The British rock band The Darkness made their mark back in 2003 with their Permission to Land album and their song "I Believe in a Thing Called Love." With their balls out style of rock-n-roll that reeked of all the excesses of love and life, The Darkness brought theatrics into the new millennium.
After a five-year break, The Darkness reunited in 2011 with their Hot Cakes album, and are back again with the newly released Last Of Our Kind. Recently, I was able to correspond via email with bassist Frankie Poullain about the band's new album, their history, and how they have grown since they've reunited.
What does the title of the new album Last Of Our Kind mean to the band?
We don't think about things like that or analyze, it just felt right.
This is the second album from The Darkness since the reunion. While everyone was a part of another project during that hiatus, how did it feel to get the band back together for Hot Cakes?
That felt pretty unreal I have to admit. We had to cleanse away the residual badness with feel good shiny glamorous vibes. Now we are quite simply kicking arse, or ass as you say in Detroit.
Going into Last Of Our Kind, what was the mood like between everyone in the band when you were figuring out where to go with it all?
There was a fair bit of domestic and interband upheaval at the time, hence the emotive feel of the album. It just came out like that and we went with it. Dan pulled out some brilliant riffs though to counter balance and inspire what for many are the stand out tracks: "Open Fire," "Barbarian" and "Mudslide."
What direction do you feel like Last Of Our Kind went? What's the theme of it?
The theme for me is 'defiance.' I guess largely us as a band defying the way that modern guitar bands look, sound and behave. But also defiance against adversity -- problems with our drummer, personal relationships, band management/record companies and so on. They all seemed to converge on us at once! But we dealt with it all and produced a unique sounding album. It wasn't easy but easy is for wimps.
Looking back to the early years of the band on through the success of Permission to Land, what were some of the fondest memories of that time? What really sticks out good or bad?
We had a week on Sunset Strip in April 2004 doing the gigs and TV shows, meeting Jack Black, Steve Coogan, Tilda Swinton, Jim Jarmusch, Arthur Brown, Hugh Hefner and so on. What stands out? For me probably the simple pleasure of 'afternoon delight' with an Hispanic model. It's a cliche I know but lobster, a good bottle of wine, hotel suite with panoramic views and just the right amount of sun sneaking in through the blinds... a gentleman never tells though obviously.
That big sound of The Darkness, how much of that mirrors the personalities of the band members and how much is it an outright exaggeration?
Good question! Well Justin is an extrovert obviously so that one's pretty easy. As for the rest of us, I'd say we are dissatisfied and restless. There may also be a significance in the fact that we are British and repressed in some ways. Socially awkward. It's tiring being polite all the time! None of us are straight pegs, that's for sure. We are generally nice people on the surface but I guess the inner bad ass or 'animus' needs to be uncaged from time to time, and what better place than on stage?
The Darkness from 2000-2006 vs The Darkness from 2011 to present, how is this band different today then in the beginning? How is it the same? How do you feel the band has progressed?
We understand the transition from being the people we are to the people on stage. The lines aren't blurred. We prefer to be in a position where we blame ourselves rather than others. We laugh at misfortune and challenge each other and ourselves to try new things -- such as Dan producing the album and the bass player singing lead vocals on "Conquerors." Foolishness is our friend. We also try to avoid re-hashing or doing the same thing twice, hence Justin channeling or singing in character on "Open Fire" and a track like "Wheels of the Machine" which is closer to Luther Vandross than AC/DC.
The song writing on the new album is really good. How does the band go about writing new material?
Thank you kindly. We kept it down to 14 songs this time and constantly tried ways to improve and manipulate them. Dan flavored every song bar one with a mandolin. That brought the disparateness together and added a 70's warmth.
Do you think the band is stronger than ever? How so?
Yes for sure. We sound fatter with Rufus Taylor, and more dynamic. He strikes the snare beautifully. He'll also be adding backing vocals, which have improved across the board. Justin's voice is better than ever and Dan Hawkins guitar arsenal is quite simply phenomenal. There is nothing he cannot do.
What would you like the legacy of The Darkness to be?
The legacy would be that there are no more legacies, let us all live in the moment, or as Heidegger said: "Time is not a thing, thus nothing which is, and yet it remains constant in its passing away without being something temporal like the beings in time." I have a tattoo of that on my bottom.
The Darkness is set to play Saint Andrews Hall in Detroit on Wednesday, October 21st. Their new album "Last Of Our Kind" is available now. For more information, visit thedarkness.co.uk.