Sunday 20 February 2011

Interview: Dinosaur Pile-Up

When the Rock Sound Exposure Tour stopped off at iBar in Bournemouth, I chatted to Leeds based trio Dinosaur Pile-Up. It wasn’t long before the conversation turned to hopscotch…

The Rock Sound Exposure Tour has just kicked off, how did the first night go?
Harry (bass): It was ace.
Matt (vocals/guitar): It was really good fun. We know Japanese Voyeurs and The Xcerts from before but it feels like this tour is a really good chance for us to reconnect. Everyone was a bit nervous and everyone got on really well and we ended up crashing with Murray from The Xcerts and hanging out so it was good.

Have you got anything special lined up for the rest of the tour?
Mike (drums): Every gig is special!
Harry: We’re less concerned on this tour to necessarily play exactly what’s on our record. We’re doing some new stuff and some old stuff and trying to mix it up a bit and have fun. And also because we’ve gone into the tour not knowing if we’re going to open up shows or headline shows, we have to be punchy and good. We feel like we’ve got a bit more to prove. There’s gonna be a bunch of people out there who have come to see The Xcerts or Japanese Voyeurs and we wanna be like ‘yea we’re good aswell!’

What do you guys get up to when you’re not making music?
Harry: Skateboarding
Mike: I was road surfing earlier
Harry: Hopscotch. We’re pretty into urban hopscotch at the minute.
Mike: All you need is a piece of chalk and something to throw and you’re away.
Matt: Between us and The Xcerts, we’re starting that as our full time road hobby.
Maybe you could introduce it into the Olympics?
Harry: I like to think it’s too gnarly for the Olympics. A bit too extreme.

For people who haven’t heard of Dinosaur Pile-Up before, how would you describe your music?
Harry: Probably equal rock and pop. But not in a Nickelback way. Actually, we probably do sound a bit like Nickelback. But cool, because we don’t sell so many records. Thus we’re cooler.
Matt: It’s quite heavy and ‘poppy’ at the same time. Because I guess there is an equal mix of what we listen to in there. There’s pop and really old pop and heavy metal.
Mike: Think ‘if Mika met Black Flag’.
Matt: Ooooh! Mind blown!
Harry: Face melted!

You’ve been compared to some pretty big names, such as Foo Fighters and Weezer, is that a little daunting?
Matt: Not at all. They’re all rad bands and we’ve all listened to them so it’s not daunting, it’s complimentary. But I guess a big thing for us is for people to be able to see past that.

What does the future hold for Dinosaur Pile-Up?
Mike: We’ve got some festivals coming up.
Matt: But we don’t know which ones. We’re going to South By Southwest in North America. Then we’re going to do a few gigs in Mexico
Mike: And riding an open top bus and playing!
Harry: Then in April we’ll be touring in England again
Matt: We’re also going to do some recordings of some sort.
Harry: The single ‘My Rock N Roll’ comes out in March.
Matt: But that’s a secret.
Harry: Oh, is it?
Matt: No.
Mike: And we’ve got some love making with The Xcerts slotted in there somewhere as well. Making some DPU/Xcerts babies.


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