Django Django Interview

Summer air was filled with the sounds of Django Django in 2012. The quartet of David Maclean (drummer and producer), Vincent Neff, (singer and guitarist), Jimmy Dixon, (bassist) and Tommy Grace (synth operator) create Funk and Folk with a Rocky sound which has taken the UK, Europe and Australia by storm. BBM caught up with Jimmy about the formation of the band, being nominated for the Mercury Music Prize and nursing that New Years Day hangover.

Morning Jimmy how are you?
Yeah I’m good; we’re just in Paris as we have a gig tonight, the last show of the European tour, then were heading back to London on Wednesday. But it’s been amazing, this is the first kind of proper European tour we’ve been on, so we’ve been in Germany for the first time and then we went to Milan and then up to Belgium and Holland, so it’s been great.

You played at the Berlin festival in September, how did that go?
We were set to play at 3pm in the afternoon, which is always weird as everyone’s just turning up to the festival at that time, but it was really good. And then the shows that we have done in Germany this time around, they’ve been brilliant!

You had a festival over in America as well, what would you say was the best performance or best thing that you did whilst over there?
Yeah, well for me personally I think it must have been New York. I’ve been about six times but this time around we played the Bowery ballroom, which was pretty amazing. We spent some time in LA and we also spent a day in San Francisco, which was totally amazing even though we were only there for a few hours. But I think playing the Bowery and seeing New York was the highlight for me and was pretty special.

Where did the name ‘Django Django’ derive from?
I think it was Dave that came up with it, to try to put a name to the first few songs that went up on MySpace. I think he had a dance record from the 90s in mind and the spaghetti western movies too and we just liked the word Django. Django Django kind of just sounded nice and was ambiguous, it also sounded quite rhythmic which was what we were aiming for really and it suited what we were about pretty well. It just sounded fun.

How do you feel about your music being labelled ‘Folktronica’?
I think generally we hear these genres that people make up and then other people latch on to, like ‘Folktronica’, it just sounds horrible! It’s just like bolting two words together to try and describe something. I think that it’s hard anyways to try and describe music, I’ve never really sat down and thought about what kind of sound we create or that we’ll sit down and make an album that sounds like this or like that. It’s kind of weird to be asked what to describe your own music as, but it’s just something that you can’t really get away from.

You formed in 2009, what musical background did you have before this and how did you all meet and decide to create the band?
I was at University over in Glasgow and was playing in a few bands but not making anything of it, nothing serious. It wasn’t until we moved down to London that Dave approached Vinnie basically asking to produce some of his songs and so I don’t think that there was any intention of us becoming a band or anything like that. Then we started to write a couple of songs and out them up online and then it kind of snowballed really, and we got offered gigs.

Your album was nominated for the Mercury Music Prize, what other achievements have been stand out moments?
Just getting the album finished was a huge kind of achievement for us. We spent quite a lot of our time recording the songs ourselves so it took up a lot of our time. We had one of our computers crash which had stored on it quite a bit of music as well so that was a big major set back. So, we had to re-record those, which took a fair bit of time. Even when we finished the album we had to sit on it for at least a good six or seven months, because the label wanted to promote the album and what not. Also, going to places like Japan, Australia and America have just been unbelievable!

Your heading over to Australia to perform at Field Day, Falls and Summer Sundae Festival, are you looking forward to going back over to Australia?
Yeah I think we go out on the 27th [December] back to Australia we’ve got a couple of festivals over New Year, and then some side shows over in January, so we totally can’t wait to get back out there.

What would you usually be doing on New Years Day?
Usually I think Dave and Tommy hire a cottage up in Scotland but I have a feeling they’re not going to be able to do it this year. I don’t know what I usually do, I normally end up just getting pretty drunk and not remembering anything (laughs) and then nursing a hangover the next day. But it will be amazing to be over in Australia, I’ve got a few friends over in Sydney as well so that should be quite fun too as I should be hanging out with them on New Years Day.

Have you done many shows in Australia before?
We went over for Splendour in the Grass and our previous sideshows. So yeah, but it was totally brilliant, totally wowed by the crowds we got in Australia and we’re really looking forward to going back!

What’s the best festival you’ve done this year? Any that we should think about venturing to?
We had one in Sicily called ‘Ypsigrock’. It’s just like in this little town in Sicily where maybe 2000-3000 tickets are sold; we played with Alt-J and Primal Scream so it was just a nice little festival in a sort of medieval town at the top of this hill. It was totally amazing, you’re kind of used to going to these festivals where there’s hundreds of bands playing so it was just really nice to just have three bands and it was just a different flare, it was just really nice.

What’s next?
We get back from Australia and then I think were going to start recording some new ideas, and then in February we go on the NME tour, for like two or three weeks. Then in March were going back to the U.S. for a few weeks again, then after that we’re going to just put everything aside and start recording. We’ll be back in London after Australia so we’ll be back to start the recordings in our hometown then!

Django Django Tour Dates:
Friday 28th December- The Falls Festival- Lorne VIC
Saturday 29th December- 1st January- The Falls, TAS
Friday 4th- Saturday 5th January- Southbound Festival, WA
Thursday 10th January- The Zoo, QLD
Friday 11th Janurary- The Metro, NSW
Saturday 12th January- The Hi-Fi, Melbourne

Check Out Festivals In Australia