Dala Sun recently shook up my sound boxes with their doom/stoner musical arrangements. To tell the truth, I'm pretty happy to find out (thanx Alkis) another domestic killer band. The more-than-just-positive mood of Andreas (oboe, translated as "drums") gives this interview a ton of gratification. Relish his humorous words...
Are you guys drinking whiskey straight up with a dala sun in summertime? You've burnt our skin...
Oh dude now that's brutal! Well under our hellish summer's circumstances we try to avoid it, at least while tha big Dala still stands in vertical pose, although you know, we have many more relaxing substances, not neccesarilly liquid. A few more days under the sun, the skin thickens in a blacker/cancier tone, you won't feel a thing from a point on...
On this ovule-sun of the cover which exactly are the sperms that make this conceive a band like Dala Sun?
Oh yeah, it's the pink ones! You don't see 'em? Well it seems the job's done!
I'd like to know the formation record of the band. Under what circumstances did that happen?
Well nothing catchy, Tolas wanted to name a band "Dala Sun" for so long. One day some guys were just chilling at his place, in a semi-septic mood, when a week-toned voice popped a question from some dark corner of the room "anyone wanna jam some vlaho-stoner (country-stoner) ?" Well that's about it, the only ones eager were me and Harris and next thing we know is us jamming some riffs down a basement in mid winter... Thrilling huh?
Were the members associated with other bands in the past? If they did, what did these bands recommend musically?
Yeah sure we did! Haris used to play for the municipal band of street parades in Aegio city, he was the best xylophonist and flutist of the whole town. Tolas used to sing songs in karaoke children partys dressed as a clown and hitting hard on his claquetas. As for me, the times when I used to play the oboe for my local church's psalms,really were something... Long touching ages, gone now. I mean come on, ain't this stuff obvious on the record?
Do all the members contribute in the songs compositions or is there a main composer?
We don't actually compose any music at all. It's our thieving and re-shaping ability that 'll sure get us big one day. You know, we steal some fav riff from some loved band and spend hours trying to cleverly reform it so that we won't be accused of thieving...same ol' story as EVERY band does, works every fucking time!
I did enjoy the record as really few inside the genre. Where do you owe your influences besides your obvious light source (=sun)?
Urban alcoolism, temporary mood-changeability, our own ears, surealism, the awe of situations under drugs, me, chaos, you, nature, humans, all the "something's not right here!" everyday thingies, exaggeration, love, the "come as you are" mood, false society, terrifying smiles, animal aggression, negativity, the end, stressing silence, and many more!
I got to be honest. My favorite track of yours is "In Evil". The vocal melody is like the ones of Dax Riggs. The rhythm change at 0.44 reminds me a pre-break out only Ramesses can create. Your thoughts on this?
Ramesses rule! Tolas said that the specific part may remind them a lot, it's true, one more stolen band here, hehe. Who's the Riggs guy? It's a good thing you dig these tracks anyway, but I don't really like them so much, after all I just hit the drums dude, you 'd better ask the musicians of the band...
How were you able to slip the trap from creating another one "southern" band? Don't you think the whole mutiny has turned to a trend?
Yeah, it's always been trend all the way. We just wanted to play some rock, but our influences were more grungy and somewhat catchy, tricky and more "dis-harmonic" than the classic pentatonic-blues riff-o-logy of the southerns, so that's what it came to be. It also plays great part that 3/4 of the band are into extreme and noisy punk/metal and experimentation in general. As for me, one band after "The Wizard", comes to mind when jamming with the Dala.... Unsane!
The artwork is much suitable to your music. Did you create this by yourselves?
Oh you think? Hehe... Yeah, it's mostly sketches of Tolas the bassman, as well as some of mine. We set the whole thing on PC afterwards. You see everything in this album (including the sound) is done entirely by the 3 of us.... it's "do it youself" haha!
Drop some words about your local scene. I personally dig Guinea Pig's released promo a lot and Bohemian Grove, especially their second excretion.
Patra has a strong underground, and through the last decade some great bands appeared some still active some split-up etc. It's mostly studio bands and bands that have short period of existence due to studying obligations and people coming and going like visitors since not their hometown, and most of the known/active extreme Patra's bands act/survive in this way. After all there's always been some strong underground, mostly self-organized/d.i.y. in our hometown, thus meaning unity and support towards live acts and music realeases, something that is harder to find in bigger scenes like Athens or Thessaloniki, etc. I used to play the drums for Guinea Pig, and sure liked and enjoyed the second Bohemian Grove Album being "blacker" than the previous, but unfortunatelly both bands are inactive due to life's obligations and mishaps and I don't see a very bright future on their rocking going further for quite some time, but let's hope they prove me wrong!
In this epilogue, taunt something, praise something else or wish anything. Thank you for this interview. Hope the best for you, guys.
Since I started answering this interview, our band got another guitarist! And since I enjoyed the Dala being a trio it feels quite crowded now, when being in studio or in stage, so please if you don't want us to become more, don't send us any more interviews haha!
I add. We're in need of music like the lapse at the third minute of "Electric Magician" and its ending riff as well. Give us SUCH!
Not a thing to happen soon, our next album will be more groovy, aggresive and fast. We'll try playing some rock n' roll now and we've set for the third album to be doomier and EVIL!!! Buhaha, but people and things change so we/you'll see till then... κοινως μεχρι τοτε, ποιος ζει ποιος πεθαινει αδερφε! It's been fun giving this interview, all the best from Dala Sun! Cheers dude!
Interview by Miltos XIC
Dax Riggs has got the fabric of great song-makers along the way. Former member of Acid Bath and Deadboy & the Elephantmen, he has colored his solo work with some dark themes both lyrically and musically. His voice is perfectly warm and welcome and at times reminds me a less boozed Danzig. The musical compositions lend inspiration from the dark side of blues idiosyncrasy but not only. I guess it's these haunting soul melodies that make his work so special. The homonym track, for example, is a perfect background for Dax's vocals to sing in a so beautiful, deliberate discord. I hadn't listened to this record at all up until the last month and I got to admit I adored it. Far from the sludge experiments he's been associated with in Acid Bath, Dax comes to prove -nearly fourteen years after- that he is a musician, indeed. You could be much surprised by this record's good taste in musical aesthetics. Atmospheric, trippy, mid or up tempo, Dax sings some really shocking stuff even David Bowie would be jealous of. Plus there's an Elvis Presley sombre cover of "Heartbreak Hotel" which is well performed and suits the rest of the tracks' mood. "Say Goodnight to the World" manages to establish Riggs as a top musician of our days and you should give it a try if you have any kind of doubt about that.
