More about: DITZ

DITZ have carved a path for themselves through the alternative scene with their riveting, highly literary lyrics and richly industrial post-punk soundscapes. 

A string of high-profile supports with IDLES and Slaves and a reputation for an uncompromisingly gritty live show has landed them critical respect and fan adoration. In a scene where the post-punk genre is saturated with lacklustre lyrical clichés on society and unimaginative sonics, DITZ stand apart as a band who care about quality and nuanced expression. That said, their respect for bands across the wider alternative scene demonstrates—refreshingly—a band without sharp elbows, genuinely passionate about new music. 

Their debut album The Great Regression drops this Friday (4 March) on Alcopop! Records and will be accompanied by a full UK tour in March. It is an album of eloquent, bold and artful punk that strays beyond the realms of guitar music, the kind designed both for close listening and amongst a crowd of thrashing fans. 

We spoke to singer Cal about ambition, the minutiae of recording, being brutal with work that doesn’t cut it and unusual influences:

Gigwise: Was there a sonic theme in mind behind the record, or was it about trying to capture your live show? 

Cal Francis: One of our main aims was to avoid everything sounding too washed out. I think the problem with recording noisier music is that it's really easy to end up with too much room and reverb. There are barely any vocal effects on most of the record. Dry as an audiobook was the mixing note there. We did all the drums live with the band playing along and then built everything up from there. 

GW: Your music features brilliant lyrics that feel very central to DITZ’s identity. What’s your writing process like? Are you going for classic song structures or is it more about creating a soundscape for the lyrics to flourish on?

CF: Usually the instruments come first and lyrics are written to fit on top. Sometimes the music is written and lyrics have already been written that happen to fit: that happened with 'Instinct'. Sometimes the music is written to fit the lyrics: that happened with 'I Am Kate Moss'. The oldest song on the album is 'hehe' which had its genesis in 2016 and the newer songs were finished in late 2020, so the process has evolved a lot over the years. It might be a bit more defined by the time we do an album two...or maybe not. We might take another six years to put it together.

GW: You work with Jay Bartlett on videos and there’s a real cohesiveness across them—what were the ideas circulating around those videos? They’re quite dark, but there’s kind of absurdity there too that sometimes borders on humorous. 

CF: When working with Jay we think it's best not to give him too much. He’s got a strong imagination himself and it's fun to just run with him where he’s going. He’ll send so many different concepts at you that you’re spoiled for choice. We always have to tone down the humour a bit. It’s quite easy to go full slapstick but it wouldn’t fit the music and the lyrics.

Bands like Pissed Jeans have really funny goofy videos but the songs fit them perfectly. I’m naturally a bit drier in my lyrics and the videos have to match that. I can’t tell a joke to save my life.

GW: Do you feel most at home live, generating something chaotic? Or is DITZ happiest in the studio?

CF: We’ve got a lot more experience live than we do in the studio, that's for sure. After everything opened up at the end of summer 2021 we managed to get just over 30 shows in. I think if we had more time in the studio we’d enjoy it more. Three fifths of us studied recording at uni so we’re not exactly strangers to the studio, it’s just that we’re very tight with our material. We bin stuff that we’re not happy with constantly so we’re always short of stuff to record. I wouldn’t say we’re less happy, I'd just say we take the studio a bit more seriously.

GW: You’re characterised as a post-punk band. Does that feel representative, and how do you feel about the scene as it stands now? 

CF: I don’t know if we really fit with most of them as much as people might say, but I think that could be true for lots of the bands. There are a lot of these bands that sound exactly like Talking Heads, Gang of Four, The Fall, Wire etc, but there are also a lot of bands that are doing their own thing. I don’t think anybody could say that bands like LICE, Enola Gay or Witch Fever sound anything like the aforementioned.

Even those new bands that do have a more classic post-punk sound are usually trying something different with the lyrics or aesthetic to set themselves apart. I’ve seen people compare it to landfill indie but I think that’s unfair. Landfill indie was boring because the bands were boring. I’d rather 100 bands ripping off The Fall than 100 bands ripping off Oasis. 

GW: Are there any influences behind the album that your fans wouldn’t expect? 

CF: Scott Walker is a big one, particularly albums like The Drift. Maybe it’s obvious but old-school metalcore like Converge. Johnny Cash too, particularly the Rick Rubin recorded albums with the really stripped back productions. That's a really good example of the vocal production I was talking about earlier. 

GW: What’s on the DITZ bucket list?

CF: I think our bucket list reads like a list of countries we want to play in. We’ve been up and down the country so many times on tour that we’ve got favourite pubs and places to eat all over. We wanna explore more: the U.S., South America and Japan would be the big three for me personally.

The Great Regression arrives 4 March via Alcopop! Records.

Issue Four of the Gigwise Print magazine is on pre-order now! Order here.

More about: DITZ