After over twenty years as a band, The Darkness is still going strong. So strong in fact that earlier this year they released one of their best albums to date, Dreams On Toast. Ahead of their show at The Fillmore on the 13th, I talked with bassist Frankie Poullain about the musical diversity of the album, the second North American leg of the band’s tour in support of it, and the upcoming reissue of the band’s second album.
Tyler King: Thank you so much for this interview! I’ve been a fan of The Darkness since I was a teenager.
Frankie Poullain: Aw man, thanks.
TK: You’re about to go back on the road. How have the shows for this tour been so far? And are there any differences that you’re noticing between this tour versus ones in the past?
FP: Well, we always used to have this running joke, myself and Justin. We would say that the shows were like a banquet where every flower reveals itself which is a line from classical French poetry that some people don’t recognize.
TK: Rimbaud?
FP: You recognized it! I just want to tell you, I just want to make it clear that I’m not one of those British people or English people that look down on Americans, you know, and all that kind of stuff. I think, you know, like in A Fish Called Wanda, I find that to be the most arrogant kind of lazy English way of thinking because I’ve always thought that Americans open their hearts and the English only open their hearts for the dead. You know, when somebody dies, they open the heart. I just wanted to clarify that.
TK: It’s funny you should mention A Fish Called Wanda because my grandmother was a huge John Cleese fan. When I was young I would go over to her house, Fawlty Towers would be on all the time. It was great.
FP: John Cleese is, I mean… you’ve got people that think David Beckham’s a national treasure but the real national treasure is John Cleese, because John Cleese didn’t kiss the ass of the royal family. Beckham did, you know. We call it “lick spittle.” It’s an English phrase for people who bow down because they want recognition from the establishment. People like Gary Barlow and Robbie Williams and David Beckham.
TK: I’m curious, focusing on The Darkness live, specifically this tour. You have such an extensive back catalogue. I’m wondering, how does the band choose what older songs are going to be played in conjunction with the newer songs?
FP: You know, we’re very comfortable with each other. We just take the piss out of each other, you know, jokes, you know, we just don’t take it seriously. Occasionally there can be a bit of dogmatism, but generally we don’t risk that because we know how important it is to get on with each other. You know, we messed up the first time when everything imploded back in 2005, 2006. So, we’re not going to make that mistake again. So, we do it light-heartedly. But we do tend to agree because the thing is, it’s the stuff really that just feels, you know, musicians feel, you know. You can feel the audience whether or not you’re connecting with the audience or not. And it’s not always the best songs because it’s very subjective what a good song is, but it is the ones that connect, which I guess in a way is the definition of a good song.
TK: I was looking at the band’s setlists online and it looks like there’s a song from the deluxe version of Dreams On Toast, “My Only,” which is being played live. I’m curious as to why the decision to play that one. And also, was there a specific reason why it was left off of the standard tracklist of the album?
FP: Well, that’s our drummer Rufus’s moment to shine. He sings that. It’s a love song, but it’s actually a love song to his dog. So I guess in a way it follows on from Barry Manilow’s “Mandy,” where people think it’s just a standard love song and then they realize it’sa love song to his dog and it kind of melts your heart. It’s a rare moment of of vulnerability. No, actually, you know something, there’s a lot of vulnerability in Justin’s songwriting, his lyrics. It’s a myth that he hides behind irony because, I think people don’t listen to his lyrics enough.
TK: I completely agree, there is a lot of vulnerability in his songwriting, especially on on this album. Look at a song like “The Longest Kiss.” It’s kind of funny and like you said there’s some irony, there’s some tongue-in-cheekness to the lyrics, but I think it’s a very sweet and tender love song. It’s probably my favorite song on the album.
