Izzy Morris sat down with Matthew Marcantonio from Demob Happy ahead of their hotly anticipated performance at Nottingham’s Bodega. They chatted about their album Divine Machines, the state of modern rock and sci-fi cinema.
How would you describe Demob Happy?
I think people get it right when they say we sound like a slightly fuzzier, heavy Beatles. Like, if the Beatles hadn’t have gone to India and discovered sitars and instead had gone to the desert and discovered fuzz pedals, something like that. It’s like 70s prog rock with a more modern rock sensibility and production. It’s all the good stuff of modern and 70s rock melded into one.
What has the response for your album Divine Machines been like?
It’s been unbelievable so far. We’ve sold out three or four of the shows on the tour so far. Glasgow, Manchester, Newcastle… People have been going absolutely crazy for it and it’s been great for us because we put so much time into the record, and it was delayed, as everyone was, during the pandemic. But it’s been 5 years since our last record, and we’ve put a load of singles out over the in that time, but this is the first body of work, in Divine Machines.
How different does it feel to be putting out an album rather than an album?
Very different. I mean some of these singles have been some of the biggest we’ve ever put out. But no, an album is a lot more gratifying artistically because we grew up loving the format of an album. It’s an opportunity to create a cohesive, singular group of songs. It’s like the difference between a sketch and finishing a painting, or something. It’s the whole thing. You get to design the artwork, you get to design the videos, the aesthetic, the entire thing. It’s a wider sort of canvas.
When you’re writing the music and putting the album together, are you thinking of the visuals as it’s coming along?
Yeah, I think so. There was one song on the record, Tear it Down, which is this really synthy, Blade-runnery track… when we put that song together, we knew that, OK, this album is going to have this sort of grand, quite scifi feel to it, and immediately the images of what can go along with that came to mind. We’re all big fans of film, and we knew we wanted it to have a cinematic feel to it. And that was early days, really, that we thought it’s got to have that cinematic colouring and aesthetics and grading to it. And then the ideas came naturally at that point.
Other than Blade Runner – was there a watch list almost for the album?
Yeah, I mean, we felt this vein so much when putting the album. Because we love those sorts of films of that time and that aesthetic anyway it wasn’t like we had to do research or anything, but we had to find that common thread that we wanted to tap into. We spent a lot of time thinking about clothes and fashion, and how it could look sort of like a retro futuristic idea of the present. Futuristic and dystopian but also utopian, because it’s actually quite a hopeful and optimistic record. It isn’t dystopian in the way that a lot of sci-fi stuff is. It’s actually really dystopian in a sense. We wanted to really reflect that. It would have been easy to make it really dystopian and GRUNGY and dark, but we thought that really isn’t what we want to say with this record, so we put a lot of thought into making it more hopeful, but it also has to look cool, and be dynamic, contrasting and moody, but also uplifting.
Do you have a favourite to perform from the record?
Tear it Down is a really fun one to perform. Super-Fluid’s really fun… Earth Mover and Muscular Reflex are really cool because I’ve actually been coming off the bass and have been singing it. It’s the first time I’ve been doing the frontman thing and haven’t been encumbered by an instrument. But I mean, they really all are. When we write music it’s always from the place of do we enjoy this first. Does it make us laugh? Does it make us smile? Do we actually want to perform this? And if we do, we hope the audience will enjoy it too. So we just love playing all of them. None of them are ‘OK, let’s just get through this one.’ It’s fun for us first.
And Sweet and Sour America has just come out. Tell us about that track.
It was very nearly going to be on the record. But, because we put so much care into the tracklisting, it didn’t feel like it had an exact fit on the record. The record had this journey to it, and Sweet and Sour would have been a slight outsider in the placement. But we knew that we loved it, and we knew that people would love it, so we thought, why not put it out later. And let the album be its thing. We really wanted to play it live, so we thought f*** it, let’s put it out before the tour so we get to play it. And that one’s been so much fun to play, people have been going crackers straight off the bat. The Bristol show was the day we released it and people already knew the words, it was mad.
