Dark Room Notes Interview: SXSW 2010

Posted on Feb 22nd 2010 10:00AM by Kit Jenkins
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With their first album, 'We Love You Dark Matter' due for worldwide release in April of 2010 and a second one already in the works, Dark Room Notes has finally caught fire and is running with it. Their first two singles and remix are available for download on iTunes if you can't wait until SXSW, and one of their original members, Ruairi Ferrie, took time from their busy songwriting spree to talk to Spinner about the group's humble beginnings and where it's taking them.

What made you want to be musicians?

Nirvana releasing 'Nevermind.' After hearing that, Ronan [Gaughan, now plays guitar and sings lead vocal] and I wanted to start a band. We asked around school and ended up with a bass player, a guitarist and a drummer under the name Obskure.

What was the first song you ever performed and where?

My and Ronan's first gig was a talent show back in high school. We were maybe 15. We performed 'Unglued' by Stone Temple Pilots. However, we were both too scared to sing so we hired a guy from our class to do it who had a habit of singing every song just like Elvis Presley, if you can imagine.

How did your current band form?

We [Ronan and Ruairi] starting playing as teenagers in our parent's house, but after we lost some of our original members moved on, we moved to Dublin and hooked up with Arran [Murphy, keyboardist] about 5 years ago, and she was taking a photography class from then-teacher Darragh [Shanahan, drums]. She knew we were looking for a drummer and Darragh was a perfect fit.

How did you come up with your band name?

When Arran and Darragh came to practice, they came straight from photography class. The notebook Arran was carrying said "Dark Room Notes", and it stuck.

Describe your sound in your own words.

A mix of electronica and rock. We used to be a four-piece band, but we've been replacing the pieces with more synthetic sounds and electronic devices. We are aiming to go more electronic-sounding in the future.

What are your musical influences?

It's an interesting mix because we write music separately and together. My personal influences are Kraftwerk, Depeche Mode, and electronic European techno and house. Others for the band are the Clash, the Who, ZZ Top, David Bowie, and the Talking Heads. We love Depeche Mode, and found out recently that they like us too!

What's your musical guilty pleasure?

Mine personally is cheesy 80's pop. Anything from Phil Collins to Nik Kershaw, and of course, Wham!

What's your biggest vice?

A good bar and of course, booze. However, I'm the only one in the band that drives at the moment, so everyone else does enough boozing to make up for it!

What's in your SXSW festival survival kit?

Unfortunately, our laptop, which we're becoming more and more dependent on all the time. I don't know what we'd do if we ever lost it or something happened to it! We're also renting an RV to drive from our gig in Toronto all the way across to Austin for SXSW, so that will be our home away from home for a while.

What is your favorite song to perform, and why?

For our own stuff, my favorite is definitely 'Treetops.' We play a more dance-style version to end gigs and the fans love it. I think my two favorite covers, which we rarely play but they always go over well are 'Psycho Killer' by the Talking Heads and 'Heartbeat City' by the Cars. They're just fun to play!

What's the craziest thing you've seen or experienced while on tour?

We haven't done too many wild tours, but we've had a couple funny experiences. Last year we almost got kicked out of a gig. We were opening for another band, Kraftwerk, and Ronan was trying to photograph them as they walked onstage. Management decided to firmly remind us that personal photography was not allowed, and apparently that applied to us as well. Another time in Berlin when we were first starting we had less than 20 people show up, but in Germany they're allowed to bring their dogs to pubs and restaurants. There were more animals than people! So of course, our music spent the whole night competing with barking dogs!

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