A couple of weeks ago, I went to the Shadow Lodge to talk to the ladies of DAMPVAMP. They are Kitty (drums), Caroline (bass and vocals) and Ariel (lead guitar and vocals) and they make dreamy, sexy, blues-y tunes which are showcased on their new album, Pagan Vegas - being launched tomorrow night. Check out their website for details, like them on facebook, and read on to learn more.So I guess we'll start with the tour of the states that you guys did, how long have you been back?
C: Since uh...
A: Two months?
C: Ninth of October, yea. Two months?
A: October, November... yea.
C: Two months! Shit.
What were the highs and lows?
A: We went to the Nevada desert, we played some shows at the Burning Man Festival which was the high, getting there alive.
K: And the low, thinking that we wouldn't get there alive.
C: Our RV nearly caught on fire. It broke down like, twenty times. Took three days to get from LA to Sacramento, we got stranded.
A: They wouldn't pick us up from San Francisco because it was too hilly and they weren't risking driving the RV up a hill. That's how fucked it was.
Oh, man. But you made it in the end and played Burning Man.
A: Yea, we made it with such inspiration with the sanctity of life or whatever that we rushed to the stage and actually kicked off our tour with enthusiasm and heaps of joy and just exitement about getting there
C: We didn't even get sunburned!
Really? I guess you appreciate how strong the sun is in Australia when you go overseas.
A: Yea, you really fuckin' do!
C: The other thing is, Burning Man, the site it's on is this ancient lake that's dried up so there's all this alkaline dust and the dust actually settles on your body and makes a layer, it protects you.
A: You realise how hardcore Australia is, like we thought we were gearing for survival. Like you would in the Australian desert. Like the Nullarbor you know, imagine if they had a festival with 50 000 people in the Nullarbor, there'd be like 30 000 dead.
Do you guys enjoy touring or is it all a bit of struggle for you?
A: Well that was our first tour so it was kind of like let's plan an impossible tour and if we're still together at the end then we'll put the rest of our lives into this.
C: What I enjoyed most about that trip was just knowing that I'm there for that amount of time just to be creative and have a good time. And adventure. It's really quite a liberating experience.
And your album's coming out soon.
C: Yea, Pagan Vegas.
How was that, recordi
ng it?
C: We actually worked really hard and recorded it in like two days with no fuss, it just came out.
A: We practiced like three times a week. And yea, we worked really hard 'cause we couldn't afford to waste anyone's time, everyone was doing favours for us 'cause they believed in what we were doing not because they had time or money. Like, no one that worked on this project had money, even the investors don't really have money. It's all just for the love of it.
And you recorded in Australia?
A: Yea, just down the road. All recorded in Surry Hills, mate.
Do you guys feel, like we were talking before about the female musician thing, do you get any sort of extra expectations or anything because you are an all girl group or -
A: Oh yea, of course. People get excited that it's like this token thing and then they hear the music and they're like oh shit, you're actually a band. They think it's a joke.
Like the, 'you're pretty good for a girl' type of thing.
C: Yea.
A: Well that's the whole idea, we wanted to prove them wrong in a way. And you know, sort of try to live up to the female role models who inspired us and create something good. We've all tried to enter music and it's not um, it's not unclear to see that it's a lot about boys, it's a band you know? Boys have this whole camaraderie thing that they do naturally, whereas women have to focus on certain things and it doesn't come as natural to us to band together in that sense. We have to work at it a bit more, so I think it makes it a bit more special.
Yea. So you think it's almost like you're better off being a women in a way?
A: I think it's harder but then you know... we just want to make music, but then every time we try and step up with the boys it's, you know, you're not the loudest person in the room and so you don't get a chance and we don't want to have to fight for air space. And we've had a real opportunity to do that because um, we're all young musicians, although we've had careers in different things – Kitty comes from a long line of proffessional musicians – we're still all quite new to our instruments so we're able to actually pick what sounds we want rather than just throw in any style and see what comes out. We don't even know what our style is yet, this our first album.
Related to that I guess, how did you guys first get together?
C: Ariel and I had a project three or four years ago, called Eye Of The Spider and um, Ariel continued on with that working with a bunch of other musicians and took that project on for six to eight months.
A: Did a demo and then pissed off overseas. Worked on painting and stuff.
K: And another female musician brought us together, actually.
A: Oh yea.
C: Holiday.
