SF: Can we expect the Italian and French tunes to be unveiled live in the UK or are they for European audiences only?
SF: How does the songwriting process work in a band containing eight members? An article on the DC website mentions that almost every member is currently writing songs for the next album. That sounds like mayhem.
MM: With such a large group you’re bound to have a wide range of influences and ideas being thrown into the cauldron which does help people realise why our music can be quite diverse and eclectic. I would much rather have too many songs than too few but the trick is to try and mould them all into one cohesive sound which knits together so it doesn’t sound like several different groups.
Scott, our keyboard player, is another fantastic songwriter and he and I have probably written the majority of the band’s tunes so far. An honest appraisal of the situation is that it’s a blessing that we’ve got so many talented people in the group and everyone brings different strengths to the table which I find inspiring.
SF: There's obviously a large 60's influence in DC's music, ranging from funk and soul to far flung psychedelics from every corner of the Earth. What was it about that generation that really struck a chord with you?
MM: Our music is influenced by an enormous wealth of wonderful music that dates back 300 or more years and not just the 1960s but I guess why that era in particular holds so much charm and appeal to us is because both melodically and artistically the bar was set ludicrously high.
If you listen to records made in the 1960s, and it doesn’t matter what genre either, the playing is usually amazing and there is a quality and an honesty in the performance which is sadly less prevalent today. Even the faceless and often unknown session men and women of those days were totally on it and producing magnificent performances.
It didn’t have to be incredibly complex stuff – some of the best music ever made was the simplest and made by the least talented musicians but they all had this vision and love of music which meant they could punch way above their weight and create nuggets, real sonic gems. I think songwriters back then could compose without any hang ups and they expressed themselves with an exciting, new-found freedom which meant there was an enormous amount of great music being created in a rapidly increasing number of new genres.
They were sonic pioneers and this is the thing I have total empathy and appreciation for as a musician and songwriter myself.
For example on the title track of Six Against Eight the strings were strongly influenced by Lou Reed’s ‘Street Hassle’ from 1978 (which you can check out in all it's glory here...), while on ‘Switchblade Love’ we asked our orchestrator Christian Badzura to immerse himself in not just late 60s Scott Walker but also the mid 70s stuff by the Walker Brothers too.
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You can definitely hear some influences of Julie Driscoll throughout our music and our singer Karla is a devoted disciple of her so you can imagine how chuffed we were to find out she (Julie) loves our music and even wrote the sleeve notes for ‘La Contessa.’ To me this is already tangible success for the group!
The past may sometimes inform our present but I have zero interest in re-enacting it or reviving anything. The older I become the more relaxed I am with my own era which is of course NOW and I prefer to add a new link to an old chain and there is a hell of a lot more to the sound and direction of DC Fontana than the swinging sixties. I really can’t see the point in us becoming merely a tatty photocopy of a link in the chain.
. . . Swing by tomorrow for the third and final part of the interview where Monsieur Mortimer talks 'Meshkalina', Art and Soul and what the future holds for DC Fontana . . .
Until then,
Keep on Keepin' on,
Baia
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