Don't wait on the weekend '“ dive in to Dutch Criminal Record's world now

The title track for Dutch Criminal Record's new EP is a classic rallying call to the joys of the weekend.
Dutch Criminal Record launch their EP Waiting on The Weekend at The Wedgewood Rooms, Southsea, on September 5, 2018. Picture by Adam ProsserDutch Criminal Record launch their EP Waiting on The Weekend at The Wedgewood Rooms, Southsea, on September 5, 2018. Picture by Adam Prosser
Dutch Criminal Record launch their EP Waiting on The Weekend at The Wedgewood Rooms, Southsea, on September 5, 2018. Picture by Adam Prosser

The indie-pop quartet is marking the release of Waiting On The Weekend with a launch party at The Wedgewood Rooms. And it's a venue the Chichester act has fond memories of '“ they won the Wedge's Unsigned Showcase competition back in 2015.

'˜It was great,' recalls guitarist and vocalist Joe Delaney-Stone. '˜It was the second time we had done the Showcase. We made it to the final the first year but obviously didn't win.

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'˜It meant so much to go all the way. I think the first time we had been together and properly gigging a year, maybe a little more, so we were a little wet behind the ears and absolutely terrified to playing at The Wedgewood Rooms.'

Shortly after Joe and fellow guitarist/vocalist Samuel Thrussell went off to university, so band activity slowed for a while, but now they've graduated (Joe got a 2:1 in music from Goldsmiths, University of London) they're fully committed to all things DCR.  The group came together in a GCSE music class, and although they still live in Chichester, they've come to look increasingly westwards.

'˜We do consider more and more that our base is Portsmouth '“ it's where we gig most and it's where we're getting a bit of a fanbase and a bit of a pull. We still have our friends in Chichester and if we put a gig on there we'll always sell it out. But we've got some good friendships and contacts with promoters and other bands in Portsmouth, so we do consider it as much our home there now too, just because it's our closest hub.'

With plaudits from Tom Robinson on 6Music and BBC Introducing, as well as previous single On The Fence making its way on to Spotify's influential Fresh Finds playlist, things have been going well.

But Waiting is actually one of the group's older songs.

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'˜It's the oldest track on the record. It actually was written before I went to university, but never got put down on record for one reason or another.

'˜When it came around to wanting to do an EP this year, we thought, why don't we relearn out parts and polish that off? We had put it down and I'm kind of glad it had that three years because everyone got back into it. '˜It's written about when I was working in a supermarket and I was doing stuff with the band in the week and then working there on the weekend, so every time my friends would be saying: 'Do you want to go out?' I'd be like: 'Yeah, sure, I'll just have to get up at 7 in the morning'. So it would inevitably lead to a very tired walk home at 5.30 to get up in an hour's time. I think a lot of people have been there!'

'˜Sometimes it was quite fun, sometimes it wasn't great, like when you're hungover in the frozen section,' he laughs.

Another track on the EP is called Britpop, but do the young band even remember the '90s?

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'˜Yes, we were very young when Britpop was at its peak. Obviously we know what it was, but we didn't really live through it. It's come to represent a very specific kind of nostalgia '“  the kind you can barely remember, but the songs were on the radio when you were in the car driving somewhere with your parents.

'˜When we wrote it, it was like this Oasis-y acoustic song, so we thought that would just be a temporary name for it, and the more we called it Britpop, the more it felt natural for a metaphor of what the song is talking about, a yearning for an easier time, so it stuck.'

For the EP's visual side they worked closely with Portsmouth-based photogrpaher and filmmaker, Adam Prosser.

'˜Adam has been excellent,' says Joe. '˜He's made this EP come to life in a visual sense.'

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Adam had first seen the pool, which is at drummer Joe Frampton's home, that features in the artwork and tittle track's video when doing a photoshoot with the band earlier in the year. He was keen to use the pool in something with the lads, and the drummer said the pool was usually empty in spring.

'˜It was one of those things someone suggests and then you forget about it, but then May comes around and Frampton suddenly messages the group saying: 'Oh by the way the pool is empty on Sunday', so we got everything together and did the photoshoot.'

Adam also shot the video for Waiting.

'˜Riordan [Hanan] our bassist, he works for a recruitment company in Chichester, so we borrowed their office after hours, and the pub is the Richmond Arms, which has a downstairs function room, and we used the pool for the party bit and to push our friend Ben, the actor in it, into.'

The Wedgewood Rooms, Southsea

Wednesday, September 5 

 

 

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