Joining The Dots

Dot Creek’s origins are surrounded in a haze of vagueness. Sometime in the mid-90s, some of the band’s members ran the popular Dublin indie club, Dazed, where they met other like-minded souls keen to come together and make some beautiful music.

Exactly when this was and who the indivicuals involved are remains shrouded in mystery, but some folks came, some departed, and the current line-up downed spurs and upped guitars about three years ago, when Nigel Power (guitar and vocals), Shane Redmond (guitar and vocals), Biggley (guitar and various sound effects) and John Kennedy (bass) were joined by Liam Ryan (drums), who was just back from a sojourn in Nepal. There was nothing pre-emptive about their formation, though – the five members just seemed to drift together.

“I suppose you could say the mother of the band was Chance while its father was Desperation,” says Nigel. “It was completely random.”

The quintet decided on the name Dot Creek and quickly set about writing heart-rending melodies and showering them on an unsuspecting Dublin public. Biggley recalls their first gig, supporting The Four Of Us in The DA Club, where the band were “absolutely bricking themselves”. They soon became regulars at two now-defunct venues, the DA Club and The Funnel.

“There weren’t very many venues or bands around at the time,” Nigel remembers. “Now, there are so many good bands releasing good records, but when we started, we ended up playing with the same four or five bands all the time: Pedal, Sunbear, Jubilee, Palomine.”

Dot Creek gradually built up a following for their own brand of what can be loosely termed Americana. The guitars are never strummed in anger, the harmonies intertwine a couple of octaves north of comfortable and the melodies rarely raise themselves to more than a canter. Realising they had a rare commodity, excellent songs, the band took their first tentative steps into the studio, recording demos that were later released on the Julius Geezer label. The recording process was something of a learning curve for the band, though.

“We learned a really hard and important lesson early on,” Biggley notes. “We realised that we weren’t rock stars and we weren’t going to waste lots of money going into a big studio where we spent all day making coffee. There is a lot to be said for the DIY approach.”

Hence, their debut album, the wonderful Ill Seen, Ill Said, was recorded by the band, together with Alan O’Boyle, in just two and half days.

“Alan was great because he made us work really hard,” Nigel stresses. “He is a hard taskmaster but that is what we need.”

“He has heard the songs so many times he knows when we have done a song as well as we can and when we can do it better,” Biggley adds. “Before you have even realised yourself that it wasn’t the best take, the tape is already rewinding.”

The Creek originally planned on releasing Ill Seen, Ill Said on their own label, but fate intervened in the form in Independent Records, the Irish home for such legends as Will Oldham, Pernice Brothers and The Handsome Family. Independent supremo Dave O’Grady had followed Dot Creek’s progress down through the years and when they approached him for advice on mastering their album, he took a listen to it and volunteered to release it himself.

The entire process took about a year, from recording through to final release, and while Dot Creek have been chomping at the bit in the meantime, they recognise that it was well worth the wait. Rather than rush-release the album last year and risk it being lost in the pre-Christmas rush, they were able to mix it at their leisure and ensure they had the production qualities and the artwork they wanted. Everything has gone according to play, then, Ill Seen, Ill Said being greeted by glowing reviews and selling out in record stores all over the city. Were they surprised by the album’s positive reaction?

“We knew the songs were great, we had faith in them and we just felt that people would like them,” Nigel says. “Having said that, it is still a pleasant surprise when other people come up and tell us they love the record

“You have to realise that your music is not as important to everyone else as it is to you,” Biggley adds, before outlining just how important quality control is to the Dot Creek posse.

“We run a very democratic system where anybody can bring in a song,” he explains. “We are notorious for being a bit slack or lazy and not writing too many new songs but out of every three or four songs we write, we might only end up with one new song. If something is not up to scratch, it usually gets ditched very quickly. Playing songs live is a sure way of testing them. If 200 people don’t like one of your songs, you’ll know that very quickly.”

The band recognise that Ireland’s musical climate has changed, and is more open to their brand of countrified harmonising than perhaps when they started, thanks to the success of No Disco, the development of Independent Records and the growing popularity of alt.country and Americana in general.

“People like The Handsome Family and Willard Grant Conspiracy can come to Dublin and play to three or four hundred people,” Biggley notes, “while a few years ago they might have been playing to an audience of 80 in The Funnel.”

“But personally, I never thought that good songs went out of fashion,” Nigel sums up. “And I think we have great songs, so I don’t really see why they shouldn’t be appreciated.”

Ill Seen, Ill Said is out now in Independent Records. Dot Creek play Whelan’s with Cane 141 as part of the Heineken Green Energy Festival.