Issue 4 / September 2010

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Words: Katy Long Photo: John Johnson BL: You’re signed to Deltasonic, who can lay claim to bands such as The Rascals, The Coral and The Dead 60s, how has that affected you? TS: It has helped a lot. It’s always good to have someone who has experience, someone who can listen to you and tell you not what you’re doing wrong, just, what you can do better. It’s given us a chance to go on tour too; we’ve played with The Rascals and The Dead 60s. There’s no extra pressure, because we practised every day anyway, we’re always playing and writing, but sometimes they help with arranging, if a bit in a song isn’t quite there. We do do things in the wrong order. BL: How do people react to your music around the country? TS: People seem to take our music really well all over, except in the North East like Sunderland and Newcastle, they don’t like us there. In one gig in Newcastle there were people doing roly-poly’s around the place, it was weird. London goes really well, and we played in Birmingham with The View. There were about 2,000 people there, and that was really good. Indie is the fashion at the moment. You can’t turn a corner without seeing or hearing something about the newest band – how revolutionary they are, how they’re going to be the next big thing, the voice for the troubled youth. But deep down, for the most part, they’re usually little more than a fashion, a passing trend. It’s flamboyant, it’s theatrical, it’s too over the top to be enjoyable and slowly you become disillusioned. Here at Bido Lito!, we’ve sifted through the rubble to find a band who match the expectations of the fans...THE SUZUKIS, a four piece from Wigan, are one of those rare groups who actually deserve the praise, mixing punk, rock, indie and 80’s sounds with typical northern themes and lyrics. Zane Lowe has been going nuts about them n all. So Bido Lito! braved the East Lancs road and caught up with the band in their native Wigan, in search of what all the fuss is about... BL: Guitar music seems to becoming the new pop, do you think the current trend of music will affect the way you write? TS: A lot of people have been saying that, but we’ve been doing the same thing for years anyway so we’ll just keep doing it. If we’d come from London or somewhere else, we wouldn’t sound as we do, but there’s no sort of ‘ooh we’re working class’ cliché. We don’t plan songs, we don’t craft them, they just happen as we write. You don’t write a song because you think you should have a song that sounds like that; you just write what comes to you. BL: From current crop of new bands, who could you pick out as stand out artists? TS: The band we played with recently, The Loud, they were good, Victorian Dad and Glassheads too. It’s much easier to name bands you don’t like, and why you don’t like them – bands who take themselves too seriously. Bido Lito!: For those who haven’t come across you as yet, how would you describe your music? The Suzukis: It’s hard to describe your own music. We have a friend who did once say we sound a bit like early Nirvana. I can’t hear it, but that’s not a bad thing to say. I’d rather people say that than say, Snow Patrol. We just hope it’s powerful really, melodic, and heavy. A little bit aggressive. BL: What was it like developing as a band in Wigan? TS: For a small town, Wigan is really good. You only need to go to places like Warrington and St Helens to realise Wigan actually has a lot of venues, and there’s always something going on and places to play. There are other bands in Wigan like Victorian Dad and Glassheads who are really good, there’s loads going on there. The Suzukis’ latest single, Reasons for Leaving is filled with their usual anger and desperation and, without doubt, is in a class of its own. It’s a breath of fresh air from the current wave of pretentious art school indie music thats doing the rounds and The Suzukis can hold their head’s high with pride at this latest effort. They are one of the best bands to come out of the North for a long time and, certainly, the best is yet to come. myspace.com/thesuzukis www.bidolito.co.uk
Words: Sean Fell Photos: Dire Wolfe “There are some dicks out there,” states Dan Croll. “I’d say there are more dicks than bad bands at the moment. A lot of them have something in their music which is great, but sometimes the people ruin it for you.” This may seem like a needless attack on other bands in the area, but it isn’t. It’s simply questioning why so many bands can take the fun out of making music. Welcome to the mindset of DIRE WOLFE. The band came together over the giving of a business card (Dan: “Tarek acting the big I am”), an acoustic guitar and a room full of LIPA freshers. Drawing on influences like Youthmovies and Foals (DW’s arsenal originally included a trumpet), Dan (vocals, guitar), Joe Wills (guitar), John Stark (bass) and Tarek Musa (drums) have become one of the city’s most energetic and exciting bands. Their perfectly formed songs change from dream-like, airy masterpieces to unhinged breakouts, and then back again - probably similar characteristics to the Pleistocene extinct carnivorous mammal, with which they share their name. Bido Lito! sat down with DW three hours before they set themselves on Blackburn, 20 hours before doing the same to Middlesbrough, and six days before sneaking up on an unsuspecting Standon Calling Festival. It’s what they love. “Most of the bands are out there to get famous and they think famous means flight cases with the band name on and having your dad drive your van around for you,” says Tarek, before Joe steps in: “The more we see bands taking themselves seriously, the more we just want to fuck about.” It’s this ignorance to what other bands think of them which sets Dire Wolfe apart. However, fucking about is all well and good but it can only get you so far. “We want to be seen as having a good time but we’re not a band that’s having pillow fights in photo-shoots, y’know? We’re about having fun, it’s what we’re all here for, but we leave that off stage,” says Tarek. Their songs focus mainly on girls (”I like writing about girls,” laughs Dan), be it fictional or real. Come Home was written about Dan’s sister leaving home and Gloria tells the tale of a girl who doesn’t get out enough. Associate comes with an almighty stomping intro and highlights the band’s heavenly melodies in all their glory, yet still feels like they’re kicking you in the stomach, similarly with Regret and its newly sculptured intro. It’s dangerously close to perfection. “I think Regret is a good song to define Dire Wolfe,” admits Dan. “Not every song has to have a real story behind it - sometimes the lyrics can just fit and it will seem right, but that song seems to be the direction we’re headed in.” That brings us to their live shows. More often that not at least one band member will end up inches away from your nose, providing energy that Crash Bandicoot would appreciate. “Our gigs are like circuses,” says Dan, “they’re even more energetic if the promoters let us play on the floor. We’re getting better as performers too, plus we’re with the songs so much that we can tweak them each time we play them.” It’s this familiarity with their own catalogue that has made the band so exciting to watch, it’s quite possible that they don’t know what will happen either. “We haven’t had a set-list for the past 10-15 gigs,” states John (it should be noted that John is wearing a pair of tartan shorts that The Proclaimers might break out on holiday), “Dan introduces a song and we just run away with it.” The band recorded their first EP but didn’t think it captured the true Dire Wolfe spirit. “It was very polished and quite fancy, so now we’re going back to record it again live.” That recording is due to take place at the Northern College of Music in Manchester, in a recording studio of orchestra hall proportions, lead by Dave Coyle who recently worked with Everything Everything. It should be interesting. “He saw us at the Night and Day Café in Manchester and must have liked us,” smiles Dan. By the time you read this, the band will have sunken their fangs into a few festivals. It shouldn’t be long before the rest of the country is captured by Dire Wolfe’s enthusiasm, charm and down right charisma. They may not be from Liverpool originally, but the city would be out of its mind not to claim them as its own. This Wolfe could actually run away with your heart in its mouth - try stopping it. myspace.com/direwolfeband www.bidolito.co.uk
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Page 27 and 28: Mellowtone and Canadian Blast TUESD
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Page 32: Circus 8th Birthday Party Sat 25th

Issue 4 / September 2010

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