We Say…
Based out of Glasgow, although largely not originally from there, Dancer is the latest endeavour from some familiar musical faces who perform in the likes of Robert Sotelo, Order Of The Toad and Nightshift. The band descended on Green Door studio last Winter and recorded the tracks that would become their self-titled debut mini-album, released via GoldMold in February this year.
Listening to Dancer, they are a band that arrives with evident joy, the sound of a collection of musicians who have been playing long enough to know that the best music is made when you’re having fun, the rhythm section bounds, the vocals are swimming in sass, and the wiry stop-start guitars are just the right side of chaotic. Take Ferret Fancier, possibly the most anarchic song about Mustelidae you’ll ever hear, it pairs a wall of clattering guitars with a bass-link funky enough for Delta 5 and Kathleen Hanna-like vocal yelp. Elsewhere Arch Nemesis, freshly shared with an excellent accompanying video, struts around in the middle ground of Television and Dry Cleaning, while The Split pairs the call-and-response qualities of Sacred Paws with the sing-speak vocals of Life Without Buildings. Perhaps the oddest, and in its own way most political moment on the record comes with Chris Whitty’s Inner World, an anxious slice of 80’s leaning post-punk, that takes the Chief Medical Officer into an anxiety spiral, pleading for logic and statistics to hold the world together as it tries to burst apart, “I pray for knowledge, statistics, for logic to win through”. Ultimately Dancer is a record that is both pleasingly familiar if you know its creators’ work, and yet has enough about it to stand alone, a beacon of creativity from a band of musical siblings having the time of their lives.
They Say…
FTR: For those who don’t know who are DANCER?
Gemma Fleet: Dancer are a band, we have all made music together before and in various other incarnations for a while, but Dancer is special and makes me feel like I did in my first-ever band! There are a lot of different influences in there for all of us but for me, it was important to sing in my own voice (droll Home Counties) and include spoken word parts, not like dense cerebral poetry but more like a schoolyard rhyme or that bit at the beginning of Never Ever by All Saints.
Chris Taylor: Dancer are a band that all live in Glasgow despite barely any of us coming from here. We all came to be in Glasgow mostly separately as it’s a good place to make music. After doing a million bands each, we are pursuing this one as it’s the most fun, and it seems to be enabling us to express ourselves individually to create a new and satisfying whole.
Andrew Doig: Dancer is a music band from Glasgow in which I play the bass.
FTR: What can you remember about your first show?
Gemma: Our first gig was au Ushi’s Coffee Corner in Glasgow, I wore a big coat and scarf because it was so chilly but had to take it off halfway through.
Chris: We’re only on our fifth now so it wasn’t that long ago!
It was in a coffee shop with a good lineup of friends. Getting these songs we’d been keeping to ourselves for a while was pleasing, and people seemed to like it which is always nice of course. It’s exciting to put something in front of people and see how that changes it. How the songs become more independent of us once they get out of the house.
Andrew: It was raining, it was cold, but we played good!
FTR: Why do you make music? Why not another art form?
Gemma: I don’t really have any skills or motivation to explore other art forms to any extent, I don’t like messy stuff like painting or ceramics but I enjoy drawing, writing and performing. Music has always been emotive for me and links so many memories and experiences. I like how it feels to come up with something in a group too. You don’t get that joint expression from solitary art forms, it’s joyous when things fall into place musically, you don’t need to theorise or discuss, you just play.
Chris: You can’t really hold or look at music. There are physical and visual representations, but you can’t really assess it first-hand with your eyes or hands. So it feels more like a simultaneously universal yet completely individual language. We can use it to communicate with each other despite possibly having completely different understandings of what it means.
We can make it individually, but when you take it into a group, it changes and takes on a life separate from you. Or it can begin life in a group and be born as the glorious (or not) result of multiple friendships.
In short, it seems to be able to consistently surprise us more than other creative outlets.
Andrew: It’s pretty much all I have ever done. I can’t remember why now – that was ages ago!
FTR: What can people expect from the DANCER live show?
Gemma: A bit of dancing!
Chris: Gemma Fleet’s warm and weird stage presence – comforting and strange in equal measures, my fidgeting and contraptions, Andrew Doig’s rhythmic chops and Gavin Murdoch’s technical prowess.
Basically, we play some of our songs and try to make it a nice time for everyone involved.
Andrew: Exact reconstructions of our recorded material played with a nervous gusto. Potentially you will be able to put faces to names also. Our drummer Gabii Cee says the tempo is dictated by the night.
FTR: What’s next for DANCER?
Gemma: We are almost done writing our album and going to record a few songs next month at Green Door Studio in Glasgow. It’s a pretty magical place and we plan to record the album in the same way as the EP, all live to tape. I love recording like this, especially as the singer because you don’t have to wait around to overdub at the end. It might be our relatively simple set, but we all seemed to know when we had got the take! I’ve got a few field recordings and animal noises to add this time though, think a sort of kitchen sink pet sounds!
Chris: A 7″ (or two) and then an album we think, plus getting on tour before the year is out. We have stuff in the works for all of the above so things are looking positive for more Dancer!
Andrew: Everything is next. The whole package. Interesting merchandise!
They Listen To…
Novos Baianos – Os “Pingos” Da Chuva
Radiohead – Everything In Its Right Place
Skunk Anansie – Charity
The Cardigans – Rise & Shine (2nd Version)
Jane Wiedlin – Rush Hour
Dancer is out not via GoldMold Records. For more information on Dancer visit https://linktr.ee/dancerareaband.
Live Dates:
Thursday July 6th THE TALLEYRAND w/ tba (Manchester)
Friday July 7th JT SOAR w/ GOOD NEWS (Nottingham)
Saturday July 8th WHARF CHAMBERS w/ CRUMBS & SMALL GAUGE (Leeds)
Sunday July 9th ZEROX w/ SHAKE CHAIN & ROXY GIRLS (Newcastle)
Wednesday July 19th THE GLAD CAFE w/ THE UNIT AMA & DRAGGED UP (Glasgow)
For The Rabbits 
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