A brief chat with the Darkness

Yellow Scene: You described the new album as Brutal – what did you mean by that?

Justin Hawkins: I’m not quite sure. That was a description from when we were writing it, at the beginning. It just sounded metal, until we got rid of all the metal. That’s a misleading quote. What I meant was, it was so in your face that it was making me cry a little bit. It’s remorseless, relentless, and super-powerful. We got carried away, basically. We’ll do that on the next record now.

YS: What has the fan’s reaction been to the new record?

Everybody has said it’s either our best one, or our best since the first album, which is very encouraging. At our time of life, the music climate the way it is, we’ve sort of become a cult band. That’s great because it means we’re playing to our fans and we’ve got to make music that they like. When they say things like that, it shows that we’re doing our job correctly.

YS: How do you gauge success, after the first album blew up and you were headlining festivals?

JH: If we’re able to feed our children, and not have to pick up a “normal job,” then that’s success. It’s all you could wish for. Music’s hard, and unless you’re Coldplay or U2, it’s very difficult to survive. So to be able to survive is success.

YS: Do you like playing Colorado?

JH: We always play Denver and it has been great. It’s a great show. The altitude adds to the atmosphere. Or no, it takes away the atmosphere. But the people in the room compensate for the lack of atmosphere, the literal lack of atmosphere, by creating the “atmosphere.” What it lacks in atmosphere, it makes up for in vibe. Make sure you put that in.

YS: What can we expect from the set?

JH: This time, we have four albums of stuff to put in. New costumes. Rufus Taylor on drums, so that’s good because he’s amazing. It’s like a Darkness show but with Rufus Taylor on drums. Awesome is the word I would use.