From the hardy granite city of Aberdeen, but currently giving the media-friendly Glasgow scene a healthy kicking, THE NEEDLES are the epitome of great, old skool new wave kicks'n'cool. Curiously, they bring you their raw-throated, but infectiously catchy schtick via Dangerous Records, the label that launched Muse's operatic rock aspiration, yet their recent "Under The City" suggests this unlikely pairing is a marriage made in heaven. W&H got on the blower to singer/ guitarist DAVE DIXON to find out more.
Dave, you guys started out in Aberdeen, but you're picking up a lot of attention in Glasgow right now. Tell me about the band's early days: I know Aberdeen's a city with a regular gigging circuit, but I imagine it's maybe harder to break out of the local band scene there? Am I right.
"Yeah, sort of," replies the entirely affable Dave.
"We've been in Glasgow for about a year and a half now, so we're still spreading the word here. There's a lot of focus on the city now." he laughs.
"Aberdeen had its' advantages and disadvantages because even though it does have a good music scene for a small city and is maybe a bit more together than you'd think, it's still got its' cliques and to get bigger than just local band status means you really have to get your finger outta yer arse."
Very cogently put. But has the spotlight on Glasgow brought pressure onto The Needles at all?
"No, not at all," Dave fires back. "We just concentrate on writing songs and playing gigs. Any pressure on the band comes from within. It's been good because it has brought more attantion to us from outside. It's only the same as the way the press focussed on, say, Detroit for a while. I know I got into a load of new bands from reading about that and I wouldn't have done otherwise. Glasgow's turn has just come around at present," he shrugs.
Have you had the 'industry' coming to your gigs en masse? A&R men sniffing around your shows?
"Yeah, we do tend to get an element of that," Dave considers.
"But it's only really been the past few months up here and it seems to be just out of the blue. To be honest, though, we just take all that kind of thing with a pinch of salt. We don't take all their big talk very seriously."
OK, well you've released several EPs so far, with the new one ("Under The City" ) coming to us courtesy of Dangerous Records, the label that brought us Muse's first couple of treasured EPs. How did this link come about?
"It was quite lucky really," Dave considers, "in that the guy from the label saw us playing with another band he was interested with and liked us as well, so we got to make the EP on the strength of that. It was all quite loose, really."
Releasing the EP on Muse's former label must help in terms of commercial acceptance, though?
"Aye, yeah, I can't argue with that," nods Dave.
"It is certainly a way of getting people to pay more attention to it. You do need to have something to get you noticed outside of the pack to be sure."
Absolutely. Recording with Dangerous has meant The Needles coming down to Sawmills Studio, the recommended, but seriously remote studio set up in deepest, darkest Cornwall, previously notable for albums by the likes of Supergrass, Swans, Muse and - more recently - Oasis. Presumably this environment was rather different to what you're used to up North?
"Aye, right," Dave chuckles.
"It's great because they have a local pub right near the place, so you can look forward to relaxing after a session....though it closes at 10 every night, so you can't get too chilled out. You're fucked if you wanted a really long session in there. Probably a good thing, cos you need discipline with music after all."
But I believe you can go boating on the lake near there and all kinds of things...
"Yeah, it's an incredible place in itself, so beautiful," says Dave, still a little lost in reverie.
"Most of the time we were there we were all thinking: "What the fuck are we doing here?" because we hadn't really taken it in. Some sort of wonderful cosmic accident obviously worked in our favour there!"
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So are you actually recording an album with Dangerous then?
"Well, it's all a bit up in the air," Dave replies.
"We've been recording a lot of tracks over several sessions with a view to an album, but they also wanna put out an album with all our previous EP tracks on it, to kind of reintroduce them to the public, so there's a lot of stuff mooted. But our arrangement's not really like a deal in the regular sense, so we'll see what happens."
"Under The City" and the EPs other three tracks are all great examples of classic, sub-three minute new wave/ power pop songs in the energised, old school sense. You still can't beat three-minute pop tunes can you?
"No, absolutely not and it's our aim to continue in that vein," Dave admits.
"It's the immaculate design for songs, isn't it? I mean, experimental music's all well and good, but when it comes down to it that's experimental when all's said and done and what can it achieve that can't already be said neatly in a two to three minute tune. It says it all. It's THE experiment that worked."
So there won't be any 6-minute epics on the Needles debut album when it finally graces our presence?
"Er, no, I don't think so.....though we're probably just lazy," he finishes, roaring with mirth?
Certainly by the sound of the EP classic new wave and power pop are the obvious reference points. Is this where The Needles are coimg from in terms of influence?
"Wel, yeah, I can't deny that's in us and we like it," reveals Dave.
"But we've all listened to everything from '50s rock'n'roll records through to Nirvana, so it's a bit of a melting pot. There's also things like The Sonics and the 13th Floor Elevators that we love, as well as early Elvis Costello and The Cars."
What about your contemporaries, though. Though The Needles are hardly a carbon copy, I do think you share some common ground in terms of energy, edge and wildness with The Libertines. How does that comparison sit with you?
"Mmm, I can live with what they're trying to do. They've got that London, Ray Davies songwriting kinda thing going and the lifestyle aspect and that's cool, but I'm not entirely convinced by them," replies Dave a little cautiously.
OK, finally then, while this writer's not had the pleasure as yet, The Needles reputation as a live band of manic intensity certainly precedes. Dave, your press release refers to your shows as "acrobatic and blood-spattered" and suggests various band members have been hospitalised. How much truth is there in all this?
"Oh it's all true, you'd better believe it," says Dave, his voice swelling with pride.
"Actually, my own brushes have been quite pathetic so far, only going as far as minor dentistry, but our keyboard player's finished a show with his foot almost severed."
What??
"Oh aye, ligaments visible and all, but y'know we're the kind of band who carry on like troopers anyway, so we won't cop out on you. But then we're the kind of band who can't NOT move around on stage and we're always good at taking on venues with low ceilings, you know what I mean?"
Indeed I do, Dave. Only too well. So now you know the score with The Needles, folks. Sticks, stones, press-based scenes and venue walls won't stop 'em. Even death's got his work cut out with this lot, I reckon.
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