The Darkness
Words: Kristy DeLaine
After a six-year hiatus, UK Glam rockers The Darkness are heading back to Australia for a whirlwind visit in May. It’s been a year since the band announced their reunion following a highly published breakup in 2006. Returning with the original line-up, the lycra-clad lads have wasted no time picking up where they left off, playing big UK music festivals and thrilling old and new fans alike with their energetic live shows.
While it may seem like nothing has changed on stage, there has been a multitude of changes with the band members behind the scenes. Front man Justin Hawkins had a successful stint in rehab while his brother, Dan Hawkins, formed a new band, Stone Gods, with drummer Ed Graham. However, in 2008, Ed was diagnosed with a blood disorder leaving him unable to physically play the drums and forcing him to withdraw from playing altogether. Fortunately, all of that is behind them now, so dust off your air guitars, strap on your leather and get ready to have a sing along.
Caught In The Mosh recently spoke with Ed Graham ahead of their upcoming Nothing’s Gonna Stop Us Now tour of Australia. Ed filled us in on the latest regarding the new album, sobriety, hip replacements and of course how the reunion came about.
You’ve had some pretty serious health concerns in the last couple of years, how’s everything going now?
Yeah I’m OK. I’m a lot better thank you. I’ve had both my hips replaced which is not particularly common for someone in their early thirties you know but I’m bionic now, so it’ll be alright. We just played a tour in America for a month and after that my leg started to hurt a bit but it’s alright. It’s OK.
I can’t imagine it would be easy to comeback from a double hip replacement to drumming intensely every night.
Well, to honest, I didn’t know how it was going to be but it seems to be doing ok. So far so good.
Do you think the health scare has given you a new lease on life? Did it have anything to do with the Darkness reunion?
Well, with the reunion, we’ve done a month tour in Britain in November of last year and a month tour of America just now in January and it’s a very different experience for us now, because back in the day, we were all big massive drinkers and just partyied every night and basically now we just do it completely sober. So we come off stage and, it might sound boring, but we have tea and sushi and that’s all we do. So it’s a very different experience from how it used to be.
The onstage presence still looks the same from what I’ve seen so that’s got to be a good thing.
Actually, we have the same sound guy that we had years ago and he knows what we sound like. He’s saying, “you’re actually playing better than you ever were”. Being sober probably helps with that.
How were you approached about The Darkness reunion? How did it all come about?
I think I heard a rumour that Dan and Justin were actually writing songs together again and having not spoken to them for ages I emailed them. Basically I presumed that they were going to reform but I didn’t really know that I was going to be in it. Then Dan one day was in London and he said “Ed I’d like to meet with you” and we just had a drink and he said, “we’ve been writing songs together for months and we’ve just finally got to a stage of where we really want the original four people so are you interested?” Which was obviously great.
It’s been a year since the original announcement happened and you seem to have had a great response from all of your fans. Did that surprise you a bit or did you expect that?
There have been people on the Internet saying “just reform” for years and years. The tour we just did in American had sold out shows. It surprised me a little bit that we can sell out a 1500 capacity venue when you’ve been strung up for five years and haven’t really released a record. That’s pretty amazing and it’s something that’s shown us that people clearly still care about the band.
Considering that huge response I find it quite surprising that you’re playing such small venues here in Australia, is there any reason for that?
I don’t see that as a bad thing at all. You know, the club shows that we just did in America, some of them were just 1500, some of them were even just one thousand and it was actually really exciting to play a sweaty little club show again. We haven’t been to Australia for a long time so I’m excited to play clubs that size. It’ll just be a great atmosphere.
While it may seem like nothing has changed on stage, there has been a multitude of changes with the band members behind the scenes. Front man Justin Hawkins had a successful stint in rehab while his brother, Dan Hawkins, formed a new band, Stone Gods, with drummer Ed Graham. However, in 2008, Ed was diagnosed with a blood disorder leaving him unable to physically play the drums and forcing him to withdraw from playing altogether. Fortunately, all of that is behind them now, so dust off your air guitars, strap on your leather and get ready to have a sing along.
Caught In The Mosh recently spoke with Ed Graham ahead of their upcoming Nothing’s Gonna Stop Us Now tour of Australia. Ed filled us in on the latest regarding the new album, sobriety, hip replacements and of course how the reunion came about.
You’ve had some pretty serious health concerns in the last couple of years, how’s everything going now?
Yeah I’m OK. I’m a lot better thank you. I’ve had both my hips replaced which is not particularly common for someone in their early thirties you know but I’m bionic now, so it’ll be alright. We just played a tour in America for a month and after that my leg started to hurt a bit but it’s alright. It’s OK.
