Dutch Uncles are an English indie pop band from Marple, England. They are known for their use of atypical time signatures within a pop context, and the androgynous vocals of frontman Duncan Wallis.
Biography
Originally from Marple, the band started playing together in college.
Early influences included
Talking Heads
Talking Heads were an American rock band formed in 1975 in New York City and active until 1991.Talkin ...
The Smiths
The Smiths were an English rock band formed in Manchester in 1982. They comprised the singer Morrissey, the guitarist Johnny Marr, the bassist Andy Rourke and the drummer Mike Joyce. They are regarded as one of the most important acts to em ...
Tears for Fears
Tears for Fears are an English pop rock band formed in Bath, England, in 1981 by Roland Orzabal and Curt Smith. Founded after the dissolution of their first band, the mod-influenced Graduate, Tears for Fears were associated with the new w ...
,
King Crimson
King Crimson are a progressive rock band formed in 1968 in London, England. The band draws inspiration from a wide variety of music, incorporating elements of classical, jazz, folk, heavy metal, gamelan, industrial, electronic, experime ...
,
Kate Bush
Catherine Bush (born 30 July 1958) is an English singer, songwriter, record producer and dancer. In 1978, at the age of 19, she topped the UK Singles Chart for four weeks with her debut single " Wuthering Heights", becoming the first female ...
and
Steve Reich
Stephen Michael Reich ( ; born October 3, 1936) is an American composer known for his contribution to the development of minimal music in the mid to late 1960s. Reich's work is marked by its use of repetitive figures, slow harmonic rhythm, ...
."Dutch Uncles: Glock Rock with the Clogs Off, Baby" - article by Dan Lucas in ''Under the Radar'', 20 August 2013 Originally known as Headlines, they became Dutch Uncles in April 2008, and in early 2009 released their self-titled debut
album
An album is a collection of audio recordings issued on compact disc (CD), Phonograph record, vinyl, audio tape, or another medium such as Digital distribution#Music, digital distribution. Albums of recorded sound were developed in the early ...
in Germany with Tapete Records, recorded at Cloud Hill Studios in
Hamburg
Hamburg (, ; nds, label=Hamburg German, Low Saxon, Hamborg ), officially the Free and Hanseatic City of Hamburg (german: Freie und Hansestadt Hamburg; nds, label=Low Saxon, Friee un Hansestadt Hamborg),. is the List of cities in Germany by popul ...
. Reviewing the album, ''
New Musical Express
''New Musical Express'' (''NME'') is a British music journalism, music, film, gaming, and culture website and brand. Founded as a newspaper in 1952, with the publication being referred to as a 'rock inkie', the NME would become a magazine tha ...
'' commented that "their scratchy post-punk racket effectively draws a line between the first Futureheads album and
Vampire Weekend
Vampire Weekend is an American rock band from New York City, formed in 2006 and currently signed to Columbia Records. The band was formed by lead vocalist and guitarist Ezra Koenig, multi-instrumentalist Rostam Batmanglij, drummer Chris Tomso ...
. On the likes of "I Owe Someone For Everything" frontman Duncan Paton’s ''(sic)'' idiosyncratic yelping can be a bit annoying, but when they stop trying too hard, as on "Twelfth", the results are quite pleasing."
The band emerged as part of a new wave of Manchester-area bands. (Duncan Wallis: "We all sort of came to light at the same time thanks to our manager’s EP that he’d released on his Love & Disaster label featuring us, Delphic, and Everything Everything, and I think that back in 2010 it was very important to say “Manchester isn’t just lad rock,” because it was shortly after the demise of
independent record label
An independent record label (or indie label) is a record label that operates without the funding or distribution of major record labels; they are a type of small- to medium-sized enterprise, or SME. The labels and artists are often represented ...
Love & Disaster on 31 May 2010. Soon after, they signed to London label
Memphis Industries
Memphis Industries is a British independent record label.
