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Danko Jones: 100% real

Though the Lowlands lineup is going downhill like crazy, there are still some shows worth checking out at what once was a great festival for discovering new bands. Danko Jones, the rock 'n' roll power trio from Canada, was one of the most talked-about acts of this year's Lowlands. If you've seen these guys live, you'll understand why. I talked to Danko Jones and bass player John just before their fourth Dutch show on their European tour. Danko, who is quite a character onstage, turns out to be a very serious and normal guy in conversation. The first three Dutch shows went very well: full venues and audiences that knew what they came for.

Tekst: Ruud van Esch

Beeld: Tim Habraken

Publicatiedatum: 06 november 2002

How big Is Danko Jones in Canada?
DJ: "We've been around for six years, and in Canada we do pretty good. We just finished a really successful four-week tour with Andrew W.K. Then we had a day off and went directly to Holland. It can be a hard way of living sometimes."
JC: "The crowds in Holland, though, have been good — last couple of shows were really amazing. We see more people coming out to see us. Also because of our label and distributor, Suburban, do a great job. It's really good when everybody works together. We have to be on the road and let people know about our new record. That's what happening now."

People in Holland have only just got to know you. Most of them via the Lowlands festival and the registrations made from that. What have you been doing the last six years?
DJ: "We've put out EPs and singles in Canada. We've toured Canada and the States. In 2000, Bad Taste in Sweden made us an offer, which we took. That resulted in the release of I'm Alive And On Fire, which is a compilation of everything that we did before Born A Lion."

How's the new record, Born A Lion, doing?
DJ: "Good, we've sold about 10,000 copies over here in the first four weeks. We just got to keep playing, so more people know about us. It's kind of this weird thing where you have to see the band to really get the band. It's hard to get people out. But once they are here, then it's fine. We do a show and everybody understands where the band is about. If you haven't seen us, it's hard to understand."

With that in mind, don't you think the sound on Born A Lion should have been more raw, trying to capture the feeling of a live show?
DJ: "I think Born A Lion captured exactly what we wanted to do, which was make a raw album sound slick, which is what this band's about anyway. We're a raw, three-piece band, and there is no way of getting around the fact that there's just bass, guitars, drums, and vocals. We don't hide behind chunky guitars, and don't want to sound like a garage band."

Any plans for recording a live album?
DJ: "No. Like you said, it is hard to capture the atmosphere on a record. Our live reputation kind of precedes us. Why not keep that reputation up by not putting out a live album? I don't think live albums sound really good anyway. Live albums are like watching video footage of a party you weren't at. Boring as hell."

What do you think is the most important medium for you guys? Are CDs still necessary, now that the Internet is providing everybody with free music?
DJ: "I think the Internet is important, because it gets our album out to a lot of people. If you're downloading our music somewhere in Hellholland, you wouldn't have found out about us if we didn't put out a CD in the first place. I don't care how many songs you download. You still don't know what the band's about if you've never seen us. So both CDs and the Internet are good."

In that perspective, do you think the position of bands has changed?
Bands that just live in the studio are almost extinct, because they make money from putting out stuff. If all that music is available for free, they don't have any source of income and will have to find another job. As for us, we live live. It only brings up the stakes of live music."

So you see yourself touring for the next ten years?
DJ: (laughs) "Yeah, why not? We see the results of all the hard work we've put into touring right now. That only makes us work harder. We see the light at the end of the tunnel."

What do you think of contemporary electronic music, like dance?
DJ: "We're into that type of music, as well, and not pure into rock 'n' roll. Pure anything is kind of ridiculous. It's not 'us against them' in terms of different styles of music. I think you can learn from all kinds of music. If you go down to the roots of rock and disco, there's similar influences. Just look at the influence Stevie Wonder had on disco and a band like the Chili Peppers. It's hard to be as standoff-ish as people were at one point, because everybody has mixed everything up at one point or another.
JC: "It's all in the attitude, I think. In what people do and how they do it. There's a lot of great electronic bands as well. The way they put out records is the way old punk bands used to do it. There's no photographs or anything, just music. It's almost faceless."

Don't you think house/dance music gets outdated way too fast?
DJ: "Well, I like to hear a lot of new music. But like John said, some of it is faceless, and because of that it is hard for me to track it down so I can buy it. And by the time I found it, it's not available, because newer stuff has come and there isn't any back catalogue. Whereas rock 'n' roll and hip-hop have faces and voices to people and are easier to get. That is the one thing that keeps those two musics alive. Audiences will remember people. Look at Led Zeppelin. They will keep selling records by the time all the members are dead. These days we've come to the point in music where there's such a huge back catalogue. It's not really necessary to follow trends and get into new music today. It's more important that people in bands buy older stuff so they know where they're coming from when they start making music. On the other hand there are a lot of good bands around today. Rocket From The Crypt, Neurosis, Down, Hatebreed, Queens Of The Stone Age, to name but a few.

What is it that makes you such a different character on stage?
DJ: "First of all, everything we do is one-hundred percent real. We don't want to fuck this band up by throwing television sets out of a hotel room for the sake of being rock 'n' roll. Keith Richards used to be rock 'n' roll, because he was the only person behaving the way he did. Nowadays, everybody does these things. A lot of bands are a bunch of rich kids who call their parents to bail them out whenever they get into trouble. We just can't afford to do that. My stage thing is also not an act. If you are in a situation where hundreds of people are watching you, you can either get nervous, or do what I do."

http://www.kindamuzik.net/interview/danko-jones/danko-jones-100-real/2019/
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