We are all recycled: Music Monday

Neon Dawn

Neon Dawn
From Left to right - Tom Calvert, Zoot Marley Hill Valler, Djamel Meddah, Ricky Barton.

After years of searching for the right formula of members, unable to find the sound they had been desperately looking for, Rick and Jim decided to give their young relative, Tom a chance in the band. And boy did he not disappoint!! He brought a level of quality they never dreamed he could have. But, something was still not quite right, and, after a clash of personalities with a former drummer, they were forced to find a new drummer, Introducing, the final piece to the puzzle.... Mr. Zoot Marley Hill Valler (yes that's his real name folks) who was just a perfect fit for the band in every way.

In the last 6 months alone, the band have gone from strength to strength and have produced a debut EP that any band would be proud of and plan to take 2014 by the scruff of the neck and shake it for all its worth!!

Look out for them in your town this year!!!

Last week I headed to Absolute Music rehearsal studios to meet up with the band and had the pleasure of sitting down and interviewing Ricky Barton, Djamel Meddah, Tom Calvert and Zoot Marley Hill Valler. If this is the first time you’ve heard of them, I’m sure it won’t be the last!

Introducing, Neon Dawn.

Ten questions with Neon Dawn

1 – There’s so much energy in your band from your individual personalities, how do you contain it? Or did you just let it flow?

R.B: I think it has to flow to be honest, I think it’s uncontrollable. It’s just something that happens when we’re together.

D.M: Between us all, we’ve worked with other people and it just doesn’t happen like that. It definitely works with this setup. I don’t know there’s just something there, something magical I think.

R.B: It is a certain magic, definitely.

Z.H: There’s always a certain energy that you can only release onstage, like if you had that much energy all the time, you’d just go f*****g mental.

D.M: That’s the same at practice too, we can’t just turn it on and off.

2 – You started out doing covers and have now moved into your own material, was this a scary thought given how well your gigs of covers were received?

R.B: It was for me because I was writing the music (laughs). In a way, yes, because you’re bearing your soul, not just hiding behind somebody else’s craft and putting yourself forward for ridicule, that’s the scary part of it and they might not like it. So in a way, that’s the scary part for me, yes.

Z.H: It was quite a simple thing to get into as well wasn’t it, it was like really easy.

D.M: It started out with a couple of songs and then all of a sudden we’re an originals band. Although we wanted to do it, I don’t think it was setup like that when Ricky showed us the first song. It wasn’t like we said ‘right, let’s go for it and become an originals band, let’s stop the whole covers thing.’ But that is what seems to have happened, we’ve totally stopped being a covers band, just from jamming and….

R.B: By accident (all laugh)

Z.H: Like ‘oh c**p, we’ve got enough songs’

T.C: We’re more creative as well, like we’ve learned new tricks and bits on our guitars.

R.B: I will say, I believe personally that we did a lot of covers by one band in particular and I do believe that it helped culture our particular style and I believe it made it a lot easier for us to write songs together, all playing the same style of covers.

D.M: It completely taught us how to work song structures within the style of music we play as a band, and from doing a year of covers to doing our own original stuff, it was priceless really, practising together and working on song structures.

Z.H: Just keeping it regular, just keeping the flow going every week.

3 – Is there any particular song of yours where everything just seemed to click and you thought, this is it?

R.B: We’re probably all going to be different on this one I’d imagine. I’d say ‘Home grown’ for me, that’s the moment I thought hang on, we might have something here, this is something we should look into. That was it for me and that’s a song that just kind of fell out really. It was something I’d written a long time ago, we got together and tried it a few times and it just never seemed to work. Then there was this one evening when Zoot said “What happened to that song?” you know and I said “let’s have a go” and it just worked.

D.M: Ricky emailed me that song about two and a half years ago, before this current line up, and I was a bit drunk at a party one night so I put it on the stereo, then a few people said “what’s this?” and for me it was like, there’s definitely something in his song writing and we need to work at this. It was still quite a long time before we got around to actually playing it as we do now.

R.B: Well, that’s what I mean, in answer to the question, that’s the moment where I thought, there’s something special there.

T.C: I think what did it for me was ‘World on fire’ because we literally just setup our equipment and jammed, creating that.

R.B: We wrote that in what, twenty minutes? (All agree)

T.C: And it was a completely different sound.

D.M: And that was literally all of us writing it from start to finish.

Z.H: There are two for me, which are ‘Alamo’ and ‘World on fire’. ‘World on fire’ for that base groove and the drum riff that just kicks in.

D.M: I just go along with your drums mate, you made the groove. (Laughs)

Z.H: Vice versa mate. The other one is ‘Alamo’. I think we jammed that track twice before we just proper opened up and went for it.

R.B: I did say that we’d all answer differently to that one. (Laughs)

4 – The lyrics are very visual and cinematic, was this done on purpose to create a mood, or just how the natural way in which the songs developed during the creative process?

D.M: I’m gonna answer this one first. Never get into an argument with Ricky, he paints a great picture (laughs), the man is a genius. You’re not winning that argument.

