Fresh back in town from Berlin, Larry Heath caught up with Dave Rennick from acclaimed Sydney outfit Dappled Cities, to talk about their upcoming appearance as part of The Farmer and the Owl festival in Wollongong, the potential for some new music, working with Berkfinger and much more…
So now that you’re back [from Berlin], you doing some Dappled shows!
Yeah, we’re doing some shows. Finally! It has been ages.
You have Newtown festival coming up next weekend?
Yep, which we are particularly excited about because we have never ever done that or the Surry Hills one before. For many years we have always been like “Hey, can we get on the bill?” and they are like “Oh, you’re not urban enough… You don’t have any saxophones.” [laughs]. We are really thrilled to be doing that!
I was going to ask whether you had done it before because it feels like the sort of the thing you should have done by now [laughs].
Well it is kind of a bit coveted, it is a bit of a privilege in a weird way. Because it really is just total community rules – If the inner city community deems you worthy of playing at their festival, then you’re on so I guess it is a bit of a compliment! A long time coming [laughs]
That’s for sure! They have got a new booker for it and I noticed there are a few artists on the lineup who perhaps should of already been on it in the past. And then there is this great festival in Wollongong, The Farmer and The Owl event, with you and The Drones headlining?
Yep yep, I don’t really know much about it except just what you told me [laughs]. It is just like a boutique festival, again excited to play and excited be alongside The Drones too. They are a band who we really aspire towards because they are just so cool and they have been around for so long and they keep it real.
Yeah, totally! That record is definitely one of the best of the year as well, their most recent release. There is quite a lot happening now that you are back, are you going to be heading along to the ARIA’s at the end of the month?
I don’t know, I will try and pull myself together to go to the after party or something but I might give the actual awards a miss. I’m sure I wouldn’t be invited anyway [laughs] but ARIA week is kind of fun, right? Everyone in the music industry just kind of feels a bit guilty towards us artists and buys us drinks [laughs]. That is what I would like to have happen anyway!
That is usually how it works – They throw parties and they give you a bunch of free drinks! So since you have come back, have Dappled had a chance to rehearse or get back performing at all?
We haven’t rehearsed but we have been doing some recording and just today we are releasing a single, I don’t know if you know about this or not. I don’t know if there has been a press release yet but I probably shouldn’t talk about it if there hasn’t been. We are releasing something cool this week! It is a rarities collection we are releasing with a new single.
Other than that, what is the rest of the year going to be holding for you?
Well we are going to get this out of the way and then start working on a new record to start recording mid next year. Tim and I are both going to be working on individual projects at the beginning of next year but we have got a full record for Dappled written and ready to go, it’s just a matter of orchestrating the recording sessions.
Where would you want to record this one?
Personally, I would love to go back to Berlin! Berkfinger’s studio was incredible and he is really keen to work with us and so cheap, once you get there, to hangout and have a good time. Very inspiring. I would have to make sure we had the return tickets booked in advance [laughs]. It is a bit hard to get the guys together to commit to going over these days, everyone is doing their own thing.
There is a lot of different projects going on as well?
Yeah, exactly. And the timetables seem to diverge, rather than converge, but something will happen… I can feel it!
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Don’t miss Dappled Cities at the Farmer and the Owl festival in Wollongong on the 23rd of November. Tickets on sale now! All the details are here: http://www.thefarmerandtheowl.com
Transcript by Natasha Day
