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INTERVIEW WITH:
(DEK) DRONGOS FOR EUROPE
Interview by Paul - January 2007
You formed in
1979 and are now at full strength after a quiet period during the 90’s. In
all those years what have been your favourite experiences as a band?
Think there have been so many - being on tour with our friends, meeting so
many cool people and recieving such generous hospitality from people who
were strangers to begin with - but are firm friends now.
Having people from all over stay with us and accept our hospitality - it's
those kind of things that leave lasting memories for me - of course
playing in front of lots of people all over the World is good too.
Also when we got the finished copy of Barcode Generation in our hands the
first real Drongos album, that was something of an achievement after such
a long time.
The Barcode Generation album blew young and old
punks away when it was released and Hotline to Hades is another blinder.
Were you worried that Barcode was a hard one to follow?
We never really worried about it as we'd already started to write new
songs after we'd made Barcode.
In fact writing is on going for us - as we never intended to be a
nostalgia band churning out old stuff at big festivals. We want to be
creative, current and have fun doing it.
Barcode Generation was re-released in 2006. Was that
mainly because you didn’t like the pink and green artwork on the original
:) or was it due to label issues and putting all aspects of the release
firmly back in your hands?
It was mainly because Dislocate records who had put it out over here had
more or less run out and we'd been buying them off Dislocate for £2.20 a
copy - and we'd sold most of them at our gigs.
We just decided to release it as a split with Punkshit and on our own
label DFE records (1000 copies each) so that we had complete control and
weren't paying someone else for our work.
No reflection on Dislocate - but we had the money and with Rich Lard's
help the know how to DIY it ourselves.
We'd never been happy with the pink and green artwork - it was a good idea
but wasn't practicle when it came to reading the lyrics.
We got Huggy an old mate who designs all the Punkshit releases to
re-design the album and he did a great job.
Huggy also did the Hotline designs.
What do you think about the way most UK punk labels
run? What makes a good punk label?
To be honest we don't know too much about most punk labels, I guess if
someone puts out your record they have to at least cover their own costs
before they can give a band anything and as we all know its very difficult
to get distribution so I don't think it's a money making exercise for many
labels.
I think if you're a band who plays a lot of gigs then DIY labels putting
your own stuff out will work for you as you know you're going to sell the
records.
If you expect someone else to sell your stuff but not do any promoting
yourself then you'll be fucked!
DFE have become self sufficient doing it DIY - but we've also signed to
SOS in America who have Sony distribution and sell in stores - mainly
because we're not out there promoting the records ourselves - like we do
here.
Also the contract was good and fare - mind we've yet to see any royalty
cheques yet.
I know you’re all strong supporters of the DIY scene
and you go to many local gigs and know the people. What do you think is
needed to make the West Midlands scene a force to be reckoned with, or is
it already?
I think the main thing we need is central venues, good venues are really
hard to find - so if we get them we should treat them and their owners and
staff with respect.
We already have the good people in Brum and more than enough great bands -
so it's just getting people who will turn up to see us and GBH at the
academy to turn up in the Market Tavern - though last time we played the
Tavern it was dangerously over crowded and a few people moaned about that
so it's difficult.
I heard that the people who own Scruffy Murphys have bought the Crown pub
on Hill st (I think) it's the origional punk pub /venue from the early
eighties - so if they do that up we could have a great city centre venue
along with the Tavern and Scruffys - also the Ben Johnson and Epic Skate
Park are good venues.
What is the funniest rumour you’ve heard about
Drongos and was it even remotely true?
My brother Dave went to get a tattoo of DFE on his neck, it was the day
after we'd played the Stig Memorial in a squatted police station in London
(as a benefit for Stig's children) - somehow his having DFE tattooed on
his neck and him telling the tatooist about memorial gig got twisted - so
that when the tatooist who did my brother told the other tattooist who was
an old punk who knew us - well - he made a few phone calls asking if
anyone knew about a memorial for the Drongos - so to cut a long story
short - I'd just got back from London at about 7am - 10am I get a phone
call from a girl who was upset on the phone asking which one of us had
died! She told me that she'd heard off a tattooist that we both knew who'd
been told there was a memorial for one or all of us.
After reassuring her that I was just tired and everyone else looked ok
when we'd dropped them off - I started to wonder where they got the info
from.
Then a few days later I'm speaking to my brother who shows me his tattoo
and it all fell into place? Is it remotely true - sometimes..
When someone asks you to think of your favourite
Drongos gig, which one springs straight to mind for each Drongos member
and why?
As I'm (Dek0 the only one answering this I'll answer for all of us and
hope its right.
The gig we played at the Holidays in the Sun festival at the Stone Pony
New Jersey USA was our 2nd US gig - but really a big gig for us, loads of
people and we went down a storm - as it was our first time in the US it
will always have a lasting memory for us.
Also we played a great gig in Tijuana Mexico on the tour we did with Toxic
Narcotic and Defiance, that was amazing. Berlin and Hamburg are always
good as are our Brum shows.
Each Drongos member has varying tastes in music.
Does that come through in the music and make the Drongos sound, or is
there an underlying idea of what a Drongos song consists of when a song is
written?
I think that our different tastes in music comes out in the writing, I'll
come in with the basic idea for the song and then after everyone has added
their bit we get the Drongo sound.
But we're pretty open about how a Drongo song should be - "You don't need
a gun to be a man" is not your usual Drongo song - but somehow it works,
If you could choose to be in any band you wanted
(past or present), what would you all choose?
I think Anton would be the New York Dolls or Stooges
Kimbo - would be Killing Joke
Rob would be the Sex Pistols
Tom - maybe the Ruts
and I'm already in my dream band.
Sean of the Dead, or Dawn of the Dead?
Dawn of the Dead
What is each member’s favourite Drongos song to play
live?
To be honest that changes from time to time - we all get bored if we have
to play the same set all the time
Wake up Call, May Day, and Untamed are all favourites.
Do you have a song in your set that people love, but
you’re really fed up of playing?
For me it's "Who the fuck are you?" but we could never drop it as it's so
fucking popular!
Hotline to Hades is now released on SOS in the USA
and you have some new songs in the pipeline. What’s the plan for 2007 in
terms of Drongos releases and tours?
We've already written about 9 or 10 new songs for a new recording - not
sure when we'll be making a new album but hopefully by the end of the
year.
We want to release "Dance when Maggies dead" as a single pretty soon
though.
SOS are supposed to be planning us a US tour for September time and in
April were on tour with the Angelic Upstarts. Deadline, the Vibrators and
Middle Finger Salute - mostly up north and Scotland.
What question would you like to be asked in an
interview and never have been? What’s your answer to it?
"do you think you should still be playing punk now that you are all
millionaires?"
Anything you’d like to end with?
Thanks for interviewing us, just everyone have fun doing this, go out and
catch some local bands in local venues it's almost always more fun than
bigger shows.
Thanks for doing this interview for
westmidlandspunk.com. All the best to you guys.
Please get in touch if your band is based in the West
Midlands and you want to feature on here. Send some photos, mp3s,
biographies, release information, links to videos etc. and I will post it
all on here and help promote your band. However, this site is not about
nostalgia, it is to help bands who are still gigging, so I'm only
interested in ACTIVE bands. Email details to Paul:
angryscenes@hotmail.co.uk
Please note: There is no place for racist, sexist,
homophobic or fascist bands on here, so fuck you!
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