Hey Dappled Cities, your Fly's undone

Meet the new Dappled Cities Fly.. or is that Dappled Cities? Up until now, they’ve been known as ‘Dappled Cities Fly’, but recently, they’ve started dropping off the last word from their name. They’ve also added a fifth member to their band, keyboardist Ned Cooke. Confused yet? Let’s start from the beginning.

Dappled Cities Fly started out as a quartet, releasing their first album, A Smile, in 2004. Two years on, and they’ve managed to keep themselves busy. They recently returned from L.A. where they recorded their second album, they’re currently on tour to promote the first single off said album, and they’ll be back on the road again to promote the album’s release. And what about that apparent name change? Don’t worry. Dave Rennick, guitarist and singer, assures me that it’s only an abbreviation for the album cover. “We’re just making it easier for ourselves.”

After having spent several weeks in a studio working on their second album, it’s understandable that the band should need a little time to get back into the live side of things. So, how did it go?

“It was a bit tricky," Rennick explains, "we had to do some warm-up shows in Sydney. No one was really meant to know about them till they were plastered on the cover of one of the Sydney street press.”

With all that behind them, the band are excited to be back on the road and performing new material.

“This new batch of songs, all the songs have only been around for about one year, so they’re all still fresh and new and nerve-racking as hell to play live. It’s all exciting.”

One of these new songs is ‘Fire Fire Fire’, the first single off the new album and the centre of attention on this tour. It was recorded in L.A. with the rest of the album which is to be titled Granddance’– make sure you note the spelling!

“We’ve already had people spelling Granddance wrong. People are leaving off the second 'd',” Rennick complains.

Spelling mistakes aside, the band are really happy with how it turned out.

“We’re all extremely happy. We’re so excited at the moment by this album. It’s just another stepping stone to world domination,” Rennick schemes. Talking further about the album, he explains that it was “Definitely planned. Everything was all written before we left Sydney.. It was planned so much that we actually had way too many songs for the album!”

With important decisions like song choices to be made, it makes you wonder how a band with several members can find a way to happily work together. Dave explains, “Well we’re a very democratic band. Everyone likes to have their say, and we all have our little areas of profession, I guess. Like Hugh the drummer is very in tune with sounding sounds and so on, like actual frequencies and all that kind of stuff whereas Tim is very good at describing moods, and Alex is very good at paying people out and shutting people down. That way we all have our little role in voicing ourselves.”

In Australia, the album is due out on November 18th, but the band also have plans for an overseas release. “We’re gonna release it in the US and the UK in March, next year, and then, hopefully.. Japan and Iceland.. the rest will fall like dominoes,” Dave trails off on his world domination plans again.

It seems like they’ve got everything worked out. Just to make sure they’re well prepared for any situation, I ask Dave which band member he would eat first if they were in a survival situation. “Can I say myself?” he asks. “I would sacrifice myself first.” How noble.

Look out for the band in a couple of weeks when they set off on their album tour, which, if all goes to plan, won’t be a tour you’ll want to miss. “We have this guy who’s helping us out with teching and stuff and he has a contact in the confetti cannon industry,” Rennick reveals, “So we’re thinking about getting some confetti cannons. I don’t know if that will really see the light of day but it’s something to look forward to nonetheless, even if it doesn’t exist.”

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