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Dallas Crane.
So you're one of the most respected, hard working bands in the
country, and a large corporation asks you to join one of their
cashed up 'rock tours'. You're faced with the prospect of performing
dirty, balls-out tunes in front of big Coke logos. This is the
situation that faced Dallas Crane.
"For us it's just been like a tour with a whole bunch of bands we've always loved and got along with. It's been a funny one, a lot of people have given us that 'Oh, you sell out' kind of mentality," shrugs drummer Shan Vanderwert. "For us its been about having the opportunity to play to a whole heap of kids we haven't been able to play to before and play bigger arenas. I'm not really looking at it like we're sponsored by Coke because we're not sponsored by them at all."
It seems for a band that has toiled and sweated, Coke is just an end to the means. At least it gives kids who don't hear much live music an opportunity to do so. "We haven't had the chance to play to kids other than Big Day Out and we haven't done any under-age tours ourselves, so this gives us the chance to play to people we haven't played before and hopefully open up that end of the market.... We've shared the stage with most of the bands and we're all really good mates, so the prospect of travelling around and staying at the same motels should be a bit of fun."
Now that the garage rock phenomenon has fizzled, do they feel they've come out with some indie cred? "It's always just a trend, we've been playing rock'n'roll for bloody ages," he laughs. "We never thought of ourselves riding the wave but it helped in a way when heaps more people were going out to gigs. Instead of having big, ugly 40 year old men coming to your shows you had cute little 18 year old girls. The beauty about it is heaps of people are still going to gigs, there has been a rejuvenation of the live scene, a lot of venues starting to open up again, so it's good for everyone involved."
What's unusual for Dallas Crane is they've had success second time around with Sit On My Knee, hitting number one with Jimmy Barnes. "The funny thing with that that we laughed about recently was that song was one of the ones we sent out to a lots of record labels when we were looking for a deal and they all said no. It's kinda funny that's its been re-released as a cover and we had labels like Liberation pushing it, the same label that probably said no to it. Barnesy just really liked that song and it was good for us 'cause it never really got a push or anything, it got a bit of play on Triple J but we were never really happy with the original recording."
What with all the success of their last record and an avalanche of touring, it's studio time once again. "We started recording about two weeks ago and its been really good. We put the pressure on ourselves as we only pretty much finished touring, we went away - we've got a house in the country to go to - we spent about a month up there straight away so we haven't had a break from each other for a good couple of years. It's really exciting, it's coming along really good, so we should have a single out at the end of the year and a record in the new year."
I ask whether there is progression in what they're writing. "In terms of us we've always evolved as we've gone, our first two records and the third one was different again. It all depends on what we're listening to at the time, especially with Pete [Satchell] and Dave [Larkin], the songwriters. Dave's going through a period of listening to New Orleans funk, so you can hear all that coming through. A lot of Pete's new stuff is a lot more melodic than what he's done in the past, it's definitely not going to be the same sort of record. We still want to sound kinda live and rocking, but there's going to be a lot more melodic elements in this one."
How about conquering overseas? "Believe it or not we're heading over to India," he laughs, "which will be quite funny. We're using it as a holiday and a strange experience in one. Our manager rang up and said, "Hey do you guys feel like a six week tour of India?" I don't know how much rock'n'roll India has seen. But our record is coming out in the UK late this year. That's if we don't end up on a Bollywood film. We'll be touring Australia pretty much all of January then hopefully the record comes out, maybe March, and do an album tour then. So basically I won't have any time off for three years."
Lauren Boxhall
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Dallas Crane play the Coke Live'n'Local showcase at the Entertainment Centre on Sat 8 Oct along with The Living End, Spiderbait, P-Money, The Spazzys, and more.
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