I can’t imagine it would be easy to comeback from a double hip replacement to drumming intensely every night.
Well, to honest, I didn’t know how it was going to be but it seems to be doing ok. So far so good.
Do you think the health scare has given you a new lease on life? Did it have anything to do with the Darkness reunion?
Well, with the reunion, we’ve done a month tour in Britain in November of last year and a month tour of America just now in January and it’s a very different experience for us now, because back in the day, we were all big massive drinkers and just partyied every night and basically now we just do it completely sober. So we come off stage and, it might sound boring, but we have tea and sushi and that’s all we do. So it’s a very different experience from how it used to be.
The onstage presence still looks the same from what I’ve seen so that’s got to be a good thing.
Actually, we have the same sound guy that we had years ago and he knows what we sound like. He’s saying, “you’re actually playing better than you ever were”. Being sober probably helps with that.
How were you approached about The Darkness reunion? How did it all come about?
I think I heard a rumour that Dan and Justin were actually writing songs together again and having not spoken to them for ages I emailed them. Basically I presumed that they were going to reform but I didn’t really know that I was going to be in it. Then Dan one day was in London and he said “Ed I’d like to meet with you” and we just had a drink and he said, “we’ve been writing songs together for months and we’ve just finally got to a stage of where we really want the original four people so are you interested?” Which was obviously great.
It’s been a year since the original announcement happened and you seem to have had a great response from all of your fans. Did that surprise you a bit or did you expect that?
There have been people on the Internet saying “just reform” for years and years. The tour we just did in American had sold out shows. It surprised me a little bit that we can sell out a 1500 capacity venue when you’ve been strung up for five years and haven’t really released a record. That’s pretty amazing and it’s something that’s shown us that people clearly still care about the band.
Considering that huge response I find it quite surprising that you’re playing such small venues here in Australia, is there any reason for that?
I don’t see that as a bad thing at all. You know, the club shows that we just did in America, some of them were just 1500, some of them were even just one thousand and it was actually really exciting to play a sweaty little club show again. We haven’t been to Australia for a long time so I’m excited to play clubs that size. It’ll just be a great atmosphere.
What can your fans expect from these shows in Australia?
I think The Darkness totally back on form. Our last set has been most of the first album with two or three songs from the second album and maybe three or four songs from our new album, which is yet to be released.
Do you think you’ll come back to Australia for another tour once the new album is released?
Well I'd certainly like to but I'm not sure. At the moment we’re sort of working out how to spend our time. I’d really like to come back to Australia. I wish we had more time off as I have some friends in Sydney that I haven’t seen for like seven years so I wish we’d stay a bit longer. It’s a bit rushed.
Can you tell me a little bit about the making of the new album, how does a Darkness album come together?
Well, it’s funny. There are a couple of songs on this new album that are actually really old songs that we played ten years ago when we first formed. But we recorded a lot of it at Leeders Farm, which is basically Dan’s house so we recorded a lot of it in Norfolk.
Then we done some bits in other places as well. We went to Rockfield in Wales. Rockfield Studios is a famous studio; Queen recorded Bohemian Rhapsody there. So we went there and done another four track in January. Then just recently, a couple of weeks ago, we decided that we wanted to redo something that hadn’t turned out so well so we booked a little studio in London.
One thing I’ve found is that we’re all perfectionists. But in saying that, things have been a lot more relaxed and seemed to come a lot easier this time and the whole process has just been more enjoyable than it has been in the past because it’s just gone more naturally.
Do you think it's different form the old albums? How would you describe the sound of the new stuff?
Well I think that we all feel that the second Darkness album is a bit over produced and maybe lost it’s way in places a bit. I think we wanted to return to the form we were in; we wanted to make something that was more like Permission to Land more than the second album.
Is there a release date for it yet?
I haven’t got like a date but we’re probably looking at a couple of months. It’s done. It’s finished.
Does it have a title yet?
Well, we’re arguing over that at the moment. We’ve got one or two ideas, but I can’t tell you now I’m afraid.
After a pretty frantic last 12 months with the reunion and touring, have you got any highlights from that time?
Well the first big thing we did was Download Festival and having been strung up for so long, to play such a big festival was… I think everyone was nervous and we didn’t really know how we were going to be received. It’s the biggest British rock metal festival but there was a lot of kids there that were probably too young to have heard The Darkness the first time round if you like. When we just went out and saw thousands and thousands of people singing along to every single word and loving it was just such a dirty good feeling, it was like “yes, we’re back” you know?
Has it been easy to slot back in to this life of an international rock band playing to huge audiences or has it been a culture shock for you?
