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Die! Die! Die! Promises Promises

To celebrate the completion of their highly anticipated new album Promises, Promises, Die! Die! Die! are playing a pre-album release showcase gig tonight at Space Bar, Newmarket.

Promises, Promises presents Die! Die! Die! as a band evolved. The trio remains anchored by vocalist/guitarist Andrew Wilson and drummer Michael Prain, with Lachlan Anderson on bass. Still evident is the raw edge of audible menace — powerful, rolling drums with bursts of sharp, abrasive guitar and vocals remain — yet those familiar qualities are cleverly contrasted with a strong presence of melody and greater variation in vocal range and style.

I caught up with singer/guitarist Andrew Wilson to chat about the new album, the twelve day recording session with Shayne Carter as producer, and their experiences from the past few years of gigging and touring relentlessly across the globe.

“It’s been pretty weird” is his low key reaction to the hectic pace of the past three years. In 2007 alone Die! Die! Die! have completed a forty-date tour of the USA to promote their debut album before joining Wolfmother on a North American arena tour. Their debut album sold out in the UK where they also played 30-odd shows and jumped on the festival circuit before playing more shows through Europe, the UK and the States. When they weren’t travelling the band was calling New York City home. Of these times, Andrew has little to say other than “It was cool. It was crazy playing to so many people each night. We are going back to tour the USA in February… but I have no desire to live there.”

Discussion turns to the new album and Andrew acknowledges the varied vocal styles but explains this was not a new direction the band wanted to follow, saying, “That just happened naturally. We never set out to do any particular thing or sound any particular way. We just went with what came out when we were writing the album. We were just writing Die! Die! Die! songs.”

Indeed, such dynamics would have been employed sooner, on their first album, if not for ill health restricting Andrews’s vocal takes. “When we were recording the last album I had a terrible flu for three days. This time everything was more considered and everything had more time.”

Twelve days in fact. Much more time than the band has utilised previously during recording as their first album took only three days and the Locust Weeks EP just three hours. “There’s lots of different themes through the album, lyrically. Mostly stuff about growing up over the past three years. We had a lot of ideas but just honed them throughout the 12 days.”

Accompanying the band’s return to the same upstate New York barn where they recorded last year’s Locust Weeks EP was one Shayne Carter, in the role of producer. Carter was sold on the band after witnessing their 2007 SXSW show where Andrew’s guitar playing was restricted by a broken hand, yet their association goes back earlier thanks to that ever present Dunedin Music Bloodline.

Of their time working together, Andrew is enthusiastic if a little cryptic, saying “It was great. Really cool. He’s a really nice, easy going guy. It got a bit crazy towards the end but we were all there.”

I ask if the Dunedin references and comparisons are still relevant to Die! Die! Die!? “I love it,” he says. “I think Flying Nun the label, now, is worth crap. But the old school is really important and should be acknowledged. All those bands were great and we are really lucky to have had that time frame and part of history. It made it easier for us and other bands around now.”

The conversation drifts onto the idea of Dunedin/Flying Nun music being appreciated “more” by folk overseas. “Totally,” he agrees. “You can’t go anywhere in New York without hearing The Clean on someone’s stereo or being played by a DJ. In LA some guy tried to get us to record a bunch of Clean covers. Which we are probably going to do!”

-David Skipwith

See Die! Die! Die! with special guests The Shithawks tonight at Space Bar, Newmarket. Doors at 9:30pm. $10 presales or $15 on the door. Promises, Promises is in stores Monday 8th October