News

What we learned from Drenge’s AMA

They’re off to see Courtney Barnett tonight, for one.

Photo: Emma Swann

30th March 2015

For those not ‘in the know’, Reddit, the site with all the incredulous stories, eerie photos and generally just ‘memes’, hosts regular question-and-answer sessions called ‘AmA’, which stands for, as you might guess, ‘ask me anything’.

Tonight saw Drenge, whose brilliant new album, ‘Undertow’ is now streaming for all to hear, take to the site. While answering questions about vocal effects, guitar pedals, inspirations and other ‘muso’ stuff, we also learned some REAL THINGS.

Rory has played at Disneyland

“There was a shortage of drummers round school,” he explained, “so I found myself in a ton of school bands… and we did school trips out to Europe to play. Saw all the props and costumes backstage and broke my heart.”

He doesn’t like Record Store Day much, either

“It started out as a good idea for getting people back into record shops with a cool little ltd edition 7” or whatever,” Rory explained, asked to clarify an earlier comment saying it was for “morons”, “but it’s just turned into a swamp of bullshit. Just look at eBay on that evening and you’ll find all the ltd edition stuff priced stupidly high. What’s the point? Record shops are on the high street all year round, they get in stuff you’ll like every week, and sell it every day. If you forget about them for the rest of the year while you’re shopping on Amazon and not queueing up outside them hours before they open so you can get your “Avenged Sevenfold- Call of Duty Soundtrack Picture disc”* means they shut down. Also, vinyl pressing plants are clogged up weeks in advance to accommodate these records, and bigger labels are being prioritised over smaller labels, who in my opinion are usually doing more interesting things, like releasing new music rather than remastering/repressing records that have been remastered/repressed over and over. I think bigger labels see it as an opportunity to make money rather than support the local record shops the day is meant to be about.”

*The picture disc actually exists, as posted on Twitter.

I'll agree with @soniccathedral and @HowlingOwlNoise far more than whoever is responsible for this monstrosity pic.twitter.com/kU26Bylr8H
— Drenge (@drenge) March 30, 2015

Eoin would make a really shit seal

“I’m very bad at clapping in time,” he says, asked about the use of handclaps on the new record. “I wanted it to sound like Power by Kanye West. Instead it just sounds like a load of stranded seals on a beach.”

He’s also listening to The Cribs’ new record A LOT

“YES!!!! ARGH YESS!!!” he says when asked if he liked ‘For All My Sisters’, “I’m listening to FAMS about 15 times a day”.

They’re (probably) not playing Glastonbury

“No (probably)” (well, we had to quote something).

Read the full AmA over here. ‘Undertow’ is released on Monday 6th April, with the UK tour beginning later next week. There’s an interview with the band in the April 2015 issue of DIY, which is previewed online here.

APRIL
8 London Rough Trade East
10 Nottingham Rescue Rooms
11 Birmingham Library
13 Gateshead Sage
14 Glasgow Classic Grand
15 Liverpool Kazimier
17 Sheffield Leadmill
18 Norwich Waterfront
20 Bristol Trinity Centre
21 London Electric Ballroom

Drenge will play Latitude (16th - 19th July), where DIY is an official media partner. Tickets are on sale now. Visit diymag.com/presents for more information.

Tags: Drenge, News