An Interview With The Dunts

Glaswegian council punk band The Dunts have erupted onto the music scene with a burst of dynamic flair. Since their debut release 'Dimitri', they've recieved high praise and barrels of support from the likes of Radio X's John Kennedy and BBC Radio Scotland's Vic Galloway. I got to chat to them during the chaotic time that is festival season last year where they played the esteemed Live at Leeds and Hit The North festivals. Here's what they had to say...

How did you all get together and did you know each other before you formed the band? Rab answering, Colin, David and Kyle all went to high school together, I went to a different school. Those three jammed together a lot in school and played at some school talent shows (I think). I met Colin at a house party, his own one I believe. I think one of my other pals had asked him if I could come. Colin had always said to me you look like you should be in a band, to which I was always like haha aye we’ll see about that (I hadn’t started properly learning how to play guitar until shortly before The Dunts started). I knew Colin was musical minded and on my wavelength so I said to him if you want to start a band with me I’ll get on it and properly stick to learning guitar. Few early day line up adjustments lead us to bring in David and Kyle as they knew Colin and as it turned out, it worked perfectly for us and The Dunts as a band was born. There are many three chord punk bands out there at the moment. How do you think you stand out from the rest? I think to be fair, even songs with three chords can be good. It’s not always about playing some complex chord progression or playing a crazy solo. I think that songs begin with the singing, the words and the melody and I think that’s what a lot of people connect to. I think we stand out from a lot of punk bands because although a lot of our instrumental stuff is heavy and fast, we still try to be melodic, whether it’s with the vocals or the accompanying guitar parts or both. If you like fast, hard hitting punk tunes but also appreciate a little bit of pop and a wee singalong then I’d say we’re worth a listen. Is it hard to sometimes put a message over in your music while at the same time keeping it entertaining? I think we are so early on in our career that we have never had to worry about keeping something entertaining. We write about whatever we want and it has worked out perfectly thus far. Long may it continue! Ever drawn inspiration from other bands from the north and what do you think of Glasgow’s famous punk rock band ‘The Vaselines’? Constantly inspired by the bands that are part of the Scottish scene just now. They spur us on to, like themselves, constantly raise the bar with our musical output. The whole scene is amazing up here. We speak about it all the time and whenever we’re asked about who inspires us or who else we like in terms of new music we’re always going to mention the Scottish troops. There’s a few sour grapes who seemingly don’t like to see other Scottish bands do well or just don’t like us but who gives a fuck about those cunts. With regards to The Vaselines, I’m a huge fan of Nirvana and the story goes that they are his favourite band. That’s good enough for me, and it should be good enough for you too! You’ve probably played to many smaller crowds in your local area. Are you looking forward to playing to a much larger mixed audience at the up and coming Hit The North and Live At Leeds festival? We are looking forward to those gigs for sure. We don’t really like to assume we’re going to be playing to a large crowd anywhere because you never know with stage splits and stuff like that, we always just go out and play the exact same whether it’s 10 people or 1000. It’ll be good to play in front of people who don’t get the chance to see us that often, given we’re from Scotland! Growing up, was anybody in your family musical or could play an instrument? Again it’s Rab answering so this answer is from my perspective, nah. I don’t think so anyway. I might be wrong but I don’t think I’ve ever seen anyone in my family playing an instrument or spoke to them about it. What tends to come first, the music or the lyrics? The music comes first for some songs and the lyrics come first for others. Probably lyrics first more often though. Who should we look out for in 2019 other than yourselves? Baby Strange, Rascalton, Voodoos, Gallus, Calva Louise, The Vanities, CRYSTAL, too many to say really. Go on John McKinlay’s YouTube channel and you’ll find a wealth of up and coming bands captured live in all their glory. If you’re looking out for new bands, especially ones who have played gigs up north, it’s a cert that Scatz (John) has seen them. What’s next for The Dunts after the up and coming festivals? We’ve got Hit the North, Live at Leeds, Camden Rocks, TRNSMT then Cabaret Vert over in France! I think towards the end of the year we’re going to be touring, but nothing I can reveal any information on yet. Join our mailing list and I’ll let everyone know! Shameless plug, sorry. Which song do you wish you’d written? I could list many but at this moment in time I’ll go with Arctic Monkeys - Cornerstone!  Since, the group have played to packed out venues, supported Gerry Cinnamon and have released their latest banger 'Learn'. With luck, The Dunts should be playing This is Tomorrow in the August of this year. Fingers crossed! Article by Holly Turner.