This year has been something of a landmark year for Andover based alternative rock band In Darklight. Their long awaited debut album “Dying To Confess” was finally released in July through Southampton label Angry Badger Records. 2010 has also seen the band – made up of Ben Sellers, Ross Archer, Louis Sellers and Dave Green – share the stage with Peter Hook of Joy Division and New Order fame amongst the many live shows they have played this year.
Drummer Louis Sellers and bassist Dave Green took time out to tell UTJ all about the past year in the life of In Darklight and what the future holds for the band.
The debut album “Dying To Confess” is now out. How happy are you with the end result?
DAVE – I think everyone in the band is very proud of the album in that it’s our first full length recording done at high quality with great performances; and a full range of songs pieced together into one entity. As a tangible product, it’s fantastic! However, this is just the beginning: it’s only the first recording and a starting block for what’s to come, so we can’t settle back.
LOUIS – Making the album was a great deal of fun but proved to be a challenge at the same time. Having only released EPs and two-track CDs in the past, producing a full-length album meant we needed to think outside the box and really push ourselves musically and technically. Personally I’m very happy with the results and feel a great sense of achievement with it. Having produced a large portion of the work in our home
project studio, it’s been an amazing personal journey and I’ve learned a lot from it all.
The album was released through Angry Badger Records. What made you choose Angry Badger?
DAVE – Jules (Aplin -founder of Angry Badger Records) approached us after ‘Slaves’ grabbed his attention roughly a year ago, and he presented to us an opportunity to release and distribute music; and promote, organise and advertise for us in a very band-friendly way. The arrangement was set so we would work for each other, not just us working for a label.
LOUIS – I think mine and Jules’ personalities and ambitions match very well. Having never been signed in the past, we were, of course, cautious about how the label would affect the band’s future. However, it’s been a joy working with the label and it feels that every week we are both generating exciting and new opportunities – it’s great to have that extra help with promotion, marketing etc for the album.
How have sales of the album been going?
DAVE – The initial response was excellent, with a great number being sold in the first fortnight after its release. Sales are now steadily rolling over as time moves on and awareness of the album increases from those who are sharing what they have discovered in “Dying to Confess” and those that are hearing our music for the first time at a gig.
LOUIS – Sales have been strong seeming as the album has only been out since 12th July 2010 (the album’s release date). We’ve managed to shift a good amount of physical CDs to close friends and family who we see in our day-to-day lives, but the real
sales will rack up as we gig more and more. Nothing quite beats being at a venue and talking to fans, spreading the word about our new release. We’re still waiting on digital download sales from Angry Badger Records, but we would definitely encourage fans to get the real CD first, so they can see the fantastic artwork and read the album credits.
What sort of critical response have you had?
DAVE – On the whole, people have seemed very excited by the album and have praised many different aspects of the musicianship, song writing and style. Of course, with the good comes a few negative responses, as you would expect since some ears don’t always agree with some ears, but we try and seize the constructive points out of them for consideration for future recordings. The worst reviews come from the reviewers on a bad day…they just plain don’t like it!
LOUIS – On the whole, we’ve had a lot of positive reviews and press. AltSounds.com especially liked the album and was very praise worthy. We’ve even had BBC Introducing play the first album track, ‘What’s Happening’, on their radio show, and they were also very complimentary. In August, we managed to score our first front-page feature on the Hampshire Chronicle, which was quite a buzz to find out!
Our fans have given us good feedback and have already said how much they are looking forward to our next release. They are doing a good job of telling their friends too. Again, this is a valuable way of spreading the word of the band.
Of course, we’ve also had negative reviews, but we try not to let that affect us too much as musicians and songwriters. At the end of the day, In Darklight believe in the music we write and we want to keep on producing tracks that we enjoy playing live. It doesn’t help when you get a bad review without any
constructive criticism, or they get the names of songs wrong which is just plain lazy on the writers behalf but we as a band accept that if you release something significant like an album, you run the risk of people criticising it.
The album’s available to buy in HMV in Southampton! How did that come about and how does it feel?
LOUIS – Indeed it is, we went to check that out the other day and it was exciting to see it not only on the shelves, but on the paying counter as well; definitely good promo. Angry Badger Records managed to set it up, which is one of the perks of being with a record label. Having the album available through a
range of outlets (HMV, iTunes, Amazon, Iconic Culture) can only be a good thing.
What else is planned for 2010 for In Darklight?
DAVE – We are currently recording a few new tracks for a future release. There will be some remixes and an acoustic number alongside our full band songs. Gig-wise, we are looking towards Bristol, London, Southampton…plenty of places around the South! Given the ammunition of a full début album, we should turn more heads and take more opportunities going into 2011.
LOUIS – We have some very cool things going on behind the scenes. We’ll be shooting one or two videos to help promote the album. This is something we have never done before, so it will be exciting and great experience.
We have already started recording our follow-up EP. Ben has been writing some great new tunes for In Darklight – you may have heard the tracks at our latest live shows.
We’re gaining more reviews and airplay as the weeks go by so we’ll make sure we’re productive with that side of business.
Lastly, we just want to gig more and get the music out there. We aim to play some University shows soon and keep playing around our local area (Southampton, Reading, Salisbury, London etc). I’ve no doubt that the record label has some good plans for us too. I’m feeling optimistic about the future!
Interview by Paul Lane
Unplug The Jukebox 