Features & Interviews
A cut above
 |
| DAGGERS: Play Darlington's Inside Out tomorrow night |
Daggers are aiming for
world domination through
the power of pop. Lauren
Pyrah talks to the
Manchester-based band
BEING invited by Gary
Numan to tour with him
and having Calvin Harris
help produce your album
would have most up-andcoming
electro-pop bands
pinching themselves. But for Daggers,
it's simply the launching pad for far
loftier ambitions.
"We are just in the process of getting
our album finished and then we want to
take over the world," 21-year-old
frontman Theo Hutchcraft, who is from
Richmond, but now lives in Manchester,
tells me. "That is the plan - to take over
the world. It has taken us two years to
take over one percent of it - in another
six months, we should get the other 99
per cent."
And, bearing in mind this is the man
who told the NME they are determined
to be "the biggest pop band from
Manchester since Take That," it's safe
to assume he's not joking. But one thing
is clear - Manchester and pop is where
any similarity between the two bands
ends. Fusing Eighties electro with edgy
rock, Daggers have created a
flamboyantly distinctive sound, which
the band likes to call "death pop".
"We have always been obsessed with
great British pop music, but we have
also been obsessed with stuff like Trash
and Muse. We are trying to merge the
two," said Theo, who formed the band
with guitarist Adam Anderson after the
pair met when trying to stop a fight
outside a nightclub between their two
groups of friends.
They added drummer Jamie Alsop,
21, and 23-year-old Scott Forster on
keyboards. The quintet was completed
when Sarah Beecroft, an old Richmond
friend of Theo's and long-time Daggers
fan, joined the band to replace a girl
keyboard player who had left.
Although Manchester-based, their
Darlington connections - Theo studied
at Queen Elizabeth Sixth Form College
and Sarah attended Polam Hall School -
ensure their gig at Inside Out, in
Beaumont Street, Darlington, tomorrow
night will be something of a
homecoming.
"I can't wait," said Theo. "It is
somewhere I used to go. It is a good
opportunity to show people we know
and people who went to my college
what we have been doing."
And they could hardly have picked a
better time. Fresh from touring with
Numan, the band are recording their
first album, which has attracted
interest from a number of acclaimed
producers including man-of-themoment
Harris, Richard X - who has
worked with artists including Depeche
Mode, New Order, Kelis and the
Sugababes - and industry veteran
Richard "Biff" Stannard, who wrote
hits for a plethora of pop bands
including the Spice Girls, East 17 and
Five.
"He (Numan) asked us to do it, which
is the most incredible thing in the
world. We love him - we even used to be
called Bureau, after one of his songs."
Numan came to watch them the
second night they played and had a
drink with them after his set. "He was
really nice, really humble and really
supportive," said Theo. If their
admiration of Numan is not enough to
confirm it, the band will most definitely
be sticking to their electro-pop roots.
"It is easy to write an average indie
song, but a great pop song is an art. It is
a whole different world," says Theo.
"I have always thought that pop's the
biggest thrill you can give someone - if
you can do it properly, it is the ability to
grab someone whether they like the
song or not. It is the most powerful form
of music invented."
5:34pm Thursday 3rd April 2008
Print 
Email this 
Comment
What are these links for?
If you liked this article and would like to share it with others on the web who might be searching for good content we've made it easy for you to do it.
At the bottom of all articles, you'll see links to six sites. These sites - commonly called 'social bookmark' or 'social news' sites - have large communities of web users who share and rate interesting, useful and fun things on the web.
Clicking the links will automatically add the address of the story you are reading to one of these sites, letting you share it with others. Each site will ask you to register to share stories. Registration is free and once a member, you can store, recommend and search for stories that interest you.
More on Digg
More on del.icio.us
More on Furl
More on reddit
More on NowPublic/
More on Yahoo!
