Nicole Laurenne communes with her people. Stephane Perraux photo.
US all-girl band The Darts have spent the last decade turning garage rock, Farfisa organ and relentless touring into one long, gloriously chaotic adventure - from festival stages and basement dives to boats, caves and a Scottish prison chapel.
Ahead of their first Australian tour in September, Angela Evol caught up with singer, songwriter and Farfisa-wrangler Nicole Laurenne to talk their album "Halloween Love Songs", The Damned, Sydney,"Peaky Blinders" and what happens if you stand at the back with your arms folded.
I-94: First Australian tour at last. What took you so long, and have you been warned about anything over here yet?
Nicole: It is so exciting to finally be coming to Australia! I guess the main reason we haven’t been there yet is the most obvious - no one asked! To be more specific, in order to plan a tour in a far-away country, we need offers from promoters there who can help with all the many logistics in play: organizing the gear we need there, making sure we have decent lodging, arranging ground transportation for lots of people and equipment, promoting the shows well, etc.
It’s a lot more than just being asked to play the local dive bar - which we would do in a heartbeat if we could make all the other stuff work. Touring is insanely expensive for any band, but to trek overseas on 20+ hour flights requires some real management on both sides of the ocean.
We finally have huge help from Gold Coast band The Spivs, who spearheaded this whole endeavor for us and have gone above and beyond to make sure everything will work. I hope we can return the favor one day, somehow. These kinds of colleagues are priceless in the underground punk network.
We also got an incredible boost when The Damned invited us onto two of their shows there - that helped a lot with everything.
As far as warnings - I have been to Australia as a tourist twice before, and the only warnings I gave my bandmates are 1) bring the right electrical converters for your stage equipment 2) learn what a Flat White is 3) maybe don’t ask for a whole Vegemite sandwich the first day until you’ve tasted it.
Honestly I think we were made to play in Australia, and I think it’s going to be off the hook.
I-94: Sydney was originally on the tour but is no longer on the schedule, and there are clearly a lot of disappointed fans there. What happened, and are you hoping to make it up to Sydney another time?
Nicole: We were in the process of confirming all the shows, including a Sydney date that was still being shopped to various venues there without any takers yet (this is what I was talking about in question 1, see?), when The Damned stepped in suddenly and asked us to play Brisbane on the date that we had available.
It’s no secret that the distances one needs to travel in order to tour Australia are very long, and we just couldn’t make the routing work anymore with the shows that were already confirmed. We are as heartbroken as anyone, as I have distant family and some friends there too, but we are hoping people will “chuck a sickie” (just learned that phrase from The Spivs) and trek over to Geelong for the show at Barwon Hotel.
Of course if this tour goes well, we will make plans to come back and do as much in Australia as we can in the future.
I-94: “Halloween Love Songs” sounds like the title of a record for people who think romance should come with cobwebs and questionable decisions. Where did the idea come from?
Nicole: You have just described my love life perfectly, well done. But actually the idea stemmed from a journalist in France who suggested that we were the perfect band to write the next Halloween anthem. I left the interview with the idea to write an album of Halloween-themed songs, and as usual my lyrics started to swirl around bad romances and what is worse - or better - or more familiar - than a romance with a monster?
It struck me that the monsters and evil and demons are great metaphors for everything going on in our lives every day, and the album kind of wrote itself. Everyone loves the kitsch of Halloween but there’s also a darker side to it that I liked exploring on the second half of the record.
I-94: Which song from "Halloween Love Songs "is the most fun to play live, and which one causes the most chaos?
Nicole: I love playing “The Devil Made Me Do it,” because I just love the guitar riff and the groove; it gets everyone jumping, including me. But I know everyone in the band has a different favorite. “Vampires In Love” has a killer bass solo in the middle and a kind of baroque section that is always fun on stage. “Zombies On The Metro” has my favorite keyboard solo (which I love to play upside down, lying underneath the organ legs).
The most chaotic is always “Midnight Creep” because we wrote a dance to go along with the song and we invite audience members to come on stage and do it with us during the song. The whole audience is doing it by the middle of the song, and it always devolves into a grand mess of hilarity.
I-94: You’re supporting The Damned in Brisbane and Melbourne. After sharing stages with them before, are you still on your best behaviour around them, or has that ship sailed?
Nicole: Oh that ship sailed by the third show on tour with them, trust me. They are way too much fun, and we had definitively way too much fun. I would say that we are now going to be on our best behavior, to prove to them that we are grown into super mature and professional musicians. I expect that to last for about four minutes.
I-94: The Darts have toured with The Damned, The Living End, Billie Joe Armstrong’s The Longshot and plenty of other great bands. Is there still anyone on the dream ‘we have to play with them’ list?
Nicole: We have been so very lucky to have performed with some of our idols, including backing Jello Biafra - who runs the label that some of our records are on - and Blag from The Dwarves on stage while they sang with us. That is such an incredible experience.
We have shared stages with Joan Jett, Rancid, L7, Jon Spencer, and the list goes on. I honestly can’t believe it’s all real. But as I look ahead, it would be a dream to play with Australia’s own Amyl and The Sniffers (Amy was at one of the early Darts shows as an audience member actually!), Stiff Richards, and The Chats - Australia has been producing some of my favorite punk acts for awhile now!
