Derrero are nearly impossible to figure out. On CD they are a band
who are smart enough to know that there is more power in a fluffy
pop song with pretty harmonies than all the top-volume power chords
on Earth. Live, they're a bit more difficult. By many accounts they
are downright crazy on stage, although the night we saw them the crowd
(and I use that term loosley) was so tiny that any weirdness
would probably not have been properly appreciated. Talking to the
four of them, Andy Fung, Ashley Cooke, David Hirst and Mary Wycherley,
it becomes increasingly difficult to figure out where Derrero falls
in the pop scheme of things.
But let's do the prototypical pop journalism
thing and make every effort to plop them into a meaningless pigeonhole
nonetheless.
Their name offers no categorical help. It's
just a reference to an obscure character in a Steve Martin film that
no one has watched for years.
Well then, how about lumping them into a geographical
category? Welsh indie, perhaps?
Mary: I think people generalise about
indie and I think there are bands being called indie that I absolutely
can't stand.
Andy: We don't think we're particularly
part of the Welsh scene and we've only been living there a relatively
short time. If there is a sound that's coming out of Cardiff, I don't
think we sound anything like it.
OK, clearly Welsh indie they're not.
Maybe a definition by long-term musical vision will help. Ideally,
where will they be in two years?
Dave: The West Indies. On the beach.
Hmmm nice.
Andy: Working
in the dole office, hopefully.
Right.
Mary: Probably with two screaming
children over each shoulder.
Indeed?
Ash: I'd quite like to be published
actually. If I manage to get round to doing something.
Right then. No plans for world domination through pop songwriting?
Ash: I suppose we could go, 'we're
going to be the biggest band' and all that... but there's loads
of other stuff.
Andy: We'll probably be back here
in two years time with a slightly bigger crowd.
What about influences? Maybe they'll give
us a clue to understanding Derrero. Mary gets told off by the rest of
the band every time she answers this question, but that doesn't stop
her.
Mary: Nick Drake and the Beach Boys
and disco and Belle and Sebastian and...
Dave: (incredulously) Do
you?
Mary: I
do. I told you, as soon as I open my mouth... Prince.
Andy: Delete!
Ash: If you can say Prince I can
say Barry Manilow.
Mary: Yeah, I like him. Then Dave,
clearly hoping no one will think he listens to *that* stuff,
suggests Neil Young and Granddaddy.
Well, perhaps they are really Rock'n'Roll.
What's the coolest thing they've ever done? When Dave sarcastically
says "joining Derrero" the rest of the band start gagging.
Then there is deadly silence. And more silence. OK. What's *one*
cool thing you've done? More silence. Just as we're about to move on
to an easier question, inspiration strikes.
Dave: Oh
I know, Andy, you did something cool once.
Ash: Once. A long time ago. Andy:
Without realising it. Dave: The A&R guy from Creation was at one
of our gigs with the Super Furry Animals and he had a rider. He doesn't
drink anything else but cider and they had a special rider for him and
Andy drank it. The whole lot. He was fucking furious. I thought that
was cool.
So, that's about as rock'n'roll as they get. Cider is good though, so
nice one, Andy.
About the only thing they seem to have in
common is that they all finished art school, and none of them are pursuing
a career in the art world.
Ash: We did just want to go to art
college and do our own stuff and be quite creative and the band is just
an extension of that even though Andy is the only one that still paints.
He did the cover of the EP (Radar Intruder) and the video is
all his animated characters and the album will be more of those characters.
The lesson to be learned is that ours is not
to reason why, ours is just to buy Derrero's new album when it comes
out in March. And the one thing to rely on is that it will be filled
with sugary pop melodies and vocal harmonies. Possibly.
-Liz Batholomew
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