Dawn Of The Replicants

>Please introduce yourself and your Replicant associates, what qualities do you each bring to the band, musically and otherwise?

DAVEY COYLE:
My name is David on bass and car. Codenames include: The Colonel, K V Doyle and The Coil. Paul sings and makes me laugh. Roger turns a fine tune but is shite at smashin' guitars. Mikey is a regular compostional genius often to be found muttering away to himself in darkened rooms. Dottle is our man in the embassy, responsible for recording almost all our output, bankrolling the adventures - a purveyor of moral and spiritual guidance.

PAUL VICKERS:
I co-write the songs with the guys and sing them all with a little help from my friends, who are: Roger, who adds nearly all the weird sounds you can hear on our records; Mike, who explores all the melodic possibilities and then tries to figure out how to play them; Dave, who to use a quote from Mike "is as good a bass player as John Deacon from Queen"; and Dottle, who is the George Martin of Galashiels but more relaxed when it comes to drugs.

EL HOMBRE DOTTLE:
El Hombre Dottle on the drumses and the backing vocalses. Qualities include, ³Follow me, I¹m right behind you² - not too close, of course - and "Don¹t over egg the pudding".

MIKE SMALL:
Paul and I talk about football. Dave, Dottle and I talk about astronomy. Dottle and I talk about politics. Dave and I talk shite and computers. Roger and I argue (we're brothers). We all talk about music, women and TV.


>How did Dawn Of The Replicants come together?

RS: Lightning struck granite three times on the seventh day of the seventh month in the Year Of The Porcupine.

EHD: Don’t think we ever did come together, at least never all in the same room at the same time.

DC: I won this gig in a raffle, don¹t know about the rest of the c*nts.

PV: Man walks into a bar. Band walks into a bar. Band walks into a deal. Band walks out of a deal. Band walks into a new deal etc.

MS: Roger and Paul released a record and people liked it. When labels started calling they didn't have a band yet so they got their friends in to help.

RS: No, you're all wrong! Lightning! Granite! Year Of The Porcupine!


>For someone exploring DOTR for the first time, what one fact about you should they know before they start?

DC: It might be a bumpy ride.

EHD: We are all barking mad but in a strangely complimentary way.


>Which album should they start with, and why?

DC: Listen to them all but ‘The Extra Room’ and ‘Bun Magic’ 'cause I¹m on them.

EHD: Start with ‘The Extra Room’ and follow that with the one we¹re busy recording now.

PV: They should try all the albums; we are one of the most interesting and useful bands to come out of Gala in the history of the world.


>Was losing the record deal with East/West the breaking or the making of DOTR?

RS: It wasn't the making OR the breaking of us - it was just another interesting fork in the long road.

DC: Fuck 'em.

EHD: Duh! DOTR still here, innit?

PV: No, it was only the hardening of our shell. Now we will never die 'cause we is made of heavily soiled underwear.

MS: It was the point we realised we weren't in it for the money.


>What inspires you, musically and lyrically?

PV: The world we live in, and the ones we have yet to visit - including parallel dimensions.

DC: I’m a sucker for a melody and a good groove.

MS: The only true way to achieve success during your life is to create something that is a positive contribution to the development of our species and that will continue to exists after we're dead and gone. Most people do this through the continuation of their Gene Pool but as I can't stand kids and I can't paint very well I write songs instead.

EHD: Music and lyrics of the tuneful, groovetastic, quality, inspirational kind.

RS: For me - Beefheart, The Stooges, VU, Sonic Youth, Patti Smith, Howlin' Wolf, The Fall, Blondie, Tom Waits, Pixies, Beatles, Stones, Brian Eno, PJ Harvey, Bowie, Madonna etc with whatever's currently intriguing me thrown in - eg TV On The Radio or Betty Davis - plus stuff snatched from musical genres like dub, blues, jazz, folk, funk, country, film music or what have you.


> If the musical world was ideal, it would…

DC: It would encourage, develop and sustain.

RS: Probably be quite boring. There'd be nothing to butt your horns up against.

EHD: It would pay better - a plumber's wages would be nice.

PV: It would be shit.

MS: Pay everyone involved in every aspect of the industry £150 per week (Maximum) and those who are still hanging around after the new law was imposed would more than likely be in it for the right reasons.


>Why should people buy ‘Bun Magic: SXSW Special'?

RS: 'Cause it'd help us buy some tins of soup and beans till we get signed up again. Also - you might like it.

PV: Because it's only 4.99 and contains elf material.

MS: So that they can hear 'The Extra Room' which doesn't feature on the album of the same name.

EHD: Cos’ if they don¹t we¹ll come round their house.

DC: I don¹t think they should buy it. I think there are far better albums out right now by some tremendous acts, as seen on Fame Academy, Pop Idol and the like. I think it’s about time original creative thinking was binned and the quicker we all get back to Pat Boon the better this fucking country will be for everybody!


>Suggest a publicity stunt to increase the DOTR profile in the UK.

RS: Spontaneous Internal Combustion? I don't think I'd like that very much, though. Paul once had an idea about the zoo and some polar bears.

PV: We could turn into a woman.


>What do you consider your best achievements in music?

