The Others - Dominic Masters Interview
By James Sullivan
 | Dominic Masters |
Me: How was the last year for you and the band?
Dom Masters: Possibly the most busy year of my life. It's been pretty crazy, you know. We started the year supporting The Libertines at the Rhythm Factory, the Astoria and Brixton Academy to 2,000 people and then we sort of left the nest from the comfort of being their support band to make a break for it.
Then our first tour went really well, 'This Is For The Poor' got to number 42 in the charts which was not really expected of our first single. At the same time we got NME Single of the Week and a good lot of press behind us, and not just music press but political press could understand the statements we were putting through.
Then we did all the festivals in the summer playing to 7,000 people on the new bands stages at Glastonbury, Leeds and Reading - getting the biggest crowds for that stage. After that we went back on tour again and released our second single 'Stan Bowles', which did even better and went in at number 36. We went back on tour and had quite a lot of radio coverage from Steve Lamacq on Radio 1, XFM and different regional and student networks. And then obviously the year ended with us playing on New Years Eve to 2,000 people at the Forum. So it's been a pretty dramatic year for us. Me: Did you always feel this would happen for you?
DM: Definitely. Always... Because we work extremely hard, a lot harder than a lot of other bands would've had to have done to get where we are. We spent two and a half years where I was the manager of the band and I tried to get my band signed every which way I could with no help from no record companies, management companies, no press, no agents. So when we had to do everything on our own for 5 years then yeah, I always knew it would happen because I genuinely put in the work for it. Me: You help a lot of new bands such as The Paddingtons and Thee Unstrung, is this because you feel you ought to now you're in a position to do so?
DM: It's not 'ought to', it's something I do. Me: The community you have with your fans is an incredibly close thing. Is that what performing is for you - bringing people together?
DM: More than anything what we try to do is have the 853 Kamikaze Stage Diving Division as a community.
In this day and age we obviously have the means of connection with people at the drop of a hat. The mobile and the internet means that kids, whether you live in Glasgow, Shrewsbury or Southampton, can talk to each other freely and quickly across the country and have an online community as well as a phone community.
And the great thing is, because we are a community and we're all here for the common good of The Others, we can meet up with our members. Every gig we make sure we put 20 people in for free, that we get the under 18 kids into the venues, that we have after parties- I'm sure you remember the party at the Shrewsbury gig.
It's not something that's changed. We played at the Gala to 1,000 people and I put my friends' bands Thee Unstrung and Agent Blue on, then I did a free after-show party for 350 people of all ages, which was advertised on our website. Two o'clock through till six in the morning. Now not many bands do that. Me: Before you were in a band you must have been through a few jobs. What was the worst one you had?
DM: Probably selling advertising space, my last job. I did that for four and a half years.
I got paid quite well doing it because I've got some kind of level of communication skills which possibly made me ideal for that kind of job. But at the same time it was just very soul destroying when stuck in a job 9.00am till 5.30pm speaking to a hundred different people and you're not speaking to those people about your band, but about advertising space.
But I used the money I got to make my band as good as we could possibly be, make sure that we had decent equipment, that we were phoning all of the fans, that we could do promotion as work as hard as we could. It helped me to get signed because it made me confident on the phone and strong enough to take on managers, record companies, lawyers. Strong enough to batter lawyers into submission and batter publishers, management companies and promoters so that people would understand who the f**k we were. It might have been a s**t job but it helped me I suppose learn to deal with nasty b******s who were always trying to give you s**t. Me: And I guess in some way it's been inspiring in terms of lyrics, thinking about 'Lackey', the new single, is definitely from that time in your life.
DM: Exactly. I mean 'Lackey' - that is the inspiration. If you see the video it is basically my old office and all of the people in the background are 853 members dressed as office suits. Have a look at the video and you'll basically see me doing my old job bored out of my head. Me: The new scene of bands around at the moment, the so called 'London's Burning' scene, do you see it breaking into the mainstream or is it something that'll stay at the level it is now?
DM: I think so. I think The Paddingtons have got good enough records to sell, Thee Unstrung, The Rakes, The Cherubs, and that's four off the top of my head. Me: How did you spend your Christmas?
DM: I cooked a 3 lbs turkey which was very nice. Me and Johan stayed in the flat together, just me and him, turned off the phone for six days. Did a two lbs shoulder of lamb with some nice roast potatoes, Aunt Bessie provided some nice Yorkshire puddings from the freezer department at Tesco's. Assorted vegetables, good bit of gravy and bread pudding.
And I got the Pavement 10th anniversary edition of Crooked Rain, Crooked Rain with 41 bonus tracks. Velvet Underground Live at Max's Kansas City from 1973 which is another good album. Violent Femmes Greatest Hits from 1981 to 1993, Sonic Youth's Murray Street album and Pere Ubu The Modern Dance from 1978. So those five albums have been keeping me chirpy.
Me: What are your plans for this year?
DM: Well I did Never Mind The Buzzcocks with Mark Lamarr yesterday so I'm one of the guests on that and you can all work out if I'm good or not.
I've had press today from one o'clock till one o'clock. Press tomorrow then I'm in the studio Saturday, Sunday, Monday. Tuesday and Thursday we do a radio session and Wednesday we have a day off to see our respective partners. Friday we go on tour till the 27th. Have two days rest then go out for a five date tour. Do in-store signings, the NME Brats thing, some B-side recording and go back out on tour.
After that tour the next single comes out, so it's repeated again. We go through the summer doing all of the festivals, back on tour after the festival season again and then the next single comes out. Work on the next album and back on tour again then more work on the new album, back on tour then that's the end of the year. Me: Quite a busy year then!
DM: Yeah, I mean last year I had nines days free time. Me: Can you ever see yourself doing anything other than what you're doing now?
DM: If I get dropped at the end of the year, if I don't sell 40,000 records. That's the realistic answer. If I don't sell 40,000 records, as much as I might make good songs and write good lyrics, the record company will drop me. So buy the record or I'll be dropped and I'll be back selling advertising space!
And so with some final advice of 'work hard and move from Shrewsbury to London' that was it. Interview over.
Dom seemed a genuinely nice guy with plenty (and plenty more!) to say as well as being a mass of contradictions.
He insisted on bands in the 'London's Burning' scene being from London, then later described Hull-based The Paddingtons as 'a northern band'. He himself hails from Somerset.
Perhaps, as he might say, it's not where you've been, but where you're going.
The Others' new single, Lackey is released on 17th January.
The group are also performing at Birmingham Academy 2 on 25th January. |
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