secret fireworks

(photo credit: Speed Demon Photos)


On Driving By Night's MySpace, one simple phrase grabs your attention immediately:

"2009 belongs to Driving By Night."

It's a pretty darn bold statement to make considering the number of top bands within the North that are ready to take the world by storm- but with a wonderful single released at the end of March and the debut album set to be released by Summer 2009, the future looks bright for DBN. I caught up with Terry Lavery from the band earlier this week to chat about the single, the impending album release and plans for 2009.



SF:The single “Promise In Youth” has just been released on Dental Records, and it’s a cracking tune- do you think it’s the best song you’ve written to this point?

TL: Personally I think "Promise In Youth" is a great song, and we're happy that so many people are loving it, but its not our best I would say. We have other great songs on the album which might surprise a few people. Listen out for "Put Me Down Slow" and "Bruce Waits" (named after Springsteen and Tom Waits, two influences on the band). Promise is doing a great job at grabbing people's attention and adding a bit of beef to the album. You'll definitely find a good mix of feeling in there with every track!

SF: Speaking of releases, the debut album’s scheduled to come out in Spring 2009- did you enjoy the whole process? And do you have a date set for the release?

TL: We're actually looking at end of Summer now for the release of the album so there isn't a date set as yet. We want to make sure that we give it the time and effort it deserves. It would also be great to get a bigger label to release it on, so we are pushing the tracks to industry at this stage so we can get organised for the release. It will be our first album and a very proud moment for us all, we'd like to make it really special!

The actual process from start to finish was long, enduring and pushed us to nearly break up. Thankfully that didn't happen! When we we're in studio, it was great, we had goals and stuck to them, outside of the studio we kept up with showcasing and playing good support shows. This helped us to keep a level head throughout the year, so that we never felt locked up like a studio band.

It probably took us close to a year to get it all together, but to watch it come together, the way we want it, was worth the wait. We are really excited about getting the songs out there and getting some real reactions from real fans.

SF:You’ve got a surprisingly strong fanbase within America- playing 3 showcases at SXSW 2008, supporting David Kitt in the Mercury Lounge in New York... were you surprised with the response you received?

TL:Yeah, we were definitely surprised with the reception we got while in America. It's like everything became real for us as a band and where we finally felt like a real band. We were on a tour, people were treating us like professionals, from the venues to the fans. While in New York, we got put up in a suite in a really fancy hotel, where all the acts from the festival we played all passed through at some stage of the night as we where holding the aftershow party in our suite.....we have some interesting pictures from that! At the shows, it seemed we didn't have enough merchandise, people couldnt get enough of our CDs, T-Shirts, whatever they could get their hands on really....especially Neal haha!

We're planning to get back to New York in Autumn for the CMJ showcase, there we will meet up with some of the labels and management that showed interest in us when we met at SXSW in Texas.

SF: Driving By Night have been playing a great deal over the past few years- can you pick out one particular gig as your favourite and why?

There have been a few great shows over the years, the Vital festival (we played the mainstage with Kings Of Leon), support to Keane and The Thrills at the Ulster Hall (probably the best venue in Belfast). Some of our single launches have been brilliant: we get great support from our local fans. Playing shows with between 500 and 3000 people watching is just unbelievable.
If I was to choose just 1, I think I would have to say maybe New York. It's been an ambition for all of us to travel with the band and to have that experience and be taken seriously, knowing we can do this again and on a bigger scale once the album is released.

SF: Finally, have you any plans for summer festivals this year? Will we see you at Glasgowbury or other events farther afield?

TL: We've nothing confirmed yet with festivals, our plans at the moment are to showcase in London with a possible tour of the UK just before the album is released. A support tour and then a headline tour when the album is out. I almost forgot, we just got a promoter in Germany! There are plans to spend a week or so there to tour with possible festivals, we are already getting airplay on a few of the cool indie radio stations. We'll have to bring our German phrasebook if we end up doing interviews there haha, you could only imagine our first talks with the promoter and their lawyer!

We'll have a DBN feature later during the week with some exclusive downloads. Cheers once again to Terry and the band.