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The first rule of fight-pop is...Dananananaykroyd. The band with the football chant name, that’ll have stutterers and stammerers singing in the streets, dyslexics scratching their heads in consternation and sub editors crying into their pints. Five guys, one gal, think …Trail of Dead, At the Drive-In and Jetplane Landing stuck in a Rubik’s cube with Vishnu for a playmate. Spawned from the same Glasgow scene that gave us the similarly energetic ShitDisco, Dananananaykroyd have already released two singles through Moshi Moshi and Jealous showcasing their fondness for a wall of sound, jagged melodies, itchy rhythms and a bouncing sense of fun - it'll leave you grinning from ear to ear.
We suppose things are allowed to get a little warped when an 80’s film icon, copious amounts of alcohol and a fondness for computer games are involved. Dispersed at various locations, two thirds of the band - David, Calum, James and John - get back to me with some "unfuny, lazy answers" lovingly put together by David in the early hours. James is in his front room observing chips on the carpet, John's in his lounge with his midi controllers and vinyl, David's in bed watching cats and Calum...well he can "see clearly now the rain has gone." It's clear Danana... are a band with a sense of humour. Visitors to Dananananaykroyd.co.uk can see every spelling faux pas the band could find - something I wish I'd known...
During our futile efforts trying to find the band's Myspace, we stumbled across many of these variations - everything from three to a million 'na’s' - uncovered a worrying amount of acts called Dana and noted Google was noticeably short of ideas. When the going gets tough eh? Thankfully, The Horrors, Colin Murray and the BBC, also came a cropper when it came to spelling the Scottish sextets name correctly - it’s all about a cunningly placed 'y' ya see, post the 'na's' and pre the 'kroyd'. So, before they release an album, let’s get it straight and/or Dananananaykroyd standardized and in the dictionary. Maybe something like:
Dananananaykroyd [Dana-nana-naykroyd] -(See Fight-Pop)
Having established the pitfalls of their moniker we're soon discussing strange comfort zones and even stranger dreams.
"The weirdest dream I can remember was being on a giant gothic steam train and the playwrite and actor Stephen Berkoff was the conductor. I didn’t have a ticket so he activated an ejector seat beneath me and I shot out of the roof, at which point I realized I was dreaming and was able to fly around. My favourite ever dream involved Eliza Dushku and a Sauna," explains James, "When I was little I used to have these dreams that I was looking over a pixelated ochre maze and it was slowly spinning and getting closer and further away. I'd wake up on my knees hitting my face off my pillow... apparently it was a form of sleep paralysis," adds John.
With militant transport officials and sleep paralysis invading their unconscious thoughts, it's probably no surprise they find solace and comfort in rather unconventional methods. "I feel comfortable when the person on the other end of the phone from the Samaritans is telling me everything will be alright," explains James, "I'm comfortable under general anaesthetic" adds John. David's response is simply "Thorntons".
In the spirit of the New Year, it seems Danana...had some typically good intentions but, living up the hard drinking Scottish stereotype, alcohol and erm, steak dinners turn out to be their achilles heel with alcohol a recurring theme. David, however, came up with a simple solution to avoid later defeat:
"I don't make resolutions cos there's never really anything I can think of that I could be bothered failing miserably to give up," he explains,
"My resolution is to stop drinking so much. I’ve broken it a fair few times already," admits James,
"Mine was to not get drunk as much," says John
"See?" protests David.
"Mines probably to see my family more? Is that gushy? How about eat more steak suppers?" adds Calum.
Most of the band have been together for just over a year but the current line up is only a month old. Having friends in familiar places and the vibrant Glasgow music scene saw John join the fold after a couple of shouty cameos and the band 'borrowing' his amp and guitars. "We’ve been together now just over a year, though our current line up has been together about a month. We all knew each other from before the band and just sort of fell together."
John continues: "I’ve known Calum for ages through us both being 'laptop cunts'. I’ve known James and David for a while too, I clapped and yelled on Dananana-demos and then they stole my guitar and amp to record with! I've been in the band for a month." Calum adds: "The way the 'scene' works here is that you start a band, and make friends with other bands and when every single band in Glasgow melted, we rose from their melty glops."
After a couple of UK dates last year, Danana...are expected to make their mark on 2007. Part of a swathe of promising new bands north of the border, they've already started marking their territory in more ways than one. "My favourite gig we played was in Liverpool, it was a total fun-time..." says James, "Yeah, Liverpool. Hot Club De Paris screaming down the front and me puking my guts up all the way back home. It was proper good," David continues. "...but my favourite gig I went to see was Fiona Apple in London. It cost a bomb and I ended up steaming drunk and throwing up in the toilets in Planet Hollywood, and the Megabus broke down on the way home," James adds.
Hungover, stuck on the M6 and contemplating whether you'd been ripped off would piss most people off, and like them, James reserves a little more venom for one thing that irked him recently: "I used to fucking love …Trail of Dead, but their last two albums have been insufferably bad and I take it as a personal insult that they don’t rock any more." "I hate the news, all of it," says John. "...restringing my banjo. It was possibly the most infuriating thing imaginable," adds David.
As with most unsigned bands, Danana...have to juggle the day job with music ambition: "I hate waking up every day at quarter to seven for work," says Calum. It's an outlook that many unsigned acts have to contend with and more often than not, their current situation reflects on their aspirations and Danana...'s are very much on the organic side, and something a few more gigs and a trip to H & M could fix.
"I'd like to sit in a van for ages and ages and take the rockingham to anywhere we can. Maybe release some more things. I might get a haircut too," says Calum
"To play lots of rock shows and have fun and to quit smoking," says James
"To put our album out on a top indie record label who love us and be able to buy some clothes and shoes without holes." concludes David.
Witht the band after a couple of simple pleasures, the doctrine reamins self explanatory: more gigs equals more fun. As 2007 progresses Dananananaykroyd should be a name on everyone's lips. Whether they'll be able to spell it is an entirely different matter.
