Another rockin' year for Dallas Crane

by blackshadow | Wednesday, December 27 2006

On the eve of their return to the Meredith Music Festival and the launch of their third “On the Beach Tour”, Pat Bourke the bass player for Dallas Crane took time out for a chat with Richard Sharman from The Dwarf about the year that has been, Factory Girls, the upcoming tour and what 2007 holds for one of the hardest working and hardest rocking bands in the land.

The Dwarf: So it’s been a busy year for you guys.

Pat Bourke: Yes it has been a very busy year, getting the record out and then doing a helluva lot of promo shows – it’s been flat out.

The Dwarf: You must be one of the hardest working bands around.

PB: Well they keep telling me that we are.

The Dwarf: I’ve seen you about four or five times this year.

PB: We get around, playing live is something we love and it’s one of the ways we sell the band.

The Dwarf : It certainly shows with your performances. Obviously getting Factory Girls out was a huge undertaking for you guys or a large undertaking.

PB: It was big and it went on longer than we thought it would. We really wanted to raise the bar with the songs, the song writing and when we finally finished it we listened back to it and we realised it was a really good record and we were really stoked with it so getting it out was really exciting. We’ve been getting great reviews pretty much across the board so we’re happy with that we’ve succeeded in making a great record and everyone else seems to agree.

The Dwarf: I’m certainly familiar with it from a domestic point of view, has there been much overseas interest?

PB: We just recently released the last record (Dallas Crane) overseas. As soon as we finish the Beach tour I think we have three days off and then we are overseas for a few months.

The Dwarf: No rest for the wicked!

PB: I think I am pretty much going to be on the road as of a couple of days after Christmas for six months or something like that.

The Dwarf: I know you have 27 dates in six weeks.

PB: Yeah, 27 dates, then a couple of days off and then straight overseas. Yeah, there’s plenty on. The record is coming out overseas next year. It’s gonna be great!

The Dwarf: Whereabouts are you heading overseas?

PB: I’m not sure what order it’s in, I’m pretty sure we are starting in Japan and then I think we are going to the states from there, then to the UK and Europe.

The Dwarf: That’s going to be quite an undertaking. It’ll be a lot of fun I’m sure.

PB: It’s gonna be great, we’re really looking forward to it. The release overseas has got a lot of press and a lot of good reviews so we’re looking forward to dropping the new one on them and seeing how that goes.

The Dwarf: Dallas Crane works so hard yet you come across as fresh on stage, every time I see you, what keeps you fresh all the time?

PB: It only takes us a couple of gigs to get gig fit and then once we’re on it comes easy. It’s a helluva lot of fun. It’s that little hour or hour and a half or whatever it is you get on stage is kinda the reward for all the hard work behind the scenes. It’s where you actually get to show it off, show off your songs and enjoy playing with each other
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The Dwarf: It’s obvious that you love playing live; it comes across from seeing you guys. Just to step back a bit before the album you did some stuff with Jimmy Barnes, how did that come about?

PB: That was last year, he asked us. He was getting a few young rock and roll bands to do duets; he did one with The Living End, he asked us if we’d be interested and we put that song forward and he loved it. We thought it would be great to do one of our songs and give it a re-working and we thought it might suit his voice. It was great fun and a good learning experience. It was great to get into the studio and re-record one of our old gems. It was enjoyable; good fun.

The Dwarf: It looked like good fun when I saw you guys on stage with him at the Prince of Wales a little while ago.

PB: He’s a good bloke; he’s a very funny entertaining, likeable kinda guy.

The Dwarf: What would you say are some of the highlights (and lowlights) of this year? You’ve had so much going on, are there any things that really stand out to you?

PB: Finally getting the record out was great and getting the first reviews back. Rolling Stone reviewing it and giving us four stars, getting all these good reviews; we thought we had a great record and it was just nice to know that a whole bunch of other people thought it was great too. That was kind of a highlight. It put it into perspective it’s like we thought it was good and other people think so too – it was great.

The Dwarf: With the constant touring, does that wear on you guys, being away from home? How do you guys cope with that?

PB: It does, you always miss out on stuff. You miss out on everything from your brother’s birthday to your best friend’s wedding or whatever you miss out on a whole bunch of stuff. You miss your family and your friends but I personally really enjoy being on the road I find it quite peaceful even though it’s hectic.

The Dwarf: You have pretty much kept to your own shows this year; you have Meredith this weekend, have you got any other festival dates that you are looking at?

