Artist Interviews

Q&A: Double Dagger

By | Published on Tuesday 4 May 2010

Double Dagger

Forming in 2002, Double Dagger are a post-punk trio from Baltimore, unconventionally composed of only drums, vocals and bass guitar. The band was conceived after vocalist Nolen Strals and bassist Bruce Willen’s previous band League Of Death came to an end, with Denny Bowen eventually joining them on drums.

DD have toured around the States, playing with the likes of Pere Ubu, Lightning Bolt and Buzzcocks, and have released several EPs and two full length albums. Strals and Willens have also set up their own graphic design team, Post Typography. The band released their latest EP ‘Masks’ last month and are now set to play a string of London dates, starting with The Lock Tavern on 14 May. Ahead of that gig, the band took some time to tackle our Same Six Questions.

Q1 How did you start out making music?
Nolen and Bruce were in a sloppy metal-ish band together in college. After school they formed Double Dagger with original drummer Brian Dubin. At the time Denny was playing guitar in a band called Yukon. Rumor had it that Denny was also an awesome drummer, so after Brian left the band, Denny took over percussion duties permanently, and our sound and approach really began to develop after that.

Q2 What inspired your latest EP?
Live, we’re often very smart-assed and confrontational. That didn’t come across as much on the last record, but is more evident in a lot of the lyrics on this record. The title sums up the overarching lyrical inspiration. Everywhere, everyone (yes, including us) is somehow trying to hide or obscure some part of themselves, or deceive others’ perception of themselves. Sometimes we put on these masks just to make it through the day. Sometimes we put on these masks to make ourselves seem cooler, or to get along with our partner in bed, or to sell more records, etc. More and more this mask takes the form of a blog where someone tries to sound smarter than they actually are.

Q3 What process do you go through in creating a track?
Most of our songs develop fairly organically. Typically, Bruce and Denny start improvising some interesting parts that eventually begin to cohere. The band generally plays with these song fragments for a few practices until they form into a song. Sometimes Bruce works on some additional music ideas on his own. As the song starts to come together Nolen begins to figure out the themes and lyrics. The final lyrics are usually the last part to come together.

Q4 Which artists influence your work?
We all have some slightly different tastes in music. Nolen listens to more punk and hardcore than the others. Denny is more into hip hop and electronic music, while Bruce may listen to some quieter, folkier stuff and some metal. However, there are definitely areas of overlap. We all listen to some northwest American indie/punk/rock, and of course all of the awesome local bands in the Baltimore music scene are inspiring – Future Islands, Thank You, Dan Deacon, Ecstatic Sunshine, Human Host, Sick Weapons, Dope Body, Ponytail, Zomes, Vows, etc. The artists who don’t directly influence our work are usually the ones music critics compare us to, go figure!

Q5 What would you say to someone experiencing your music for the first time?
We recommend earplugs. Also, please don’t just stand around looking “cool” at one of our shows. It’s more fun for everyone if there’s some audience participation. Plus, we take standing still as an invitation to fuck with you more.

Q6 What are your ambitions for your latest EP, and for the future?
Our ambition is to wear all the EP covers as masks for Halloween. In the future, we hope to add a fifth amp. Oh, and to convince all your readers to bring us Jammie Dodgers when they come see us at our upcoming UK shows.

MORE>> www.myspace.com/doubledaggersucks



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