Good Gig Chats: The Danger Dolphins

Ahead of their Friday gig at the city basement bar, Lowlife, The Danger Dolphins open up about their forthcoming EP, Jam Factory, the euphoria of jam sessions and how to handle the pressure of self-producing

We’re stoked to see you’re playing Lowlife this Friday! What should punters expect?

Zac: We go pretty hard. For anyone who hasn’t seen us play before, you’ll get two guys getting all of their feelings out on stage. We get into it, and I feel like that energy goes out into the crowd to create a feedback loop, which is pretty awesome. It’s high energy. 

You’ve invited The Sundials and The Limerents to warm up the crowd. How do they add to the vibe of the gig?

Zac: It’ll be a good build into a pretty hefty sound. I think they fit us for different reasons. The Sundials have a very vintage tone, whereas The Limerents are very stripped back. It’s good to have contrast, but also a lot of what we did started with folk music so we’d like to keep that in mind and play with artists with similar mindsets. 

Why did you choose Lowlife as the venue?

Nick: It’s a groovy little spot! The whole Rhino Room building is awesome and very nostalgic – I spent a lot of time going there to see gigs but also for Transmission nights back in the day. We played downstairs at Lowlife a while ago and it was a really fun experience. 

You’re on the cusp of releasing your third EP, Jam Factory. It stems from a series of jam sessions between the two of you. What inspired this focus? 

Zac: [The Danger Dolphins] started with us messing around — Nick started playing the drums because of the band; I never really played rock ‘n’ roll music on guitar before as I was doing a lot of folk stuff. But we realised that we linked up on loving the blues and how it’s very jam-heavy – you get to sit in the groove and have fun with it. You’re very free to play what you want and that expanded our sound.  

Nick: Once we realised that we had that ability and started jamming on stage, in front of crowds, that was pretty cool. We felt we had unlocked a deeper skill and wanted to create music using it [on Jam Factory]. 

How have you found jamming has fine-tuned your sound and approach to music? 

Zac: I think you force yourself to be better. When you’re recording improvisation, you have to fully commit to everything you play. And the more you play, the more you find sounds you lean towards. There’s a lot of bluesy tones through [the EP], some of it’s a bit psychedelic too. We’re finding that’s where our heads go when we turn on the amp and Nick sits down on the drums. [Jam Factory] is old school. It’s real and it’s raw —it’s what we set out to achieve. 

You produce all your own music. How do you find switching between your position as an artist and your position as a producer? 

Zac: Having complete creative control [over our music] is interesting because it means you can nitpick every step. But the better you get [at producing], the better you are at keeping to the image in your head — the vision of what you think the music should be. Whereas when you work with a producer, you can only explain so much.

Nick: When you’re producing, you have to go full executive mode and make decisions about the overall sound and direction, which can be really tricky sometimes. That can bleed into your personal feelings as a musician. If you deliver a vocal take that you think wasn’t entirely there, how do you step away from that? Because you’re spending so much time with it, playing it over again and again and again, there’s a lot of chances to second guess yourself. But when you have the support of someone else in a band, you can move beyond that and aim for something higher — total creative control – which is very freeing.

The Danger Dolphins gigs have a potent sound and are pretty high-octane. When did it click that you wanted to become an engaging live act? 

Zac: As soon as we started the band, it was always our goal. We wanted to achieve something with the band and that meant ticking all the boxes – one of those being live shows. It’s that use of dynamics – going from those quiet, sprawling areas into something that’s just intense noise. It draws you in. As an audience member, you don’t know what to expect anymore. It’s exciting. And that’s what inspires us – we want that excitement in shows. 

Sounds like Friday night will be very exciting! Are there any teasers from Jam Factory in your set list? And when can we expect to hear the record in full? 

Zac: You’ll hear ‘Touch My Soul’, which is unreleased from the EP, and we’ve actually re-written ‘Growing Pains’ from our second EP, Heavy Buzz Bad Blues. As for Jam Factory, you’ll hear it on August 2. We’ll be playing a launch gig at Jive on Saturday (August 3), the day after we’ve released it! 

Catch The Danger Dolphins play alongside The Sundials and The Limerents this Friday, June 21, at Lowlife Basement Bar. Tickets are available here.

Image credit: Tiah Trimboil and Gavinssnapshots