FP: Thank you. I appreciate that. I appreciate your sincere words. I think that song is a nice one. I mean, our more metal and hard rock fans probably were a little bit worried at first when they heard it because it was the first single released from the album. But I think, you know, these things stand the test of time. Musically, it’s definitely one of the most advanced things we’ve done. I wouldn’t say one of the most sophisticated things we’ve done because we don’t tend to go into sophistication. In fact, funny enough, we tend to be sophisticated more with our bonus tracks and our extra kind of b-side kind of type songs because then we have fun to kind of be more proggy and kind of sometimes be a bit jazzy or soulful. But thank you, I appreciate it. That one’s going down very very well live. The hard thing is to get that groove.
TK: You did just mention that the b-ides and the bonus tracks are kind of where the band experiments a bit more, but I would say that stylistically Dreams On Toast is one of the most diverse albums that the band has ever done. Was that a conscious effort when you all were writing the songs or was that just something that naturally happened as the songs came together?
FP: It certainly wasn’t conscious. Justin had a thing where he wanted to do some country. So “Cold Hearted Woman” and “Hot On My Tail” are the country songs. I mean, it’s probably not country as you know it because it’s like an English version of American country. So obviously it’s filtered through a kind of English thing. It’s not like he’s really trying desperately to sound like Townes Van Zandt, right? But he does like that kind of stuff. But he’s just always been himself, you know. No matter what we do, it’s always going to sound like Justin and have his idiosyncratic take on things, which I think is what makes us a proper band.
TK: I think that The Darkness is one of those bands where even though each record might sound a bit different or you might do different things on each album, you can always tell that it’s still The Darkness.
FP: It’s funny, we always do that classic band thing of thinking, “this next one is going to be our metal album” or “this is going to be our folk album. But that’s the thing, any band worth their salt they always sound like themselves. And that’s why we’ve lasted this long because there’s something in what we do that nobody else quite does. There’s a kind of sense of drama, of heightened drama. I think it’s why we’re big in Italy, because it’s theatrical and dramatic and operatic sometimes. That’s why we did “Weekend In Rome,” because we wanted to capture something Italian, see what would happen if we tried to liken our songs to Italian cinema. But again, it still sounds like us.
TK: You made mention earlier of the band kind of imploding around 2005, 2006. At the end of this month, the 20th anniversary version of One Way Ticket To Hell… And Back is being released. How has it been to revisit that era of the band? And also, are there any plans for some kind of twentieth anniversary tour for it like the band did with Permission To Land?
FP: I don’t think he’ll we’ll be touring the album per se, but we often try to dip into it and bring something out. It’s been a while and maybe the last few years we’ve deliberately kept our powder dry. So there are lots of songs from the album that haven’t been played live for a long time, and some of them ever. I think we’re going to announce something for next year quite soon in the UK, which is probably the biggest thing we’ve done for a long time and we’ll probably do a couple of the songs in maybe in a segue kind of thing. “English Country Garden” I think really stands up, it’s got a killer chorus but then it doesn’t quite go anywhere towards the end. It’s been interesting listening back to that album. We are very self-critical but the songs have all got something to them. They’re a testament of time and there’s a kind of melancholic feel to that album. It’s like a comedown album in some ways, which isn’t surprising considering the amount of partying we were doing in those days.
TK: Just to close things out, to get personal for a second. I remember being thirteen and at the time starting to watch VH1 and MTV, and I can honestly remember the very first time seeing the music video for “I Believe In A Thing Called Love.” I hadn’t yet found Bowie or T-Rex or New York Dolls or any of that. And watching that video, going to the record store the day the album came out, and buying Permission To Land on CD really opened my eyes to a lot of glam and other stuff like Thin Lizzy. So I just wanted to personally thank you for helping to open my eyes to a deeper world of music that was out there.
FP: Wow. Thank you, man. That means so much. That really means so much. I appreciate that a lot. That’s what it’s all about, isn’t it? And teenagers are so receptive and they just respond to something instinctively. It’s just amazing. Yeah. Thank you so much.
The Darkness will be performing at The Fillmore in San Francisco in support of Dreams On Toast on November 13th. Tickets can be purchased here