It is a shock to me yeah, and also the alcohol thing, you know? I do it completely sober now. In the past I’d have two or three double vodkas before going on stage but now I do it completely sober and I haven’t done it (touring) in years. With just your drinking gone you’re like “can I do this?” and “what’s it going to be like?” and so far so good everything’s gone well you know. And people are saying that we’ve been playing technically better than we ever have.
I think The Darkness totally back on form. Our last set has been most of the first album with two or three songs from the second album and maybe three or four songs from our new album, which is yet to be released.
Do you think you’ll come back to Australia for another tour once the new album is released?
Well I'd certainly like to but I'm not sure. At the moment we’re sort of working out how to spend our time. I’d really like to come back to Australia. I wish we had more time off as I have some friends in Sydney that I haven’t seen for like seven years so I wish we’d stay a bit longer. It’s a bit rushed.
Can you tell me a little bit about the making of the new album, how does a Darkness album come together?
Well, it’s funny. There are a couple of songs on this new album that are actually really old songs that we played ten years ago when we first formed. But we recorded a lot of it at Leeders Farm, which is basically Dan’s house so we recorded a lot of it in Norfolk.
Then we done some bits in other places as well. We went to Rockfield in Wales. Rockfield Studios is a famous studio; Queen recorded Bohemian Rhapsody there. So we went there and done another four track in January. Then just recently, a couple of weeks ago, we decided that we wanted to redo something that hadn’t turned out so well so we booked a little studio in London.
One thing I’ve found is that we’re all perfectionists. But in saying that, things have been a lot more relaxed and seemed to come a lot easier this time and the whole process has just been more enjoyable than it has been in the past because it’s just gone more naturally.
Do you think it's different form the old albums? How would you describe the sound of the new stuff?
Well I think that we all feel that the second Darkness album is a bit over produced and maybe lost it’s way in places a bit. I think we wanted to return to the form we were in; we wanted to make something that was more like Permission to Land more than the second album.
Is there a release date for it yet?
I haven’t got like a date but we’re probably looking at a couple of months. It’s done. It’s finished.
Does it have a title yet?
Well, we’re arguing over that at the moment. We’ve got one or two ideas, but I can’t tell you now I’m afraid.
After a pretty frantic last 12 months with the reunion and touring, have you got any highlights from that time?
Well the first big thing we did was Download Festival and having been strung up for so long, to play such a big festival was… I think everyone was nervous and we didn’t really know how we were going to be received. It’s the biggest British rock metal festival but there was a lot of kids there that were probably too young to have heard The Darkness the first time round if you like. When we just went out and saw thousands and thousands of people singing along to every single word and loving it was just such a dirty good feeling, it was like “yes, we’re back” you know?
Has it been easy to slot back in to this life of an international rock band playing to huge audiences or has it been a culture shock for you?
It is a shock to me yeah, and also the alcohol thing, you know? I do it completely sober now. In the past I’d have two or three double vodkas before going on stage but now I do it completely sober and I haven’t done it (touring) in years. With just your drinking gone you’re like “can I do this?” and “what’s it going to be like?” and so far so good everything’s gone well you know. And people are saying that we’ve been playing technically better than we ever have.
If you’re all sober this time round how do you prepare for going on tour? Is it a bit more focussed? Or a bit more relaxed?
Well obviously we’re all a bit older now as well so you know, when you’re in your mid thirties it not like being in your mid twenties. We go to the gym and are healthy and go cycling and rehearse a lot.
So you’re all enjoying playing together and all getting along on and off the stage?
We have been yeah. The real test of that is when you’re on tour. Especially the tour we’ve just done in America where we’re basically on a bus together for a month. We do get on, we get on fine... most of the time. I mean, you’re going to get on each other’s nerves at some point, but most of the time we get on fine.
Do you have a favorite song to play live?
One of my favorite Darkness songs to play live has always been Growing On Me don’t know why really I just enjoy playing it. There are some new ones that I really enjoy as well. Justin’s written a song about my ex girlfriend which is slightly embarrassing. He wrote a song called She’s Just a Girl Eddie and it’s very obviously about the split up with my ex. It doesn’t mention her name but I enjoy playing that as well. It’s a good song. There’s a few live demos of it on You Tube.
Has she heard it yet?
I’m not speaking to her so I don’t know if she’s heard it or not. I’m not sure how she’d feel about it.
I guess she’ll eventually realize it’s about her?
I think it will be obvious to her that it’s about her.
Do you think we’ll ever hear from Stone Gods again?