A: Yea, I was ringing around. Me and Caroline decided we wanted to do it together, I'd been writing a few songs that she liked, so we just decided to try it again after life kind of got in the way the first time... um, and then we couldn't keep in time so we roped our friend Noni and we recorded the EP with her and then she had to go back to school cause she wasn't ready to tour, she was only 18 when she recorded that. And we decided to keep everything up in the air and to just quickly call every person in town we knew without trying to spread the rumour that we'd broken up or anything like that, 'cause we had a lot of people that'd already invested time in us. And I rang up Holiday from Bridezilla and asked her if she knew any female drummers and I think I'd only rang two other drummers before that. She recommended Kitty and then we met up with her and um, me and Caroline are really into astrology, we're both Cancerians, and then we found out that Kitty's born on the same day as me – it came up like first line of the conversation – I'd already made my mind up, didn't give a fuck if she could drum or not basically. And turns out she can drum!
C: Yea, we just met up for coffee and then came down here and had a bit of a play.
A: We sort of had plan already, and just asked her if she was keen, and she was, so yea. Everyone's been pretty dedicated.
I remember you (Ariel) saying something last night about the genre of the band, about how you were trying to make it more about images than specific types of music...
A: Oh, we were kind of having this discussion about how when you're in band and the first thing people ask you is what does it sound like. And you know, you don't really know what it sounds like yet and the second you say a genre they're instantly like... when someone goes, 'oh, it's punk' I'll go, 'oh okay, I might like that, I'll listen to it.' Or someone will say, 'oh it's pop' and I'll go, 'oh I don't like pop music, I won't listen to it.' And I could say this is pop, I could say it's blues, I could say it's... we started making up sub-genres and using that like, neo-blues and swamp soul. And I realised that no, when we started writing these songs we were confining ourselves with Lynchian images and that kind of mood, and that cinematic feel and those character roles, rather than basing it off a song. Like, if it was inspired by a song, it'd be inspred by maybe the way that singer moved his hips rather than what the actual group sounded like, you know?
Do you think that influences the actual kind of music you're making, or do you think the music comes first and then the images come next?
A: Yea, I think it makes a soundscape, and then we use our skills to fill it in. I don't know.
C: Then we create our own interpretation. I mean it's really... that's the foundation of, I think, the idea. So the process isn't always like that when we write.
Speaking of writing, do you guys have specific things that each of you do or does it all sort mix in?
A: Yea, well I write the songs and Caroline and I write the music and Kitty writes the drum beats.
So you each write for your own instrument.
A: Yea, pretty much.
Do you guys enjoy writing music more than playing live?
A: No, playing live is the prize!
C: I used to get stage fright just talking in a group of people. Not be able to do my speeches in class, I would shit myself, actually shit myself. But we pushed through the process so quickly that there wasn't really any time for stage fright... and I think having that c
onfidence, that people are looking at you for what you're creating.
You mentioned last night that you guys have started doing merchandise?
A: Well it's another way for us to funnel our creative abilities... we like to make things and it seems like we're always trying to steal time to make things and it's another avenue to add to the industry that will sustain us through this project.
C: We've got a couple of girlfriends, Lily and Carla, who are gonna be running merch sales at our shows. Things like jewellery, album stuff, stickers and t shirts...
A: It's all gonna be on our profile online as a bit of an artist initiative as well, 30% of the proceeds are gonna go into DAMPVAMP and the set up of the website and all that sort of stuff, 70% to the artists. There's more than three vamps involved in this project, there's a bunch of really strong, independent, creative women that want to be involved -
C: Creating opportunities.
A: Yea, it's about creating opportunities.
So it's a bit more sustainable that way.
A: Yea, and you know, if there's another smart woman around, put her to use.
And just quickly to wrap it up, what are your plans for 2012?
C: In January, we've got a residency at Club 77 for the month. Which is free.
A: We aim to be back in America before the end of the year -
C: Before the end of next year.
A: Yea next year, not like, next week.
C: We really wanna go back to Burning Man, and use all of the things we learned, what not to do now, so we can have a safe journey and spend some more time on the West coast I think, and...
A: We're totally open, we're putting it out there right now. We're just doing what we've doing and progressing it along. We're really open to travelling, and playing shows here, we're planning a few more movie projects.
Okay, great. Is there anything else you guys wanted to add before I turn the recorder off?
K: We wanted to add, hello.
A: Hello from DAMPVAMP!
