How’s the tour going so far?
It’s obvious that nobody's heard the songs yet so there’s a lot of kind of static eyes on us at the moment which is a little daunting but it’s quite exciting?
Is it a mix of your old fans coming to the shows?
I think the dedicated Music and Streets fans, the majority of them find it difficult to swallow that it’s so different which is fine, we just hope to reach out to new people as well.
You made videos to inspire the songs, was that the case?
Yeah I mean we tried to be as creative as possible in every sense, we’re quite into the visuals, we believe we live in a quite a visual world now. We tried to make the website as accessible as possible and easy to follow because I think people get almost overwhelmed with information these days.
With Twitter and Facebook it’s all words and I think we like the fact it’s just pictures and visuals, it gives a clear statement of what we’re about.
How did the band come about?
We’ve been on the same management for about 12 years and we’ve always been bumping into each other and sharing drinks at festivals, that kind of thing. So we’ve always been mates and then on the last Streets record he got in touch with me. He said he was looking for a couple of collaborators to work with on a couple of things so I went down.
We did a couple of sessions for that and we got on really well. Then once Mike had got The Streets record out the way we started working on, writing really. No real aim of purpose we just enjoyed making music different to what we’d been doing for the past 10 years, so it kind of came from there really.
The bands you were previously in were completely different so how would you describe the music that this band makes?
I have no idea really, I don’t think that’s something I’ve really thought about. I don’t really care about that to be honest. The idea is that it’s just something new and I think as soon as you put something into a box you feel pressured to stay there.
We’d rather not do that, this is exciting because we’ve been let out of that box. I think to put ourselves straight back into another box would be foolish so early on.
What can we expect from your gigs?
The plan is to get out and reach as many people as possible as that’s what we’re in this for. We like playing music and bringing people together, it’s that simple really and I guess the big aim is to try and get festivals next year and try and get out there.
What’s your writing process?
I think it evolves by not putting ourselves in a box which is quite important to us. The process is quite varied really it can come from anywhere, it can come from a beat that Mike’s done, it can come from 4 chords of a song that I’ve written at home.
But we always bring it in together and try and make, it’s like we’ve both got pretty decisive roles really. I’m a singer, Mike’s a producer but we both like to write songs as well so that’s where the gap’s bridged and where we can move things around.
Some songs might be, I write a verse then Mike will write a verse or he might write a chorus and I’ll write a middle 8. It comes from anywhere, we enjoy writing with other writers and musicians as well, it keeps it fresh and you get a different sound every time.
You’ve done collaboration with Claire Maguire and Danny Brown is there anyone else that you would like to work with?
I don’t necessarily mean actual artists we write with friends, musicians and writers. We don’t really have any grand plans for picking anyone particularly famous.
A lot of it just happens organically, you meet people and you get talking before you know it your making music. It’s quite organic and it’s just easy going, it’s not like it’s a big thing that’s planned it just happens really.
What’s it like being in The DOT compared to The Music?
There’s a lot less conversation because there’s only two of us. In terms of making music it’s much easier because when you’ve got 4 people to please its difficult so yeah making decisions is easy.
We come from similar points of view for a lot of stuff anyway; people would be surprised at how alike we are. We’ve been in music a similar period of time. I mean Mike’s career was a lot more successful than The Music but in terms of how it peaked and how it’s come away it’s quite similar.
So we have a lot of things in common that we can talk about, that was actually a common ground that got a lot of this together.
What was it like appearing with The Streets?
That was amazing for me because I actually had some down time. Mike said “you worked on the record why don’t you come and play guitar and sing the songs you’ve done on the record".
It was really good because it developed our friendship and working relationship and I get to learn an awful lot from him. The man’s got a lot of knowledge, he’s a really intelligent guy so I’m lucky I get to learn from someone so creative really.
What can we expect in 2013?
Lots. We want to keep playing, giving people songs we just wanna keep being creative, this is the beginning.
We’re aware this is going to be a long journey for us but that doesn’t knock us off track, we’re comfortable with that and we’re ready for the ride.
The D.O.T tour dates and tickets
The D.O.T. at 53 Degrees Friday 26th October 2012
The D.O.T. at Thekla Friday 2nd November 2012
The D.O.T. at The Bullingdon Arms Friday 9th November 2012
The D.O.T. at The Haunt Saturday 10th November 2012
The D.O.T. at Sub 89 Tuesday 13th November 2012
To visit The D.O.T website and to watch their videos click HERE Facebook Twitter Soundcloud YouTube @skinnermike @RobertMNHarvey
Whatever it takes- The D.O.T Dedicated to those who lost their lives at the Pukkelpop Festival 2011
