The Dunwells
The Dunwells have been making waves with their lives gigs over the last year and now they are about to release their debut single I Could Be King - which has a great video that you should check out.
I caught up with Joseph to talk about the single, the debut and hitting the road in the States.
- I Could Be King is the new single that is about to be released so what can we expect from the new record?
There is a positive message behind most of the album and we put out I Could Be King out as the first single because it is one of the most positive and upbeat songs that we had. So we wanted to go out there with that vibe really.
- It’s a really empowering song with a great video - a montage of iconic moments and people throughout history so how did that come about?
It was really just talking about where we could be and what we could do and then we were speaking to our management in American and they came up with this idea which we thought was just perfect.
It was just everything that we wanted to achieve really - if we strive to achieve a goal then we are destined to get there at some point in our lives.
- So how have you found the fans' response to the single and the video?
The video has been up for about two months now and it has had over a thousand hits. The single has also done really well, I haven’t got the figures, but it has done well.
We also had a video beforehand for the single, which was more of a studio video, and that had over 12,000 hits on YouTube. So yeah it has been doing well.
- And when you watch that video which moment particularly stands out as an important one for you personally?
Being English the World Cup in ‘66 hopefully that could happen again, I am a big football fan. It’s when it has the pause and the breakdown in the middle and it says ‘this could be man’s finest hour’ I really believe that you can do something special within one moment of your life.
- The single comes from your debut album Blind Sighted Faith so is the rest of the album as upbeat as the first single - what can we expect from the rest of the record?
It has got that positive message and while it is quite an upbeat album it is not popy - if you understand me?
The five of us are really happy with the lyrics and the words and the message that we are trying to get across in the rest of the eleven tracks that will be coming on the album. We have got Borrow Me on there as a bonus track and that is a really happy track.
- You mix acoustic sounds and harmonies with an electric vibe so how would you describe the sound of your music?
It’s very harmony based as you have just said but it is emotional music that has an edge to it. They are stories at the end of the day, whether we have been through the songs or if they are fictional stories. So yeah I would say that it is emotional music with a bit of an edge to them.
- It's produced by multi Grammy winner John Porter so how did that come around?
We got signed by our record company in America and they said that they wanted to get us out there as soon as possible to record the album. So we went round looking for producers and doing some research - Dave Dunwell really like Ryan Adams so we looked into who produced his record and John Porter’s name came up.
So we did some research into him and we found that he was born in Leeds and he was in California at the time, so it was quite easy for him to fly over from California to Texas; which is where we were at the time.
So it was like one he is from Leeds, two he has produced Dave’s favourite album and three he is America already and it just seemed to fit.
- So how did you find working with him? And what sort of influence did he have on the album?
He let us get on with what we were doing but he was a genius in the same sense because if he did have a point that could really chance the song or take a song from average to genius he would step in.
I think that the input that he did have on the album he did change little bits and make it as dramatic as it could be.
- You also recorded at the Willie Nelson's Pedemales Studio so how was that experience?
It was one of the best experiences ever. We were there for three weeks and it was 106 degrees every day but we were inside in nice air conditioning. It was just a really comfortable environment to record the album - it was inspiring really.
We were all quite nervous because we had never recorded an album in America and in such a prestigious area but when we walked in these beautiful mics were all set up, the engineer was there and so was John Porter and from the word go it was like ‘let’s crack on and make something special’.
Me and Dave took out golf clubs out there as there was a course just next door so it was just perfect really.
- The band is also going to be heading to Manchester to perform at HMV's Next Big Thing event so what can we expect from the live performance?
Lots of energy. We play the songs a bit differently live than they are on the album they are a little more in your face and with bags of energy. We just want to be as entertaining as possible really.
- This is great exposure for the band so how excited are you ahead of the gig?
Oh yeah we are definitely excited - we leave for the U.S. just after that so it’s like we leave on a really big high with such a big brand name putting their name with ours.
We leave England and let it mull over and then when we come back to England we will still have that status behind us to come back to.
- You performed in the pubs in your home town of Leeds before you were signed so how did that prepare you?
I think it has just prepared us for the longevity for what we are going to be doing. We had a combination of gigs; me solo, Dave solo, Dave and me and Johnny so it was never all five of us together all of the time.
I was gigging seven nights a week in local pubs and I think that it has just prepared my voice for long term gigging.
- As you said you and the band are also set to tour the States so how have you found the response to your music over there?
We are doing really yeah. We don’t know what the response is overall but we see little things on Facebook as people leave messages.
But we had a message off out manager the other day saying that we were being played on drive time radio in California and we were like ‘this is great’ - so we are sat having a cup of tea at 3pm and our record is being played at 9am in California which is just unreal.
- Finally what's next for you?
I don’t really know (laughs) I just get told what to do. We have out first tour in America staring the 22nd and we are headlining Folk Alliance Festival, which is where we got signed last year. And we will be hitting in the road in the UK at some point this year.
FemaleFirst Helen Earnshaw