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| Bryan Johnson
The Dead 60's Interview By Lydia Clare (SugarBuzz Correspondent South Wales, UK) SugarBuzz Magazine |
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| The 60s may be dead but one band is fighting to ensure they’re not forgotten, welcome the Dead 60s, a Liverpudlian quartet whose ska/pop-punk sound has invigorated tired gig goers who’ve grown weary of endless repetitions of jangly guitars and miserable vocals. Having toured with the likes of Morrissey and Kasabian, they’ve been wowing the crowds for the past 2 years and I had the opportunity to interview drummer Bryan Johnson before they started a three-night stint supporting the Stereophonics at the CIA in September.
Hey, how’ve things been going? Not bad thanks, pretty crazy because we’re building up to the release of the album. This tour we’ve sometimes been playing two shows a night, one as the supporting act and then zipping over the other side of town for our own gig. So how did the Dead 60s come into being? It was a combination of just through schools and bands starting out really. Myself and Ben have been in a band since we were about 12 or 13, same as Matt and Charlie. Then we got together when we were 17 or 18; it was just because we were going to the same gigs and we always used to see each other out drinking in town. It was just common interest and a natural progression as we’ve been mates for years so it’s built on friendship. The thing is though if you don’t get along then it’s going to be a nightmare. It’s strange for us because we hear these horror stories about bands that don’t get along, you know the classic stereotype awkward band but we’ve never been in that situation. It’s just so intense as we’ve been with each other every day for the past 5 years or more so you’ve just got to get along. What would you say your influences are? The band’s built on us mainly being into punk music when we were younger. When we first started out it was just a case of finding bands that played loud and fast, you know, early Clash or the Pistols, even The Damned stuff like that, just really punky bands. Then we kind of got into the dub side of it through the Clash then we got to Lee Perry and that opened other avenues to The Slits and Public Image. So yeah, it’s punk music and dub music that the band’s built on. |
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| Is that why you included the second CD of Dub tracks with the album? We’ve always been interested in the dub side of it, not just the sound but the way it’s put together and we like the idea of just stripping down the songs to its bare bones because not many people do it. Most hide behind glossy mixes and Top 40 sounds and for us for the first album we wanted to get across what we’re doing really. You’ve toured pretty extensively; will you only tour with bands whose music you like? |
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| Not really because we’re not really in a scene and we see it that we’ve got to get our music out there. So we’ve never thought ‘oh we’ll just go on tour with bands that play dub or ska music’. You need to get your music to all different types of people, which is why we’ve toured with who we have. We don’t necessarily always like their music but it is a bonus if you get on with them.
Do you find it hard being the support act? We’re lucky really because we’ve never had the disaster of being bottle off. Touch wood we’ve always been fortunate. We always get a good reaction and people come up to us and say ‘I’ve never paid attention to the support band but you were really good.’ It’s really hard though because you get a 30 minute time slot to go on stage and prove your worth and the front row usually has their backs turned to you because they’re the die hard fans so you’re trying to impress everyone in the middle and it seems like mostly we succeed. Wrapping up at that point with the bus jolting suddenly it was time for everyone to get ready for the gig and what a gig. The Dead 60s blew the crowd away managing to engage everyone in the arena, something few support acts manage to do, especially in Wales where the crowd is notoriously laid back during the opening sets. They proved their worth with an exciting blend of ska-punk tinged pop rock that will ensure their next visit to Wales will be as sell out headliners. They are definitely one of Britain’s brightest hopes. Refreshingly different, down-to-earth and excitable it’s not hard to understand why their album has had massive amounts of praise as they can only carry on going up and up in the music industry. |
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