Almost five decades after helping to define an entire genre of music with the release of their single “New Rose” and becoming the first U.K. punk band to put out music, The Damned are still making their mark on punk rock. And far from being dinosaurs propped up by backing tapes playing behind the stage as they mime their way through one tired set after another in an endless, cynical cash grab, The Damned remain remarkably relevant today, whether playing tracks from their iconic first few albums or songs off their latest record, Darkadelic.
And half of the band—frontman Dave Vanian and guitarist Captain Sensible—are still steering that same ship but no longer simply sailing the same route, eschewing the temptation to rerecord the same version of those first few albums over and over again, but rather exploring new territories.
Preparing for the April 28 release of Darkadelic, guitarist and band co-founder Captain Sensible spoke with New Noise Magazine about the new record, the need to avoid retreating on their sound, and the recent reunion with the other two original members.
The new album sounds unlike anything the band has put out recently. Was that a conscious decision?
It is Damned-like, but each one of our albums has its own flavor, and this one doesn’t sound anything like any of the others, and it’s fair that if they let us make another one, it won’t sound anything like this one. That’s just the way we keep it interesting, I suppose.
Because you and Dave (Vanian, singer) have been writing together now for decades, has anything changed about the way the two of you go about putting songs together for an album?
No. I like what he does to my songs. He’s a good singer to write songs for; that’s for certain, because he’s still got his golden voice, and he never lets you down. That’s the thing, when I listen to us live, I’m always sort of a little bit shocked at how on-pitch he is. He always nails it, and to be quite honest, I’ve listened to myself, and I always fuck up. So, it’s a little bit annoying how good he is.
I like to tamper with his songs, and he does the same to mine, and everything has improved as we get through the sessions. The other thing is, we spend a lot of time working on the arrangements of these songs, so rather than just write the songs and recreate the demo, we really looked at the arrangements and see where we could lengthen sections and add drum breaks and stuff. The drummer, Will (Taylor), I got him to listen to Ringo from The Beatles because Ringo’s drums were always right for each section of the song. He wasn’t technically the most gifted drummer, but the performance was always what the song needed. So, we made sure we had a great foundation with the drums on this album.
This is your first record with Will, correct?
Yeah, it is.
Knowing that you’ve had various drummers throughout the years, does it change the band’s dynamic at all having someone like Will sitting in on drums versus any of your other previous drummers? Do you feel any different as a band depending on who’s sitting in on drums?
Very much so, yeah. You’re only as good as your drummer; the old cliche which is true. Pinch was an amazing drummer; Rat Scabies is an amazing drummer, and so is Will. We’ve been quite lucky, really.
You’d mentioned earlier that every album is different. The Damned have very loyal fans, and you could simply just go on tour playing your first few albums every night and make plenty of money. What is it that keeps the band writing new music every few years?
We’re on a musical adventure, really; that’s the way I see The Damned. It’s always changing; it doesn’t interest me to do the same thing twice. I think the same for Dave. We’re just pushing ourselves, really. I’m so glad when people say they like this stuff. Obviously, some people would just prefer you re-do Machine Gun Etiquette over and over again or the Black Album or Damned Damned Damned. They just want to hear another album like, that but it’s not really what The Damned is about. We’ve always been on this creative journey, which I find very invigorating.
You’re also one of those rare bands who are able to draw in fans who are well into their 50s and 60s who remember you when you first came out as well as kids in their teens that are just discovering you for the first time. What do you attribute to that, for lack of a better word, timelessness?
I think part of it is, it’s not just us; music was a lot more honest back then. We come from that generation where it’s real. Nothing’s choreographed, live performances, whatever happens that night, you know. If you come to see us two nights back-to-back on our tour, you’ll notice the differences in the songs. I think there’s an element of that that people like. I certainly would like to see a band like us, any band that is a real, hones,t un-choreographed, live, warts-and-all, element of danger, rock ‘n’ roll show. That’s what we do really. What’s not to like?
You had put something recently on Facebook or Twitter that I really related to. You’d mentioned that you used to save up your money to go to the record store to buy an album, and it was almost an event. And nowadays, if you want to listen to something, you just go online and download the album the day it comes out. The packaging for your new record, the vinyl in particular, is extremely elaborate. Was that intentional? To make it something that you want to tangibly own and spend time with versus just download on your phone in a matter of second?
That taps into your last question, really. When I bought a record, it was so exciting. If it was good, it would dominate my life, and you would go to the record shop in those days, go into a small booth with headphones, and listen to the album before you bought it because it was so expensive considering I wasn’t making much money at work. I could only afford an album every two months. I’m just a huge music fan at the end of the day. It meant so much to you that you would just devour the cover, find out everything you could about a band, and read about them. I tried to get their autographs. Elton John stole his name from a saxophone player I was a big fan of named Elton Dean. I remember I followed him at one of his gigs into the toilet, and I put the record under his nose while he was having a piss and said, “Sign this.” He said “I’m having a piss. Fuck off.” It meant so much to us. I’m just trying to recreate that same type of event with the records we make. And hopefully people dig it.
How did your tour with original members Rat Scabies and Brian James go? I know that had to be postponed, since it was originally delayed due to COVID.
We did it about three or four months ago. We did five shows around the U.K. Honestly, it was just amazing. One, to recreate that incredible noise again. There is a huge power in all the flying riffs, the blitzkrieg of drums. It was just a wonderful thing to do. And the other thing was, it was just so nice to make up and become friends again. It was really a special trip, and we were all really upset at the end because we wished we could all carry on for more shows. So maybe that’s something, if we all managed to stay alive, it’s something that we’d all like to do again.
I know the band are scheduled to play at Punk Rock Bowling in May in Las Vegas. It’s been a while since The Damned last played in the U.S.
Yeah, I wasn’t well the last time, and the bastards went out without me, which I couldn’t believe (laughs). But I’ll be there this time, and I’m really excited about it.
Is there a chance that the band will play more than just that event in Vegas?
We’re talking about it now. We have every intention of doing a string of shows. That’s what we want to do.
