{"id":8140,"date":"2012-04-24T07:20:26","date_gmt":"2012-04-23T21:20:26","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/maytherockbewithyou.com\/mtrbwy\/?p=8140"},"modified":"2012-04-24T07:21:57","modified_gmt":"2012-04-23T21:21:57","slug":"frankie-poullain-of-the-darkness","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/maytherockbewithyou.com\/mtrbwy\/2012\/04\/frankie-poullain-of-the-darkness\/","title":{"rendered":"Frankie Poullain of The Darkness"},"content":{"rendered":"

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\n<\/a>\u201cJustin really got himself together and now he\u2019s fighting fit and a better guitarist and singer and performer than he ever was, even back then, it\u2019s just great to be and I\u2019m really privileged to be back with them.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Darkness, have possibly the best biography out there at the moment: \u201cThere have been two albums. There has been a short break. As promised, the break is now over. A third album is currently being honed in the east of England.\u201d \u2013 Sums it up really!\u00a0 This is a band that likes to have fun, they write great rock songs, they are amazing performers and you either dig it or you don\u2019t.\u00a0 Needless to say they are back and they are ready to rock once again!<\/p>\n

We spoke to the returning Frankie Poullain about being back in the band, what\u2019s ahead for The Darkness and what fans can expect on their upcoming Australian tour.<\/p>\n

I have to ask straight off, for those that aren\u2019t aware, you had in fact left the band but what were the circumstances in getting the original band back together?<\/strong>
\nCircumstances was, after seven years we figured it was time to let bygones be bygones and stop being stubborn and just had had enough time really, we\u2019d had enough time to do our own little things, our own little projects and it felt like now or never really?<\/p>\n

Was there one thing in particular that sparked it or was it a general consensus?<\/strong>
\nProbably the existence of when we realised that Maroon 5 were gonna be here to stay, we realised we had to do something about that.<\/p>\n

What was it that in fact prompted you to leave the band in the first place?<\/strong>
\nWell, what prompted me to leave the band in the first place was being sacked ha ha ha ha.\u00a0 I guess that was the reason, but what prompted that\u2026 and it got a little bit complicated and we probably don\u2019t have time to go in to it in this short interview, but let\u2019s just say the personal relationships broken down and a lot of the good will and fun and energy that made the special had kind of evaporated and turned sour.\u00a0 Plus, can something biologically speaking evaporate AND turn sour?\u00a0 No I don\u2019t think it can, can it? Ha ha.\u00a0 I suppose in a way it was a sour vapour of over indulgence and excess.<\/p>\n

Was there ever a time that you thought you may never come back?<\/strong>
\nYeah, it was really only the four of us that thought we\u2019d never come back.\u00a0 Everyone around us was like it was inevitable, or that\u2019s what they told us.\u00a0 We basically didn\u2019t realise, we were all too kind of blinded by our pride and everyone has their own version of what the so called truth is and that kind of happens when you have different personalities, different characters you just perceive things differently.<\/p>\n

You\u2019ve basically jumped straight back in to touring rather than release a new album and tour off the back of that, what was the decision behind doing it that way?<\/strong>
\nWell we were just going to take a year out and make an album, but then it was literally just because of the Download festival, we didn\u2019t realise we\u2019d have the chance to be there, we thought we\u2019d have to prove ourselves first before we started playing gigs, because we didn\u2019t think there\u2019d be a huge amount of people wanting to come and see us and so we all started rehearsing and writing this album getting ready to record it.\u00a0 Then we got these offers coming in because people had heard on the grapevine that we were doing this, so Download came in and gave us a really good offer to sub headline the festival last year below Def Leppard, so we kind of couldn\u2019t turn that down, it sounded like the right thing to do, it was really scary to have to go straight back in to the bears den like that.\u00a0 After being away for six years, for me anyway, I hadn\u2019t played a gig for six or seven years and suddenly I had to go on stage in front of 60,000 people at Download was really scary.
\nOnly 60,000? Just a few of your mates\u2026<\/strong>
\nha ha ha we did have a couple of gigs before, a couple of warm up gigs and they went really well as well.<\/p>\n

