Colour Me Bad

If, by any chance, you’ve been hunting fruitlessly for the missing link between Scissor Sisters and AC/DC, then look no further. Do Me Bad Things are a nonet from South London that cover just about every musical base, having evolved from a reclusive three piece recording project into an 18 legged rock n roll monster spewing big beefy Zeppelin riffs, nu-urban (ie. Joss Stone) vocal stylings and a heavy dose of pop panache.

“When we first started writing, there were just three of us,” remembers drummer, keyboard-player and guitarist Tommy Shotton. “We were going to have a different singer sing each song and do it as a studio thing rather than a live band. It turned into a proper band by accident, really. We did the odd gig for our friends, just for fun, because we thought it was such a ridiculous idea. At our fifth gig, a guy from Must Destroy Records just happened to be there having a drink and he came up to us and asked if we wanted to make records. That was it.”
Despite such a painless entrée to the industry, Do Me Bad Things are making a conscious effort to avoid the tabloid arm of the music press. However, for a band that insists they don’t want to be famous, they’re not doing a very good job of it what with recent appearances on CD:UK and Popworld.
“Sometimes we say 'yes', sometimes 'no',” says Tommy, of DMBT’s publicity requests. “It depends on what it is. I’m not really a fan of the NME or CD:UK or that kind of thing.”
But you do it anyway?
“I sort of understand that other people in the group find it interesting or something, from a cultural point of view, but it’s not part of my world. We are notorious in our record company for being really difficult with promo.”
The band are label-mates and “good friends” with The Darkness, and joined the spandex rockers on last year’s UK arena tour. Tommy laughs awkwardly as he recalls the jaunt:
“Oh yeah... that was interesting. It’s an experience. We’re not big fans of those kind of venues – it’s hard to get an atmosphere going in that sort of size place. But it was a challenge to us. We said that we’d never play places that big, but The Darkness personally asked us to do the tour so we couldn’t turn them down. They’re good lads, real nice guys. They’re one of the few bands who exist in the mainstream nowadays, particularly British, who we actually like. They’ve got the right attitude.”
However, he doesn’t expect to emulate the success of The Darkness and find himself being talked about on Richard And Judy.
“No,” he laughs, “I don’t expect we’ll be famous. Maybe they’ll remember us on one of those Music of the Noughties shows on Sky One Plus in twenty years’ time: Worst Idea Of The Noughties! Biggest Major Record Company Mistake! What would I like to be remembered for? It’d be nice to be completely forgotten about for thirty years then, one day, for some guy to walk into a second hand record store, pick up the album and say, ‘These guys were doing something interesting’. That’s the best you can ask for, cause even if it affects one person, it’s still really cool.”

Do Me Bad Things' Yes! album is out now on Must Destroy. You can also see them in September at The Electric Picnic.