In House With the Darkness: Wardrobe Malfunctions, Lady Gaga and 'Childish Sexual Innuendo'

In House is AOL Music's series in which we welcome artists into our offices to play some music, chat with our staffers and, generally, just hang out. For our latest visit, Spinner sat down with the Darkness' Justin Hawkins and Ed Graham to discuss their comeback album, Hot Cakes, innuendo, Lady Gaga and having your pants split open on live TV.

You talk about becoming a rock star in the song "Every Inch of You." What inspired it?

Hawkins: I wrote the lyrics for it years and years ago, 'round 2001. It was kind of a dream sequence, a lot of it came true. We used to open with it.

Graham: We used to play it at pubs in London, near 2001. Then we didn't play it for ages.

Hawkins: I think it's because we only had one verse before and it was more like an introductory thing. It was only when we finished the album and Bob Ezrin was mixing it and he said, "We could mix it as an introductory thing, but wouldn't it be better if you made it into a proper song?" It's my personal favorite of the new songs.

Did you really want to be a vet or a doctor, like the lyrics say?

Hawkins: Yeah, my mom would've loved it if I would've been a vet. I love animals, and I wanted to be a doctor as well.

Does she still wish that?

Hawkins: She's very happy with the choices I've made.

What about the Hot Cakes title?

Graham: We like simple titles, like one-word or two-word titles. Something simple and classic. We talked about for a while and argued about and it was the only one that we could all agree on. [To Hawkins] You like it for different reasons.

Hawkins: I like it because it's sort of immediate. And you have to devour it immediately, because cakes don't stay hot. It's adds some urgency to it. I wanted to sort of imagine people sort of getting it and going, "Right, gotta listen to it right now."

It reminds me of AC/DC title.

Hawkins: It has a sort of sex thing to it. A childish sexual inuendo.

Graham: Everyone likes those.

Click Through Photos of The Darkness
This record has more of a back-to-basics feel. Was that because of the criticism to the last album?

Hawkins: No, actually the last album got some really amazing reviews. Some people said it was the best album of the last 20 some-odd years. Kerrang magazine said that. If you actually look at the reviews from the time it was released it probably did better than the first album did, in terms of critical response to it. It didn't sell as many, so that's a review in itself. But it wasn't really about that. The process of recording the second one, not all of us found it rewarding. I certainly did. But Ed, you found it problematic.

Graham: Hated it.

Why?

Graham: It was a very strange time for the band. We had a lot of personal problems. In the case of the first album we'd been playing these songs live for years and then we went in and recorded our set, basically. In the case of the second album, I don't think the songs were finished.

Hawkins: Sometimes it's nice to create in the studio but sometimes there's a pressure.

Like a follow-up kind of pressure?

Graham: It was different from the way we did the first album. First album was go in and two weeks record all the songs, for not very much money as well. The second album spent a lot of time and money spent on it.

Hawkins: The meat of the album was recorded in two weeks, but there was like a six-month period where we were tinkering, at great expense.

And partying, right?

Hawkins: Partying at great expense and tinkering at less expense.

What about this album resembles the first?

Hawkins: More the attitude of the songs, really. There's a lot of stuff on the first album about the town, trying to get out. Ed and I have both moved back to the town, so some of those feeling are still there, they've resurfaced. It adds tension to the songs.

What about the town has that effect?

Hawkins: It's geographically the most desolate town in England. It's literally the end of the line. It's kind of hard to amuse yourself.

Graham: Having lived in London for 10 years, it's a bit difficult going back there. Not a lot to do.

You're touring with Lady Gaga this summer Will you perform any differently as her opener?

Graham: It's important that we do exactly the same as we would do.

Hawkins: One member of the band suggested that we dress slightly differently. The quickest way to get kicked off a tour like that is to suddenly start copying the main attraction.

Graham: And not doing it quite as well.

Hawkins: Doing it really bad English version of it.

Graham: Put some dance beats in parts of our songs.

Hawkins: We're not going to do that.

You wear some pretty thin outfits during shows. Do you test them out before you wear them on stage?

Hawkins: There's no real way of road testing it, other than straight in, deep-end work.

Has that ever backfired?

Hawkins: It backfired on live television before. I had a catsuit that was made of Freem, the company that makes that really high-end reflective stuff. I was trying to do like a headstand with the splits and it literally split and one of my balls was on the ground.

What show was that?

Hawkins: Which ball was that? [Laughs] It was called "The Pop Factory." Used to be a Welsh TV show. Not sure if it's still going.

You're lucky it didn't happen here. There are still lawsuits about the Janet Jackson incident.

Hawkins: Oh right, the "wardrobe malfunction." I think it might have been around the same time actually. My single ball on display was overshadowed by that.

You have a diverse fan base, with metal fans, indie fans, etc. Why do you think that is?

Hawkins: I think it's because I have the body of a 16 year old and the face of a 64 year old. I'm a Cronenberg.

Graham: We sometimes get fathers and sons at our shows. I think maybe the father can say we remind him of some of the bands they used to like years ago. And the son, just because they like it.

Hawkins: The son because they want to meet girls.

On another topic, do you put a lot of care into your moustache?

Hawkins: More care than any other hair. My daily ritual is mostly moustache based, to be fair.

A few hours pre-show.

Hawkins: It's all in one go, at least, because it's pretty much rock hard once it's set. You don't have to worry about it until the next morning.

So it doesn't sag during shows.

Hawkins: No, because that's annoying to eat with. At the moment my fringe is falling and more when I'm eating a sandwich, so I'll have to something about that next. Really rock hard fringe that just does that. Then you have to try and match the angles.

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