The bold statement of the song \u2018Nothing\u2019s Gonna Stop Us Now\u2019 what was the idea behind the song specifically?\u00a0 Was it you saying \u2018We\u2019re back and nothing can stop us?\u2019<\/strong>
\nHa ha ha yeah I think so.\u00a0 I tell you what, that song is just Justin singing about his childhood, it\u2019s quite a sentimental song really, and if you listen to the lyrics, it\u2019s getting back to childhood, as a matter of fact it\u2019s was the same for me, getting back to some of the songs are quite sentimental.\u00a0 But yeah I guess the chorus has got that sort of vibe, so we figured that\u2019s a good statement of intent, like a mission statement if you like, so that\u2019s why it made a good first thing.\u00a0 It wasn\u2019t really a single you know, it was more of a freebie for the fans you know?<\/p>\n

So when can we expect to hear some new music or a new album?<\/strong>
\nThe album will be June or July, yeah it\u2019s all finished, we\u2019re just getting the track listing sorted out and marketing how to package it and what the final title\u2019s going to be.
\nCan we expect to hear any new songs down here?<\/strong>
\nOh yeah for sure, we\u2019re playing like four or five new songs a night.\u00a0 On the American tour in February we were doing four or five different new ones, we were rotating them, trying different ones out you know.<\/p>\n

You\u2019re heading back to Australia next month, what can fans expect at these shows?\u00a0 Is it just a balls out rock and roll show?<\/strong>
\nUltimately yeah, in a nutshell that\u2019s kind of what it is.\u00a0 This will be like a good, what people call flamboyant I suppose and a bit of fun, some new outfits to unveil, and I think there will be a little acoustic section.\u00a0 Might be a cover or two covers, just us doing our thing, yeah\u2026<\/p>\n

I\u2019m not sure if you know, but the Melbourne show has already sold out with a second on sale.\u00a0<\/strong>
\nWow, that\u2019s amazing.\u00a0 I thought we were doing all these interviews because the tickets weren\u2019t shifting, that\u2019s great, I\u2019m delighted.
\nWhat do you think it is that draws people in to The Darkness?<\/strong>
\nWhat draws people in to the band?\u00a0 Well\u2026 I think cause they don\u2019t have to think or mull over or get bogged down in the reality of things, it\u2019s quite escapist I suppose and yeah I think we\u2019ve kind of tapped in to something that\u2019s hopefully en joyful and liberating, free, and we\u2019re like magpies, picking up little bits of the 70\u2019s and 80\u2019s that we think are kind of worth picking up ha ha, taking little morsels from the past.<\/p>\n

The last time you were here was in 2004, I saw you play here in Sydney and it was one of my favourite shows I\u2019ve ever seen, do you have any fond memories of that tour?<\/strong>
\nThanks for that! Yeah almost all the memories of that tour are fun.\u00a0 Any memory I can remember from that tour is fun, I can\u2019t think of a bad memory from Australia , even though we were really hung over whenever we went on stage there, the sun would be coming down on us because we were playing early afternoon at the Big Day Out, it was still like a warm glow around us.\u00a0 It was just a great time for us.
\nYou guys were on early as you were the buzz band then and everyone was talking about you all day after that\u2026
\nReally?\u00a0 That\u2019s amazing.\u00a0 Yeah something about Australians and Americans just really pick up.\u00a0 They\u2019re less cynical the Australians and Americans, yeah we get a lot of attention in our own country but we divide a lot of people in our own country and people get really kind of cynical about us, but in Australia and The States people kind of think embrace that hoe down aspect of it, that they don\u2019t really get in the UK.
\nDo you ever get considered and a joke band over there at all?<\/strong>
\nYeah yeah, we get that a lot but it\u2019s not like it\u2019s always a bad thing you know?\u00a0\u00a0 It depends, there\u2019s good jokes and there\u2019s bad jokes you know what I mean ha ha.\u00a0 There is a jokey aspect, it\u2019s not like we\u2019re laughing behind people\u2019s backs, because a joke is usually an element of cruelty, and I don\u2019t think there\u2019s any cruel intent from our side.\u00a0 If you listen to Justin\u2019s lyrics I think they\u2019re very warm and very sensitive and very human and they have a bit of substance to them as well.
\nI wanted to ask you about your thoughts on a band like Steel Panther who have almost taken The Darkness and lyrically just gone that next step further.<\/strong>
\nI think it\u2019s good, it\u2019s a great parody of 80\u2019s metal, I think that\u2019s what it is and they do it really well and it\u2019s one thing it\u2019s one really accurate kind of parody of 80\u2019s metal and I don\u2019t think what we\u2019re doing is a parody, we\u2019re actually banking in to the whole thing which is why we went too far and it banked the whole thing back then and the band broke up and it all imploded because we\u2019d bought in to it too much, a sense of the rock and roll lifestyle and everything you know ha ha.\u00a0 Maybe they\u2019re doing that too?\u00a0 I wouldn\u2019t say they necessarily believe in what they\u2019re doing , I think for them it\u2019s kind of theatre pretty much 100% isn\u2019t it? There\u2019s a lot of sincerity to what we\u2019re doing.<\/p>\n