Well I had to leave because of my hips, because I was ill but I know they made a second album which Dan was hoping to release at some point. Obviously if you make something you want people to hear it, you know? So I hope he manages to get it released somehow. I don’t think we’ll ever be reforming but there is a second album that is out there so maybe that will come out.
Apart from the Australian tour, what are you excited about doing this year?
Well, we’ve got loads of festivals coming up. The Isle of Wight which is sort of the classic British festival. There’s a big thing that’s near where we come from in the country. We’re getting a big show in a place called Thetford Forest. It’s basically playing in the middle of a massive forest. That’ll be really great. We got quite a few festivals I think, some Spanish ones... I should have done my research a bit better but I think we got quite a bit of stuff coming up.
That’s what made me think you might come back to Australia in summer and do The Big Day Out or Soundwave?
I’d love to do the Big Day Out again; it’s just such good fun, you know? You end up on the same plane as all the other bands and the same hotel as all the other bands. In the UK we don’t have a festival like that where everyone travels together basically for a month. Big Day Out is great fun. I’d love to do it again.
The Darkness Australian 2012 Tour Dates and ticketing :
Friday 4th May - Brisbane, Eatons Hill Hotel - tickets from Oztix
Saturday 5th May - Newcastle, Newcastle Panthers - tickets from Moshtix
Sunday 6th May - Sydney, UNSW Roundhouse - tickets from Ticketek
Tuesday 8th May - Melbourne, The Palace - tickets from Ticketmaster
Wednesday 9th May – Melbourne, Palace - tickets from Ticketmaster ** Second and Final Melbourne Show **
Thursday 10th May - Canberra, ANU Bar - tickets from Ticketek
Saturday 12th May - Adelaide, Thebarton Theatre - tickets from venuetix ** Just announced **
Well obviously we’re all a bit older now as well so you know, when you’re in your mid thirties it not like being in your mid twenties. We go to the gym and are healthy and go cycling and rehearse a lot.
So you’re all enjoying playing together and all getting along on and off the stage?
We have been yeah. The real test of that is when you’re on tour. Especially the tour we’ve just done in America where we’re basically on a bus together for a month. We do get on, we get on fine... most of the time. I mean, you’re going to get on each other’s nerves at some point, but most of the time we get on fine.
Do you have a favorite song to play live?
One of my favorite Darkness songs to play live has always been Growing On Me don’t know why really I just enjoy playing it. There are some new ones that I really enjoy as well. Justin’s written a song about my ex girlfriend which is slightly embarrassing. He wrote a song called She’s Just a Girl Eddie and it’s very obviously about the split up with my ex. It doesn’t mention her name but I enjoy playing that as well. It’s a good song. There’s a few live demos of it on You Tube.
Has she heard it yet?
I’m not speaking to her so I don’t know if she’s heard it or not. I’m not sure how she’d feel about it.
I guess she’ll eventually realize it’s about her?
I think it will be obvious to her that it’s about her.
Do you think we’ll ever hear from Stone Gods again?
Well I had to leave because of my hips, because I was ill but I know they made a second album which Dan was hoping to release at some point. Obviously if you make something you want people to hear it, you know? So I hope he manages to get it released somehow. I don’t think we’ll ever be reforming but there is a second album that is out there so maybe that will come out.
Apart from the Australian tour, what are you excited about doing this year?
Well, we’ve got loads of festivals coming up. The Isle of Wight which is sort of the classic British festival. There’s a big thing that’s near where we come from in the country. We’re getting a big show in a place called Thetford Forest. It’s basically playing in the middle of a massive forest. That’ll be really great. We got quite a few festivals I think, some Spanish ones... I should have done my research a bit better but I think we got quite a bit of stuff coming up.
That’s what made me think you might come back to Australia in summer and do The Big Day Out or Soundwave?
I’d love to do the Big Day Out again; it’s just such good fun, you know? You end up on the same plane as all the other bands and the same hotel as all the other bands. In the UK we don’t have a festival like that where everyone travels together basically for a month. Big Day Out is great fun. I’d love to do it again.
The Darkness Australian 2012 Tour Dates and ticketing :
Friday 4th May - Brisbane, Eatons Hill Hotel - tickets from Oztix
Saturday 5th May - Newcastle, Newcastle Panthers - tickets from Moshtix
Sunday 6th May - Sydney, UNSW Roundhouse - tickets from Ticketek
Tuesday 8th May - Melbourne, The Palace - tickets from Ticketmaster
Wednesday 9th May – Melbourne, Palace - tickets from Ticketmaster ** Second and Final Melbourne Show **
Thursday 10th May - Canberra, ANU Bar - tickets from Ticketek
Saturday 12th May - Adelaide, Thebarton Theatre - tickets from venuetix ** Just announced **