2010 Apr 29 Dan Coop is Ready for Crowd Surfing: Does It Offend You?
"...the band has progressed into something a bit harder and more serious."
Dan Coop masters the synthesizer for British dance rock group Does It Offend You, Yeah? (DIOYY), as well as being one of the founding members along with lead vocalist/bassist James Rushent. The band name comes from a line overheard from The Office UK (one of the very first things David Brent said to the receptionist, I've watched it too many times - Ed.). Three years later, these Reading-based synth rockers have released their debut You Have No Idea What You're Getting Yourself Into (2006), and currently working on a second album called Don't Say We Didn't Warn You. We talk to him ahead their tale of three Chinese cities (Shanghai, Beijing and Chengdu) in May.
the Beijinger: At first I thought that was an exclamation mark after “yeah”, so I felt your band name sounded like a conversation in one’s own head, do that ever happen to you, or even quite often?
Dan Coop: Not really, maybe if I was drunk, maybe!
tbj: Now I just found out it was a question mark, so it made sense then…
DC: Good it's meant to be read more as a question.
tbj: Since you got the band name from The Office, so The Office or Little Britain? Ricky Gervais or Matt Lucas?
DC: Little Britain is pretty crap. All the jokes are just catchphrases repeated ad nauseam. The show got very boring very quickly. Whereas The Office is more true to life and you can genuinely meet people like that in offices all over England. The writing is so much better than anything Matt Lucas could come up with!
tbj: “You Have No Idea What You're Getting Yourself Into”, what am I getting into?
DC: You'll get a good taste of where are heads were at about three years ago. We've moved on quite away since then and the band has progressed into something a bit harder and more serious.
tbj: “Don't Say We Didn't Warn You”, what will happen if I ignore your warnings?
DC: You'll miss out on hearing what it sounds like! We're very excited about it and I hope that the album is out later this summer!
tbj: What is it like to be living in Reading?
DC: Reading is a pretty sleepy place and only has the main festival as it's big event in the calender. There are nice areas and not so nice areas like all towns. But thankfully the good areas are more prevalent.
tbj: What have been you been growing up listening to?
DC: We all really like bands such as Rage Against The Machine, Nirvana, The Prodigy and Portishead. But we all like all manner of different types of music. We don't limit ourselves into just listening to the same stuff all the time.
tbj: I read that James Rushent broke his ankle after a gig in LA in 2008, how did that happen?
DC: We were getting towards the end of the set, and James stood on a monitor speaker and then he stumbled and twisted his leg in between a microphone stand. I think he may have had too many beers.
tbj: Is true that you still played the encore after that?
DC: Well, I convinced him that he had only twisted his ankle and he thought he was fine to go back on, so we got him a stool to sit on for the last song!
tbj: Anything you have done differently after that incident?
DC: No we still rock out on stage, I go crowd surfing quite a lot if the crowd are up for it.
DIOYY rock Beijing on Stawberry Music Festival on May 1 (more festival details here). RMB 80. 7pm (Strawberry Stage). Tongzhou Canal Park. Then they will fly to Chengdu for Zebra Music Festival on May 2 (more festival detals here). RMB 80. 10pm (Earth Stage). Poly 198 Park.
You might also be interested in :
Alexei Perry Cox in Conversation with Jamie Stewart of Xiu Xiu
Editor's Note: For people who were at the Strawberry Music Festival last year, you probably remember the absence of American experimental rock band Xiu Xiu (or were you too busy drinking from coconuts, man that tasted good). Well, this year they are scheduled again for Tongzhou Canal Park on May 3, and our guest writer Alexei Perry Cox (member of Canadian electro rock duo Handsome Furs) called the Xiu Xiu frontman Jamie Stewart before their trip to Beijing's eastern suburb. Here goes...
This being my first interview, I realized I should likely buy a Dictaphone to be able to record the event instead of trying to read through my lazy childish scrawl penmanship. I bought one that uses full-size cassette tapes and when I returned home my husband tenderly teased me about being so out of date. The minor task of recording while on speaker phone, the unintentional luddite that I am, had me on my toes so when I called Jamie and he said, “I’ll call you back in literally three minutes; I’m fixing something on my car,” I wondered if he could sense my unease about potential technical complications. But it went smoothly…
Alexei Perry Cox
Three-Year Trip: Acid Jazz Pioneers Talk Flashbacks
This month, Acid Live celebrates three years as Beijng’s pioneering acid jazz outfit. In those three years they’ve made an indelible imprint on the music scene in Beijing with their live shows becoming famed across the land. As they come of age (in dog years) and get ready for their big birthday bash, they reveal just how acerbic they’ve become down the years.
Q&A: International Day Against Homophobia
The International Day Against Homophobia (May 17) was established in 2003 to generate awareness of unjust treatment and discrimination based on sexual orientation. In 2009, Tongyu (Common Language) made Beijing the first city in mainland China to celebrate IDAHO. We talked to local program director Karen Liao about how we can all rally behind the cause and join in on the festivities.
In the Beijinger Galleries: A Festival Snapshot
May has been the month of the music festival. Whether you want to see what you missed or find out the latest festival style, we’ve got a glimpse of some of the latest galleries below.
The Lure of The Jungle: Junglemico First Birthday Party
Founder and drummer Liu Wei and his bandmates in the Junglemico Project use traditional rock instruments to jam on the kind of dubstep, deep techno, and brake rhythms usually spun on sterile turn tables. It may not seem natural to give those glitchy, modern genres an analogue twist. But Liu Wei (aka Mico) says there was no easier way for him to evolve as a musician.
