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The Dead Frenchman
 We as Adelaideans often feel a little unloved as so many bands prefer to line up stacks of gigs throughout the east coast and then leave us out in the cold by neglecting our fair city. Not The Dead Frenchman, though - these burgeoning indie types from Melbourne are about to do a national tour for their new record, 'Wonderland', including one date in Melbourne, one in Sydney, one in Brisbane and two dates - let me repeat that - two dates in Adelaide!
Michael Pledger (guitar/vocals) explains why. "We intended to do the Friday night at the Rocket Bar and then we got offered an extra gig in Adelaide. And since it was at the Exeter and we just couldn't turn it down, it's our old stomping ground and it enables us to stay longer and catch up with family and friends, so it works out really well."
Yes, that's right, although The Dead Frenchmen call Melbourne home, two-thirds of the band actually grew up in Adelaide. "Greg [Doig, drums] and I have been playing in bands together since high school and we moved to London together and tried to do something over there but that didn't really happen. So it was always in the back of our minds to keep doing something and, when we both ended up in Melbourne for work around the same time, we decided to try and start something up again. Melbourne is that kind of city where as a new band you can quite easily get gigs and get yourself involved in the music scene."
For the uninitiated, The Dead Frenchmen have frequently been compared to bands like Interpol, Morrissey, Echo And The Bunnymen, The Verve and even Bloc Party, "Yeah, the Bloc Party comparison was from a review in FHM of all things. I guess our record label [Timberyard] has been good in getting our record out to all kinds of different media outlets, so that even includes FHM, which we were pretty surprised to hear there was a review in. And we get the comparison to Bloc Party, not that we have a problem with them, but they certainly haven't been an influence to us.
"It's been interesting, reading people's thoughts on our album. I guess you never really want to be compared to anybody, you want to stand by your own sound but when we are a band that not many people have heard of, then I guess people are always going to make comparisons to explain what we sound similar to. I'm stuck in two minds actually because all the bands we like we don't necessarily sound like and the bands people think we sound like are rarely big influences on us." Pledger explains that the bands that have probably influenced him the most were actually the Creation Records bands, the early '90s shoe-gazers like My Bloody Valentine and Swervedriver.
However, just like the Canadian band The Dears, mention must be made of a similarity to Morrissey. Pledger admits "Yeah, I know. I have a deep voice and I tend to sing in long extended notes, so I'm never surprised with comparisons to Morrissey and Tears For Fears. Sure, I have a couple of albums by The Smiths but that's it, I'm not a diehard but then again I'm not a hater, so I guess I'm okay with the comparisons."
As for their musical evolution from scoring a Triple J Next Crop artist accolade in 2005 with their debut EP 'When Ghosts Take Over', there has been significant development that has led to the release of 'Wonderland'. "We actually intended to release another EP, we recorded six tracks in six days. Then after we had those songs recorded, Timberyard, our label, decided that it was worth putting together some more tracks and releasing a full album. Unfortunately, we didn't have any more songs ready so we had to go away and write some more songs, which is a bit of a slow and arduous process for us. We are not a particularly prolific band so that took us another three or four months, so eventually the album was recorded in two sessions over a six-month period. It was all recorded in Birdland studios with Lindsay Gravina [Magic Dirt, The Living End] and we were really pleased with the results."
'Wonderland' is out now through Shiny
The Dead Frenchmen play at the Rocket Bar on Fri 9 March and at the Exeter Hotel (Rundle St) on Sat 10 March
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