The energetic Danko Jones are about to return with a brand new album – brilliantly titled A Rock Supreme – and have just told HEAVY Mag they are set to tour Australia as well.
“You know what if they really know us they know it is going to be more rock – lots more hard rock songs… that is pretty much it,” says the man himself – Danko Jones – when HEAVY Mag sits down to have a chat with him. “We like to stick to our story and not veer off too much. The trick is to record 10, 11, 12 hard rock songs that are hopefully fun to listen to… it is as simple as that. I mean this is our ninth studio album so the process is a familiar one. I mean I will write a whole bunch of riffs at home, I’ll play guitar and whatever hits my ears I’ll record that and bring it into rehearsal and then when I’ve amassed a whole heap of riffs I throw them at the guys. Then whatever hits their ears we start working on so it does go through this vetting process and goes through a few filters until it becomes a song. But really the only compass we use is our ears and whether or not this sounds cool.”
“By the time we hit the studio, songs are chosen and we are going for it,” he says when I ask about at what point in the process the trademark catchiness of their songs creeps in. “There could be some arrangement changes but nothing written from scratch, but there may be a part like ‘this track needs an ending’ or a song might need a bridge that joins two parts or something – that has happened many times. But in terms of the catchiness that normally happens in the rehearsal space but for me it is what is catchy for my eyes and I am an album guy… a deep cut album guy. I’m the kinda guy who likes the tracks that don’t get released as singles so I just write songs… so if it is good to my ear then I just like writing songs.”
You can hear our full interview with Danko Jones on Spotify.
