Adult DVD are dying to have a good time
Credit: Sandra Ebert
Adult DVD have made taking things less seriously into something of a serious pursuit. On their self-titled debut, out today via Fat Possum Records, the Leeds six-piece turn overheard nonsense, imagined characters and the indignities of everyday life into a high-BPM collision of synth-punk, acid house, and live-wire rock. Self-produced at The Nave Studios in Leeds, Adult DVD pushes everything the band established across their early releases further: the synths are bigger, the stories are stranger and, in their words, the record gets “more ridiculous and stupid” as it goes.
REVERIE caught up with vocalist Harry Hanson, synth player Greg Lonsdale and guitarist/synth player Danny Blackburn about the making of their debut, finding inspiration in confidently delivered bullshit, collaborating with NYC punks TVOD on their latest record, and their increasingly surreal rise from Leeds to Japan. We also learned what constitutes essential Adult DVD gear, contemplated a future moped gang, and received a remarkably detailed proposal for Greg's funeral.
REVERIE: Let’s start at the beginning – how did you all actually find each other in Leeds, and at what point did it become clear that this particular combination of people was the band? Where did the name ‘Adult DVD’ come from?
GREG: So, I’ll try and keep this one snappy as it’s not that exciting. I first met Harry when he used to work in the Brudenell behind the bar; we used to share a quick nod and an ' alright mate ’. I think then, just from living in Leeds and the bar scene, we got to know each other. Me, Danny, Jake and George were in one band and Harry and Johnny in another. I think we were all getting abit bored of playing guitar and wanted to create a more party atmosphere!
The name came from an illustration I did back in college when Danny had up in his studio. It was a simple line drawing of an adult DVD store.
REVERIE: There’s a really distinctive style developing across these songs, and you seem particularly drawn to writing these chaotic characters. What interests you about writing through other people rather than directly about yourselves?
HARRY: It’s purely a business plan; we can never run out of ideas cause everything is just made up. We also aren’t very confrontational people, so we can slate people in songs, and they’ll never know.
REVERIE: A lot of your humour also comes from very ordinary British settings. Do you think there’s something particularly revealing about people when you catch them in those mundane or slightly undignified moments?
GREG: I think for me it was listening to co-workers and colleagues of previous jobs, just spouting bullshit so confidently without any hesitation. There are a lot of people out there that’ll believe anything they’re told by a billionaire in a slim-fit suit.
REVERIE: When you look across the album as a whole, what were the ideas or subjects you found yourselves returning to most while writing it? Was there anything you only realized you were preoccupied with once the songs started accumulating?
HARRY: Me and Greg seem to both work the same with ideas; we both have a constant sketch show running in our separate small brains. Sort of things like ‘Imagine if that person fell over and landed in a pot of chilli, or if that dog started talking with a scouse accent’. So when it comes to writing about these characters or scenarios, we don’t really have to dig too deep. But for the album, we really wanted to take it up a notch; and by that I mean just get more ridiculous and stupid with the stories.
REVERIE: “Coffin Dodger” has this line, “Call me egotistical, I want to see my funeral,” which I love. There’s something funny and obviously very relatable about wanting to be a fly at the wall for the one event about yourself that you’re guaranteed to miss. Do you think your funeral would be a spectacle? Or do you think you’d hate it?
GREG: My funeral is going to be class. We’ll keep it cheap. So, a massive bonfire in some local park or supermarket car park, then I get wheeled in front of whoever is there in a wheelie bin by any of my mates that are still alive. Then we will have a speaker in the bin just playing pre-recorded screams to trick the crowd into thinking I could still be alive. There will be two cars with massive bungee cords attached to them so I can then be catapulted straight into the centre of the fire, in the wheelie bin of course! Oh, and there will be some refreshments or like just get a few pizzas in.
REVERIE: What were the reference points you were sharing with each other while making Adult DVD and/or forming the band? Not necessarily just other bands or records, but were there films, places, nights out, bits of internet culture or anything else that helped define the world you wanted the album to exist in?
GREG: Usually just porn links, it’s been made a lot harder now as we all have to have VPNs! The music is usually terrible in adult movies and can really ruin the vibe. There’s lots and highs and some more relaxed sections in adult films but everyone skips the chilled bits so that’s what we’ve done with the album, 100% intensity 100% of the time.
Only joking, I’ve never watched porn.
HARRY: yeah me neither, whats porn?
REVERIE: With three synth players in the band at various points, I’d love to know what your essential gear is for making your music, because the synths are top notch and it never sounds overcrowded.
HARRY: Unfortunately, it’s me and Greg you are chatting to here, and our knowledge is very limited with this stuff. We believe more is more, and if it was us two still just writing the music, everyone would have stopped listening years ago. That being said, we both swear by my 303 (Behringer one; we aren’t rich yet) and Greg’s Korg Minilogue that he's had since he was 2 months and 3 days old.
REVERIE: I want to ask about the album artwork: who made it, what are we actually looking at, and how did it come to represent this phase of Adult DVD for you?
GREG: So the guys that made it are Peter and Paul. They probably hate us as we’re absolutely useless at coming to a decision when it comes to artwork. But they absolutely smashed it; it’s created from 3D models that are linked to each song. If you can name them all, you can win all the shite in my basement, Signed!
REVERIE: Japan seems like it was a particularly surreal moment! Arriving halfway around the world to people wearing homemade Adult DVD merch, then watching clips from the shows reach millions of people. Was there a moment on that trip, or throughout Adult DVD’s career so far, where the scale of what was happening genuinely caught you off guard?
HARRY: Yeah, I mean if you sent the most intelligent person in the world to Japan, their mind would be truly blown. So imagine that for us 6 idiots. But seriously, though, it was truly life-changing; we met some amazing people, and those shows were some of our favourites. We would love to go back, and not just cause of the fancy toilets.
REVERIE: Danny, you recently worked with TVOD on The Farm, which is another record I’m loving a lot right now. What was it like working on that record, and how did you two join forces?
DANNY: It was so much fun. The TVOD guys are our best pals, so it’s always great to hang out, and such a pleasure to have them in the studio. In terms of the recording, it was a pretty different process to the DVD record. By the time a DVD track makes it to the studio, the song has been heavily produced and demoed. With TVOD, we were starting from scratch, tracking everything live. The only overdub on the latest single, “Bottomless Pit”, is a tambourine track, and that’s including the lead vocals.
Keep your ears peeled for cameo performances from those guys on our record.
REVERIE: Adult DVD has grown incredibly quickly before you’ve even released an album. Once this record is actually out in the world, what still feels like unexplored territory for the band? What's next?
GREG: Depends on how much money we make; I might get my midlife crisis over and done with and buy a motorbike, maybe start a gang called adult 1000cc, or maybe adult 100cc, and we all could have mopeds. Hopefully by that point we will have a driver and a van, so we could just meet him at the gig on our bikes. Could even get the bikes on stage and just rev the shit out of them as, like, an intro song.
