Introducing: Dear Acetate

November 10th, 2009 → 10:00 am @ scott

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Who are you?
Dear Acetate, based in the same Hertfordshire towns that have spawned the likes of Gallows and Friendly Fires, are Stee J on lead vocals, Shane on drums, Sonny on bass, Marc on guitar and Rob doing whatever else might be required – synths, more guitars, or eye-poppingly gnarly dancing.

How did you come together?
Marc and Shane were at uni together and chose to form a band upon leaving. Shane’s ability to drown out the sound of a rocket launch using just a snare drum impressed Marc, whose own willingness to play guitar chords not yet heard by man had been duly noted. Stee J, from Blackpool, was recruited in the hope his northern twang would bring good luck – it was early 2006 after all, and the Arctic Monkeys were on the verge of hitting the big-time.

Sonny was brought in at a later date to replace the original bass player, who had broken his wrist. Sonny had been a regular at early Dear Acetate shows, and was talked out of doing a clock-making apprenticeship so he could join the band full-time.

Rob is the most recent addition to the group after quitting his old band, who wore bright orange boiler suits and ridiculous makeup. Having someone with that sort of mentality was too intriguing a prospect to be ignored for the other DA lads.

What was your first gig like?
The first gig with this current line-up was at an outdoor music festival in Watford town centre on a scorching Saturday afternoon. Stee J had rushed back from Download festival that morning to play the show, and rushed back to Download festival immediately afterwards! Marc broke a string, went temporarily blind when his glasses fell off and then swore loudly into his mic. Shane was itchy, having just had a batch of new tattoos administered. Sonny wore a hat. Rob pulled a fat Irish girl afterwards. The music went down a treat though, as a large number of people were spilling out of a nearby pub to come and jive along to our guitar-driven dance-rock!

What plans do you have for the next six months?
We’ve just spent a long while recording our debut album, Lost Days & Nights, which was mastered by the legendary Ray Staff – his past credits include Led Zeppelin, the Clash and Muse, to name but a few. So we’re about to release this record, get a load of shows booked and haul ourselves off round the country to promote it. We also plan to integrate several untruths about Sonny in as many publications as we can possibly muster before he notices and makes us stop.

How would you like the band to be remembered?
As pioneers of the do-it-yourself music revolution: our debut album is entirely self-produced (engineered by Shane in his studio) and will be released and promoted exclusively by us, without the help of a record label. As well as entertaining with our music, if we can go some way to showing others that they too can make a record without feeling they need to get signed by a major, then we’ll be all smiles.

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