Dear readers, we are pleased to offer you in this article an interview with a French band that mixes Prog, Krautrock and Noise sounds. We welcome D L G Z.
Hi, how are you?
“Busy. Which is usually a good thing.“
What is the meaning of the name of your band D L G Z?
“The four letters “D L G Z” are basically our original name “daddylonglegz” stripped down to its bare minimum. When we started the band in the early 2000’s, we found out after a while that there were several other bands that had a similar name. We didn’t really mind at first but it led to a bit of confusion on a couple of occasions in terms of advertising and so forth. So we decided we had to change our name. We’re only just starting to get used to it.“
Your sound incorporates elements of Prog, Kraut and Noise Rock, where does your passion for this music come from and what are your sources of inspiration?
“That’s a hard one. It isn’t easy to tell when and how exactly the different influences we have actually start to emerge. Sometimes, while composing, we might, at some point, refer to a band or the other, be it Tortoise, Nick Cave, the Pixies, Steve Reich or Ennio Morricone or whoever. But it only happens quite rarely. In fact, this stuff is mainly subconscious. We are not trying to sound like any one in particular really. We don’t even specifically come from prog, kraut or noise rock. That is just a way to describe what our music sounds like in the end. From an early age, we had an interest for a large variety of music genres. One led us to the next, in a disorderly fashion. It would be hard to make a relevant list. You could probably say that all of the band members started off as rock music fans as teenagers and then over the years moved on to dub music, jazz, hip-hop, electronic music, post rock, minimal music and so on. It’s a sort of an infinite spiral. If we had to name a few of the many musicians and bands that we enjoy listening to, we could mention Fugazi, Horse Lords, Ornette Coleman, OOIOO, Jaimie Branch, My Bloody Valentine, King Gizzard, Deerhoof, Philip Glass, Soul Coughing, Penguin Café, Finom, Chicago Underground, Amiina, Francis et ses Peintres, Dose One, Sam Amidon, Colin Stetson, Moondog, Grand Veymont, Black Country New Road, Kahil el Zabar, Shabaka Hutchings, Robert Wyatt, Jesca Hoop, Godspeed You!, Bad Plus, Moses Boyd, Mike Oldfield, Orchestre Tout Puissant Marcel Duchamp, Madlib, Marc Ribot, Aquaserge, pretty much everything that Thrill Jockey, International Anthem, Constellation, or Araki put out, our friends from Monsieur Thibaut, Idiot Saint Crazy, TOC, and so many others. The list goes on forever.“
The new album ‘Setbacks & Reversals’ was released on November 17, 2023, how would you describe this work?
“Long awaited. Probably our best work so far.“
Both the music and the vocals are intense and sophisticated, what themes do the lyrics deal with?
“The lyrics are torn between feelings of despair and hope, love and rage. Mostly, they revolve around a disillusioned view of the world.“
Intense instrumental textures with a modern and personal approach, how does the creation of your music take place?
“There are basically three phases. The first ideas are usually suggested by David (guitar) who composes most of the material we work on. That’s the first phase. Then, the tracks come into shape through rehearsals with all five musicians. That’s the second phase. Then comes a sort of a polishing phase, usually after recording. At that point, David takes back control. Sometimes the music goes through radical changes in the process and you can hardly recognize the initial idea, and sometimes we just stick to the original plan. There is one thing that has never changed throughout the years: we are rather slow. We tend to take a lot of time to get to a point where we are satisfied with the result. You might call it perfectionism. It’s something we have had to fight against every now and then.“
You have released a few singles from the album, do you have any more planned?
“We released three singles: Bunker Up, All Those Witches, and last but not least, Words come Out All Wrong. We weren’t sure we should make a single out of that particular track because it’s a 10mn long song, and we were afraid it might put people off. But it’s one of our favourite tracks on the album. The album itself is now officially released. We are about to release a video clip of All Those Witches directed by Kiki Bronx. We also have a live session that has been shot a while ago that will be released in due time.“
Your music is elaborate and engaging, will there be a chance to hear it live in the near future?
“Well, we have had a release party on Friday November 24th in our home town of Lille (France) with a band from Dunkirk that we like a lot, called Idiot Saint Crazy. It went well. Great crowd. Lots of old faces. Some new ones too. There should be gigs here and there in the upcoming months and hopefully a proper tour in 2024. Nothing is quite confirmed yet. We would be thrilled to have a chance to play in Italy by the way. Never did so far. Any tips?“
You have been on the music scene for several years, how has your sound evolved over time?
“In a way, when we started, we had a hard time sorting out our intentions and deciding what to do with the wide spectrum of our influences. But gradually, little by little, we seem to have managed to make sense of it all. The general mood and composition patterns also became less naive over the years.“
What advice would you give to young artists approaching music with a more sophisticated sound like yours?
“Listen to as much music as you can, don’t believe in boundaries in music.“
Music is constantly evolving, how do you see the present and the future of your genre?
“Things have changed quite a bit since we started. Especially with regard to the way music is shared and listened to (we are old enough to still have piles of old copied cassettes and burnt CDs stored away). We are not too fond of how the quality of artists tends to be measured by the quantity of ‘likes’ it gets on social media. That probably makes us dinosaurs. What hasn’t changed is that there are still plenty of passionate musicians everywhere who just decide to do their own thing. I don’t suppose that it is going to change any time soon.“
Do you have any other activities or artistic passions outside music?
Music, graphic arts and music. And music of course. And also music.“
I thank D L G Z for the interview, wishing them all the best for the continuation of their artistic carriers.