Memphis Industries was established as a record label in 1998 by the brothers Ollie and Matt Jacob with the first release being Blue States' Forever EP. It is perhaps best known for The ...
and released the single "Fragrant" on 1 November 2010. Dutch Uncles' second album, ''
Cadenza
In music, a cadenza (from it, cadenza, link=no , meaning cadence; plural, ''cadenze'' ) is, generically, an improvised or written-out ornamental passage played or sung by a soloist or soloists, usually in a "free" rhythmic style, and ofte ...
'', was released on 25 April 2011. They toured the UK throughout 2011 including appearances at
Reading and Leeds Festivals
The Reading and Leeds Festivals are a pair of annual music festivals that take place in Reading and Leeds in England. The events take place simultaneously on the Friday, Saturday and Sunday of the August bank holiday weekend. The Reading Fest ...
and stage headline slots at
Bestival
Bestival was a four-day music festival held in the south of England. It had been held annually in the late summer since 2004 at Robin Hill on the Isle of Wight. In 2017 the festival relocated to the Lulworth Estate in Dorset. The event was orga ...
and
Latitude
In geography, latitude is a coordinate that specifies the north– south position of a point on the surface of the Earth or another celestial body. Latitude is given as an angle that ranges from –90° at the south pole to 90° at the north po ...
, followed by a European and UK support tour with
Wild Beasts
Wild Beasts were an English indie rock band, formed in 2002 in Kendal. They released their first single, "Brave Bulging Buoyant Clairvoyants", on Bad Sneakers Records in November 2006, and subsequently signed to Domino Records. They have rele ...
.
Their third album, '' Out of Touch In The Wild'', was released on 14 January 2013. The band consciously expanded their sonic palette for this release, with Robin Richards later admitting to having composed more under the influence of
Stravinsky
Igor Fyodorovich Stravinsky (6 April 1971) was a Russian composer, pianist and conductor, later of French (from 1934) and American (from 1945) citizenship. He is widely considered one of the most important and influential composers of the ...
and stating that "I didn't want any boundaries when it came to writing the new songs. With ''Cadenza'', I was always writing music with the idea of us playing it live with two guitars, drums and bass and maybe some piano. With this album, I wrote whatever felt right for any other instruments, be it strings or tube percussion.""Wildly Addictive: An Interview with Dutch Uncles" - article by John Freeman in ''
The Quietus
''The Quietus'' is a British online music and pop culture magazine founded by John Doran and Luke Turner. The site is an editorially independent publication led by Doran with a group of freelance journalists and critics.
Content
''The Quietu ...
'', 17 January 2013 Wallis revealed that the underlying theme of the record was addiction and addictive behaviour. "For the song "Nometo", I tried to imagine
Leonard Cohen
Leonard Norman Cohen (September 21, 1934November 7, 2016) was a Canadian singer-songwriter, poet and novelist. His work explored religion, politics, isolation, depression, sexuality, loss, death, and romantic relationships. He was inducted in ...
doing his thing - full of regret - then I started to think about the idea of addiction, and then it seemed that every song contained a person who was addicted to something or another. The next two songs that were written – "Threads" and "Flexxin" – were about auto-erotic asphyxiation and S&M, and people becoming addicted to those types of things."
The following summer the band supported American rock band
Paramore
Paramore is an American rock band from Franklin, Tennessee, formed in 2004. The band currently consists of lead vocalist Hayley Williams, guitarist Taylor York and drummer Zac Farro. Williams and Farro are founding members of the group, w ...
on their European tour. Paramore guitarist Taylor York cited Dutch Uncles as an inspiration for their 2013 album.
The band released their fourth album, ''
O Shudder
''O Shudder'' is the fourth studio album by English indie rock band Dutch Uncles, released on 23 February 2015.
Track listing
All lyrics by Duncan Wallis, all music by Robin Richards
Personnel
;Dutch Uncles
*Peter Broadhead - electric guita ...