Do you still play material off the second album or is it mostly off the first album?<\/strong>
\nYeah we play about two tracks from the second album normally, now we\u2019re doing Hazel Eyes, One Way Ticket and Is It Just Me?\u00a0 If we can get Justin back on the keyboards we might do English Country Garden as well, that\u2019s a really cool song.\u00a0 There\u2019s some good stuff on that second album, I\u2019m happy to do stuff from the second album.
\nDid you ever look back after being replaced and have any anger in seeing someone in essence take your spot?<\/strong>
\nNo, not really, I was kind of glad; I wouldn\u2019t say anger was the emotion. There was a bit of sadness at how things ended and we ended up disliking each other and all the cruel words that were airing by both sides, but that was all to do with the organisation, something rotten at the core of the organisation and the music industry was changing a lot then as well, so it\u2019s also the politics of the record company too back then because they were getting all really scared by what was happening with the changing face of the music industry you know.\u00a0 A lot of bands had problems back then in that time frame you know in 2003, 2004, 2005, it was all changing,\u00a0 But anyway, I wouldn\u2019t say I was angry, in a way, in some ways I was kind of pleased I wasn\u2019t part of that as it progressed, that kind of campaign, you could see, and I\u2019m sure Justin would be the first to admit, it wasn\u2019t really an enjoyable experience and it all went a little bit sour and he started to go off the rails a little bit after that too and then the whole thing kind of collapsed anyways.\u00a0 So I was probably quite lucky to watch that from afar really.\u00a0 Justin really got himself together and now he\u2019s fighting fit and a better guitarist and singer and performer than he ever was, even back then, it\u2019s just great to be and I\u2019m really privileged to be back with them.<\/p>\n

THE DARKNESS AUSTRALIAN TOUR DATES<\/strong>
\nFriday May 04 – Eatons Hill Hotel, Brisbane
\nSaturday May 05 – Newcastle Panthers , Newcastle
\nSunday May 06 – UNSW Roundhouse, Sydney
\nTuesday May 08 – The Palace, Victoria
\nWednesday May 09 – The Palace, Victoria
\nThursday May 10 – ANU Bar, Canberra
\nSaturday May 12 – Thebarton Theatre, Adelaide<\/p>\n

Tickets on sale now<\/p>\n

Essential Information<\/span><\/strong><\/strong><\/h2>\n

From:<\/strong> UK<\/p>\n

Band members: <\/strong>Justin Hawkins \u2013 Vocals \/ Guitar, Dan Hawkins – Guitar, Frankie Poullain – Bass, Ed Graham \u2013 Drums.<\/p>\n

Website:<\/strong> http:\/\/www.theactualdarkness.com<\/a><\/p>\n

Latest release:<\/strong> New album coming in June \/ July<\/p>\n\n

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