Interview: Dum Dum Girls
Posted by: nick
California’s Dum Dum Girls are one of the latest jewels in an increasingly impressive Sub Pop crown. Their debut album ‘I Will Be’, a gloriously dark pop record full of fuzzy guitars and beautiful female harmonies, has won them praise across the board and support slots for MGMT later this year. We were lucky enough to get hold of Dum Dum Girls’ chief black cat Dee Dee to answer some of our questions.
What is your favourite song to play live?
“I Will Be”.
Do you have a favourite venue to play?
I love Madame Jo Jo’s in London.
What is your first memory of playing live?
Being wasted, fronting a terrible band in front of 30 people. I was 19?
What does live music mean to you as a performer?
I am giving it my all; performing your songs is such a bizarre thing to do, but it feels like nothing else when you do it well.
… And as a music fan?
I absolutely love listening to records, whether loud in my living room or in headphones, but when a band is good live, it is breathtaking and life-affirming for me.
What was the last gig you played that sticks in your mind and why?
Our last show of this tour was the midnight slot on Pitchfork’s stage at Primavera in Barcelona. It looked like 10,000 people were watching, and it was this frozen moment in time. We played our best and it was thrilling; if you watched closely, you could’ve seen our love for each other solidify onstage.
What’s the best gig you’ve seen recently?
Pet Shop Boys closing out Primavera!
If you had to name one (and you do!), what’s the best gig you’ve ever seen?
Spiritualized in Toronto, 2008.
Have you had any bizarre heckles, things thrown at you or the like?
I don’t listen.
You get to curate an imaginary festival stage. Aside from your own pick five bands, two old and three new, to play alongside you?
Spacemen 3, Shangri-Las, Crocodiles, Girls, and Woven Bones.
If you have an iPod hit random play and list the first three tracks that come up?
“Can’t Explain” Black Tambourine, “Titanium Exposé” Sonic Youth, and “Needle in a Haystack” The Velvelettes.
In olden times people weren’t thought to be geniuses, they ‘had geniuses’. A genius was a spirit that attached itself to an artist (often animal, human or otherwise) that helped him or her create. What would your genius be?
A black cat.
Dum Dum Girls play a string of UK dates from late July including 1234 Festival in Shoreditch Park July 24th, Cargo July 30th and those massive MGMT support slots at Brixton Academy Sept 29th-Oct 1st.