'', on 23 February 2015. This record took a more personal and mature turn in terms of content, with reflections on sexuality, employment and considerations of parenthood. Duncan Wallis noted that "I’d just be writing in my flat at home, looking at the woodchip wallpaper, and I’d repeatedly say to myself, ‘Don’t make it personal, don’t make it personal, don’t make it personal.’ But it couldn’t be stopped; it was always going to sound like an album about a character settling into domestic life. We’d all been in long-term relationships at that point, and we were all kind of settling down." He also referred to having wanted Dutch Uncles " to sound like a more mature band... to have more of a knowingness" and even to sound more like "Grace Jones backed by Talking Heads""XXX Words: An Interview With Dutch Uncles" - article by John Freeman in ''
The Quietus
''The Quietus'' is a British online music and pop culture magazine founded by John Doran and Luke Turner. The site is an editorially independent publication led by Doran with a group of freelance journalists and critics.
Content
''The Quietu ...
'', 25 February 2015 as well as describing the album as "an exploration into all different areas of doubt."
Following the release of the album, guitarist Daniel Spedding left the band, leaving them a four-piece."Back On Track: An Interview with Dutch Uncles" - article by John Freeman in ''
The Quietus
''The Quietus'' is a British online music and pop culture magazine founded by John Doran and Luke Turner. The site is an editorially independent publication led by Doran with a group of freelance journalists and critics.
Content
''The Quietu ...
'' 01 March 2017 Adding keyboard player Henry Broadhead and guitarist Neil Wright to the live band, Dutch Uncles played their biggest headline shows to date at the Koko in London and The Ritz in Manchester in spring 2015. In autumn 2015, the band supported
Garbage
Garbage, trash, rubbish, or refuse is waste material that is discarded by humans, usually due to a perceived lack of utility. The term generally does not encompass bodily waste products, purely liquid or gaseous wastes, or toxic waste prod ...
on the European leg of their ''20 Years Queer'' anniversary tour.
In February 2017, the band released their fifth album, ''
Big Balloon
''Big Balloon'' is the fifth studio album by English indie rock band Dutch Uncles, released on 17 February 2017.
Track listing
Personnel
;Dutch Uncles
*Peter Broadhead – electric guitar, marimba
*Andy Proudfoot – drums, backing vocals
*R ...
.''. Written and recorded as a reaction to its predecessor, the band developed the album with the intention of "simplifying the process" and of including more political content, although conversely also admitting to having worked under
progressive rock
Progressive rock (shortened as prog rock or simply prog; sometimes conflated with art rock) is a broad genre of rock music that developed in the United Kingdom and United States through the mid- to late 1960s, peaking in the early 1970s. Init ...
influences including
Gentle Giant
Gentle Giant were a British progressive rock band active between 1970 and 1980. The band were known for the complexity and sophistication of their music and for the varied musical skills of their members. All of the band members were multi-inst ...
,
Focus
Focus, or its plural form foci may refer to:
Arts
* Focus or Focus Festival, former name of the Adelaide Fringe arts festival in South Australia Film
*''Focus'', a 1962 TV film starring James Whitmore
* ''Focus'' (2001 film), a 2001 film based ...
and early
King Crimson
King Crimson are a progressive rock band formed in 1968 in London, England. The band draws inspiration from a wide variety of music, incorporating elements of classical, jazz, folk, heavy metal, gamelan, industrial, electronic, experime ...
. The release coincided with a 12-date UK tour and an appearance at the BBC Radio 6 Music Festival. They made their first appearance at the
Glastonbury Festival
Glastonbury Festival (formally Glastonbury Festival of Contemporary Performing Arts and known colloquially as Glasto) is a five-day festival of contemporary performing arts that takes place in Pilton, Somerset, England. In addition to contempo ...
in June 2017.
In late 2022, the band announced that their sixth album, ''True Entertainment'', would be released in early 2023.