Live Review

Exclusive Interview

Justin St. Vincent from Xtreme Music interviewed Mike Hickey and Leigh Newton of Daiquiri on April 19, 2004 Toronto (ON), Club Rockit.

Xtreme Music: I’m here with two members of Daiquiri, how exactly would you describe your music?

Mike Hickey: Do you want the line from the bio or the actual truth?…(laughs).

Leigh Newton: What we’re trying to do is try to make music that’s both interesting but catchy at the same time.

Xtreme Music: What would you say are your main influences and how have they shaped your musical direction?

Mike Hickey: Uh.. Influences have been fifteen years of just absorbing myself in like so much different kinds of music and movies and T.V. and living in Ottawa which is really boring.. (laughter) winter, and farmland and cows and uh.. (laughs)

Xtreme Music: So what bands in particular would you say you have drawn major influences from?

Leigh Newton: There’s like three or four that are like the holy trinity of what we draw from. One is a band called Stump from England.. who basically went nowhere.. but they sorta had a brief flirtation with mainstream. They kinda reshaped how guitar and bass,drums and vocals are approached. Also a band called Village Idiot from Portland, Oregan.. who went nowhere and they are really awesome.

Mike Hickey: They really went nowhere!

Leigh Newton: They really went nowhere and then a band from L.A. called Slurry Skin who went completely nowhere and now they are all junkies and in methadone clinics (laughter).. and Destiny’s Child.

Xtreme Music: So where do you find your inspiration lyrically and musically?

Mike Hickey: Lyrically it comes from being really bored. I mean if you look at the lyrics it’s just really bored (laughter)..

Xtreme Music: So what other innovative production techniques do you guys incorporate into your music?

Mike Hickey: Not as many as we would like to. We’re getting there. Production means so much to us. I mean we’re not one of those bands who just set some olds mikes and do [whatever]. The studio is like a member of the band if you treat it as such. And uh.. we’ve worked with two producers, and the new one he’s really put a lot into it.

Leigh Newton: We’re not about giving an accurate performance or a passionate performance in the studio. I put a priority on just getting good sounds, even if that means like ridiculous editing.. you’re not really a live band when you’re in a studio. I like the idea of having.. the way the band sounds live and the band sounds in the studio.. i just want it to be completely different.. two different sounds, two different bands.

Xtreme Music: Well I know that the show tonight was fantastic at Club Rockit here in Toronto, how has the live tour been going and what has the crowd reaction been like?

Leigh Newton: Well thanks first of all.. This is the first night of three shows we’re gonna do. So far it’s been going good.

Mike Hickey: We tour very sporadically. By the way, you should just know that we tour sporadically. Reaction is good about 80% of the time, 10% of the time it’s indifference, the other 10% of the time it’s.. bad.

Xtreme Music: You guys seem to have quite a cult following here in Toronto because I noticed that after your set half the crowd just left the club!.. Didn’t you guys notice that?

Mike Hickey: That was weird wasn’t it! I just didn’t want to say anything..(laughter)

Xtreme Music: Dora and I were saying that maybe it’s something to do with the kids having curfews coz it’s an all ages show!

Mike Hickey: (laughter).. More because we are more popular [sarcastically]..(laughter)

Dora: And all the girls have crushes on you guys that’s why..

Mike Hickey: Do they? (laughs).. that’s true, there were a whole bunch of 14 year olds females.. (laughter).. who better to fixate on that Leigh and I! (laughter)

Xtreme Music: What’s been the best experience in the band’s music career?

Mike Hickey: When we toured with Faxed Head. I think that’s probably been the best experience. Proportionally it’s about two and a half years behind us. We’re just hoping for something that good to happen again.

Xtreme Music: So what can you see happening in the near future for Daiquiri?

Mike Hickey: It’s all downhill from here… (laughs). It’s a whole nightmare.. the truth is that we set aside the next year to do as much as possible and we are coming out with a real bang.. a two month tour in the U.S. Because we are like a D.I.Y. band we don’t always go about things the right way or at least the legal way. We got refused entry into the United States just by fluke! So it is crazy how much this has affected us. Like we’ve quit jobs.. we’ve turned down jobs to do this tour.. and legally, we’re not supposed to do that. But you try telling a U.S. boarder guard that “Hey, we’re playing some kid’s basement for a case of beer.. can we please come?” (laughter).. So the future is weird but on the good side is that it’s given us time to work on the new album.

Leigh Newton: I agree! (laughs)

Xtreme Music: So what happened to the other members of Daiquiri?

Leigh Newton: We started out actually as a typical like bass, drums, guitar, vocal kinda punk-rock band and people.. moved away and lost interest and we came to realize that the only people we can really trust are each other. We just cut the fat and figured out a way to do it as a duo and see how far we can take that.

Xtreme Music: I’ve got a copy of your CD here.. could you tell me about your latest album?

Leigh Newton: Well that’s sorta the first recorded version of the duo and using a lot of drum machines where it’s quite a bit different from our first CD. So a lot more studio trickery. It’s very much an indication of the direction we’re gonna take.. and take it even further.

Mike Hickey: Yeah, lots of synthesizers, lots of heavy beats..

Leigh Newton: Gratuitous sampling, noise..

Mike Hickey: But it’s funny because we’re trying to be a pop band for real, like that’s kinda the goal – just to write the best pop songs possible.

Xtreme Music: So with the live sequenced samples that you guys are using in your band, would they actually be recorded by the other band mates or have you guys produced those?

Leigh Newton: Some of the songs were originally done as a full band but they’ve been adapted.. but we did all that stuff ourselves.

Xtreme Music: Where do you see the band in a years time?

Mike Hickey: I’m kinda curious about that myself! (laughter)

Xtreme Music: Fantastic! and for my final question, what inspired you guys to do techno noise covers of R&B and Hip Hop tunes.. like Milkshake that we heard tonight?

Mike Hickey: Funny thing is that’s the kinda thing that we kinda aspire to do. We try to do a faithful cover. We really didn’t try and make it particularly insane but it probably came off that we’re not very good at it! (laughs).

Xtreme Music: Well thanks again guys, it’s been an absolute pleasure.. and I hope everything goes well for Daiquiri in the near future!