R.B: It’s just my style I think. I’ve developed a recipe if you like and it’s just how they form I guess. I start with music normally and then the music will give me a certain vibe, certain emotion, and then that will help me form a vocal melody. Then the vocal melody really determines the lyrics, the amount of syllables etc.. It’s just my natural process

5 – Watching you guys play live, there seems to be a great understanding between all of you, was this there from the start or something you needed to work at achieving?

Z.H: I think that once you remember people are actually watching, you tend to play better. Once you kind of get over the nerves at the start. Especially with some of the Mr.Kyps gigs, where you don’t expect many people to show up and then you walk out and there are like 250 people sat there waiting to hear you, and it’s like ‘oh, hi there.’ (Laughs)

R.B: Drinking at the bar saying ‘do something good then’ (all laugh)

T.C: I don’t think we’ve played a bad gig have we?

R.B: Yeah, we have (all laugh)

D.M: I’m going. (Laughs), in fairness though that was down to nerves and not alcohol.

T.C: I mean, we’ve played in very limiting conditions, like small pubs with really tiny spaces where we couldn’t move much, but still performed.

R.B: Lots of experiences have helped I think, but in my opinion it’s because we rehearse every week.

T.C: We’re a hardworking band.

R.B: We do it almost regimentally. We put a lot of hours into this, I mean there’s not many weeks we don’t rehearse. Someone has to be either dying (all laugh), or like a serious distraction to stop us from rehearsing, and I personally think that’s a large factor.

T.C: A lot of commitment.

R.B: Yeah, it’s a lot of hours isn’t it?

D.M: I think nearly once a week for the last four years, Ricky and I have been here, apart from about 15 times, but since we’ve been together like this, it’s the only time it’s worked. This is the setup, it really works and you feel like you’re starting to get somewhere.

6 – How did you find the process of recording your EP, was it all new to you, or something you’ve had experience of before?

R.B: We’ve had experience before but not to that level. In short, we’ve had a small amount of experience but this was the first time it was a fully professional process, and it was all a bit rushed (laughs), it was all a bit of a panic and it was all a bit stressful, a lot of it to be honest.

Z.H: There was a lot of talk back button humour (laughs) and tears………of joy.

R.B: Yeah, it was definitely harder than I expected it to be.

7 – You seem to be growing a strong fan base now, do you find social media helps you to keep in touch with lots of people and is this something you will always consider important?

R.B: Absolutely

D.M: Tom’s the sex appeal in the band, he’s the one that sorts that (laughs)

R.B: I think it’s massive. It’s the main part of the interaction these days. That’s the only way to communicate with fans directly, to engage with them, and I think it’s hugely important. Particularly with the music industry being incredibly difficult to break into, the only way is to engage people that like your music and the only way you can do that is with social media. (All agree)

R.B: I’m far too sensible for this band (laughs)

8 – If you could perform with any other act, living or dead, who would it be and why?

R.B: Kings of Leon

D.M: Nirvana

Z.H: Tom, you might as well go first mate, I’m gonna be ages.

T.C: AC/DC

R.B: What, it wouldn’t be Green Day?

T.C: Yeah, and Green Day

R.B: You can’t have two, he said one (laughs)

T.C: Ahh ok, Green Day

Z.H: Them Crooked Vultures, just because I would happily pick Queens of the Stone Age, Foo Fighters or Led Zeppelin, but they’re all in the same band, Them Crooked Vultures!

R.B: Good shout, good thought process

Z.H: Those three bands were popping into my head and I was like ‘they made a band, this is perfect’ (laughs)

9 – What would be a necessity for you on your dream tour bus?

R.B: My family

D.M: Roadies

Z.H: You do know roadies are the people that look after your gear? Not groupies?

D.M: I meant groupies (all laugh)

Z.H: Man if I see you backstage with some roadie.

D.M: I just can’t be arsed to setup my gear (laughs)

Z.H: For me, just an acoustic I guess.

T.C: Chocolate, ice cream, pork pies.

R.B: It’s one thing man!

T.C: McDonalds?

R.B: He didn’t say give him a shopping list! (All laugh)

10 – So you’ve released your debut EP now, what are your next plans for the band?

T.C: To take over the world.

R.B: We’ve got a 5 week national radio campaign starting in a few weeks time and we are looking to gig more in London and try to develop a following in the capitol, and obviously it’s then much easier to get spotted up there.

D.M: We kick off on the 28^th of this month supporting Alt-J at Scala in London, we’ve got a Primal Scream support gig coming up and in May we’ve just been confirmed to support Bloc Party for a one off gig in London.

R.B: We’ve got the Bournemouth Sevens as well. Our plans are to get noticed and to get on the radio, you know? Get famous (laughs)

D.M: The 5 week campaign is with Matrix Promotions, one of the top radio pluggers in the country, and also 2 of our songs have just been accepted for the BBC intro, we’re just waiting on the dates of when they’re going to play them.

R.B: So yeah, that’s a start and we’ll just keep working at it.

Having seen Neon Dawn start out with a series of powerful cover versions, it was interesting to see where they would head next and I can say that their own songs blow the covers out of the water and leave you wanting to hear more! The combination of their talents produce a raw power which for me is reminiscent of bands like The Vines or Idlewild at their best, with a touch of Kings of Leon. It was great catching up with them and I cannot wait to watch the rise of these guys towards being the Kings of indie rock!