So it’s Friday night and we are currently in the men’s urinals in London’s Scala, yes you read it right, with the London quartet who claim they can ruin your life … The Dash!
The band are known for ‘music which comes straight from the heart of every underground gutter punk club’ and comprises of Marc Hayward (Lead Vox/Guitar), Gavin Molloy (Guitar/Backing Vox), Tommy Austin (Bass/Backing Vox) & Jed Finkelstein (Drums).
The Dash have just smashed their live set at Scala and have taken some time out to speak exclusively to Hit the Floor Magazine about their reputation for blood spilling and battering instruments, road trips gone wrong and what they have learnt from bands such as The Babyshambles.
For more information on The Dash please see: www.myspace.com/the_dash
HTF: Hello we are joined by The Dash, in the man’s toilet and appropriately, The Dash are ruining HTF’s reputation as well as our lives! Ha-ha.
Bassist Tommy comes out of the toilet zipping up his trousers …
HTF : Can we just clarify; did you just ‘take a leak’ whilst we were interviewing you? And you didn’t even wash your hands … tut tut.
Tommy: Well we are in the toilets!!
HTF: Nice! Well quickly changing the subject, you’ve just played London Scala. I read somewhere that your live performances “leave the stage in ruins as blood, beer and sweat coat the remains of smashed and battered instruments “. Do you think you lived up to this reputation tonight?
Marc: Well I did drop the guitar on my head at the end of our performance.
Jed: Yeah I dropped my drumsticks a few times, I don’t think anyone noticed! Ha-ha.
Marc: I don’t think there was any external bleeding tonight, but there may have been some internal ones! I think the instruments got a bit battered tonight, they got a good old kick in and I spilt a beer so …
HTF: Ok, so what was the worse incident of blood spilling in the history of The Dash?
Tommy: Well there have been some great ones.
Marc: I hit Gaz with the guitar. It was accidently; I turned round and hit him. Then a week later I threw a guitar up and caught myself on the bridge of the nose!
HTF: So have you ever accidently hit one of the audience?
Marc: I broke a pint out of someone’s hand in a bar in Kilburn (not doing karaoke), I swung the microphone round (that was when I wasn’t playing guitar because I’d broken my wrist you see) and I managed to take a pint clean out of someone’s hand.
Tommy: He worked many years on that trick!
HTF: You’ve supported the likes of the Babyshambles, Editors, Biffy Clyro, Sex Pistols’ Glen Matlock, Bleech, Gossip, Robots In Disguise and Black Lips to name but a few. What if anything have you learnt from these established bands?
Marc: I think basically, it’s an honour to play with these guys because there doing what you want to do and their doing it at their level. You watch them and kind of learn why they are doing really well. You can be a little bit sneaky in the night and steal certain little bits about where they put their amps and the way they put their guitars down etc. It’s an honour; it’s like being taken under the wing, especially with the Shambles. When we worked with Mick (Babyshambles) he gave us certain tips about recording and setting certain bits up.
HTF: If you could describe The Dash in five words, what would they be?
Gavin: The Dash Ruined Your Life!
HTF: How does the Dash stand out from other current bands?
Marc: Well we are four boys who write shattered love songs. They are pop songs but done faster and with more energy and with the passion when you are in love. You know love is not a simple thing.
Jed: The reason The Dash are good is because you never know what’s going to happen.
HTF: You’re playing Roadtrip Bar in Shoreditch later this month. Can you tell HTF readers about any funny ‘road-trips’ you may have embarked on (these can include any tour-tales)?
Marc: We went to record an album in Switzerland and drove from London. We got pulled over at the French boarder. It was all fine though. I said to Tom, whatever you say do not say we are a punk or a rock band just say we are a shit pop band and maybe they’ll think were ok. But Tom said “we’re a rock band, we’ve played with the Babyshambles”!
Jed: How about the trip when you’re car broke down, the window fell out and your exhaust pipe fell off and we had to get the AA and ended up sitting the car for three hours.
Marc: Basically we drove to Lancashire, three days before Christmas and the glass window of the car fell inside and everyone got Bronchitis.
HTF: What are your musical ‘turn-ons’ and ‘turn-offs’?
Marc: Iggy and The Stooges are my turn-on. They actually performed here! That’s why tonight was a big deal for us. Iggy had played that stage, all those photos of Iggy Pop bending over backwards, covered in gold on the cover of Raw Power that was taken here! [Raw Power is the third and final studio album by American rock band The Stooges]
HTF: OK so what are your turn-offs?
Gavin: Phil Collins, oh and Kerry Katona should be in there.
HTF: So we hear you have recorded a single with Mick Whitnall from Babyshambles’ (at his personal studio) and have now also been picked up by The Strokes’ producer Gordon Raphael who is currently mixing and mastering the tracks?
Marc: The record hasn’t been released yet but has been recorded. Raphael saw one of our first gigs and liked it and so asked to produce one of our tracks. At the moment we are not sure when the its going to be released.
HTF: So do you have any other new material coming out in the foreseeable future?
Marc: It’s close, I think honestly it will be before Christmas and it will be with someone you wouldn’t expect.
Tom: We did have a track come out last Monday called ‘Let’s Surf’ with Terry Edwards (featuring The Dash) which was released through Sartorial Records.
HTF: What is next for The Dash?
Marc: Well as we said, you’ll going to get another single before Christmas, fingers crossed. We could probably give Hit the Floor the exclusive on that when we get it and a possible tour of Italy and Germany in November. Also our track ‘Return To Broomhouse Road‘ is set to feature on Channel 4‘s new comedy Fresh Meat this Wednesday night (12 October 2011).
