From Bonding In Isolation To Taking On The World - The Ever-Rolling Times Of DICE
Photo credit: Michael Tartaglia
Perth four-piece DICE have built up a solid buzz over the last three years. Catchy singles, major festival appearances, and an extensive national tour have set the stage for their debut album Midnight Zoo. In the nervous weeks leading up to release day, guitarist Tom King and bassist Regan Beazley caught up for a chat.
After the hustle and bustle of going through an airport, I found sitting down to negotiate a zoom call much more pleasant. Especially when the friendly faces and voices of Tom and Regan appeared. With travel on my mind, I asked them about their recent national tour. The intense run of fifteen shows in roughly three weeks seeming to be a positive experience.
‘The shows were some of the best we’ve ever played. On our end and on the crowd’s end,’ Tom stated. This seemed particularly true at regional shows, Tom continued, ‘They tend to get around it way more. They go a bit harder and drink a bit more and dance a little bit more.’ Regan had the chance to speak to some of the fans at these gigs, ‘The people coming up to you after the shows are always really appreciative that you made the effort to go the shows, and that’s pretty rewarding. It’s like why not? It’s what we’re doing for, have fun, meet people.’ Almost describing a modern country ball.
A feeling of anticipation came upon the conversation when I brought up the impending release of Midnight Zoo. Both expressing eagerness for the world to hear. Tom, ‘It feels wired to hold on to music for this amount of time, but I think it’s pretty special that we’ve been able to reflect on all the songs and make them exactly how we want them to be.’ Regan added, ‘it’s frustrating in a way having to hold on to it for so long and not being able to just release them and play them to people. Frustrating but also exciting. Getting a bit nervous now actually!’
Making a full-length album presented an opportunity to refine their sound and try a different creative approach. Regan explained, ‘we got to spend more time on the songs. We didn’t have many of the songs written before we started recording, so we were writing and recording as we were going. Some ideas we wrote, we gave them a couple hours, if they weren’t working, we threw them in the bin. Restarted, tried new stuff. So, we could be really selective about what songs we wanted to make and how we wanted to craft them. As opposed to in the past where you’ve only got one or two songs.’ The guitarist shared this sentiment, ‘We’d go into the studio not really with a plan; if we felt like writing, we’d write. Or if we felt like going back and adjusting something. So many riffs got re-recorded, even if it was just a slight change in the guitar tone.’
Through many late night writing and recording sessions, the remote Tone City Studios in Western Australia’s Southwest gained the nickname ‘The Midnight Zoo’, with Tom referring to it as a ‘second home’. Along with being a productive working environment, the isolation of the studio gave the band members much needed distraction from the world around them. Regan, ‘At different points of the whole process, everyone had their time going through some rough stuff at home, or in relationships or whatnot. So, it was a pretty cool escape being able to go there, turn off your phone if you wanted. Everything you needed was right there, we were all there. All we had to do make music, write it, and have a bit of fun.’ According to the pair, songs like Someday and Sunrise are indicative of these times.
In keeping with the theme of going bigger, the pair talked about their upcoming world tour; capitalising on airplay in the US, UK and Europe with a run of shows across the continents. Alone with an even bigger run around Australia, with dates in New Zealand. Tom still seemed to have some disbelief of it all ‘if you told us a year ago, let alone three years ago, we were going to do a trip around the world getting to play our music, we’d probably would’ve told you to get stuffed’ he said with a laugh.
With smiles and relaxed drawls after their Southwest sanctuary sabbatical, DICE seem well equipped with tunes to bop the world over. Midnight Zoo is out NOW!
The Midnight Zoo World Tour is also ON SALE NOW!