The Crimea

The Crimea

By Daniel Robert Epstein
Nov 19, 2005

Davey Macmanus is the lead singer of The Crimea which was formerly known as The Crocketts. The rest of the band is made up of drummer Owen Hopkin, guitarist Andy Norton, keyboardist, Andrew Stafford and Joseph Udwin on bass. Their latest album is Tragedy Rocks.

Check out the official site for The Crimea

Daniel Robert Epstein: What’s going on today?
Davey Macmanus: We just did a session at Electric Ladyland Studios in New York.
DRE:
What made you guys choose the title Tragedy Rocks? That sounds a little too emoish.
DM:
Emoish [laughs]. People have a fascination with death and morbidity in art. It’s more from that really, just sort of anti-everything.
DRE:
Do you have tragedy that rocked in your life?
DM:
[laughs] Yeah, a few dabs here and there. No more than the rest of us. I like to be aware of what’s going on around me as well. I really am definitely more fascinated by the more morbid side of life than the happy side of life.
DRE:
Is it about also the death of The Crocketts?
DM:
No, I don’t think so at all. It was just like a complete different thing. This band kind of stems from having to work in a real job and be part of the real world, which is a pretty scary thing.
DRE:
Why did The Crocketts change to The Crimea?
DM:
There’s no real difference. It’s a completely different kettle of fish. The two don’t compare at all. This is so much more of a serious thing. It’s just more focused and organized.
DRE:
What made you decide to release a single through the internet?
DM:
Yeah. We were just really keen because we did so much touring all year long so we just really wanted to get something out and get going. So we took the online release as a way to get the whole ball rolling so that when we were playing all these live shows people were still able to get a hold of the record.
DRE:
What’s the writing process between you guys?
DM:
I write the songs, more or less. But we’ve got like a really amazing band so everyone puts in their two penny worth so it’s a democratic process. It’s fucking convoluted. It takes forever and we spend a long time doing it but it’s worth it in the end when you finish and you’ve got a song that sounds great.
DRE:
How much time did you guys spend on Tragedy Rocks both the writing and recording?
DM:
We spent forever. I’d say the bulk of two years. We demoed each bit of each song a lot. We recorded a lot of stuff at home and then we recorded in Mississippi for three months. We hit a studio in New York this past January and February in a real studio to make it sound a bit better. It was a long process but it was worth it in the end.
DRE:
How did you guys get together?
DM:
The drummer, Owen, and I have been together for a long time. Not in a sexual way.
DRE:
Well, not yet.
DM:
It took a long time to find a band with really good and nice people that you could get along with. We were quite picky and it’s all worked out nicely in the end.
DRE:
What do you guys know about SuicideGirls?
DM:
The guys were on there the other day. They were looking for the live video. We’ve all got memberships, which is pretty good because one of our tracks is on there. Somehow we’ve managed to get free memberships. Everybody loves it. The concept is great obviously. I’m surprised nobody thought of it before.
DRE:
[laughs] How did your track get onto the SuicideGirls: The First Tour DVD?
DM:
We know a girl who’s a big SuicideGirls fan and she managed to push it through from her end, excuse the pun. She sorted it out for us and it was pretty bizarre. I’ve seen women bouncing along to this song that’s talking about death and destruction. It’s great. You couldn’t ask for more.
DRE:
Who are you guys touring with on your tour now?
DM:
Right now we’re out on our own doing three weeks of shows. We did some with this band called Youthgroup.
DRE:
How do you like touring in America?
DM:
We absolutely love it. We’ve sort of been all over. This summer we’ve been to like Ft. Lauderdale, El Paso, Vancouver everywhere. We’ve just been touring over here quite a lot this year and it’s something else. It’s just your wildest dreams just like the cowboy movies looked.

We went out again with Billy Corgan for most of this past summer.
DRE:
How’d Billy treat you?
DM:
He treated us very well. He’s a strange old fruit but it was really inspiring and exciting more than anything else. It was such a great opportunity. We couldn’t believe it. It was like being called off to war or something.
DRE:
I’m sorry he treated you well. That’s not much of a story.
DM:
I know [laughs]. I was just glad to even talk to him and then when I did he was really nice.
DRE:
Yeah, you want him to throw a cake at you or something.
DM:
Yeah. We’ve got a song called Losing My Hair as well which we were playing every night. I thought he wouldn’t have liked that, but he thought it was funny.
DRE:
What are the Crimea groupies like?
DM:
It’s pretty standard fare I guess. A lot of our songs are sort of pro fat so I guess they’re a bit larger than usual, but generally spectacularly pretty beneath the fold.
DRE:
You guys like the bigger girls?
DM:
Yeah. We do like the bigger girls.
DRE:
Oh, that’s cool. What are you most excited to do that you didn’t get to do with the previous tour?
DM:
We really just want to get out there and do a decent trek on our own to see where we’re at.

by Daniel Robert Epstein

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