Music > Interviews

Drenge

30/03/15

The Loveless brothers, Eoin and Rory, grew up near Sheffield in a house filled with music. No surprise then that they have already established themselves as a duo that’s offering something special in 2015; they even played on Letterman earlier this year. Their new album is less garage rock and more The Cure, but it retains its tense, dense atmosphere. I spoke to drummer Rory about making music videos and getting on with your sibling.

You and your brother Eoin created Drenge; had you always made music?

Yeah! We were sort of pushed into piano lessons when we were about four. Apparently we also went to some sort of rhythm class that I hated. My dad played saxophone and he played us a lot of music when we were kids, so it was quite a musical household growing up.

Did you set out to be musicians as a career?

We were in a band, but we didn’t think we’d be in a BAND. We played a few shows in Sheffield, just to get out of Castleton. We didn’t really expect or want anyone to come to our shows as they were just expressions of angry young men trying to be as loud as possible in the back room of a pub. We started playing more shows outside of Sheffield and did some recording and it turned into this thing.

Has your sound developed since you started Drenge?

Yes. We started out with just two of us writing in a two piece fashion, and now we’re a proper band. We experimented in the studio for the second album as we knew a little bit more about how to do stuff by that point. We put a bass on there and listened to a lot more music that we hadn’t been aware of before because we just had more time to do that. We’ve changed as a band a fair bit.

Your new album Undertow is out next month. Does it differ greatly from your first album?

It’s got a lot more influences on it. I can’t say anything in particular for fear of leaving anything out! We listened to The Cure a lot; the explosion of psychedelia a couple years ago was really interesting to us, as well bands like Tame Impala and stuff like that. So I guess we wanted to move on from the rough abrasive, lo fi, garage rock sound of the first album and experiment rather than make the same record.

Your new single is We Can Do What We Want. There’s a kind of A Clockwork Orange theme to the video, with Droog-like characters roaming through a bingo hall and a fish and chip shop, and it’s shot like a film or a trailer for a film. Was Clockwork Orange an inspiration?

I guess it was kind of an accident really, which sounds like a stupid thing to say as it’s so obvious! We didn’t really focus too much on what the actors would be wearing, and then when they came out in white it looked very much like A Clockwork Orange. We’re huge fans of Stanley Kubrick; we went to see 2001:A Space Odyssey which was screening in Sheffield halfway through recording which was really really cool. I guess it’s quite a cinematic album; cinema inspired the music and the lyrics in particular. So Kubrick is a favourite director of ours, but it was a total accident that we ripped him off!

I love the front cover of the new album…it’s so cinematic. What does it represent for you?

Eoin wanted to have an abandoned car, a classic American car. We hired one, put in a load of effort to get it right and it was really worth it. It took a whole day to shoot! There are a couple songs on the album about escapism, so the classic American car chase was a point of reference. But we wanted it in the woods near where we lived, in between Castleton and Sheffield where a couple of the songs on the album are set and inspired the music. Those woods are great for listening to the album in if you’re ever there! So we put those two elements together and came out with a great result.

There seems to be a thing at the moment for duo’s…Royal Blood, Slaves…I know you get a bassist in to play live but have you been tempted to add more members to the group?

Oh yeah, all the time. The duo thing was a necessity at the time really. When we were playing in Sheffield there were about 15 other bands there that were duo’s. If there had been anyone else around we wouldn’t have been a duo. We were probably a bit hard to get on with anyway.  Eoin says he reckons that’s born out of the recession; you don’t have to pay a band as much to play if there’s only two of them, so that’s why there are more duo’s around now. It’s not too difficult; you know where each other are almost all the time.

How has your relationship with your brother changed since you’ve been in the band together? Are you able to talk about normal things other than just band-things?

Oh no, we definitely are still brothers, but it has changed. We went home for Mother’s Day and it was all back to normal, but it can be a bit weird when you’ve been on the road for three weeks and there’s nobody else there. It’s almost a bit too much. We moved to Sheffield into different houses to give each other a bit of space. We haven’t been on the road for a solid three weeks for a while so we’ll see how we get on in April.

Do you and Eoin have similar musical tastes?

I don’t know if we like the same music as each other…I don’t know. I tend to listen to more ‘out there’ stuff and Eoin likes his music to be more comfortable. I went to see Meatbodies a couple weeks ago, and Seize the Chair were supporting them, and both bands were great. I got the new album from King Gizzard and the Lizard Wizard; that’s such a great album.

You played on David Letterman in January; how did that happen and what was it like?

He’s got three bookers on his show who all book different kinds of music; their rock booker came down to our gig in New York and then asked us to play on the show. It’s a little bit heartbreaking actually; we were so excited but the people who work there do it every single day and their excitement wore off about 20 years ago. David Letterman was doing his 4,000th show or something. He’s just not that bothered anymore, and he’s seen it all before. But still, it was amazing!

Your live gigs are notoriously lively. Do you ever feel like it’s getting out of control?

Yes I do, definitely. I do worry about people getting hurt. You see people on Twitter showing off their bruises like a badge of honour which is a bit daunting. I think it’s all good natured though; I think people know going what to expect. I wouldn’t want anyone to hurt themselves…someone’s got to say it, so I’ll be the one!

Drenge play at The Waterfront on 18th April. Tickets from www.ueaticketbookings.co.uk