The Darkness guitarist Dan Hawkins feels an old-school approach to music is so important to the band that if they ever abandon it, he’d leave.
They’ve just released fourth album The Last Of Our Kind, which he produced, while brother Justin Hawkins arranged the song order.
Dan tells UCR: “We always will be an old-school album band. We’ve always thought that way of a side one and side two when putting it all together. We want to push that even more.
“There’s been some misguided management, slightly megalomaniac in certain areas, especially on the last album. They kept trying to ram the idea of digital content to the point where someone said to me, ‘Why are you even bothering with a track listing?’
“They were saying no one listens to things that way anymore. To me, if we’re not an albums band, I don’t want in.”
And Dan reveals the band had to coerce bassist Frankie Poullain to sing lead vocals on album closer Conquerors. Asked whose idea it was, the guitarist says: “It wasn’t his!
“We had to convince him. He just sort of went for it, ad-libbed the whole bridge – and when we played it back, it was just great.”
The Darkness are featured in the current edition of Classic Rock, on sale now. They’ll play a run of summer dates with new drummer Rufus Taylor, followed by a full-size UK tour starting in November.
Summer dates
Jun 03: London Dingwalls (album launch)
Jul 04: Groove Festival, Wicklow
Jul 05: Daytripper Festival, Waterford
Jul 12: Brownstock Festival, Chelmsford
Aug 09: Boardmasters Festival, Newquay
Aug 30: Victorious Festival, Portsmouth
Blast Of Our Kind UK tour
Nov 30: Norwich Open
Dec 01: Cambridge Corn Exchange
Dec 01: Nottingham Rock City
Dec 04: Newcastle O2 Academy
Dec 05: Glasgow O2 Academy
Dec 09: Leeds O2 Academy
Dec 10: Manchester Academy
Dec 11: Birmingham O2 Academy
Dec 13: Bristol O2 Academy
Dec 14: Southampton O2 Guildhall
Dec 15: Bexhill De La Warr Pavillion
Dec 17: Bournemouth O2 Academy
Dec 19: Oxford O2 Academy
Dec 20: London Roundhouse ** **
