|
 Vocalist and bassist DOLF DE BORST checks in with SIMON TOPPER to declare that much like their 120Y namesake, his New Zealand-turned-global sweaty rockers THE DATSUNS rarely need a pitstop.
You know those maps in the Indiana Jones movies that track our hero’s global adventures with a red line? I’ve done some research into those maps. The most countries Indy visits in any one film, even counting stopovers when he doesn’t leave the airport, is nine.
I’ve also done some research into The Datsuns’ touring schedule. Indy purists may find it hard to believe, but Dolf de Borst, vocalist and bassist from The Datsuns is more than twice the globetrotting adventurer Dr Jones ever was. Playing 50 dates across Europe in the last two months, the stats are there to back this up. What’s more, with the New Zealand leather jacket rockers’ latest anagram of an album Headstunts now on shelves, the musical chops are also there to back up this impressive run of dates.
While The Datsuns started life 11 years ago in the small North Island town of Cambridge, the band now spends the majority of their time on the road, or more accurately, the flightpath. However, speaking from the London tube on his way to a live radio interview, de Borst reveals that even in their rare free time, it’s still a maze of red map lines for The Datsuns.
“Everybody’s lived in different places for a while. Christian (Livingston, guitarist) has been living in London, I’ve been in Stockholm, Phil (Buske, guitar) has been living in Berlin and Ben (Cole) our drummer has been living in Wellington. When you spend that much time together, and you know inevitably you’re going to meet up again soon, it doesn’t really mater how far away you’re living.”
One of the biggest changes in The Datsuns’ history happened relatively recently, with the departure of original drummer Matt Osment, to be replaced by Cole, another old mate from Cambridge. Though all four current Datsuns have been chumming around since forever, de Borst confides that the new edition has given the band a new level of excitement, both with touring and recording.
“Say you have some friends come and stay with you, and you take them around the city, and end up rediscovering parts of your hometown. It’s a little bit like that, but on a global scale. Like ‘Hey we’re playing Copenhagen again, we’ll have to show Ben the architecture’. So it makes it all exciting for us again too. He’d never been outside NZ before joining the band, and then he saw 20-something countries in the first three months.
“Musically he fits too because he’s a really good drummer, and so we’ve been trying subtleties and little flourishes that we’ve never had before.”
Whether it’s the new drummer or just the result of a little time off, Headstunts shows a new level of groove in The Datsuns’ sound, while still maintaining the all-out chaotic pub rock they’ve made their name with. “I think with each record we push the boundaries of what the band can do a little bit. If you write down on paper what this record is, it’s pretty close to our others, but possibly just a bit more dynamic, and with a few more shades of grey – it’s not so black and white.”
And plenty of red left to come.
THE DATSUNS play The Zoo on Thursday Dec 11. HEADSTUNTS is out now through Etch N Sketch Records. www.myspace.com/thedatsuns
|
| Comments are submitted for possible publication on the condition that they may be edited. Poster's IP addresses are logged. |
|
Be first to comment on this article
