What is your name and role within the band?
I am Jim, and I play bass in DPU.
How did you start?
Matt started the band in Leeds, UK in 2008 as a kind of solo project, playing with friends in a revolving door sort of fashion. He saw Mikey drumming at a show in Norwich, Mikey’s home town, and instantly wanted him in the band, I guess that would have been in 2010/11? Mikey dropped everything, stuck his mattress in a van with a bag of clothes and moved to Leeds.
I was playing in various other bands, and we toured the UK together in Dinosaur’s early days. Matt and I have been good friends ever since, and I’ve always been a massive fan of DPU and what they were doing. I joined in 2014, when my old band quit.
The rest, as they say, is history.
Where are you based?
We’ve since all moved to London, although we are never really there.
Please give an example of your music writing process?
So, most of the time, Matt will write pretty much alone… he’ll bring a song that’s 90% done to a rehearsal, and we’ll pad it out together. Other times, it won’t be more than a riff, or a basic idea, and there’s more of a group effort to get it finished. Matt wrote, recorded and co produced the first two records on his own, so he know’s what he’s doing! The third record, Eleven Eleven, we recorded together in Wales, Mikey and I were present through the whole process. It’s a good way to work, there’s a solid direction, and everyone gets an input.
What are you working on right now?
We’re always working on new stuff. Matt’s ALWAYS writing. I’m in the RV right now sat across from him. He’s writing as we storm down the I-70 to St. Louis. His laptop is vibrating on the table, i dunno how he’s doing it.
We’re constantly on the road these days, so soundchecks are the only real time we get to soundboard new ideas, but it’s a productive process. I imagine we’ll be playing new material on our July tour with Chevelle.
What is your gear setup?
Mine’s pretty simple. I play a Fender Jazz through an Ampeg SVT Classic, with a Big Muff fuzz pedal. That’s it.
Mikey plays a Tama Star Classic 4 pcs kit with vater drum sticks and a shit load of power. Seriously the hardest hitter I’ve ever seen.
Matt’s set up is a little more complex. We’re not fans of playing to backing track, it’s lame and lazy, so he splits his signal to a second amp for riffs and choruses. We’re a three piece, so doing this helps fill those gaps that are on the record, and adds more weight when we have to step up a gear.
He plays a Gibson Explorer through two Marshall stacks. Pedals wise, it’s a Big Muff fuzz, and a custom distortion given to him by Jesse of Brand New. It’s KILLER, but no one knows what it really is. An AB-Y pedal provides the split. He also uses a TC Chorus pedal on that second amp, which really makes it soar.
What do you like to do outside of music and does it affect your music?
Honestly, we don’t get much time to do anything else! Eleven Eleven was written on the road pretty much, and it does sum up where we were at the time.
How would you describe your music genre?
Pop-Melody-Influenced-Heavy-Alt-Rock. Catchy huh.
Do you know any music theory?
Nah. I learned to play piano when I was young but that info has long since fallen out my head. We’re all self taught in our current disciplines.
What are your plans for the future?
We just want to do this forever. Keep touring as much as we can. We’re in a good place at the moment.
How did you get into music?
An old friend taught me to play Redemption Song on a camping trip when I was about 12? I then asked for a guitar for my birthday, and sat around learning Deftones and RATM songs in my room. My first band did RATM cover medleys and shit. Then, when I was 19, I was down in London at art school, and this dude from back home called me up and was ‘my bass player quit wanna fill in?’. That was the first time I ever played bass.
What are you listening to at the moment?
Anything. Mikey’s the best DJ the world has ever seen, his repertoire is more diverse than Spotify. I swear. The other night we were giving country music a try, not sure how I feel about it! Right now Lil’ Dicky is on. In a minute it’ll probably be Norma Jean. Variety is the spice of life. And a good song is a good song, regardless of genre.
Who are your top 5 influences and icons?
We all were kind of bought up on the same stuff really. None of us knew each other as kids, but our first CD’s were all similar. Weezer, Nirvana, Pumpkins, Deftones, Rage Against The Machine. Stuff like that.
I guess as a three, those bands are our major influences. They’re the reason we all got into music.
When are you playing next?
We’re on our way to St. Louis to play at Delmar Hall. Tomorrow is Rocklahoma, then we’re going home for a few days. Next up, we’re out with Coheed and Cambria thru Europe and UK before coming back state side in July for another Chevelle run. Boom.
Please feel free to include any extra info.
Instagram and Facebook are our favourite platforms, and we’re always keen to engage with people on them. We’re also on Twitter, so all of them really. We run everything ourselves and are stoked when people want to get in touch.