It's nice that you’ve not waited for the perfect time and instead have gone straight in with it, hot off the trail of Divine Machines.
We’ve just got so many ideas, and there’s even more songs that didn’t make the album. It was such an artificial delay to our work ethic, and we just want to go straight forward with everything we’re doing. There’s so much, so many more songs. You have no idea.
On the tour, what has the band been listening to on the road?
We’ve been listening to odds and sods. Well, actually, we don’t listen to much in the van. It’s probably not the most interesting answer to this question, but we enjoy the peace and quiet. Otherwise, it’s nonstop, turned up to 11. There’s an artist called Owl Costello who’s supporting us in Europe, and we’ve been listening to her album in the van. We’re a heavy band, but we like soft rock, when we’re kicking it back. Maybe one of Tom’s soft rock playlists, or maybe some soul or funk. We had the Buenos Vista Social Club soundtrack on the other day. I don’t really listen to that much heavy rock because that’s what I want to make. It becomes a bit of an insular echo chamber.
On the subject of rock though, what about the rock scene are you most excited about currently? Or is there maybe not so much that’s exciting you.
Hmm. I’m going to sound a bit out of touch here, but I don’t really know anyone. I think because, I don’t listen to that much modern rock, but like, I listened to the new Queens of the Stone Age, and like when Jack White puts out a new album or Death From Above, you know, my favourite artists that I grew up with, I’ll listen. To be really quite honest, I don’t pay a lot of attention to my peers, because I look backwards to look forward. I don’t hear a lot that people are doing that I find particularly interesting? Which is where a lot of my motivation comes from to give people decent rock and roll again. Maybe I’m out of touch, maybe I don’t listen to enough stuff. I listen to a lot of French electronic music, like Justice, Daft Punk. Anything really, I’d rather go broader and pull in feelings and ideas from other places. If I do listen to rock, it’s older stuff like 10cc, Supertramp, Pink Floyd… Classic rock.
Does rock then need a rejuvenation from these other places and genres?
I’d tend to think so. I think there’s a very stale world of rock, especially with Radio 1 friendly rock. It’s become incredibly formulaic and has had the life sucked out of it, and autotuned, It’s very rare that I hear a band and think wow that’s really cool. To be fair though, the band that we’re touring with, Congratulations are very f***ing cool,. It appeals to me, it’s a bit wonky, the melodies are a bit off kilter. It doesn’t have to be “Yeah, oh yeah” *gruff rocker voice* There’s so much more you can do, but people have gotten lazy.
If Demob Happy was a flavour, what would it be, and would it be sweet or sour?
Haha, I was literally just about to say it would be sweet and sour. We’re sweeter more than we are sour, but more than anything we are more sweet and savoury. Salted caramel.
Today’s your day off from touring. What will you be doing?
I’m going to be watching as many films as I can cram into my brain. It’s been so long since w’ve had a day off.
Have you got a favourite movie?
I love the Batman films, the Back to the Future Films, the Indiana Jones films. I just love magical realism and worldbuilding like Star Wars… I’m not going to lie and say that I’ve got a niche taste, like there’s no French surrealism in there. It’s the s*** everyone loves, like Steven Spielburg, that you can just turn off to, that are great for escapism and things like that. Maybe Lord of the Rings for today, that’s the stuff.
What is your earliest musical memory?
I think it’s being in the back of my dad’s car and coming up with a song about Postman Pat. I was about .
Was it any good? On the next album?
If you put a decent drum beat on it, maybe.
Any parting words?
Come and see us live and it’ll complete the picture. You’ve seen our videos and our posts and stuff, but live is where it all gels together. We’ve played together for a long time and we love playing together. If music makes us smile, we hope it will make everyone else happy. We like to bring people into our little world, and perform for them but also with them.
Izzy Morris
Edited by Alice Beard
Cover image courtesy of Demob Happy via Facebook, Video courtesy of Demob Happy via Youtube
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