The Microdance is a protean animal: a band conceived with a vision to encapsulate the most exciting elements of alternative music, all under the bonnet of one super-charged vehicle. TMD’s music has been described as a quickening blend of shoegaze, alt rock, new wave, dream pop, psychedelia and heavy metal. But the truth is that there is no stylistic limit to their capabilities. We caught up with the band to see how they formed, what inspires them and what they are up to:
How did the band form and what does the band name mean?
The band as a concept was a thing way before there was a band in earnest. In 2007, I released an EP called 'Here Ride to the Stars'. Off the back of that, I put together The Microdance LE (Light Edition) which was just my long term collaborator Bridget Walsh on synths and backing vocals and me. I think the bona fide band formed in 2011 - from thereon, I must've been through at least a dozen members and kept the band together for a maximum of one year at a time!
We're not Oasis, you can't join the band and learn a set in a week and I think the tiresome effort of getting things peak level is too much for people who'd rather be reaping the rewards of relatively less effort in much less time.
The name refers to a dance I used to do to the outdo of Clarke Gabel by The Postal Service in which I did the smallest movements possible in time with the music. I've had better band names, but this one stuck.
Previous musical projects? How'd you first get into music?
Three bands before The Microdance: Plumebelly, Apolune Jack and Beauty on the Wireless. Some songs from which can be heard on our 'Pre Our Love Noire Discography' over at www.themicrodance.bandcamp.com, songs I wrote and recorded when I was 19 - some 23 years ago - which I think stand up to most of what I've done with The Microdance.
That's 48 songs for just £5! While we're on the subject of bandcamp (sorry if this is not germane to your question!), we have 40 songs there that aren't available on Spotify - all 34 songs released before 'New Waves of Hope' our new EP, 'Urgency in Dead Air' and a cover of Catherine Wheel's Black Metallic as a b-side for the '1,000 deathnotes' single. Does anyone know what a b-side is these days?!
As far as getting into music, my auntie bought me Purple Rain (the album) when I was four and from the point on, I knew what it was like to be obsessed and I still am by Prince.
First concert that you ever went to?
I think Prince when I was about 8 - although by that point I'd been to a few operas and seen a few orchestras with my parents.
What's your writing process like?
Well sometimes it's super prescriptive on a compositional level - 'New Waves of Hope' was like that - everything meticulously mapped out (that album featured Nicole Fiorentino of the Smashing Pumpkins and Veruca Salt on backing vocals and Eric Gardner of Iggy Pop, Morrissey, Cypress Hill, Tegan and Sara, Moby, Tom Morello on drums).
Other times it's more stream of consciousness, written on the fly, improvised when demoing. 'Our Love Noire' and 'Urgency in Dead Air' were mostly done like that.
I'm always prescriptive when it comes to mood, tones, drum parts though - so much so that I'll give a drum reference for every two bars of a song and make notes like 'I want that three second guitar part to sound like Bloodflowers by The Cure'.
What other artists or songs inspire your music?
As far as influences go - so many and for so many reasons - I'm inspired by Smashing Pumpkins, Soundgarden, Pearl Jam The Cure, New Order, Silverun Pickups, Flock of Seagulls, Kate Bush, Holy fawn, Death Cab and loads more when it comes to writing.
Other things I love but don't make it as much into my music inspire me because I want to make music that I love as much as I do those artists - Prince, Hendrix, Pantera, Aphex Twin, Postal Service, Dylan, Van Morrison, Rachmaninoff to name a few.
And then there's the extreme stuff - a lot of black metal which inspires me to continue making music with unbridled passion. Behmoth, Akhylis, Panopticon, Woods of Desolation among many others - in support of a little known independent band, I highly recommend Misertus. This stuff is mostly Satanic (which is a bit silly), but the conviction with which its written and played is over the top spellbinding! I don't want to be one of those artists whose music loses its power, who gets comfortable with what they've put out and starts releasing comparatively anodyne stuff.
What's the live experience like and your philosophy on playing live? Do you think the music live should be identical to the recorded version or should it be it's own thing?
I wish the band had had a stint long enough for me to really develop the live thing. I love the way Smashing Pumpkins do crazy 25 minute versions of six minute songs, but that takes a hell of a lot of rehearsing and application, preferably with a band that's been together for longer than six months.
Has the band toured? What has the touring experience been, best shows?
Nope! In 2015 just after we'd released 'New Waves of Hope', off the back of the love the record was getting, we had a US tour lined up with one of my favourite bands, Silversun Pickups. Then something monumentally difficult and dark happened in my life (the kind of thing that probably happens to one in every 100,000 people!) and I wasn't able to gig, let alone tour.
It's one of my biggest regrets that the band didn't get out there enough, my anomalous life just got in the way.
Best shows?
We've played some shows where people have told me that we're the best live band they've seen. When that magical, zen moment of all the intricate details of the songs coalesce perfectly and there's this magical Gestalt effect, that's a gratifying gig.
Mostly we're, but when we're not, we really aren't!
worst shows?
A single release for our song 'The Ride Today' - basically we had a miasma of feedback (the sound engineer probably wasn't used to that much delay, reverb and modulation), the audience were probably thinking 'is this noise supposed to be songs?' I stopped the show several times and we didn't even play the single.
Our drummer left the band that night because of my behaviour - the show must go on, but it didn't!
What's up next for the band?
Difficult to say - things are at a low ebb at the moment. Spotify plays are so low that you'd think our music is terrible! There is no band, so it's just solo gigs at the moment, I've gone from being in a band that had top promoters begging us to play for them to me on my own, playing one gig in three years and struggling to get any shows. Apparently, I'm not psyche or shoegaze enough for all the genre obsessed promoters!
I love playing solo, I try not to sound like a typical singer songwriter - things get intense and heavy and I get to pick from a lot more songs because as mentioned before, there's not that meticulous slog to get them down, also it's a pleasure knowing that any cock ups are my own! But it just isn't the way to promote the band and our kaleidoscopic music!
I guess I've just got to blow the dust off the whole thing and do what I need to do, but it's going to take a lot of energy, willpower and currently elusive conviction to do that!
You know, I've got 300 songs, it'd be a shame to not get them out into the torrid landscape that is the musical world!
Insta: @themicrodance
Facebook: The Microdance