Dutch Uncles: “A lot of the album’s about sex”

In the new issue of DIY (out Friday 27th February), Manchester’s Dutch Uncles take stock of their first few years as a band - four albums in, they’re still working to their own rules. This time, that means writing more songs about sex than ever.

“Four albums in is a long time,” states Duncan Wallis, frontman of the returning Manchester popologists Dutch Uncles. “We know it’s a long time. We feel like it’s four albums, and I think we want to come across as more mature and more relaxed about doing things. But then again, to say that defeats the whole notion of being like that! Which is kinda where the whole album title comes from; ‘O Shudder’ – it makes me cringe to think we’re trying to make a mature statement, but we are.”

So it’s not about sex? With tracks like ‘In N Out’ and ‘Babymaking’, Dutch Uncles are, erm, up against the wall. “A lot of the album’s about sex this time,” confesses Duncan. “I had it on the brain. For example the song ‘Drips’ is all about getting the chance to re-do a sexy fumble, but the idea of getting the drips at the end of the sex dream is a bit of ‘well, be careful what you wish for’.”

Seeing as Dutch Uncles’ ambition is to “make [their] dads proud”, despite the album’s bawdy humour, they might just get away with it. In the same way that Roald Dahl can smuggle barbaric murder into bedtime stories about chocolate factories, Dutch Uncles’ dancefloor dynamite deal with death and incest. “That was an idea when we first started Dutch Uncles,” states Duncan. “The idea that it would be a bit bouncy, but I would be a bit sick with the lyrics.”