Die! Die! Die! - Holding! Their! Form!
Author: Karl Puschmann
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It’s been almost three years since the arty noise-pop merchants Die! Die! Die! released their critically acclaimed sophomore album ‘Promises Promises’. In that time the trio have toured the world constantly, shed all their record labels, gained a silent fourth member and sat on ‘Form’, their long-since finished third album, for almost a year. Karl Puschmann caught up with guitarist/vocalist Andrew Wilson and drummer Michael Prain for a highly amusing, occasionally controversial and surprisingly informative interview on a balmy winter’s morning.
At 33 minutes and 48 seconds into our interview Andrew Wilson proclaims, “New Zealand’s a pretty fucked place”. Seven minutes later he’s waxing about, “… the problem with the music industry”, and about 10 minutes after that he declares that “… the internet pretty much ruined everything”.
Wilson, who’s joined today by drummer Michael Prain, but not bassist Lachlan Anderson, is a chap not short of opinion. And while those statements may seem as caustically abrasive as the art-punk stylings of his band Die! Die! Die!, they’re really not. He may be prone to the odd grand controversial proclamation, but by the end of his thought process he’ll go 180 and start extolling the virtues of whatever it was that was just coming under fire.
“New Zealand can be amazing,” he goes on to say, 35 minutes and 17 seconds in. “It doesn’t matter if they’re a big label or a small label the key is working with people who are passionate about your band,” he finishes his mini-rant on the music industry, and in regards to the internet he immediately calls it, “… a blessing in disguise”.
“We’re quite contradictory people,” he admits with a nervy laugh and a small shrug.
We’re at a café on Auckland’s Ponsonby Rd to talk about Die! Die! Die!’s third album ‘Form’, but as you’ve probably gathered our conversation turns out to be as haphazard and chaotic as the band’s trademarked sound and the album rarely gets a look in. Especially as early on in our chat the pair reveal that recording has already begun on its follow-up.
“It came about from finishing ‘Form’ so early last year really,” Prain says. “It’s been this long time to get it released so we decided to start working on a new thing now, rather than just sitting around going, ‘Why isn’t anything happening?’ Because it took us two years since the release of ‘Promises Promises’ [to start recording a follow up] we really don’t want to do that again.”
That’s a long time in anyone’s books, I say.
“It is,” confirms Wilson. “We started recording ‘Form’ exactly two years after we recorded ‘Promises Promises’ so… yeah.”
Add the year they’ve been sitting on ‘Form’ into the equation and you begin to see why they’re keen to keep the ball rolling. There’s a whole myriad of reasons as to why their second album has been in the vaults for so long, but it essentially comes down to business.
Wilson, who’s joined today by drummer Michael Prain, but not bassist Lachlan Anderson, is a chap not short of opinion. And while those statements may seem as caustically abrasive as the art-punk stylings of his band Die! Die! Die!, they’re really not. He may be prone to the odd grand controversial proclamation, but by the end of his thought process he’ll go 180 and start extolling the virtues of whatever it was that was just coming under fire.
“New Zealand can be amazing,” he goes on to say, 35 minutes and 17 seconds in. “It doesn’t matter if they’re a big label or a small label the key is working with people who are passionate about your band,” he finishes his mini-rant on the music industry, and in regards to the internet he immediately calls it, “… a blessing in disguise”.
“We’re quite contradictory people,” he admits with a nervy laugh and a small shrug.
We’re at a café on Auckland’s Ponsonby Rd to talk about Die! Die! Die!’s third album ‘Form’, but as you’ve probably gathered our conversation turns out to be as haphazard and chaotic as the band’s trademarked sound and the album rarely gets a look in. Especially as early on in our chat the pair reveal that recording has already begun on its follow-up.
“It came about from finishing ‘Form’ so early last year really,” Prain says. “It’s been this long time to get it released so we decided to start working on a new thing now, rather than just sitting around going, ‘Why isn’t anything happening?’ Because it took us two years since the release of ‘Promises Promises’ [to start recording a follow up] we really don’t want to do that again.”
That’s a long time in anyone’s books, I say.
“It is,” confirms Wilson. “We started recording ‘Form’ exactly two years after we recorded ‘Promises Promises’ so… yeah.”
Add the year they’ve been sitting on ‘Form’ into the equation and you begin to see why they’re keen to keep the ball rolling. There’s a whole myriad of reasons as to why their second album has been in the vaults for so long, but it essentially comes down to business.
