Nine Sons of Dan are generating some major buzz with a brand new single “She’s So Fine” and a critically acclaimed EP under their belt. The Gold Coast act have just kicked off an Aussie tour, so I figured it was about time that I caught up with drummer Morgan “Flakey” Blake to chat about working with Paramore’s Justin York, life on the road, and their big plans for the future.
You’ve just released your new single “She’s So Fine.” What can you tell me about the song?
“She’s So Fine” was written as an underdog story; the geeky guy in love with the mega babe! We wrote some poppier things for our EP and this was one of our favourite ones!
I believe you worked with Paramore guitarist Justin York on the track, which is such a massive coup. How did that come about?
The boys at LooseStones Studios, where the EP was tracked, work overseas quite often, and knew Justin from working at studios with him. They asked him if he would like to play some guitar on our tracks, and he digged them so he agreed! So stoked!
What was he like to work with?
Well unfortunately he had to do his parts over in the States. We couldn’t meet up and collaborate or anything like that. But by the sounds of things he is pretty cool guy! His playing was really tasteful and helped out the whole band. Jay got to hang with him when he went over to US earlier this year and said he was a champ.
You were lucky enough to have one of the finest women in Oz, Miss Universe Australia Jesinta Campbell in the song’s music video. How did that happen?
Well we won a competition last year. One of the prizes was a film clip. And the production company (ROAM) that did the clip knew her from a while back.
They brainstormed ideas for the clip and wanted a pretty attractive girl to play the lead character. They said they were aiming for someone pretty special, but when we met up with them and they pulled out the latest issue of FHM with Jesinta on the front, with a big grin on their faces, we were like no way freaking way! We thought it would be like a super pretty girl but definitely did not expect Jesinta to appear!
You’re going to tour this single all over the country in the coming months. That’s a long time to be on the road. How do you keep things fresh with such a long touring stretch?
Things like that just never seem long or boring to us. We haven’t been to most of the places on this tour before, so I think we will be amped enough to forget how long we drive or how long we wait or whatever. It’s all good to us! We are stoked just to be playing. Plus we will be surfing in between, partying, watching other gigs. It’s a pretty refreshing life!
What’s life like on the Nine Sons of Dan tour bus?
Haha, if you would call it a bus! Well, we try to party and generally have a good time when touring because to us it’s like a holiday, visiting new places and all that. Most of us surf so it’s pretty sick rocking up to new town and getting waves and playing! But being ready to play is always priority so we try keeping Jagerbombs to minimum the night before we play.
You must love playing live to commit to such a long string of dates. What is it about being up on stage that really revs you?
Everything really! Being able to go crazy on stage, playing your own songs, being with your best mates! Everything is still so new to us so we are always really excited about playing.
The single comes from your debut EP Landslide, which was produced by Matthew Bartlem. He’s worked with some massive acts include Sunk Loto and Dead Letter Circus. What did he bring to your sound?
Well Matt pretty much played Xbox the whole time and every hour or so poked his head in the studio and told us we suck. (laughs) Nah, he made sure our playing was super solid and knows how to make quality over quantity so he cleaned up a lot of our mistakes, so to speak, and really refined our sound. He is a rad producer.
I believe the band started as a uni project. Did you ever imagine back then where it would lead?
Yeh that’s right it did. No way, I never thought that back then. But myself and the rest of the lads have been so anxious to get a band going that we knew something had to happen!
After this tour wraps up, what’s next for Nine Sons of Dan?
Well we are doing pre-production for a full length effort at the moment, so that’s always happening, and we will be touring the country again later this year! So I think after the last date, we have a few weeks of rehearsal before it all starts again! Definitely be heading down to Sydney and Melbourne a bit more!
Here are all the places you can check out Nine Sons of Dan this time around!
12 June 2011 – Coomerocks Festival, Coomera Lodge Hotel, Coomera (18+ Afternoon Show)
12 June 2011 – Wallapalooza @ The Wallaby Hotel, Mudgeeraba (18+ Night Show)
16 June 2011 – Hot Damn @ Spectrum, Sydney (18+)
18 June 2011 – The Patch, Wollongong (18+)
22 June 2011 – Cambridge Hotel, Newcastle (18+)
30 June 2011 – The Zoo, Brisbane (18+)
1 July 2011 – Neverland, Gold Coast (18+)
2 July 2011 – Grafton Community Centre, Grafton (18+)
12 August 2011 – Revolver Upstairs, Melbourne (18+)
19 August 2011 – X&Y Bar, Brisbane (18+)
20 August 2011 – The Hive, Brisbane (All Ages)
Image used with permission from AAA Entertainment