Dappled Cities

Sydney's Dappled Cities have been taking on the world with their thoughtful, intricate pop music. Their fourth appearance at the SXSW festival saw them jet-set to the States earlier this year and they're currently stationed in London, pushing their ARIA nominated album of last year, Zounds. Dappled Cities co-frontman Dave Rennick talks all about…

Zounds being a nightmare, albeit an enjoyable one... When I think back on it, Zounds was a nightmare. It was just a mammoth undertaking. We got a giant producer in [Chris Coady], we had these six-minute songs that we had to cut down, and he really changed them quite drastically in dynamic and style. It was a lot of fun, though. I guess it was a fun nightmare. It just probably took many years off our lives.

Prancing around with giant lightbulbs attached to them in the video for ‘The Price'... We make it look like its all happy-go-lucky, like, look at us, we're jumping around like we're fairies. But, in actual fact, we were hooked up to 240 volts and because it was a night shoot we didn't start until ten at night and we wouldn't finish until the sun came up. It was tough work; a boot camp. Also, those suits are quite restrictive.

Shaking their booty in Europe... Zounds is hitting the shelves in the UK in August so we've been spending time in the UK trying to make some friends and I'm glad to say, we've made a few. We've been playing at local joints and people seem to like us. Its funny being in a band and playing the first support act again because you forget that you're playing to a bunch of people who aren't actually there to watch you. But I guess that gives you an excuse to really get in their faces and shake your booty.

Jammin', vibin', chillin' etc in Los Angeles... We rocked into LA and went to the Dangerbird Office [Dappled Cities' American record label] to say hello as we always do and they were like, "oh yeah, by the way, we built this studio out of this house and you can use it whenever you want." So we set up and recorded ten new songs. We've been listening to a lot of [60s psychedelic band] Love and stuff that is really stripped back and the new songs capture the essence of that. Zounds was such a gigantic record and now that the weight of it has been lifted this next record will be Dappled Cities having a break. Just in the studio, jammin', vibin', chillin', all those kind of words.

A big year for Dappled product.. I've written about half of the material for The Curse of Company [Dave's solo side-project]. Tim and Ned have something coming out too – an avante garde disco, dance, electronic side project. So, in effect, Dappled Cities could have three records coming out in 2010. It's a triple threat.

The closure of the Hopetoun Hotel... It was pretty distressing for us when the Hopetoun shut down. We played there for many years of gigging. But not only gigging, but also hanging out and watching other bands. I lived round the corner from there so I'd spend six nights a week playing pool there and so on. I feel like Australia is a very young country and we just need to sort our shit out. New York and London have been around for much longer and they've learnt a lot more about how to make a society work. And I don't think Sydney knows how to do it yet. We think we do, but clearly we don't. There's going to be a lot of stuff going on, lots of venues closing, especially in the art scene. But it will sort itself out. In four hundred years. The Hopetoun will re-open and it will be vintage cool.

Freaky Melbourne... ‘The Freaks', as we refer to them, are a group of young ladies in Melbourne who are enthusiastic fans. They have a habit of jumping up on stage and chucking glitter in our faces and putting capes on us and so on. They're great.

Whether or not ‘The Freaks' are in with a chance, what with Dave being nominated as Cleo's ‘Bachelor of the Year'... All I can say is that Dappled Cities are not like that band in the movie Almost Famous. We're pretty different. Joanna Lowry