Portsmouth based Dutch Criminal Record released their new single, ‘Feel Good’ today (Friday 26th June) and it’s a definite summery indie bop that you’ll want to be adding to all of your playlists pronto. Inspired by Scotland’s favourite indie gods, Orange Juice, the track has a catchy riff throughout which screams ‘day on the beach,’ ‘summer roadtrip’ and ‘drinks round a bbq’ simultaneously, but if you delve deeper into the lyrics you find that it dives a bit deeper; with lyrics such as “is it alright to say that im not fine, when I dont know what’s up”
I caught up with the band to find out more about them…
-How long have you been together & where did you meet?
We met at secondary school as Joe and Sam were in the same GCSE music class. Framps our drummer was also at the same school but he was a couple years younger than us. We’ve been playing music together since our GCSE days but DCR properly started in 2014.
-Where did the name Dutch Criminal Record come from? Sounds like it’s a good story…
Our original drummer Alex had an eventful football trip to Holland, we’re not quite sure what happened but he came back with a name for the band…
-You’ve just released your new single ‘Feel Good’ today! Tell me about it…
It’s a summer bop that we wrote in late autumn / winter time. Joe was inspired by listening to the Orange Juice song “Rip It Up”.
-What’s your writing process? Do you all write together?
It varies from song to song in the past it was slightly more collaborative as we lived in the same place but usually Sam or Joe come up with a song individually and then bring it to the band after recording a demo. Sometimes they’ll come up with one together though so there’s no rule of thumb. Then we’ll work on it together at band practise and it’s ready to go!
-Who are your main influences?
I guess the key ones are The Beatles and The Beach Boys and classic indie bands like The Strokes and Arctic Monkeys. But obviously we’re inspired by lots of other artists and composers from different genres as well.
-How have you kept yourselves entertained through lockdown?
We’ve actually written a lot more songs than usual which has been very profitable. We’ve been playing video games more than usual as well sometimes online together which I guess is less profitable…
-Do you have any plans for when we’re all allowed to go to gigs and get back to real life?
We’ve got a video on the way for our new single Feel Good and hope to head back into the studio as soon as it’s safe to do so. Regarding live gigs, we’re in the process of rescheduling them!
You can listen to Feel Good at the link below and follow the band on socials – @_DCR_Official on twitter, or @dutchcriminalrecord on insta!
gigs & glitter. 