The Dovedale Social has had a hugely successful first 2 months, with great performances from the likes of The Tea Street Band, Cold Shoulder, The Mono LPs and last week Mohebbi.
This week we welcome our first band from outside the city, Death Masks all the way from St Helens! So last week I caught up with the band so everyone could learn a bit more about them.
So you are playing The Dovedale Social on 6th September, excited? What can people expect?
Very excited indeed! People can expect analogue synth-soaked shoegaze with chiming guitar harmonies and the odd sprawling psychedelic breakdown. It’s loud, too.
Your sound seems quite 80s influenced to me, I can hear elements of The Smiths, The Cure and Echo and the Bunnymen. Am I in the right ballpark?
Yeah, there’s certainly influences in that ball park, as well as some of the more pensive stuff of the era like Cocteau Twins, My Bloody Valentine, Durutti Column and Microdisney. We’re all big fans of krautrock and psychedelic music as well though, and I think this comes across more when we play live than it does on record!
You seem to get about a bit gig wise. Any highlights and lowlights from the past year?
The highlights were simply playing with some awesome bands; Total Victory and Johnny 5th Wheel to name a couple, and also over 100 people turning up to see us in St. Helens in a bar with a capacity of about 60. People were stood on the street watching through the window! There really hasn’t been any lowlights, we’re a pretty sanguine bunch.
Before hearing you I presumed any band from St Helens would be rubbish. Now I realise how wrong I am, are there any other St Helens bands worthy of our attention?
It’s an understandable misconception, but there’s something in the air, other than the fumes from Stinky Brook and the slag heaps! I highly recommend St. Helens’ premier krautrock/dub freakout 8 piece One Eyed God. Our drummer Mat plays in The Hang Project, who are indescribable but basically amazing. Also the Bordellos are the Tellins’ answer to the Fall, and twice as sharp-tongued!
And where can people hear more of your stuff?
Everything we’ve done so far is available for free download at www.deathmasks.bandcamp.com, or if you’re still into physical formats we’ll have some CDs and cassettes for sale at the gig!
