Band of the Day: Dopamine

Your last one of the working week, and today we have the band who used to be called Slowtalk…

Simple things first – where are you guys from ?

We are from Salisbury, UK.

How did you meet ?

Olly put an advert for musicians to form a band around 5 years ago and Jonny, who plays bass, got in touch and we hit it off straight away with our influences and taste and we have been in the band since. After a few complications with a couple of drummers over the years, we asked Chris, who we both knew, whether he would like to come onboard and that’s was nearly 2 years ago. We are 3 good friends that love making music.

How long have you been playing as a band ?

Us 3 have been playing together for about 2 years now

Before you get sick of being asked…..where does the band name come from?

We used to be called Slowtalk, but after Chris joined we wanted a fresh start so we decided to rename the band. We were practicing one night and after we had finished the set, Jonny said, “well that raises the dopamine levels!”….we thought that’s cool let’s call ourselves Dopamine!

What are your influences?

We have so many between us but to name a few, Kings of Leon, Foo Fighters, Band of Skulls, Placebo, Black Angels, Willy and the Bandits, Queens of The Stone Age, My Morning Jacket, Royal Blood.

Describe your music. What makes you unique?

A cross between hard and soft rock, with a bit of blues and Americana thrown in there, pretty much sums it up. We all have our influences and as we love so many genres we write what we love. Our first single for example is a riff laden hard rock, punky track and our new single is more melodic rock. A gruff type vocal is always present, but we focus on the songwriting first and foremost and the rest just happens.

Do you have any particular lyrical themes?

Cliche to say relationships and love, but it’s an emotion that needs to be expressed! We all have that heartbreak that lingers and I guess it’s therapeutic to talk about it anyway you can. We also focus on the world today and how messed up the times we live in are, which can make you feel out of place and sometimes you question your self worth and mental health.

What’s your live show like? How many shows have you played?

Loud! We are a 3 piece so we use guitar effects and drum and bass hooks so that any space is filled. We always want to portray to the audiences that we are serious about our music but that we have fun doing it as that’s so important. We have played many many shows over the years. Our recent ones were at Great Escape Festival in Brighton and at Byline Festival.

What’s the wildest thing youv seen or done at a live show?

Not exactly wild, but at Byline Festival a gent came over to us at the end of our set and said he sees a lot of bands and has been on tour a lot of his life with his brother’s band and that we were one of the best he has seen for a while, which blew us away and it turned out his brothers band was The Vapors!…I think I’m turning Japanese!

What kit do you use / guitars do you play/ etc?

I use a fender tele blacktop and jazz master for our shows as they both have that punch and run it through a fender blues deluxe reissue for that bluesy heavy tone when you run distortion through it. Jonny uses a fender bass and has an old Ashdown amp that is a monster. Chris has quite a custom kit as he loves tinkering with it to get it as crisp and full as possible.

What, if anything, are you plugging/promoting at the moment?

We have just released our new single “Epiphany” and it’s been great getting the feedback from people.

What are your plans for 2019?

Gig as much as we can and release more music. We are based in the south of the UK and want to swamp the scenes in Bournemouth, Southampton, Bristol London etc as well as a festival in May and just get our fanbase growing as much as we hope we can.

If you were second on a three band bill, which band would you love to be supporting and which band would you choose to open for you?A chance to plug someone you’ve toured with, or a mate’s band we’ve not heard of before!

Would love to support the Foos as they are just royalty really! To open I would say Band of Skulls as they are just incredible at what they do and they would definitely rev us up and inspire us to go for it!

Dopamine: facebook | twitter| soundcloud

Subscribe
Notify of
guest

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.

0 Comments
Inline Feedbacks
View all comments