'Unsigned Act Of The Week' - Interview with The Darlingtons

And the ‘Unsigned Act Of The Week’ award this week goes to…. The Darlingtons. Four guys from Somerset, capable of creating indie anthems filled with energy and youthful vigour, The Darlingtons are an alt-rock four piece who are currently making waves with their memorable live shows. Mari Lane caught up with vocalist, Kiran Roy, to find out more about this exciting new band.

Hi, nice to meet you, I’m Mari. So, who are The Darlingtons?

Hi Mari, I’m Kiran Roy and the others are Chris Holmes, Dan Young and Biz.

How long have you been together as a band? And how did you all meet?

We all met at school. We started the band when we finished school but only really started taking it seriously much more recently.

Congratulations on the recording of your EP – ‘Who Says There’s No Beach In Doncaster?’! – What inspired this title? Is there actually a beach in Doncaster? (I’ve never been…)

Thank you. We’ve also released a 3 track EP and full length album with a record company named Ordered Records, but have recently left the label so this our first attempt at doing it alone. Our manager Stewart Black came up with the name. It’s a live EP taken from a gig we did at The Leopard in Doncaster so that’s partly were the name came from. There is no beach in Doncaster no but the idea was …

Talking of Doncaster, what was it that made you decide to leave the peaceful idyll of Somerset and head up north?

We actually just played a gig in Doncaster which lead to meeting our current manager. We haven’t actually left the South West but due to our managers position we spend a lot of time in the North. So we kind of have two bases now.

What are your main musical influences? Do you all listen to similar types of stuff?

We mostly have quite similar tastes. We’re influenced by a lot of music, but probably the most prominent are The Velvet Underground, The National, Joy Division and My Bloody Valentine to name a few.

Is it just one of you that writes all the songs or is it a more collaborative effort?

It’s completely a collaborative effort. I tend to write most of the lyrics but never as a complete song. I’ll come to practice with one line maybe and someone else will have a guitar riff and we’ll piece everything together like a jigsaw puzzle and keep rearranging things until we have a song we like.

Do you have a favourite track on the EP?

Personally I think Watch Yourself is the strongest track on the EP. That or maybe Don’t Give Me Hope.

What has been your highlight of being in a band so far?

There’s been some ups and downs but the highlight for me so far was going out to Italy. We did two gigs in Milan and one in Varesse and were pretty much laughing the whole trip.

What are your hopes for the EP? Do you have a particular goal that you’d like to reach by a certain time?

Our hopes for this EP are just to provide product on which to build our fan base some more. We are going to be touring around the release of the EP and so the aim is just to get our music out to as many people as possible. After this release we have two singles scheduled for release, one in November and one in February, both of which we are really excited about.

You recently came down to London to play House of Wolf in Islington (sorry I missed it!) – how was that? And when can we catch again in the capital?

Yeah it was cool. It was a Death2Disco event, famous for their nights at The Nottinghill Arts Club, which were first started by Alan Mcgee. We’ve played a few of those nights and so were very pleased when they asked us to do their North London version. We’re doing the New Cross Inn on the 10th Oct.

What are you listening to a lot of at the moment? Any new bands that you like the sound of?

I’ve just bought the Hookworms album, liking that at the moment. Also Oliver Wilde, in fact I think it’s worth keeping an eye on the Howling Owl lot in general. At the moment the CDs we’ve been listening to in the car are The Horrors, Presents For Sally, Arcade Fire, The National, John Hopkins and King Crusoe.

Thanks so much for answering my questions! Is there anything else that you’d like to add about The Darlingtons?

Thank you for asking your questions! No not really, just that if you’re reading this please check us out online, and come see us live if you get the chance. Thanks again!