Miniature Dinosaurs
Get used to the name Miniature Dinosaurs.
It's a brilliant name, but that doesn't matter. Miniature Dinosaurs are one of the bright young things in Scottish music, nominated for prizes at both last and this year's Scottish Alternative Music Awards.
So before the release of their latest single Lemonade, we chatted to bassist and lyricist Alban Dickson about the song, the upcoming EP and what it's like to be compared with David Bowie.
Tell us a little bit about Lemonade.
Lemonade is the next single from Miniature Dinosaurs, were a Scottish indie-pop band and it's coming off out next EP Turn It On which is going to be released later this summer. The video for Lemonade just came out about a week ago and we've fad some really positive feedback for that so far.
So the video looked like it was a whole bunch of fun to make, how was it on the other side of the camera?
It was fantastic. It was a really long day but it was one of these projects which was really good fun. I mean, we didn't know any of the extras or any of the crew, but it's one of these great bonding experiences.
Everyone had a fantastic laugh backstage as I'm sure you'd expect and there's so many costumes and different props involved, there's never a dull moment when your waiting around in the green room waiting to do your own shot. but it was a fantastic group of people and it was great fun to do the video with them, hopefully that came through on the final product as well.
So, why lemonade?
It's really just describing one of those awkward moments when you're going out for a drink with someone and suddenly you disclose that you're the designated driver and it just puts up that massive barrier over something as simple as a choice of drink, so it's just y'know a personal observation I've made.
It's a bit of fun really, but it's one of those things that's catchy and leaves a quite a lasting impression.
You guys were nominated for Best Live Act at the SAMAs this year, so how do you make your live shows so special?
We just like to put our all into it, previously we found that the live shows were really helping to improve the songs because we're getting all that audience feedback, and it's become a really comfortable place for use to perform our music.
It's a great way of getting all the energy out and meeting and attracting new people, I think one of the best experiences of touring is just getting to chat to people all over the country and when you know you've got that sort of following, well you just put your all in to the show. And then you've got Barry trying new things out with the songs and fantastic stage banter. It's just what we're working towards.
It's brilliant having the music out there and listening to live people, obviously nothing beats hearing some of the words sung, or mumbled, back to you during the show.
So are you looking forward to being part of the Wickerman Festival?
Wickerman will be fantastic. We're crossing our fingers for good weather, that's the first thing we need to do.
We're looking forward to it, we've not done any festivals so far this summer so we're just going to be working up towards it and, who knows, we might put a couple of wee quirks into the set as well.
Festival crowds are obviously quite a tricky thing to balance because you're often in contention with so many brilliant acts. Especially at wicker man, it's really quite a big mix when you've got Scissor Sisters on the main stage, so we'll definitely need to put a lo of energy into the performance there and try and upstage them if that's even humanly possible.
You've been compared to Bowie and The Killers quite a lot, do you welcome these or do you just want people to look at you on your own?
I think we like to bring in a lot of different elements into our music. I think we do get opinions and comparisons it's really interesting as almost every one of them is unique.
David Bowie does tend to come up a little bit more than others but it's great hearing the wide range of people comparing our music to other people. Even on a vocal level. One minute someone's saying that Barry sounds like Brandon Flowers, the next minute it'll be Jacques Brel and these are two people who might have a few similarities between them musically, but you wouldn't ever imagine them sitting together at the pub. So it's good to hear that and just it spans through the decade's which is brilliant.
When you're getting comparisons with the likes of Orange Juice and Edwyn Collins and Scottish indie rock from the 1980s and then you're getting elements from modern day music as well such as Editors or the aforementioned Killers it's really interesting to see how people are interpreting our music.
Obviously, you want to be an artist in your own right, but when you get such diverse a range of feedback that really encourages you to keep going.
With people like Vic Galloway and Ally McCrae saying big things about you, does that add any pressure to you at all?
I wouldn't say it adds pressure as such, it's really nice getting a little recognition, especially people's who's musical tastes your completely in awe and respect of.
Someone like Vic Galloway's got such a diverse range of music himself and he's got all these great experiences and when you get a couple of kind words from someone like that it really just inspires you to work a little bit harder as well.
So what can we expect from the new EP coming out soon?
The new EP was recorded a few months ago and it's been sitting in the traps of a wee while now, so we just can't wait to get it out there. I think the song writing has matured again since our last release and we're really proud of it.
We've got a fantastic relationship with Stuart the produced and somewhat like the video, we had a lot of fun behind the microphones. We got on really well hopefully some of the quirky stuff we were doing and whilst we were spending time together really comes through in the music as well.
It was a great experience and were able to try out loads and loads of new ideas. Try out these little incidental guitar parts, little bits of percussion, at one point a fire extinguisher was being used, a chair leg was being used, so there's loads of tiny little things like that hopefully people will be able to pick out when we release the EP.
Is it any different now you've got a label like Integrity supporting you?
The Integrity opportunity is astonishing really. To have a label with such credential and such respect from the music community is an amazing opportunity, so we really can't wait to prove ourselves to Integrity and it's fantastic for the band's career and profile throughout the country.
On the face of it, working with Nick from the label has just been brilliant, it's not been intimidating at all. I think we're all coming from the same perspective. I think it's brilliant to have someone like him and the label behind you and sharing your vision for your own music.
Any more details on the upcoming tour?
We don't have any specific details lined up for just now but we'll be taking to the road in October which will be just a couple of month's after Lemonade's release in August.
I think we'll just be trying to visit all the places that have been good to us before and hopefully a few new places on the way as well.
Last thing, what is this Mini Dinosaurs Tournament you just held?
It's a football tournament we just held, which is quite good for the band given that's how a couple of us actually met up before we decided to form the band.
It was a great day out, it's the second year we've done it, we had some terrific bands taking part like We Were Promised Jetpacks. We had an amazing radio DJ Jim Gellatly as well and he was a fantastic compare/commentator for the match final. It was a lovely day, the weather was a bit hit or miss but in the end everyone had a fantastic session.
It's really interesting spending time with bands not doing something in a musical context as well, just getting to test your mettle against them on a football pitch yields some very interesting and hilarious results as well.
So it's definitely something we're looking to build upon next year and who knows, we might be able to open it up to some different sports in the future so keep your eyes peeled for a badminton tournament in 2012.
Lemonade is out August 13th with the Turn It On EP soon after.
FemaleFirst Cameron Smith