Dragonette

Miami, FL – June 14, 2013 – If you can hum the catchy tune, “I just came to say hello,” then you know Dragonette. The Canadian electronic band formed in 2005, making their way onto the radar of hipsters and DJs, with the UK and Canada following for their funky, electro-pop sound. When they collaborated with huge producers like Martin Solveig on “Hello” and Kaskade on “Fire in Your New Shoes” in 2010, the band’s popularity and recognition spread as the hits climbed the charts in the US. “Hello” became huge, spreading onto radio stations around the country and earning a Juno Award for Dance Recording of the Year in 2012. The trio has been to Miami before, but usually performing a handful of their hit dance songs in clubs like LIV and Mansion for the party crowd. This past week, they came to the other side of the bridge to play their first full-length show at Grand Central as part of their US tour for the new album, Bodyparts. Since World Red Eye has been at the forefront for all their other gigs in Miami, we had to check out this exciting show and see what the band has been up to. We chatted with them about the new album, their rise in popularity, and what they’ve been doing while hanging out in town.

Dragonette

World Red Eye: How is Bodyparts different from your previous two albums? What was the inspiration?

Martina Sorbara, vocals: I find when an album is new, you compare it a lot to the old ones, and it takes them being alive for a while before I actually think they’re as good as the previous ones. It takes a while to recognize the unique qualities. When an album is newly finished and newly in the world, you can’t see the forest for the trees, rather the little bits and pieces. It’s a bit giddier than the other albums. Fixin to Thrill has kind of a darker quality to it.

Dragonette

WRE: What track are you most proud of on this album?

Martina: I really like the song “Giddy Up,” and I’m proud of it because it’s just so bizarre and a very unique song in terms of the ideas we were blending. [It] was seriously inspired by Paul Simon’s Graceland.

Dan Kurtz, producer and bassist: Sometimes there’s like a technical triumph that’s inaudible to anyone else, but it’s like ‘Yeah I pulled that off.’ So then that feels like the best song on the record, but then other things come up, and I think probably 20 years from now, the songs I’ll go back to on that record are the ones I felt strongest about when we were making them. Those are “Lay Low” and “Run Run Run” for me.

Joel Stouffer, drummer: I’m not one for favorites. I think it also depends on what mood you’re in, what you’re going through in life at any given moment, which song kind of means more.

Martina: So true. I was really not enjoying playing “Let It Go” for a while, and when I was singing it at the New York show at Terminal 5, all of a sudden it was totally speaking to me. I was like ‘Oh, I love singing this song right now.’

Dragonette

Dragonette

WRE: “Hello” exploded onto the dance music scene in 2010, what was it like when you heard it being broadcasted all over the mainstream radio stations?

Martina: I think the weirdest experience I had with that song, and I can’t quite explain why this is weird but, you go out into the world- a store, a cabin, someone’s space- you hear the song you wrote and it’s weird. But I was at home in my kitchen, washing dishes, and from the neighbor’s backyard, it was coming through my window- “Hello”- in the UK. It was just weird. To hear someone else listening to it. It’s different from being in H&M or something, since they play a lot of our songs.

Joel: Well that, and… you were living in a part of the UK where there wouldn’t be people who listened to songs like “Hello.”  It’s gotten to be so saturated that everyone runs into it, then it’s kind of like a ‘Wow’ moment.

Martina: It’s so saturated that it’s coming second hand back into your house.

Dan: There’s one more level of penetration that I’m looking forward to with that song. We went to karaoke at Studio last night, and I was looking to see if “Hello” was in the roster. They didn’t have it yet, but I also saw that they didn’t have “Titanium” and some other songs. But they already had that FUN and Pink song. We sang along with it. (laughs)

Dragonette

Dragonette

WRE: Are there any more Martin Solveig or other collaborations in the near future?

Martina: Nothing’s really coming up. When we’re touring the way we are right now, there tends to not be a lot of anything else going on. But when things slow down, I imagine there will be. There’s a bunch of tracks we’ve gotten, but it’s hard for me. I don’t do very well when I’m in live performance mode; I can’t just sit down and get creative. It takes a little while of practically banging my head against the wall to get back into it.

Dan: And making tea. We have to drink a lot of Japanese tea and get all zen.

Dragonette

Dragonette

Dragonette

WRE: The Knocks told us in a recent interview that you’re a guest vocalist on their upcoming, debut album…

Martina: Yeah! I did, but I haven’t heard it or anything about it yet.

Dan: You did it in the basement, I remember seeing the photos. Their tweet was, ‘The lyrics on this new song with Dragonette are so sexual.’

Martina: I remember I did a little rap thing on it. I was actually quite proud of it.

Dragonette

WRE: You guys come to Miami every so often, but usually playing in clubs. How will your first full-length show be different?

Dan: The club shows have a particular kind of energy around them. They’re actually way more frenetic for us because it’s something we do so rarely. It’s about remembering how we arranged the controls, what knob we turned, and as soon as it’s done it’s like ‘Oh my God, we came all the way here.’ We’ve flown from London to Vegas to do that for 10 or 15 minutes, so it has a different energy, and in a way we don’t feel as authentic as we do when we play our own show. Also, we’ve been touring this particular run of songs pretty hard for the past month or so, and we’re jelled where we are now- it’s comfortable and we can stretch out more. Except you don’t get giant bottles of Dom Perignon at the end of the show, and we’re not legally obliged to hang out in the VIP.

Dragonette

WRE: What’s your favorite thing about playing in Miami? Any places you love to go when you’re here?

Dan: We went to Pubbelly yesterday, and I was trying to figure out if I could eat a pork wing.

Martina: Yeah, we don’t really spend a lot of time out and about in Miami

Joel: We’re usually holed up in a resort so, if we’re playing at LIV, we stay at the Fontainebleau most of the time.

Dan: They have a pretty decent seared tuna salad there. We got sucked into the vortex of Soho House this time with lots of ceviche, so it’s been nice.

Dragonette