PB: Last weekend we went up to a festival in Cairns, it was really good. It was called the Time Out Festival and it was organised by The Cairns Post, they hadn’t had anything like that up there for a long time. It was great, it was really well received and all the kids loved it. We had a great time up there; we’d never been up there before so it was good to get up there.

The Dwarf: I grew up in Southern NSW where there wasn’t a lot of live music and when you get good bands playing locally it’s a really big thing.

PB: It seemed like that, there was definitely a buzz around. We had a great gig and great time. It will definitely be included in our touring schedule from now on.

The Dwarf: With all the touring, do you guys write all the time?

PB: There is always writing going on, I think we are quite aware that maybe last time it was too long between records. We’d love to be able to put one out a year. The reason the last one took so long is the touring commitments. We’re going to aim to get one out a year, which would be lovely, but we’ll see what happens.

The Dwarf: I guess you’ve got to have the songs.

PB: Yes, you have to have the songs. It’s different these days I suppose. You can’t be like The Beatles and put out one or two a year and the Stones when they were pumping them out in the start. You can’t do that these days.

The Dwarf: The whole music industry has changed markedly from that time.

PB: It’s totally different now. So we’re going to just keep writing and bettering ourselves.

The Dwarf: If you keep bettering yourselves at the rate you’re going it will be a wonderful thing.

PB: It’s a long steady climb to the top.

The Dwarf: That’s probably got to be the biggest challenge to you guys as a band, to keep that freshness and to keep raising the bar.

PB: It’s always something we consider, it’s always about writing better songs. There are bands that keep putting out the same fucking record, it just gets boring. We’re not planning on doing that! We’re definitely not planning on having any kind of second album blues we’ve already done that. We haven’t taken any steps backwards yet, it might be a solid slow and steady wins the race.

The Dwarf: The song writing and the creative process, is that an organic thing where one of you will have an idea or a riff and sit down with the other guys?

PB: It varies a lot. It’s mainly Dave (Larkin) and Pete (Satchell) who write the initial ideas for songs and start to piece them together and then there are times when Dave and Pete will get together and do some co-writing or there will be some ideas mashed together, I’ll have the occasional idea. Some songs we try to develop in the rehearsal room from small a small idea, some songs Dave or Pete will bring to the rehearsal room and they’ll be pretty much finished – it’s just a matter of making it work as a band and then we’re read to go. It varies a lot, some songs just fall into place and some takes years of different arrangement and keys and thrashing them out.

The Dwarf: So this is going to be your second On the Beach tour?

PB: No, it’s our third!

The Dwarf: So it’s pretty much an annual fixture?

PB: It seems to be. The support slot seems to be becoming a coveted little position. Everyone wants to go on the beach tour!

The Dwarf: It must have been pretty good earlier this year having Tim Rogers opening for you guys.

PB: Yeah, it was great it was really good. That was a really fun tour, having Tim and the Temperance Union on as a support band was a bit of an honour. That was great and the year before we had 67 Special and we had a great time. The first year I think it was 10 or 15, the second year it was about 18 shows and this year it is up around 30. It’s an ever growing thing!

The Dwarf: You’ll be on the beach all year round soon if you don’t look out.

PB: Well yeah, as soon as this one’s over we’re going overseas, we’re just gonna chase it.

The Dwarf: Are there any favourite places that you are looking forward to getting back to?

PB: I quite like the Coolangatta Hotel for some reason; we always have a good one there. There are a couple of little places like Yamba which I like. There’s a place called Pacific Palms which we’ve been to in the past but we’re not doing this year for some reason which I’m a bit disappointed about. All of the Southern Western Australian stuff, Margaret River and all of that is always really great.

The Dwarf: It’s a beautiful part of Australia too. Is there anything else coming up for you guys?

PB: We’ve just put out our new single “Tonight” which is the first song off the Factory Girls record. That will be coming out next week I think. I’m not 100% sure; we just shot a clip for that a couple of weeks back. That’ll be on the radio, it’s the feel good hit of the summer!

The Dwarf: I’ve heard that term before! So that will be in the stores before Christmas?

PB: I’m not 100% sure but you can always go out and buy the album for your Mum, your Dad or anyone!

The Dwarf: Thanks for the chat Pat. I look forward to seeing you On the Beach!

PB: Thank you.

Catch Dallas Crane 'On The Beach' when they hit your neck of the woods, dates are listed below!