Dancing Years are currently getting ready to release their new single We Danced Last Night. We caught up with them to find out a bit more.
Can you introduce yourself and tell me a little about the band?
My name is Joe Montague, I play drums for Dancing Years who are a five piece band from Leeds.
How did you get started?
Following a few incarnations and lineup changes the five piece that is now Dancing Years was started 2 years ago. Joe (piano), David (vocals/guitar) and Dan (electric guitar) are friends from school; they then met Dom (violin) at uni and met me through the music scene in Leeds.
You recently released a video for your track We Danced Last Night – what’s the response been like so far?
Really positive!
What’s the story behind the video?
The song is about a couple dancing in their kitchen to the radio after a long day, so we wanted to film as many of our friends and family as we could dancing around in their kitchens. We ran it through a VHS player to make it look like it was an old home video.
Why did you choose that song to make a video for?
Because it’s our next single, out on 1st December.
Are you working on any more new material? If so, would you say it’s a good representative of what to expect with it?
Yea, we spent the last month writing in a barn in a village just outside Leeds and we did a bit of writing for a couple of weeks in Sweden just before the summer. I think the new material is a good progression from our previous material and we are still experimenting with how to put the songs together. Some of it is a little different and some still retains the same qualities of our existing tracks.
What has been your best experience in the business?
We love being in the studio, we are all getting into recording and we’re excited about having some time to explore a more creative side in the studio. We are currently on tour in Europe with Boy & Bear who are from Australia and touring with those guys in March and again this autumn has been really special, we are very thankful!
And what’s the hardest thing about being in the business?
The hardest thing at this stage I guess is finding a balance with everything, so finding the time to write, rehearse and tour as well as spending time with friends and family, it’s a difficult balance but touch wood it feels like it’s working at the moment.
What inspires you?
A lot of the songs are written about experiences in daily life. David and Joe are the main songwriters and they seem to have a great knack for being inspired by simple things and turning them into something evocative and special.
Who are your role models and idols?
We have a pretty broad range of listening tastes; from the likes of Richard Hawley and Leonard Cohen to Feist, Sam Amidon and then bits of jazz like Chet Baker and Frank Sinatra.
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