DYNAMIC HEPNOTICS

Rip It Up, Issue 97, 1 August 1985, Page 12

DYNAMIC HEPNOTICS

Stephen Spencer

Whether you thought it was ecstasy or ersatz, the Dynamic Hepnotics’ ‘Soul Kind of Feeling’ was a pleasant change from most of the rotate-radio fare of the past few months. The single won the band a much larger audience in their native Australia (it was last year’s biggest-selling local single across the Tasman) and introduced them to New Zealand. After all, it’s not as if these Hepnotic chappies are Johnny-come-latelys. They've been around for six years, initially as a blues-orientated band which used Sydney as a base for exhaustive touring. In those days they used to get the band and the PA into one car and the soundman's VW Combi now of course, the entourage consists of l2 people, two cars and a huge truck. But sax player Bruce Allen didn't sound as if the band’s newfound record success had gone to his head ...

“We get to stay in better hotels and wear better clothes, but that’s about it. We still have to work really hard. We've worked hard over the last few years and established ourselves to a level where we've been playing fairly major venues anyway, 1000 seaters. It’s just that we fill ’em up with people these days. Which is pleasant."

Although this year's album Take You Higher is the band’s first, they have a recording history that stretches back, if a little patchily, to their early days. They even had a single, ‘Hepnobeat’, that showed up on various US dance charts and went to N 0.3 in Spain. But that was about three years ago and by the time they signed to Mushroom Records’ White Label last year they hadn't been in a studio for two years. After one false start, 'Soul Kind of Feeling’ was the break. So what difference did the unusually extensive live background make to recording a first LP? "We learned to play together, which is the main thing. It’s really difficult for bands sometimes when they get into the studio straight and

they hear a playback and realise they’re not really playing together. as a unit. We’ve had years of playing together so it wasn’t a problem for us. I think that's a big advantage, especially when you're doing new songs, it means things fall together a lot quicker.” What was the age of most of the material? Was there a backlog from the long break from recording? "Some of the songs are fairly old. But a few of them we'd never done on stage before, they were written just before we went into the studio and we just went in and put them down. That was sort of an experiment for us because normally we've recorded stage favourites, but I think they turned out pretty well.” Given the live experience, what was the approach to production when you went into the studio? "Well, we've always been interested in getting that big sound. Then again, we started as a five-piece until we got the rest of the horns, just sax, guitar, bass and drums and Robert with his singing and harmonica. And we used to create these artificial brass parts by play-

ing harmonica and sax together, trying to make a brass section out of that. Which works okay, because the harmonica can play chords and two or three notes at a time. So we’ve always wanted to have a brass section and 10 keyboard players and 85 guitar players, and when you’re in the studio you can do that sort of thing. So basically what we did was go in and play the way we do live and then add bits and pieces where we felt they were necessary.’’ In recent years you’ve shifted from a blues and R&B sound to a much more soul-influenced style. What’s been behind that? "I think it’s as we've developed as songwriters. That side of it comes out because you feel better about writing a song if there’s been some sort of challenge to it. I mean, writing a song that’s a 12-bar blues where you repeat the first two lines and so on isn't all that hard to do. I mean, I think it’s hard to write a really good blues song, like some of those Willie Dixon things—just the way he phrases it and the little sayings he comes up with for the song titles are really good, it must be hard to write a tune like that." The Dynamic Hepnotcs' first overseas foray comes soon, with a visit to these shores. Outside of that they're talking to several record companies in America with a view to world-wide release for their records. So the expectations are getting greater for the friendly bar band with the huge-selling single? “Yeah, I think so. Not necessarily more expectations from the audience, but from our record company for a start. They expect us to repeat the success so they can make lots of money. And there's always the sort of industry thing where people say 'Oh well, these guys have had one huge hit, I betcha they don't get another one.’ ” But you’ve obviously got confidence in yourselves... "Well, yeah we enjoy what we do, the style of music that we play. That's the main thing as far as we're concerned. And having other like it to is the best way for us to be able to keep on making it.”