With a new album, Black Rat, out now, Brisbane’s DZ Deathrays perform on Thursday, May 22, at the Prince of Wales, Bunbury; Friday, May 23, at the Indi Bar; Saturday, May 24, at Amplifier and Sunday, May 25, at the Newport. LEXI MCKEE reports.
DZ Deathrays have just released their new album, Black Rat, and will accompany its release with an Australian tour.
“It’s a bit more dynamic than the first record,” drummer Simon Ridley says, “but it’s kind of more of a night-time themed one. There’s some crazy songs in there for the start of the night, then by the end of the night there’s like some slower, dancier stuff in there.
“The writing process was different from the first one. We did it kind of in like three big blocks where we did one out at a house where it was kind of just Shane and I out there for like two weeks just writing. Then we did, like another one similar to that, just outside of Brisbane. Then the last writing block that we did was a couple of weeks on and off.”
Following the release of Black Rat Ridley and his musical partner-in-crime, Shane Parsons, will tour Australia. Ridley reveals that punters can expect “the same thing that people have usually come to expect which is high energy shows. It’ll just be fun.
“We still want to try to keep the party vibe,” Ridley says. “It’s always been about a band that would be awesome to see at a house party. That’s always been the idea and I hope we haven’t strayed too far but I guess we kind of want to make songs with a bit more range. Not all just super-pumped-up songs. Even though we’ll still have that sort of stuff, I think as the band keeps going, and we want to play longer sets, some of the stuff needs to be a bit more dynamic.
“We’re just going to see how long we can tour this album for. It’s kind of weird because you don’t really get a lot of shelf life anymore with albums. I think with like Spotify people kind of expect bands to put albums out like once a year. Hopefully we’ll be able to start writing the next record by the end of the year. But hopefully we’ll still be able to tour this album up until then.”
The Brisbane duo have recently finished filming a video clip for one of their latest tracks and it’s set to be released in the coming weeks, however which track and exactly when are being kept under wraps.
“The next one is pretty much inspired by ‘90s hip hop. Like rap and Beastie Boys video clips. Usually it’s Sam and myself who come up with the film clip ideas. We’re just sitting around drinking beers or talking about dumb ideas with friends.”
DZ Deathrays have toured with a number of big industry names and confess it was something neither of them expected. “When we get to do some crazy shows it’s always intimidating. We got to play with the Foo Fighters, we’d never played a stadium before or anything close to it. Having Dave Grohl standing side of the stage next to Jack Black, both with like, arms folded, watching you play is like one of the most intimidating things I can think of.”
