Dun 2 Def Interview
21/11/2006
How and why form the band? And did you ever expect
to be going 10 years later (albeit under a different name)?
It was formed following a request by a local promotor,
sick of booking run of the mill Rock acts at his club, to put together
a Punk covers band. This was formed by Ferret (vocals) and Twig (guitar)
and they were called '77.
The band did well, with loads of gigs geting booked, including some good
support slots with the likes of UK Subs & Vibrators etc. But the band
soon tired of doing covers and began to write their own material and such
began to look for a new band name.
What do you feel you have learnt along the
way, and what advice can you pass to new bands starting out?
We've learnt be prepared to gig a hell of a lot, expect to be at the
bottom of the bill a lot (even if you're better than the preceeding bands)
and don't expect to make any money!! In fact, be prepared to lose plenty
of money!
Don't trust promotor's and try to do as much as possible off your own
back (organise your own gigs etc).
To bands starting out.. be prepared to spend a lot of money and only
do this if it's for the love of being a Punk band! Also, NEVER do any
gig that involves you having to sell a set number of tickets just to
support some headline act. You WILL be ripped off!
Also, make sure you have a van driver and a manager!
What has the highlight and lowlight been
of the bands history so far? Would you have done anything different?
Highlights. Probably getting the second CD recorder and distributed
through Plastic Head. We were all very pleased with the recording
and felt it had "something". Luckily the guy at Code
7/Plastic Head thought the same!
A personal highlight for Ferret would be geting to support one
of his all time fave bands.. Slaughter and the Dogs!
Lowlight: Getting asked to play the Wasted Farewell Party, driving
200+ miles to get their, spending a total of £500 on accomodation,
only to be put on first on the Saturday and ended up playing
to the sound guys and about 3 other people, cos the tickets gave
the wrong start time for the day's festivities, so no-one turned
up till well after we played! That was a real pisser. especially
as we were all pirated up for the pirate fancy dress and we played
a blinding set, but no-one there to appreciate it! C'est la vie.
How have you seen
your audience and the punk scene in general change since you started
out?
Well it's good to see a lot of the young kids finally
getting to attend and hear "real" Punk bands for a change.
Apart from that, as with ourselves, our audience and the Punk scene in
general appears older, fatter and balder!
Why did you change the bands name to Dun 2 Def
and what first impression do you think it gives people? What other bands
names do you rate?
As mentioned earlier, the name was changed as the band
moved away from Punk covers to writing original material.
The name was thought up as a result of agreeing that every original sounding
Punk band name we came up with, didn't ever actually sound original and
sounded like it had been done to death. From that Dun 2 Def was born!
On first impressons, some people seem to really like the name, but other's,
especialy in a few reviews we've had, have likened to the name to that
of a hip hop band! We can't really see that ourselves, but I guess it's
cos it's got the word "Def" in it I guess? But whatever.
As for other band names, we all agreed that we don't really care what name
a band has.. it's what the music's like that they are putting out that
counts at the end of the day. In the early days we may all have been guilty
of buying singles based on a bands name (cos no-one knew who any of the
bands were, cos the whole scene was new), but I don't think anyone does
that nowadays.. especially with the internet and such like. If you don't
know a band then look them up, it's that simple.
Your album 'Every Weekend' has recently
been released. How has the reaction been? And what track are you
most proud of?
So far the reaction to the CD seems to be excellent. We have some fantastic
reviews and I believe, so far only one negative review (by someone who
admitted they didn't understand this type of music!!). It's selling really
well at gigs. Not so sure who it's doing in shops and online etc, cos
we've not had any feedback from Plastic Head yet.
It's very difficult to pick a favourite from your own album as we like
all the tracks! In all honesty, we put this album together to try and
eliminate the need for "filler" tracks. We wanted every track
to stand out and have it's own merits.. not to go on the album because
we needed to fill the space. About 5 tracks we recorded never made it
to the album as we felt they weren't good enough. I think this decisions
reflects in the reviews published so far.
What inspires the lyrics, and what
goes into the writing process of the tunes?
The lyrics are inspired by everything tha affects us really..
life / death / wars / drinking / fighting / relationships / friends / drugs etc.
The typical process of writing a Dun 2 Def song begin with someone bringing
a riff and some lyrics to a rehearsal, then we start jamming through it,
all adding individual ideas, until a song is formed. It's a pretty simple
process really.
30 years of punk - something to celebrate or embarrassing
commercialisms? Describe punk at the beginning of the 21st century.
Definitely something to celebrate cos it's quite a miracle
it's all still going and has such a healthy scene, not just in the Uk,
but the world over. I think it's a scene that will never die as there
will always be those who live for this music and always new bands to
replace the one's we lose.
It's great that bands like Dun 2 Def can form later into Punk's life cycle
and still find a respectable audience who come to gig's and buy our cd's.
I think the embarrassing commercialism comes from those bands who have
the audacity to call themselves Punk, only play huge stadiums or the biggest
venues and charge the Earth to get in to see them! That's not a Punk band.
There's also way to much of this kiddie Pop Punk nonesense as well. The
charts are full of this kinda crap that claims to be Punk.
We also think there are too many of the older original bands reforming
just to cash in. Their ethics are no longer there.. it's just a synical
ploy to rake in a few quid based on a name that was once good.
That doesn't count for the majority of the good name bands still playing
the circuit though. I think everyone can tell the genuine from the fake.
Plans, gigs and releases planned for 2006 / 2007.
Still plenty of gigs to do in 2006 and the band have already
started booking gigs in 2007 - including Punk Aid 2007 and a
slot at the 30 Years of Punk Festival.
Dun 2 Def plan to start work on a new album in early 2007 with
a view to release it around the summer time.
There is also talk of doing a split EP with Demob
Any final comments?
Hopefully 2007 will be the year Dun 2 Def begin to get
the recognition they deserve. It's been a hard slog and we've been held
up by a few idiots trying their best to put us down and prevent us from
being seen by decent audiences. But we won't let those people ruin anything
for the band, no matter how hard they try.
I think we may also try to find a van driver and a manager!
The bands favourite animal is the giraffe.
Please note that the opinions expressed
by band members does not necessarily reflect the views of this website.
Punk & Oi in the UK Limited are in no way liable for comments made
by interviewees.
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