EHD: Boom Chick Chick-a-boom (in both the fast and slow varieties).

PV: Being part of recording 4 albums that I am very proud of and coming out the other end.

DC: John Peel liked the band. That¹s about the most important thing that¹s happened to the band. Making some of the music that made JP grin is a nice feeling.

RS: Persistence and the abilty to mix our many influences into a soupy mix which tastes fairly fresh.


>What more would you like to achieve with your music?

RS: We'd like more people to sample our tasty soup.

MS: To write a perfect song that moves people in the way that I have been moved occasionally by songs.

PV: A big selling album and to appear on Top Of The Pops with a shetland pony.

DC: I’d quite like to be massive in Japan. Only Japan though - not interested in anywhere else because my feet stick to the floor.


>On a DOTR curated festival bill, who would play?

RS: I'd like to see the London-based band Linus on the bill, plus Willie Nelson and Destiny's Child. I'd also like to put together a Sex Pistols / Country & Western combo for the event, called Johnny Cash For Chaos.

EHD: Ant & Dec, The Woggles, 400 Blows, and Paul Vickers cos' he’s a star!!

PV: Wesley Willis, Wreckless Eric, William Shatner, Ivor Cutler, Alvin Dann and Fleetwood Mac.

DC: Main Stage: Sting, Eric Clapton and Celine Dion would be handing out drinks at the interval. Dance Tent: Eric Prydz would be responsible for pegs. Acoustic Stage: That little fucker Bright Eyes would be pedaling that pushbike electricity generator. World Stage: Nora Jones would more than likely insist on getting up for a number.


>If you weren't in a band, what would you do with your evenings?

EHD: Play scrabble in the bath while listening to White Rabbit by Jefferson Airplane.

PV: Become a long-distance runner.

MS: Buy a telescope and become an Astronomer.

RS: Read books, talk on the 'phone, watch films, play games, eat soup, get engrossed in projects, think about sex and noodle around with instruments and recording equipment. Or, occasionally, go out into the wider world for adventure. Pretty much what I do now.

DC: If I weren't in a band I truly believe I’d be in jail.


>What are your future plans for gigs and recordings?

DC: Yes, that's right. More of that.

PV: We're hoping to get album number 5 in the can, which we're doing in May, but if Dottle gets a booking for the Selkirk Pipe Band we could get held up.

RS: It may be called 'Pterodactyl', 'Fuck The Backlash!' or 'If The Lizard Boy Eats Then He Will Grow'. There are a couple of labels interested in working with us, who love what they've heard so far, so hopefully the finished album will blow their cotton socks off.


>What, with regards the UK music scene, upsets you?

EHD: Most of it, except the bits that delight me.

PV: Bono

MS: The People, The Bands, The Music!

DC: Well, the usual complaints: fast food music, quick buck shite that does nothing to help the kids coming up and the ones who¹ve been round the block a couple of times. Finally Radiohead songs never fail to reduce me to tears.

RS: There's no longer any kind of network for left-field or unusual music to thrive in. Not as many 'zines or Indie labels, Peel's gone from the airwaves and NME's a joke when you compare it to what it and the other two music papers used to be like before Brit-Pop fucked everything up.


>What, with regards the UK music scene, delights you?

EHD: The bits that don¹t upset me

MS: Very Little.

PV: Bono

RS: We used to produce some of the best music in the world. Maybe that'll happen again some day.

DC: Ivor Cutler. Cliff Richard Christmas songs always make me giggle.


>What are you passionate about in life, apart from music?

PV: Boadas Serrano ham, football, photography, writing children's rhymes.

EHD: The cat, the universe, chocolate and talkin¹ sense.

RS: Love, sex, food, humour, spirituality, culture, psychology and the kind of stuff I'd be able to check out on the Discovery Channel if I had satellite. I'm not much interested in cars, sport or mathematics.

MS: Science, Politics, Sport and the occasional Person.

DC: My Family, Politics, Animals and Plants. Slugs will save us when the oil runs out. Don¹t drill the Arctic, save the penguins.


>What is/was your favourite children¹s book?

MS: Asterix & TinTin.

PV: That Pesky Rat by Lauren Child.

EHD: Oor Wullie, The Broons and possibly Willie Wonka.

RS: The Weirdstone Of Brisingamen by Alan Garner and it's sequel The Moon Of Gomrath. I also liked a really silly book with wobbly drawings in it called This Is Ridiculous by Donald Bissett.

DC: I spent a lot of my childhood inside my Dad's Haines Morris Marina Manual. When I wasn¹t reading out the next bit of that I used to really enjoy his early 70¹s porn collection which the daft bastard thought he was hiding under his bed.


>Any other words of wisdom?

PV: The grass is always greener; you've got to sniff the lawn.

DC: Don¹t get involved in or start any wars or fights. It¹s a waste of time, money and thought.

EHD: Slow down, watch those kerbs, listen and enjoy.

RS: "A dog is not reckoned good because he barks well, and a man is not reckoned wise because he speaks skillfully," as me old mucker Chuang Tzu used to say.

MS: The wisest people had a habit of getting assassinated so I'm keeping my mouth shut.

Vanity Project live review from 2004.

Dawn Of The Replicants website.