INTERVIEW: Manchester Soul Pop fourpiece – Dantevilles discuss their latest self titled EP

Manchester's Dantevilles unveil new single, 'Blackjack' - Listen Now!

Manchester Soul Pop fourpiece Dantevilles released their debut self-titled EP on 11th May through Heist or Hit. The EP was produced by Joe Cross (Hurts, Courteeners). Dantevilles are a new breed of Manchester band; a fourpiece brimming with musical creativity and a gang full of personality with songs that are dripping with promise, they are the sound of a New North. Their inspired yet modern take on alternative pop is full of soul, melodic guitars and standout duel vocals, which creates music that is fresh, polished and completely memorable.

Following headline shows and festival performances at the likes of Kendal Calling on the Main Stage last year, Dantevilles recently played a sold-out Manchester headline show along with supporting Sea Girls. This month they performed at festivals in Brighton and Liverpool and they have announced a June EP launch show at Manchester’s Soup Kitchen. Dantevilles recently spoke to Mark Millar to discuss the EP and more.

INTERVIEW: Manchester Soul Pop fourpiece - Dantevilles discuss their latest self titled EP

So how did Dantevilles get together?

Unofficially, the beauty of the red-brick city of the North that is ‘Manchester’ dragged us all together to create the music that we write today. Officially, Jamie, Connor & Paul all lived together in a small, terraced house in Moss Side and through a friend were notified of a drummer named Cory. The rest is history.

The band recently released your self-titled EP. Did you go into the recording with any preconceived ideas how it should sound and what you wanted to write about?

We knew from previous recording sessions that we could all lay down the music quickly through many rehearsals and tedious click practice, so being tight was never a problem. With this in mind, it gave us a lot of time to work on instrument sounds and pre-production ideas with Joe (Joe Cross, producer for Hurts/Courteeners) and we let him take much more control than a previous engineer would, as he wanted to get involved as much as we did, which I believe you can definitely hear in the E.P.

Was it an enjoyable experience recording the EP?

Sitting in a recording studio in the middle of Knutsford with hundreds of pheasants running around in the back garden and crafting our sound day by day? Oh, it was awful. But, seriously, it was a joy to work with Joe at the recording studio, we’d be back in a heartbeat.

What would you like people to take away from listening to the EP?

The fact that nobody can really place a finger on who to compare it with, adding a unique blend into the music industry. We just want people to dance and embrace with each other while they listen, we think it has a sense of euphoria and hope they do too.

What is your songwriting process? Does songwriting come easily to you?

I’d say we all have the song-writing knack engraved in our bones. There’s a fine line between confidence and arrogance, so I’d say we’re absolutely amazing at it and better than everyone else! Jokes aside, when there are 2 singers, this opens up many, many melody ideas, we usually get these finished fairly quickly over an acoustic guitar and when you’ve got Paul tying everything together with the Dantevilles charm, we take it to our rehearsal room and finish a song.

How does it feel being a band in the current music climate?

I personally don’t think I’ve ever in my life, seen so much new music and so many new bands emerging from here, there and everywhere. It feels competitive, friendlier than not, but we’re always up for a challenge and we’re loving it.

Do you think there is a healthy music scene in Manchester now?

Most definitely. The talent emerging from the most, musically thriving city in the UK right now is beyond liberating.

Are there any other current Manchester bands you are into?

We really like a band from Stockport called ‘The Nix’ who we have partied with many a time and our other mates from Manchester who are sharing a stage with us at Soup Kitchen in June, ‘Saytr Play’.

The band recently played a show in Manchester with Sea Girls. How did the show go down?

Firstly, Deaf Institute has everything you want as an artist. The sound is on form, the crowd is mental and the building itself is a piece of art. Sea Girls where a lovely bunch of lads, we shared a few beers and danced to the Manchester classics. We played our socks off and the crowd absolutely loved it.

Do you have a record that you always return to?

‘The Stone Roses’ first album is perfect in every way, whenever we’ve played away from Manny, we’ll stick it on an hour before we return and see the Beetham Tower in all its glory as ‘I Am The Resurrection’ is just finishing and ‘Fools Gold’ completes the trip. We do have our personal ones such as ‘Edwyn Collins – A Girl Like You’, our coming out song and The Full Monty classic ‘Hot Stuff – Donna Summer’, there’s too many to say really.

How do you listen to music nowadays vinyl streaming or CD?

Most of our listening comes from all our Spotify’s and the playlists we’ve created to show each other. Spotify is great for finding new music or music you may never have known about or heard before. Personally, I found ‘Boards Of Canada’ through Spotify and I think it’s the most obsessed I’ve become over a band in my life.

What have you been listening to recently that you could recommend?

I’m a bit of an oldie when it comes to music so I’ve been wearing away the play button on CHIC, Sister Sledge & The Cure to name a few. But, if there’s a band I’ve been loving at the minute it’s a band called ‘Alvvays’ and their tune ‘Dreams Tonite,’ and one I’ve recently found is a band called ‘Big Thief’, her face and her lyrics are beautiful.

What do you do when you’re not making music?

We like to drink, a lot, so we spend a lot of time in the pub talking about when we’re next making music. It never really stops to be honest, it’s all we take about and occasionally what’s happened in the news. Connor & Jamie like going to the gym, Paul likes to eat as much cheese as he can find and Cory probably sleeps until we make some more music.

What’s next for Dantevilles?

Well, do we have a story for you! We’ve just played the Alternative Escape in Brighton and brought out our E.P. on Vinyl; we’ve got our headline show at Soup Kitchen, Manchester 01/06 and then there are a few festivals who we’ve been in contact too, to bring the Summer to a close. Then there’s an Autumn tour coming your way, but we’ll let you know about that a bit later through the year. If the Summer has that big, bright, yellow thing in the sky which has popped out a bit this Spring over the festival season, I think there’s going to be a lot of red bellies and a lot of drinking taking place.

Dantevilles are Jamie Gallagher (guitar, vocals), Connor McNicholas (bass, vocals), Paul Tanton (guitar) and Cory Devine (drums).

Xsnoize Author
Mark Millar is the founder of XS Noize and looks after the daily running of the website as well as hosting interviews for the weekly XS Noize Podcast. Mark's favourite album is Achtung Baby by U2.

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