Toasty Tales Starring Tim in a Dappled City

Interviews can provide a great insight into one’s character, particularly when one considers the choice of interview location. Ladies and gentlemen, meet Tim Derricourt, guitarist and vocalist for Sydney expatriates and indie-pop darlings, Dappled Cities. It was surprising that as the initial platitudes of the interview were being exchanged, Tim confessed to me what he was actually doing. “I’ve just pulled some muffins out of the oven. I made lemon and blueberry. It’s a bit of a rare talent that I’ve discovered. But it’s making my day just shine.” You would be forgiven for thinking that a wholesome Tim was conscientiously baking away on a fine summer’s day. Little did you know that the preferred uniform of choice is a pair of purple Y-Fronts and that Tim is making them so he can bribe his way into a Bjork concert. Tim adds, “They’re going to be used to trick the security guards and, ah, they’re actually filled with rat poison”.

Dappled Cities have released two albums, A Smile and Granddance, respectively. No strangers to the touring circuit, the group’s live shows can be considered an experience, as they have previously utilised stunning visual effects like fairy lights, stuffed toys and confetti cannons. The band are currently at the early stages of a run of live dates that include the Big Day Out Festivals and LCD Soundsystem sideshows. In addition, they will embark on their own headline tour in February, including a show scheduled in Sydney on Valentine’s Day. Proving that the upcoming tour will be no less special than the predecessors, Tim notes, “On the upcoming tour I’m going to try – and this could be expensive, but I’ll source the people – but I’m going to try and get a series of glasses in which when you put them on, have love hearts (appear). If you look at the fairy lights with the glasses on, you get love hearts. (Because) if anything puts people in the mood for love, it’s Dappled. And special vision-impairing glasses”.

Dappled Cities were set to break a few hearts last year when they briefly left Australia for a stint overseas. During this foray in America, Tim was responsible for penning the band’s tour diary, a work brimming with hastily thrown together but extremely amusing anecdotes. For example, Tim wrote a few paragraphs that were a montage reiterating what had previously happened earlier in the diary, like the recap that occurs in the movie Footloose. Tim also wrote about re-enacting scenes from The Bodyguard, Transporter and Free Willy 2. This begs the question, if the band had to be represented in a movie, which one would it be?
“It would probably be White Men Can’t Jump or probably be represented by the character Rosie Perez. (Because) she’s daring but she’s also got a cautious side. Sometimes she gets inflamed but it’s always for the good of the greater”. So, what inflames Dappled Cities for the good of the greater? Tim quips, “Basketball. We’re obsessed with it and hustling. That’s fitting, and that’s why the movie is quite important to us”.

Dappled Cities do not need to gain notoriety purely via the film medium, as the band have their own Wikipedia biography that can be easily edited for the amusement of their global audience. When asked how he would change the group’s biography, Tim’s answer is a smart one. “Probably just more famous members like James Dean and Frank Zappa. And various political figures for the landscape, from the past ten years. I’d like to see them making an entrance…Lights by Alexander Downer. Dancing or lights, he does both”.

The logical next step would be for interpretative dancers to join Dappled Cities. “Well, actually we are currently working on a live – we wrote a song called ‘Holy Chord’ – and a live dance thing (is planned to take place) in Bankstown. A whole group of people are going to be doing a live dance to that. We’re going to be filming that and releasing it sometime over the next year. So there is actually interpretative dance happening as we speak…It’s definitely gone by the wayside since the eighties but we’ll bring that back”.

Eighties interpretative dance is not the only interest the boys have, as their MySpace page says they are influenced by The Beatles and Elvis Presley in addition to impersonators of the aforementioned artists. Reading this, I am curious about what Tim would consider the quintessential items required to be a Dappled Cities impersonator. Tim pauses to ponder this question and replies, “I guess you would need, firstly, a lot of body hair makeup and gel. You would need Y-Front purple underpants. Times five. You’d need a series of medieval instruments and just a generally positive attitude”.

As I ponder how purple Y-Fronts enable one to be positive and confess that I have not worn this particular item of clothing before, Tim adds, “Wait for the day. It’s life changing (laughs).” Now the interviewer has a mental image of Tim in a pair of purple Y-Fronts holding a steaming tray of muffins. Tim quips, “Well that’s the front cover of the magazine this month, I’ve heard”.

It goes without saying that Dappled Cities are the epitome of Australian larrikinism; despite the fact Tim, unlike the other members, was born in England. They are certainly not adverse to having a laugh at others and themselves. In one article Tim said that the group’s future plans included using wads of cash to set up an Internet clown-costume hire shop with all the profits going to starving children in small countries like New Zealand and then to meet Clint Eastwood. I am curious what their new future plans include and whether they have made any in-roads on their previous goals. Tim replies, “Funny you should ask that because just yesterday Clint called and said that that’s actually his future plan. He said that we actually ripped that off. He said, ‘I want to start that, and I want to meet Clint Eastwood.’ We were pretty confused so it’s actually just under review today. I can’t give away too much of our future plans but it definitely involves Mars exploration and repainting the entire planet gold. There’s nothing like repainting a planet a whole new colour”.

Those worried about any adverse effects that such an undertaking would have on the Dappled Cities’ carbon footprint are right to be worried. “We’ve tested it with various Mars rock and it actually isn’t very environmentally friendly but when you’re in the game of making a big statement, you’ve got to let some morals go by the side and just really aim for the biggest and best”.

Aim for the stars, quite literally, just as the band did when they went to America last year. Looking back, Tim is positive about this sojourn. “I think for me, the most enjoyable thing was being able to play every day in a new place. Often in Australia, especially for a band of our size, an indie band, you really only have to play the major city centres and a few regionals. Whereas in America you can play so many different cities. So it was just really, incredibly enjoyable to be able to play our music, heads apart and not feel like, ‘Oh, we’re back playing in this town again!’ It was a whole new town, a whole new experience and a whole new plate of food in front of us. That was, quite honestly, the highlight”.

For those wondering what the Dappled Cities rider contains, Tim offers, “Three science magazines from the eighties, an onion, some new Mars moon-rock and a cup of tea for my friend Darren”.

Friends, you can catch Dappled Cities at their upcoming shows and don’t forget to bring a plate (remember, muffins are the preferred choice of sustenance). And don’t forget to toast Tim’s friend, Darren, while simultaneously throwing a pair of purple Y-Fronts on the stage. I’m sure the loveable lads would enjoy that and could use it as fodder for their next tour diary. Stay tuned.

<emphasize>See Dappled Cities live at:</emphasize>
28 Jan 2008- Big Day Out. Melbourne, Victoria
31 Jan 2008- The Forum w/ LCD Soundsystem. Melbourne, Victoria
13 Feb 2008- Oxford Arts Factory Sydney, New South Wales
14 Feb 2008- Oxford Arts Factory Sydney, New South Wales
15 Feb 2008- East Brunswick Club Melbourne, Victoria
16 Feb 2008- The Zoo Brisbane, Queensland
22 Feb 2008- Radelaide Fringe Festival Radelaide, South Australia
8 Mar 2008- Playground Weekender. Wiseman’s Ferry, New South Wales

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