An Interview With: Dinosaur Pile Up

We had a chat with Dinosaur Pile Up's Matt Bigland, while we were at with 2000 Trees. We caught up with them about their newly announced UK tour, the possibility of an upcoming album and more.

So when did you guys get here?
We literally a couple of hours ago

You look fried by the heat?
Yeah, I’m bloody hot.

Seeing that you’ve got a new tour coming up in November
Yep, UK

First of all, are you excited for that one?
Totally excited, can’t wait. It’s been ages since we’ve played the UK properly. Obviously we’ve doing a lot of stuff in America at the minute so, we’re just really pumped to get some dates in the UK and sort of get back to our home fan base. We got to play Download recently which was obviously a UK show and that was fucking awesome. It’ll be nice to play small intimate shows, so that will be super cool.

Anything special to put out for that?
I don’t know we’re still organizing supports and that, which I hope will come through what we want as that will be really cool. Some bands that we’re really into. I mean it’s difficult to do some crazy shit with the venues, but I think it be a kind of party vibe, something like that. It’ll be fun.

Seeing as your last album came out in 2015, sick album. Any idea when we’ll be expecting anything new?
I mean we don’t have a specific date yet, but I’m writing loads. I always write to be fair so, we’ve been touring a lot. Obviously 11:11 came out and it was released in half the territories, and was released in europe and America later, so that was why we’ve had such a long campaign on it. Which has been cool, because we’ve got loads of plans we can tour, and it’s given me loads of time to write, so I’ve got fuck loads of songs which is really nice, as it lets me feel more chilled out about the writing process. I was writing yesterday, it’s fun and I’ve been trying loads of new shit.

So you’re kind of exploring the depths of where you guys could be as a band?
Yeah, exactly, just have fun with it, as there is no pressure. As we have no date yet, but I guess it will be next year, that it will be coming out. I don’t know when we’ll record that, but we might record that this year but we’re not sure yet.

It’s a long way, but you can get more experiences to write about.
Yeah exactly, writing a record with loads of pressure without much time is always shit, because you have no experiences, you’re stressed out so you’re not doing something because you enjoy it. I mean it’s fallen like that luckily, but we've had loads of time, loads of tours and experiences for us. A lot of the songs I’m writing are definitely like looking back on experiences and giving something back which I’m looking forward too.

While you’re on the writing process what is the weirdest place you’ve ever written a song?
I write songs literally, everywhere. I do a lot of my writing in the shower and just bizarre places that you wouldn’t think someones brain could be like, doing something creative. I dunno, fucking packing the shopping, weird places and I’ll be in a completely different place doing stuff with my hands, packing my shopping or having a shower. I’ll just think of something then. One of the most important things I’ve learnt about writing is those little weird moments where you’re not really concentrating and you’ll think of a tune for like 2 seconds, but so often that’s something really good but usually because you’re not concentrating but you would sing it and forget it, without even noticing you did it. One of the things that I’m trying to be really conscious of is that, that’s the beginning of something quite interesting.

So constantly having a notepad or something like that with you, is an essential.
I’ll be just singing some stupid shit into a phone, and it’s weird when I do that around people that I don’t know because I have to hide it as I find it embarrassing. I did it recently where I was with a couple of guys in a meeting or someone I didn’t know very well and I thought of an idea as they were talking and I had to sort of lean back and pretend I was still listening and record into my phone, and I was humming and singing whilst they were talking and I was like ‘if they know what you’re doing you must look fucking insane’

I’m guessing it’s more of a ‘if anyone goes through my phone, who knows what they’ll find’?
Oh yeah, totally. The ridiculous shit you’d find on my phone. Like me humming ridiculous shit is funny.

But I bet it’s worth it in the long run, because you could be like ‘Oh hold on, that would work great with some lyrics added onto that’
Yeah, I have files and files of all these little ideas that are obviously song that I’m returning too and stuff, but even for me it’s embarrassing, it is funny though.

It’s probably the same for some of the kids coming into the scene now and starting the writing process which is a whole new thing for them and I would guess it would be like them getting into a similar comfort zone that you’re in, and feel comfortable with what they’re willing to do.
Yeah, obviously we started this band eleven years ago now, so I’ve been writing and touring for quite a while and the older I get and the more I do, the more I give less shits about feeling embarrassed about what I do or parts of what I do. Like writing at ridiculous times and recording into my phone, like it is embarrassing but I just don’t give a shit.

I think that’s it though, everyone is embarrassed about something and hit a ‘no-one needs to see that’ I’m pretty sure anyone creative could agree with that.
Yeah exactly

You’ve got to get into that mindset of ‘I don’t care what everyone thinks’ and be like it does sound good.
Yeah I think you’ve got to be in that mindset of not caring what other people think, like if you’re doing something that stokes you, who gives a fuck what anyone else thinks. You aren’t doing it to please other people, you’re doing it because you want to do it. You’ve just got to do it, you only live once.

Are you looking forward to getting the set out there now?
Today? or the new set?

Today
Yeah, totally. I love this festival, it’s small, intimate, and cool. We’ve played here a couple of times and it’s always super nice and everyone's really chilled. Also today's line up is sick, like Tigercub, Pulled Apart By Horses and I’m friends with all those dudes so it’s nice to play with bands that we like.

I think that’s always one of the best things, to see people that you know, and have that support and finding new artists as you go. Is there anyone in particular that you’re excited about seeing?
If I’m honest I’ve hardly looked at the line up, but I didn’t even really know that Puppy were playing until today, and then I didn’t even realise Tigercub were playing until yesterday, so I have been completely out of the loop.

We caught part of Tigercub’s soundcheck earlier
Yeah, they are fucking awesome, they’re literally one of my favourite bands. Right after this I’m going to check their set.

Yeah, I think that’s our plan too.

Who are your influences personally?
I’ve got so many. Some of my favourite bands, like Weezer, the early Foo Fighters stuff, and bands like Rage Against The Machine, and things like that. All of that is more alternative rock, but I’m inspired by other artists that are completely unrelated to alternative rock, Whitney Houston or whatever. From the alternative perspective I’d definitely say those bands. They were the bands that I initially got into music from and are still my favourite records and bands. With all those bands they had a thing and it worked out.

What was your highlight of touring the US?
Shit, I don’t know. I mean we’ve just come off a six week tour, and we did a few weeks before that, and we’ll fly out for another month on Saturday

Sounds like it’s hectic, I’m guessing you don’t get a lot of time at home?
No, not really. Although I’d say the highlights are that the last tour we did, we had a day off and we fell in Niagara Falls, that was awesome. We met loads of American bands while we were out there, that we’re really excited about, and made friends while we were there too. Actually one of the highlights would be seeing Soundgarden from the side of the stage at one of the festivals out of the five we played with them, and two days later we heard Chris had passed away. Which was mental, it wasn’t so much a highlight but it was more tainted. For definite I would say Niagara falls was a highlight.

Have you got any advice for new and upcoming bands just entering the scene?
Just do what you want to do, I guess. Just don’t be too concerned about what other people want you to do or think of what you’re doing. If you want to do something, do what you want to do.