Gently taking the indie scene by storm, rock electronica types Discopolis are no strangers to playing at festivals, despite each being about 13 years old – perhaps not the most accurate of estimations, simply going on their boyish complexions. Having played at T in the Park, Reading & Leeds, and Wickerman, RockNess is just another stepping stone to success for the Edinburgh trio.
Discopolis Interview
“It’s such a beautiful festival,” says guitarist and synth player Laurie Donald (left). “I’ve been to T In The Park loads and there’s something about here that I personally find…better. It’s a really nice scale, it’s a beautiful location, and you look out there and it just looks amazing. It’s a privilege, really, to play here.”
Together with fellow guitar-synthist and vocalist Fergus Cook – who couldn’t make the interview – and synth player/drum arranger Dave (right) Lloyd, Laurie is just one essential piece of the puzzle that is Discopolis, blending atmospheric keys and synth with guitars to create a mish-mash of club anthem hysteria meets ethereal meditation tape and indie rock twinklings.
Coming together fell into place easily for the three: Fergus and Laurie played in a traditional rock band of bass, guitar and drums, rapidly cultivating a unique sound when electronic music producer Dave joined them to create the current band line-up. The balance between rock and synth is something quite special to the band, and keeping that balance in check remains important as they gently creep into the public eye.
“When the band first started and we progressed into a more synthetic band of electronics, I thought I was never going to have a chance to rock out ever again,” continues Laurie. “As we progressed, the guitarist became more prominent in the tracks. It’s quite a nice blend of being able to play synth and guitar.”
“I think people view of us as a synth band primarily,” continues Dave, “but the nice thing is that because quite a lot of it is electronic – the drums and the synths – when we want to we can make it a guitar-themed track and the guitar can really come through.”
Despite the balancing act, the boys are keen to stress that Discopolis doesn’t do categories. “Not to compare ourselves, but see when you have bands like Tears for Fears and things, they were never called a ‘synth band’ or a ‘guitar band’, they were just a ‘band’,” explains Dave.
“They wrote songs that people would really get into,” agrees Laurie. “We tried to bring that back – so in terms of pigeon-holeing us as one kind of genre or whatever? We don’t find it that important.”
As it is, TFF’s The Hurting stands as one of Laurie’ favourite albums of all time, and their influence is undeniable when listening to new single Zenithobia – the sound is a little more intense, but the similar New Wave genre-melding is there. Dave and Laurie tick off further influences: Bloc Party, Foals, Deadmau5 – influences which coagulate to shape the Discopolis sound, but each from their own source. Shaping the sound, Laurie explains, is something of a unanimously-agreed, step-by-step process between the three bandmates.
“It’s very democratic. Sometimes I’ll be like, ‘oh, I think there should be more guitar in this track’, but other times I’ll say, ‘oh no, this should be be more heavy, more electric! Synths! No guitars!‘,” he laughs, gently pointing with each exclamation. “Actually, we kind of switch rules and change our minds all the time.”
Playing live, with a minimalist array of synthesizers and mixers on display, allows for even more rule-changing on the fly. “We constantly do it,” Dave follows on. “We’re like, ‘oh, we prefer this sound now so we’re gonna change this song…actually, the song was fine as it was!’ Sometimes, we make them a lot better, so it just depends.”
Having played at a huge number of festivals and UK gigs over the past year – and even finding time to play in Lithuania – there are plans for the band to take time out later this year in order to work on an album; “We forgot what it was like to write music,” Laurie summarises.
But touring is the band’s current element. Accompanied by girlfriends, best mates and even parents, the spectre of the live show is one which will continue to follow them about wherever they go – and the home haunts of Edinburgh will remain stern favourites. They might be taking time out, but they ‘get’ what it means to play live, and to play live often.
“You can play to 30 people but if they’re absolutely loving it then it’s better than playing to however-many people and they’re not enjoying it,” sums up Laurie. “You take the lows with the highs in terms of gigs and everything.”
‘Zenithobia’ is out now.
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