/>Words by Ash Kissane

When NZ’s Die! Die! Die! came on the scene in Dunedin with their debut, self-titled release in 2005, they quickly gained a legion of fans that would turn up for their fervent, raucous live shows and electric noise-punk sound, leaving sweaty, bloody messes in the most enjoyable possible way. This year, the band return with a fourth release, Harmony and an East Coast tour, which is set to “melt faces”. Recorded at Blackbox Studios (France), the LP continues their evolution of sound, with clever, melodic tracks still encompassing the raw anarchistic energy of their live show which, they say, was achieved through the help of producer Christ Townsend (Portishead, Violent Femmes, D12). 
Last year, the band completed a huge international tour, and after some less than harmonious turns of events – such as a quick hiatus and a label change – Die! Die! Die! will soon be bringing their Harmony tour to Brisbane. MM had a chat to Michael Prain (drums) ahead of their Brisbane show, about starting up in Dunedin, recording around the world, and encounters of the furry kind.

MM: How did Die! Die! Die! Come together?
DDD: Die!Die!Die! was formed by Andrew Wilson (guitar/vocals) and myself [Michael Prain, drums] after we first moved up from Dunedin to Auckland, it was a fresh and scary new chapter in our musical career. After making music that was heavily influenced by playing one chord as loud as possible, DDD’s first intention was to do the opposite of this.

MM: What was it like starting up in Dunedin?
DDD: Dunedin is surrounded by large hills with the city built around the upper harbour; you could say that it is like living in a cauldron where all this energy gets trapped and keeps folding in on itself. This is very good for creative stuff, especially weird freaky guitar rock ‘n’ roll music.

MM: What was it like working with Chris Townend to create Harmony?
DDD: Chris Townend has had a huge influence on how we have created Harmony, and in a lot of ways, how we view the process of making music. He embraced all the elements of what we wanted to do with Harmony, and that is to keep the entire intense guitar rampage, really push the tempos of some songs, and just to have fun with the playing when the red button is recording. We ended up being more free with song structures and just pretty much jammed more together in the studio rather than keeping in line with a certain way the song had been arranged prior to the recording.

MM: The process of producing each of your albums has always been very different, in all different locations, which has been your favourite to put together?
DDD: I would say Promises, Promises and Harmony come in as equal favourites. Both for the same reasons really: they were done in foreign locations that we had never been before, which in our case does make it easy to separate from the daily norms. I think it instantly creates a neutral place where you can live in your own bubble of music for a few days or a week or whatever and just make noise that you hope works out into something you can listen to and feel proud of… Animals. All these weird and funny creatures kept on appearing. In the tracking we had a bat that flew into the studio, which just blew our minds, I didn’t even know they had bats in France. For some of the overdubs we were doing in Auckland, a giant white bunny came bouncing down the stairs which is not common in the central city, and finally, while we were mixing the record in Tasmania, there was a possum who would come visit every night. Haven’t had any encounters with the animal kingdom since then.

MM: Who would you say are some of your influences?
DDD: Bailterspace, The Terminals, Snapper (pretty much lots and lots of early Flying Nun), also Fugazi, Boards Of Canada, Frank Ocean, The Pixies, Brian Eno, Fleetwood Mac, I could make this go on forever but it would get real boring.

MM: Do you have a favourite gig/tour experience so far?
DDD: DDD has toured so much as a band over the years, with some really great times and some particularly retarded times that are best forgotten about… Playing in Japan was a real highlight last year as the shows were really well attended and the audiences went nuts, which was a real surprise seeing we had never been there before. The last tour in NZ we just finished was also a real feel-good affair and just tonnes of fun, which is all you can hope for as a band.

MM: If you could collaborate with anyone who would it be?
DDD: My favourite collaborations are the friends you meet who share a similar musical view and can bounce ideas of one another; the possibilities can be endless for music making.

MM: Who are you listening to at the moment?
DDD: This last week I’ve been listening to: A.A Bondy, A$AP ROCKY, Deerhunter, and PJ Harvey.

MM:What are you looking forward to coming up this year?
DDD: Looking forward to coming to Australia next week for the album release tour (we hope to see you of you at the shows), and then heading back to Europe and the [United] States at the end of the year for a few shows, also just to be keeping and making music for the future, maybe changing a few things up musically and seeing where it all takes us.

Originally posted Moustache Magazine.