Project Description
Interview with
DRESSCODE
Interviewer – Jemma Bird
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Shot By Jack Fenby
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Emerging into Adelaide’s diverse music scene, Dress Code have quickly injected their brand of Alternative Dream Pop and are making waves towards the conclusion of 2018.
Dress Code have released their second single ‘Caffeine‘ today, on March 1st 2019. Listeners can experience a blend of alternative indie and pop flavours. Drawing influence from post-hardcore and contemporary pop, Dress Code aims to push the limitations and showcase a unique style of alternative music. The debut single ‘Eyesight’, provides insight into what this alternative rock/pop outfit have to offer, with plenty of releases scheduled for 2019.
Dress Code are already set to share stage with interstate acts such as Good Doogs, Bakers Eddy and Mosquito Coast. As well have supported an array of local bands such as TOWNS and Pinkish Blu. 2019 will see Dress Code accelerate into the local Adelaide and interstate scenes.
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Hi Dress Code, how are you? You guys are quite new to the scene, having only released one song so far, so tell me about how you came to be a band and how you all know each other?
Jayden: We’ve all played in Adelaide bands before Dress Code came about. Ollie, Ben and myself played a gig together with our separate bands in early 2018 and started talking through that. I wanted to start something new and I randomly messaged Ollie and Ben to jam, even though I had only met them once. Jack was a University friend of mine and after a few beers one night we decided we would trial him for bass. We all clicked instantly and have been practising and writing in the year since.
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How did the name Dress Code come about?
Jayden: To be honest, there isn’t a very cool story to go with the name. We all thought it was punchy and looked good in writing.
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Your debut single ‘Eyesight’ is an absolute dream! What were some of the influences you drew from for the single?
Ben: Eyesight was the first song we wrote together, it actually came together in the first practise! I remember going in very nervous thinking we’d try to learn a cover and it take a while for us to click, but within the first hour we had a song written. It’s influenced by the artists we initially bonded over such as Turnover, Title Fight, Real Estate, Gleemer, and Horror My Friend.
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The music video for ‘Eyesight’ is incredible too and was directed by your very own Jack Bielby. How did the idea for the video come about and how was the filming process?
Jack: Ollie and I are really into film. We have a movie club with a bunch of friends every Monday that different people go to depending on who’s free, where we go see a different movie some of which we’ve heard of and some we haven’t, it’s great fun. I’m particularly inspired by the movies of Wes Anderson, drawing elements such as symmetrical shot composition and bright abstract colours to bring the story out in a super interesting way. We pride ourselves on making all the film content for Dress Code ourselves. The idea for Eyesight came from the concept of substituting a mannequin for an emotionless, distant relationship, which was just suggested at one of our practices. The filming process was super collaborative and done over several months.
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Your new single ‘Caffeine’ comes out today! Tell me about this song, the lyrics, the writing process, everything!
Ollie: Caffeine was another one of the first songs we wrote as a group. I think I had the idea for the verse guitar part, and then we hashed out the rest of the song as a group. Lyrically the song is about my experience as 15-17 year old feeling like a bit of an outsider. Hating the moment I was in and the people I was surrounded by, but remaining hopeful for the future.
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Talk me through your design and graphics! Do you work with anyone or do you do it all yourselves? They are so well put together and so cohesive with your music!
Ollie: Our friend Jack Fenby did the artwork for both our singles and takes most of our promo photos. The social media content is all done by us, Ben and Jayden do a lot of the design/redesign work and Jack (Beilby) does all of the videography, collating content taken by Jack Fenby, Steven Cook and ourselves.
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What are your goals for 2019? Will we be seeing more new music? If so, are Eyesight and Caffeine representative of what we can expect from the future?
Ollie: We’re definitely working on new music. We’re all pretty hyper when it comes to creative stuff, so there’s never really a time when we’re not making music. We’ve finished writing our debut EP and will be focusing on getting that released this year, so you can expect more music before the years out.
The songs we’re writing at the moment have a lot of elements of Eyesight and Caffeine but it’s definitely a different sound, we’re trying to experiment as much as possible.
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Have you guys played many shows? If so, how’s the setlist looking? Any covers?
Ollie: We play in Adelaide about once a month, we try not to overdo it. We’ve been fortunate to play with a handful of great bands such as TOWNS, Pinkish Blu, Bakers Eddy, Pemberton and Good Doogs.
We’re playing at Rocket Bar on the 8th of March with Mosquito Coast and Busseys which we’re really excited for, and have a couple of cool shows to announce soon so keep an eye out of those on our socials.
We haven’t played any covers yet, we’re waiting for the right song! In saying that, we usually we try to play a new song at every show and mix up the set a bit.
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Any tour plans in the horizon?
Jayden: We’re looking to play some interstate shows with the new releases, so hopefully we’ll be on the road in the second half of this year.
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Lastly, just for fun – what’s each of your first or most embarrassing email address?
Haha! Great question.
Ollie: [email protected]
Ben: [email protected]
Jack: [email protected]
Jayden: [email protected]
(Jayden still uses his, everyone email him!)
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Thanks for chatting!
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Check out DRESSCODE below
Unearthed | Facebook | Instagram | Twitter
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