Last week Die On Planes release The Deep Future landed on my
lap and it immediately struck a chord with this frightened old man; what was it
about? Was it art? Was it music? I caught up with drummer Donovan Miller in an
attempt to get some answers.
So Mr Donovan, when did it all begin for you guys? “It
started in about 2006 or 2007; I can’t remember exactly when, but we were at
university and we started out just doing sound experimentation together – we
weren’t particularly playing rock music or anything like that. We were just
sort of jamming with guitars and amps...” Donovan goes on to explain the band
moved up from New South Wales to their current location of Brisbane,
Queensland. At this point in their history, he adds that “We changed the format
a bit with drums and bass and guitar, like a typical rock band or something.
There wasn’t much planning around it – just some mucking around and making some
sounds into a proper band eventually.”
So is it art. Is it music? Enlighten me and remove my confusion
and fear. “I think it’s definitely more of an art project – it’s not a band
specifically – though we do often play with the three members which is me, Dave
(Holmes) and Steve (Rose) but it isn’t set to just us three. Sometimes there’ll
be more people or maybe just two off us, even one of us, and we kind of create
music or whatever else happens as a collective, so it’s not necessarily a band,
so to speak; it’s more about basic artistic creation together, I guess.”
He mentions that everything the band does is improvised;
both your live performances AND the recordings? “Yeah, all of it – that’s the
only ‘rule’ – we don’t actually write anything at all. It’s always in the
moment and there’s no planning involved.” So with The Deep Future, did you all
just plug in and let loose, recording whatever came out of the sessions? “That’s
like a bunch of different things from a long period of time. That’s essentially
how everything was recorded that’s on there; we kind of filtered through a
whole bunch of material that we’d recorded over time, with the things that made
the cut, making it through, so none of it was written; it was all improvised at
the time. We’ll play a piece and if we’re happy with it then that’s a song.”
Does the band attempt to reproduce recorded songs when
playing live? “No, we don’t. I think,
very rarely, we might all remember something or something similar to what we’ve
recorded before. That might happen if we thought that it was really good but
that’s never discussed before the show so it’s a total chance thing.” He
explains that generally Die On Planes tries to stay away from attempts at
reproducing previously recorded stuff “...so it’s like a fresh creation all the
time. Though we’re not perfectionists about it – if it sucks then that’s kind
of good as well – because it’s just about the process; we’re not really after
any particular end result.”
With the live set-up, is it just bass, drums and guitar or
do you incorporate any electronics? “That all depends. If it’s just Dave, Steve
and I then it’s usually a drum kit and the guys will have a couple of amps
each, playing straight in. We don’t really use any pedals or anything like
that, it’s all just about maximising volume and having the instruments behave a
bit more weirdly with everything turned up to full all the time. That’s like a
standard configuration if it’s all three of us but Dave and I did a show last
year, supporting Thrones, and I think we were using all circuit bent waves and
stuff. It just really depends on who is available to play at the time. We’re
working on a project at the moment that has three drummers, which is like a
five piece band. I think we’ll do a few shows in that configuration. Should be
interesting, I guess...” Hmmm. Sounds intriguing.
I noticed the band rejects ideas of an having an intellectual
base or starting point for what you do; please explain. “Yeah, it’s not
intellectual. It’s really about removing yourself from the process as much as
possible; I don’t know if that makes any sense but we’re more inclined to let the
instruments play themselves and just have a minimal amount of interaction – at
least that goes for the guitar playing part of the band – I play drums most of
the time so I have to play something though it’s never like I’m going to try
and play something really tricky or try and put a point across. It’s more about
being as base as possible, and the playing is really simple and repetitive.
There’s nothing intellectual about it; it’s more about exploring what that
sounds like or feels like.”
So to paraphrase an infamous shoe company; just bloody do it?
“Yeah! Pretty much. You just do it and it turns out however.”
Does the band ever swap instruments? “Yeah, it does happen,
though I don’t know if we’ve ever played a show like that. We’ve played shows
where it’s all been guitars but I don’t know if we’ve ever played a show where
Steve’s played drums...but that could happen. It’s just the standard
configuration that seems to work really well, and bringing in additional people
to do other roles usually works pretty well too. But we don’t do that much
switching; I might jump onto guitar if there’s not that much percussion
involved.”
So who influences and inspires the band? “I can only really
speak for myself but sound-wise, I guess all of us like The Melvins so I think
there’s some sort of unintentional Melvins sound to everything but that’s just
because we’re all into that sort of music and really like it. I don’t know if
there’s any specific band or artist that directly inspires us, it’s more about
our personal relationships that inspire the music; we’re all good friends and
we’re all pretty weird guys but there’s not that much intention so I guess
there’s not that much influence to draw from.”
Well, there you have it. I’m slightly less confused and
slightly less frightened (though I’m still old so that’s a bit shit) about the
stuff that Die On Planes are pumping out. As I like a bit of art and a bit of experimentation (sexual, chemical and other),
I rather enjoy what they’re doing. The next step for me is to catch them in a
live setting with some heavy psychedelics heaving in my bloodstream. I’d advise
you do the same.
