Britains new folkrock hope – with a big ROCK crashing in the folk – DRY THE RIVER played this years edition of ROSKILDE FESTIVAL. DRY THE RIVERs first album “Shallow Bed” was a breakthrough success in the UK and very well appreciated in the rest of Europe. As a live band they are able to generate a kind of prayerful atmosphere, while in the next moment they seriously kick ass.
entertaim.net had the chance to speak to Scott Miller (bass) and Matthew Taylor (guitar) backstage after their Odeon Stage gig at Roskilde. The guys turned out to be one of the nicest interview partners entertaim.net ever had, letting us know some insights in their short, but exciting career, about Roskilde Festival – and why they are such a bunch of lucky guys….
Interview by Martin Hannig
Foto: (c) Dry The River
entertaim.net: What was your impression of your gig here at Roskilde festival?
SCOTT: We had a good time. It was kind of like early in the day, one o’clock in the afternoon. We had a really long day yesterday, we played another festival in Slovakia. We started at 4 a.m., and we didn’t really get to bed last night. We sort of drag ourselves out of bed this morning, and we got here and the site looks so amazing, so nice people backstage, and the stage looks great.
entertaim.net: Is it hard to get in the stage mood at one o’clock?
SCOTT: Sometimes at one o’clock it can be, but we got a couple of beers, red bulls, coffees, you know. Sometimes it takes a couple of songs, but the crowd reaction was fantastic. We were really happy that some people came down!
entertaim.net: I thought: 1 o’clock, first band of the day…
SCOTT: Yeah maybe no one comes… but it was definitely good.
entertaim.net: I wondered about your touring plan: last days you were in Croatia, Poland, Italy, Slovakia, now in Denmark. I mean that’s a hell of a trip! How did you managed it? By bus?
SCOTT: Last weekend we did Croatia, so we flew to Milan, and then with a van to Croatia, than back to Milan. This weekend it’s been all flights, we flew to Poland, we flew to Slovakia, then we drove to Vienna, and then flew from Vienna to Denmark.
entertaim.net: This is a rock and roll lifestyle!
SCOTT: Yeah, it’s pretty fun, you spend a lot of time in the air. But you get used to it. We quite enjoy that anyway.
entertaim.net: This is Roskilde Festival. What do you know about this special festival?
SCOTT: We learned about it. It’s a kind of Glastonbury.
entertaim.net: A continental Glastonbury…
MATTHEW: Yes. And I wanted to come so many years to Roskilde!
SCOTT: And the line up is incredible! Every band seems to be a band that we love. Sometime you go to these festivals and it’s like: today there is one band I wanna see at 11. But here today it’s like: these bands play, these bands play, these bands play….
entertaim.net: So you could go now, right? Instead of sitting here doing interviews…
SCOTT: (Laughs)
entertaim.net: Tonight the Boss will be playing, Bruce Springsteen. It’s the first time he plays this festival. I’m really excited cause I’m a big fan…
SCOTT: We played the Isle of Wight Festival, and he played 2 days after us. We had to leave for another festival so we kind of missed him. Really upset. Today we actually get to stick around to watch him play; we are really excited!
entertaim.net: It’s a big rock’n’roll show, and he’s so full of positive energy.
SCOTT: He still got it! I can’t wait!
entertaim.net: I hope there will be no rain tonight, they talked about rainy weather…
SCOTT: Ya, it was raining when we arrived actually, and we kind of a bit worried. We’ve been really lucky this whole summer. We managed to avoid the rain at the festivals. Even when they said it’s gotta be raining, we managed to stop the rain. Again today, rain when we got here, and now sunny.
entertaim.net: Friend of mine got a flood of water in his tent, and his sleeping bag now is a wet thing…
SCOTT: (laughs) Oh shit! That’s festival you know!
entertaim.net: Scott, you said it during the gig to the crowd: “Come on, it’s a festival, guys!” And people began to clap and to shout….
SCOTT: Yes, we trying to get people involved. That’s the kind of festival thing. People come to a festival trying to have a good time, and even if the weather is not good, sunshine or blue skies – who cares? People gotta have a good time and party.
entertaim.net: One very special thing about Roskilde: they donate the money they make.
SCOTT: Charity. And they are very conscious about environmental stuff. I think all festivals should be doing that. Seems to be a very obvious thing to do. As a band we are very conscious about these things.
entertaim.net: Of course! Flying here and there throughout Europe and polluting the air!!
SCOTT: (laughs) Shit! You’re right man!
entertaim.net: Do you have the chance to write new music while flying and touring through Europe?
SCOTT: Yes a tiny bit. We are touring very hard at the moment and we have gigs til the end of the year. It’s difficult to find time to write new stuff. Pete kind of writes the inception of the songs and he needs space and time. He manages to find moments here and there, a quite hotel room and come up with some new ideas. We’re hoping that we can get in the studio next year, maybe January. For us some of songs on the first record are two or three years old, quite old songs to us. We’re really excited to start working on new songs. We don’t wanna leave huge gaps between two album releases. We would be quite happy to release the next album early next year.
entertaim.net: So you enjoy being on tour. There are no problems? I mean, touring a few months, 24 hours with the same people around could bring some serious trouble….
SCOTT: It’s ok. We all got Ipods, you put your headphones in, if you get pissed of with someone. At the moment I’m watching “Breaking Bad” on my laptop. Headphones in, fuck you guys. (laughs). We still love it playing shows. It’s why we do it. You get to travel, see all these beautiful places, festivals, drink every day, party every day, it’s great fun. We make the most of it. Because we’re kind of slightly older, I guess. You know, when you get signed when you’re like 18, you not really appreciate it. We finished college, university, we went to work, some of us got 9 to 5 jobs for a few years. We’re blessed, you know! We don’t wanna underappreciate this. We realized how lucky we are. Every day we kind of celebrate that, so we party every day just to sort of say “thank god that we getting to do this”.
MATTHEW: You see, we are lucky bastards! (Laughing all around!)
entertaim.net: So you are able to live from your band. It’s your profession…
MATTHEW: Since about the last 2 years now, ya.
entertaim.net: There are not many bands out there who can say that.
MATTHEW: Yeah we’re very very lucky.
entertaim.net: … lucky bastards you are! 🙂 And you are kind of famous in the UK now?
SCOTT: We sell enough tickets to the concerts and sell just enough records to pay our rent and eat food every day. For us it’s all we need.
MATTHEW: It’s sustainable. I wouldn’t say we’re famous…
entertaim.net: What about continental Europe?
SCOTT: In Europe it’s the similar sort of thing. And we’ve done a few tours in America this year and we doing another two more trips this year.
entertaim.net: Is there a difference between touring UK and USA?
SCOTT: Yeah a bit. It kind of helps sometimes being british. We got the british accent, and the Americans go “wwwooaaaa”! It kind of works in our favour a little bit. But it’s a big country, there’s a lot of ground to cover, and it’s quite expensive to tour. At the moment we’re at the point just to earn enough money that we can be comfortable. To be honest, even if we get to just keep doing this, touring Europe and playing festivals, we’re happy with this. It’s so much fun, we love it.
entertaim.net: Fine last words! Thanks for the interview and good luck!
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