring. How was it for you, as an Australian band, to be based there but to also play a lot of shows?

We were playing a lot of shows, yeah. It’s a really big country – I’m not sure you’re aware, I certainly wasn’t aware of how freaking massive it is and how many cities there are – there’s a city every five hours, and big cities, with lots of kids. But it’s quite invigorating – it confirmed our suspicions that there are a lot of people outside Australia. And just by the fact that there were greater numbers the appreciation of us seemed to be a little more apparent. I was about to say American audiences appreciate indie music so much more than Australian audiences, but I don’t really mean that – there’s just more!

So you’re back in Australia just to record the album? And you’ll definitely move back to America?

I’m not sure. We’ll definitely hop on a plane and go back to do any more touring that needs to be done this year, but we just thought that for this album we wanted to take a little bit of a different approach and we wanted to spend time in a very relaxed environment over a long period of time to develop an album, and when you’re living in a city that is away from your friends and family and creature comforts it tends to counteract those things.

What’s that different environment going to be?

That being near our house, in our hometown of Sydney. And we’ll just spend a lot of time – that’s the idea, like six months working on a record. It just wouldn’t really be feasible were we to go back to LA again.

What do you think has changed in between recording and releasing Granddance, and also in going back to record this next one?

Well for some reason – maybe it’s because we’ve just hit our mid twenties – but our music has started to turn a bit darker. We’ve also adopted a notion of trying to allow more space on recordings, and to use that as a means to make them grander and bigger. Granddance has got so many layers and so much orchestration, and is just chock-a-block with ideas and sounds, and I suppose what we’ve learnt from the outset that nothing beats restraint.

And for live shows?

We’re going to play some of our new songs, give them a trial run.

I’m so super keen to hear what some of your dark songs are like. What have you been listening to lately? Stuff like Grizzly Bear…

So you’re going to go folky?

No no, just a bit more reflective I suppose. Not so much dark as in emo, and folky, emo – folk. Just a little more, perhaps, personal and reflective.

Is that something you’ve not done before?

We have approached songwriting like that but the approach has always been “Woo! Fun! Happy! Party! Sunshine!” and this time the result seems to be more honest, I guess.

What do you think you look for in a song? To you, what makes good music, in general?

I’ve made a conscious effort recently not to approach song listening with intellect. For a long time I’d be listening to a song, trying to approach it in an intellectual way, and it’s really unsatisfying because most songs are just really dumb. But if you approach songs with less of an intellectual front and react to it in an emotive response then stuff is more rewarding.

It’s kind of hard, but I agree with you that it’s way more rewarding, to not have to analyse everything and to just be like, y’know, this is just a really awesome song.

Yeah, yeah. And that analysis, not just analysis but over analysis, that just kills me these days. If anyone talks to me about a song they’ve heard and then they start to over analyse it, I just switch off.

But there’s such a culture of over analysis – music journalists, bloggers, radio people, it’s kind of a symptom of modern day listening…

Yeah, yeah. Or when someone says ‘f**k man, why didn’t they make that bridge the outro.’

Tours, album prep, and living in Sydney again, is that all that’s going on for you?

I just finished recording my other project – the Curse of Company. It’s a new outfit that’s going to be really cool. [It’s] Sarah from the redsunband, Tim Rogers – Jack Ladder, I mean – a fellow named Danny Heifetz (ex-Mr Bungle, Merle Morris, The Exiles) plays drums and Burke Reid (Gerling) was doing production.

Wow – it’s like a Sydney indie supergroup.

Yeahhhhh. That’s the line I was wanting to avoid. I think we’re going to change our names and stuff like that. We did one show two and a half years ago.

And you’ve only just recorded something?

Yeah, we’ve finished an album and it’s pretty cool – it’s like Scarface and Blade Runner folk. It’ll come out pretty soon, in the first half of this year. And who knows – I have no expectations about it which is a really nice way to be about a release. ‘

Is it something that’s happened because things are less intense with Dappled at the moment, or that those are people you’ve always wanted to work with?

I’ve always wanted to work with those people and I suppose it was because I was just writing those songs. They were songs I tried to give to Dappled but it was clear they wouldn’t really work there, so it’s really the best for both worlds, because now I get to separate my songwriting with clarity.

It’s the stuff that Dappled Cities reject that makes them the best? The jury’s still out, but see new material cascade from them as it would a font of creativity, as they take on the East Coast this week.

The Tour Dates

Wed 13 February
Oxford Arts Factory, Sydney
With special guests: Sparkadia, The Seabellies, Des Miller

Thursday 14 February
Oxford Arts Factory, Sydney
With special guests: Sparkadia, The Seabellies

Friday 15 February
The East Brunswick Social Club, Melbourne
With special guests: Sparkadia, The Seabellies

Saturday 16 February
The Zoo, Brisbane
With special guests: Sparkadia, The Seabellies

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