Dry the River Talk Mumford & Sons, Religion and the 'The' in Their Name

Posted on Apr 17th 2012 12:00PM by Marwa Hamad

Chromewaves

Forget Foster the People, Young the Giant and Portugal, the Man. Indie folk-rock outfit Dry the River invented having "the" in the middle of your three-word band name.

"We just came up with something that was totally different, and now everyone's doing it. We invented it. We invented it, and now everyone's stolen it," frontman Pete Liddle tells Spinner with a laugh. "That's what happened."

Besides other bands copying their style, Dry the River been forced to deal with a number of other misunderstandings.

Being compared to gentle folk-rockers like Fleet Foxes, Mumford & Sons and Grammy award winners Bon Iver is one of them. For the sake of trend pieces the long-haired, heavy-bearded five-piece English unit frequently get lumped in with Mumford & Sons as part of a London folk scene. But Dry the River only poke around the fringes of that scene -- one that Mumford & Sons go to great lengths to say they're not part of.

"We came along at the tail end of this Mumford & Sons thing," Liddle says. "That's the weird thing with the east London folk scene -- nobody who's in it admits that they're in it. They all say that they're not. If you ask Mumford & Sons, they're just like 'We're not from that scene. We've got nothing to do with it,' and yet they basically invented it. That's the funny thing. With us, people are coming to realize we're from a completely different musical heritage, we're from a heavier background and we have a different approach -- it's grittier."

Liddle is surprisingly soft-spoken for a man who -- along with his bandmates -- comes from a raucous hardcore scene that involved copious amounts of couch-surfing and very little record-selling. Bassist-vocalist Scott Miller chimes in that the seemingly timid Liddle was somewhat of a dictator when Dry the River first began molding their softer sound.

"Initially, Pete was writing these songs and being very strictly the band leader and telling everyone exactly what parts they should be playing and how they should be playing their own parts," says Miller. "Over time, we were playing the live shows, it became more of a collaborative endeavor. We started all chipping in ideas and being a bit braver."

Watch Dry the River's "Chambers and the Valves" Video

The result is haunting debut album, Shallow Bed. The record, out April 17 in North America, is brimming with orchestral undercurrents and beautifully executed harmonies. It's made rich by Liddle's poetic lyricism, evoking visceral images of life, death and the wild. Liddle admits he's an avid reader, often taking a page from literary inspirations Milan Kundera and Ted Hughes in his own melancholic words. Most interesting, perhaps, are the overt religious references interspersed throughout the record that pay tribute to Liddle's first ever school of music -- church.

"I'm not religious myself, but I grew up going to a Catholic school and learned to sing in church. All my early music education was full church music education," says Liddle. "The first 10 years I was singing, it was exclusively hymns and church songs, so I think that had something to do with it. And then, you know, just the songwriters that I was presented with as a kid, stuff that my folks had on in the house, like Leonard Cohen and Paul Simon, people who liked to dabble with religious imagery as more a poetic tool than a conscious effort to say something about religion or belief."

Using that imagery has affected some listeners more than the band realized. Liddle and Miller recall a time in Sweden when two Christian fans confronted them about their religious beliefs.

"They were convinced that we were deeply Christian," Miller says, musing that he's not sure whether they were disappointed when they realized his modest faith.

Often far away from home, the band is hot on the heels of playing SXSW and touring both Europe and North America while struggling to find a decent spot to park their massive RV. Ever the road warrior, Liddle says he doesn't live with family back home and has little to rush back to, while Miller concedes that there's one thing he misses when away.

"I miss my cat a little bit," he says. "I've got a cat at home I've had for six years now. Kinda miss her. But apart from that, we're getting to do what we love."

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