I would also love love love to support The Hives, Jack White, Geese, Ecca Vandal, Bad Nerves, Die Spitz, and Bikini Kill.
Jeff Crespi phjoto. Band supplied.
I-94: Your music has also been featured on the “Peaky Blinders” soundtrack. How did that come about, and what was it like hearing The Darts in a show with such a distinctive style and cult following?
Nicole: We still don’t know exactly how it happened, except that our UK licensing agency somehow caught the show’s music supervisor’s attention and we had the right song for the scene where the mother is considering having to murder her own son.
Yep, that kind of song. “Love U 2 Death,” from the album “I Like You But Not Like That” (2019 Alternative Tentacles). Next thing we knew it was in the scene and I was watching the show with my own lyrics flashing across the subtitles at the bottom. Insane. It was one of my fave shows at the time anyway, not least because the music in the show was always exactly what I love.
So being on that show was a dream come true for me…specially in such a pivotal moment in the show. I’ve had songs placed in a lot of other shows, but this one was really special for me.
I-94: The original Darts mission involved making great garage rock, seeing the world and having a fab slumber party every night. Ten years later, how much slumber is actually happening?
Nicole: Actually more than ever, with all this touring, we are actually more like athletes sometimes than musicians. A Darts set is like an entire Zumba aerobics class. And then there’s all the running through airports with heavy gear, loading in and out of tiny basements with spiral staircases, in heels..
So we know we have to eat better, we sleep better, we prioritize our bodies more than we did when the band was new and not on the road as much. Maybe it sounds less rock and roll but it’s truly the most rock and roll we’ve every been. Crowdsurfing for two months straight takes a lot of protein bars. Sleep in the van, whenever you can.
I-94: You’ve played inside a Scottish prison, huge festivals and probably some wonderfully questionable venues. What gig story still makes you think, ‘How the hell did that happen?’
Nicole: So many. So, so many. The Scottish prison was the epic though. I was not only singing about sex and booze inside a prison, but on the altar of the actual prison chapel, with the sun streaming in onto me from the stained glass windows. You can’t make this stuff up.
We’ve played in so many caves in France, on party boats in Germany (the venue we thought was named “Ms. Loretta” was not a woman’s name but actually THE M.S. LORETTA). But yes, the prison probably takes the cake. As I was leaving the prison gig, with my organ trailing behind me in a road case, I left the main door to the prison yard open. The prison guard yelled “CLOSE THE DOOR!!!” frantically. It was priceless.
I-94: The Farfisa organ is such a big part of The Darts sound. If it could talk after ten years of touring with you, what would it complain about first?
Nicole: It would complain that it still wants more and more. It wants to play hard until it can’t play anymore. Just like me. The only repair I have ever had to make on it is to have the right side leg welded back on after a particularly vigorous move. It happened to the Farfisa I have in the US and the one I keep in Europe - same leg, same spot. And both times, metal workers have stepped up in a pinch and welded it back on for me. One was an artist who works on gargoyles on top of French cathedrals. True story. We are still friends.
I-94: Australian audiences haven’t had the chance to see The Darts live before. What are they in for, and should they bring earplugs, dancing shoes or both?
Nicole: Bring earplugs, always, to every rock show. Please. But yeah Darts shows are loud. Wear comfortable shoes and clothes that breathe - you’re going to dance, run, surf, jump.. If you wear a hat I will likely wear it too at some point in the set. If you are in the front row and you’re tall, I might end up on your shoulders. Be warned. It gets crazy.
Learn the “Midnight Creep” dance in advance for extra bonus points - we might call you up on stage to join us in it.
I-94: Touring Japan immediately before Australia sounds fairly relentless. What’s one thing that keeps you sane when you’ve been living out of a suitcase for weeks?
Nicole: It sounds crazy, but for me it’s the routine of being on tour. There is a predictable structure to it that I thrive on. We spend the first many hours of each day in the van or traveling to the next city; I can put on headphones and write songs, text with friends and family, catch up on business stuff, chat with my bandmates, and kind of mentally prep and charge up for the massive energy burst needed later.
Then there’s load in and soundcheck, merch set up, the show itself, hours of merch after the set, and then load out and straight to the hotel. Lindsay and I share a room and we are like an old married couple now, knowing each other’s habits and needs. When you have this kind of day to day structure to rely on, you can handle the chaos and surprises and troubles a lot more easily.
I-94: Finally, finish this sentence: If you come to a Darts show and stand at the back with your arms folded, we will…?
Nicole: I will surely find you, climb onto your unsuspecting shoulders, steal your hat, and make you dance the Midnight Creep with me. You will then find yourself drenched with sweat, chatting with us at the merch table surrounded by records and cool stuff and loads of other people, having the time of your life. We promise.
The Darts (US)
Australian Tour
SEP
9 - Vinnies Dive, Southport, Gold Coast QLD
Tickets
10 - Federal Hotel, Bellingen NSW
(free)
11 - The Tivoli, Brisbane QLD – supporting The Damned
Tickets
12 - Barwon Club Hotel, South Geelong VIC
Tickets
13 - Forum Melbourne, Melbourne VIC – supporting The Damned
Tickets
