Interview with Allo Darlin'

If you fancy falling in love a little bit, read the blog on Allo Darlin’ website; Elisabeth Morris shares their tale of a band’s automotive adventure round Europe, a woeful saga of knights in shining armour called Prince, generators, breakdown cover, last minute Austrian bookings, and much more aside. They added a legion of fans on that tour though, and through reading, they’ve gained another in me…

How’s today played itself out for you? It’s been good really; I’ve just finished work, so all is right with the world, and the last couple of nights, it’s been sunny when I’ve left work – just for half an hour still, but it makes a difference.

And what about the snow – does it send you into a tailspin like most - - Australians?! Yes, it still gets me very excited. I’ve lived here for nearly seven years now though, so I’m maybe not quite as jumpy as I first was when I moved here and saw snow.

The first time you did then, was that in Britain? Yeah, first proper snowfall was in Britain; I had seen snow before, a little bit in Oz on the Austrlian Alps, which are very small, haha! It’s nice though, ‘cause where I live in Finsbury Park, it’s not very nice normally, so when it snows it makes everything, just for a couple of minutes, really quite beautiful.

You’re coming to Norwich next month – are you excited about getting on the road again? Yeah, and this is the first time we’ve played Norwich and I’ve never even been there, so I’m really excited. Mike, our drummer, quite a lot of his family are from near there, so we might have his grandma on the guest list, haha. The extended Collins family; we’ll have to admit the over 80s! Lots of people say the Arts Centre is a really lovely venue, it sounds perfect.

Are you mentally prepared for this stint on the road, because you’ve had your troubles before…? Haha, we have! I think after you’ve been through what we have, you kinda expect things to go wrong, so when it doesn’t – like, we followed our European Tour with an American Tour last summer, and really the only thing that went wrong was when we were in Montreal, a guy broke into the place we were playing with a sledgehammer, threatening the waitress and we were like, ‘this is more like it!’, but actually the rest of the tour, the car worked fine, the shows were good… it was almost a little bit boring!

I was gonna ask whether, when it goes smoothly, it’s a little banal, or are you ready for banal? Well this time we’re going really upmarket; we’re staying in hotels – we’ve booked ourselves into the Premier Inn I’ll have you know! We’re ready to embrace banal I think… or at least beds!

I wanted to ask about the van – I got to the end of that epic story of yours and I was like, ‘what about the VAN?!’ Well, we’re no longer the proud owners of the van. We actually sold it back to the guy we bought it off, haha, we did really badly financially out of the deal and the sweet old man who drove us back to the station who worked for this guy, said, “You’ve brought it back then. Hmmm, happens quite a lot!” Hahaha, so this guy is a bit of a dodgy used car sales man, he lived up to his stereotype!

The new album title, ‘Europe’, must’ve been named after that fateful trip? Yes, it really was. There’s a song on the album called ‘Europe’ that I actually wrote before that trip and it was quite strange actually, the meeting of words were actually quite prescient in a way, and the lyrics have got new meaning. When everything started to go wrong, we thought maybe this should inform what the new album should be.

The other place cited on the record is Capricornia, which sounds cool and mythical, but it’s actually where you grew up… That’s right, well, it’s not actually the town, but the region; the Tropic of Capricorn runs through my hometown.

And does this show a longing for home? Does it show the polarity between home and your new home? Yes, and that’s a good word to use really, because a lot of the songs on the album deal with the idea of home, and what that is. When I was writing the songs, my visa was nearly up and I wasn’t sure how I was gonna stay. What if I couldn’t stay, and I had to go home? Now I have a new visa and I’m able to stay, but it did affect me for a while. It happens a lot to Australians; we come over here, then go back, maybe to the town you grew up in, and have kids. I didn’t want to do that, I wanted to stay, but I do feel the pull of home, but the idea of living in the town I grew up in is not on the cards. It’s a very small town and it’s the meat capital of Australia… and I’m a vegan, haha!

What was it that made you pack up your kit bag, toss it over your shoulder and come to England in the first place? Well really because I wanted to be in a band and London seemed to be the place to do that. Australia has a reciprocal relationship with the UK where you can have a Working Holiday Visa, and work for a year, but live for two years. I didn’t feel like I could make the music I wanted to when I was at home; I was quite young, I was 22 and I moved over on my own, started going to the Indie and 60s soul nights and just felt I’d found the place where I belonged.

How did you come to write a song about Darren Hayman on the record, and get him to draw things?! Actually, completely by my own design, haha! I was a big fan of Darren’s, but I also knew that this studio where I wanted to record, Darren actually worked in the shop above the studio and I thought if I went and recorded in that studio, I might get to meet him, haha! It’s exactly what happened, which was funny; I went in on the first day and he made me a cup of tea, and we’ve been friends ever since – although I’m still a big fan of his, which is funny. Darren’s a very approachable person and he really likes collaborating with people, so we’ve done a couple of things together in the past, then that song… I thought it was a great name for a song, just ‘cause Darren’s quite a funny name! He’s quite embarrassed by it, but quietly flattered, I think!

Most of your records are hugely danceable, but do you ever let yourself imagine where they’ll be listened to? Like in someone’s bedroom, or on the dancefloor, and what’s your own relationship with the dancefloor? It’s funny you say that, because with the first record, my biggest ambition was for one of the songs to be played at How Does it Feel to Be Loved, which is the first Indie club I ever went to when I went to London. I thought that was as good as it got, and in some ways, I think it probably still is! Some of the songs on this new album, I also can see them going down there, but I think it can be a bad move if you let it be your intention. When you start writing it, I think you have to start out with the cleanest slate you possibly can. I was definitely influenced by the weekend when I first moved to London though. I go out less now, and get embarrassed when they play our songs – I don’t know what to do, haha!

Are you traditionally a first on, or a tentative addition to the dancefloor? Well, it changes… A couple of years ago, I would’ve liked to have thought of myself as a first on, but I’ve learnt to hang back a little – the song’s gotta win you on, I think. The first on is great, but you’ve gotta make sure the song is worth it.

So Elisabeth, you’re a uke wielder – is it your go to instrument for songwriting? No, not at all; it was actually going into the shop that Darren Hayman worked in, which is called the Duke of Uke. I noticed it when I first moved here, off Brick Lane and immediately thought I wanted to get one. It just looked like an inspiring instrument, and it is. The songs I’d written before we’re on guitar or piano and I’d always found it quite difficult, but it was a lot easier mucking about on the uke, making chords and making interesting chords, because it’s easier… not that I use interesting chords very often, haha! The songs came easily, so although I’m not that infatuated with the sound of it, as an instrument, as something to use to help write songs, it’s really, really good. It was funny how it coincided with the release of our first album though, the whole explosion in the uke scene, and Matthew who runs the Duke of Uke shop really benefitted from that!

So you’re coming to Norwich next month, and I’m absolutely sure you’ll bring us an awesome show, so what as an audience, can we do for you? Oh, that’s a nice question. I think for us, the best thing is when people allow themselves to dance and have a good time. That has such a good effect on the atmosphere if people are up for having a good time. Sometimes it happens that places that have bands come through all the time, the people are looking at the band like, ‘impress us’. One time we really noticed that was in Portland in the States, and it has the reputation of being the Indie rock capital of America, but actually the crowd was really stand-offish, and the people that were putting us on said, ‘yeah, it’s always like that!’ So in our experience, playing in smaller places is really good ‘cause people are up for a really good show. If Norwich can bring that, then that’s gonna be amazing for us.

Emma Garwood

Allo Darlin come to the Norwich Arts Centre on March 2nd. For tickets, go to www.norwichartscentre.co.uk.