Interview by Mark Lacey
As one of the UK’s brightest lights on the classic hard rock circuit, The Dust Coda have earnt their stripes, and their trajectory is on the rise. Since the release of their barnstorming latest album ‘Paradise Loco’ in 2023, the band have supported Guns N Roses at Hyde Park, completed a sell-out UK tour, and have just been invited to join Wolfgang Van Halen, and his band Mammoth on their own first ever UK headline shows. With momentum building, the Dust Coda are energised and eager to take everything on their stride.
“We know loads of bands who go, oh, God, you guys are doing great. We’re like, Are we? We’re in that horrible no man’s land. The further you get in, the further away it is as well. We still enjoy it. The music’s good. And you just keep trucking, right?”
MGM: The last time MGM bumped into you was in February at Dirty Honey’s show in Camden, and you mentioned you had some big stuff coming up, but couldn’t talk about it. I’m guessing ‘supporting Mammoth on their 1st ever UK headline tour’ might have been one of the things you had in mind. How did this come about?
Adam: Good memory. This is one of them. There was meant to be another, and it fell through. That’s the lovely thing about the music industry, and a lot of bands will tell you this, there are always ten things going on, but at our level you only ever land about two of them. This is one of the ones we landed, which is just great. There’s always plate spinning. We’ve got a lovely relationship with the team at AEG. They’ve always supported us from a long time ago. They’ve always been fans, and they were putting on these shows. As you can imagine, there were quite a lot of bands in the running, and they were like, no, we want The Dust Coda, and here we are.
MGM: You’re just about to soundcheck for your London show, having played yesterday in Birmingham. Have you had a chance to spend any time with the guys from Mammoth?
Adam: We’re on day two of our two shows. We only met them yesterday. Mammoth is basically Wolfgang and a shit-hot group of musicians backing him. You’ve got Frank Sidoris from Slash’s band. Roni, the bass player, is basically mates with Green Day. It was his birthday yesterday, so that was quite sweet. The drummer’s a beast. There’s such an American production on the drums. It’s not a kick drum, it’s a fucking cannon in the ear. He’s a hell of a player. The band is shit-hot, but they’re lovely. Everyone’s cool. They’re very tired. They’ve been on a long run. But it’s one hell of a group of musicians.
MGM: When you supported Guns & Roses last summer, that was a real moment for you because you’re a huge Guns & Roses fan. Are you as much of a Van Halen fan?
Adam: I am, from a guitarist point of view. You can’t play lead guitar in a rock band and not be into Van Halen. But, Guns N Roses, more so, just because when I was a kid I remember hearing ‘Appetite’ on cassette tape. I was more into them as a band. I was into Van Halen as a guitar player when I got better later. But this is still a bit of a ‘pinch me’ moment; just hearing him talk. He’ll go like, Oh, dad wouldn’t let me do this, or that. And I’m like, when he says daddy, he means fucking Eddie! He’s a sweet guy and he’ll tell stories and he’s like, Oh, yeah, dad wouldn’t let me skateboard because of my wrists and all that shit! That’s pretty surreal and cool.
MGM: How was the Birmingham show last night? This is Wolfgang’s first head-line tour.
Adam: Birmingham was great. We’ve done a few of these when you’re supporting a much bigger band. The gulf is big, and they’re from America. They’ve all hired gear in America. When it’s the first show in the UK, basically that means they’re plugging everything in for the first time seeing if it works. When you get the itinerary out, you’re like, yeah, I’ll add two hours to that because there’s no chance! But you know what? It was slick. Great team. They nailed it. We were anticipating that delay, and then we’re like, Oh, we’re on time. Here we go. We’re going to get a sound-check! Absolute kudos to them. They were just really cool, professional, and that whole behind the scenes thing was on the money. We got to witness them do their Q&A with their VIP ticket holders too. That was quite nice to see. They’re really nice guys.
MGM: How did you guys go down last night? Did you get a good reception?
Adam: I loved it. It flew by. We haven’t done an opening slot in a while and you forget how quick it is. It was absolutely full and people were well into it and we got a great reaction. But it fucking flew by. We got six songs and we’re now three albums in, so you want to do a bit of everything. We thought, we’ve got to be heavy, we can’t play the bluesy stuff. The last half of ‘Dream Alright’ to me is quite like the Foo Fighters. It’s got that American build up and big thing. I thought that would go damn well. There’s going to be a lot of guitarists in the crowd for this, so you’ve got to chuck in a few of the big riffs and solos, as well as stuff for people to clap to. ‘Call out the Dogs’ is one we want to make a bit of an anthem with, because it’s got that chant and a fucking good vibe to it. We want to play it more to the big crowds. But, six songs is a hard thing now we’ve got forty to pick from.
MGM: The crowd will no doubt be mixed with genuine Mammoth fans as well as some Van Halen diehards?
Adam: The majority of the crowd will be into the Van Halen stuff, but it’s a bit like a church, like, ‘Oh, you’re God’s son’ type thing. But the crowd were very into them in a great way.
Scott: They’re pretty slick, but you notice little things in soundcheck, they would do little AC/DC or Guns N Roses riffs and just freestyle on it.
Adam: But equally, it’s his gig. Wolfgang’s got two other guitarists, because he’s basically like, Yeah, I’m either going to sing, or just riff and solo. Or when they chug, it’s for that big wall with a sound with all three of them. But he won’t play for 60% of the songs unless he’s doing his thing or it’s the main riff.
Scott: It’s tight, but they’re all having fun.
MGM: 2023 looked like to be a pretty big year for you guys. You played Hyde Park, the new album came out, and you’ve just done your national tour. You must be really pleased with how it’s going?
Scott: Yeah, the last 12 months as a whole was great. It’s weird to think back, it was only just over a year ago we released ‘Paradise Loco’. There was a lot going on around that; building up to the tour and getting the Guns N Roses gig. So, it was very much things within our control. We didn’t do as many festivals last year, and that meant we could just focus on our own album, and our own tour. In that respect, it was great.
MGM: Earache Records have been great at running record store promotional shows in independent stores and I saw you played at Pie & Vinyl in Southsea. That’s a cool place, but very small! You didn’t take your drums with you, did you?
Scott: No, just John and Adam did it.
Adam: Yeah, that was one of the … I think …. ‘cuter’ is the polite way of putting it, places we played. That was definitely a moment. We’d just done Guns N Roses in Hyde Park, and it was like, what the fuck is going on here? No one who saw us was there to see us. It was just in this café. But fuck it. The whole thing of what Earache do behind it, which is independent labels supporting independent record stores; it’s fucking great. You get the chance to go around the country and see it, and you meet the owners of the stores and it’s very personal to them. We would never normally get exposed to that. It’s brilliant. Not all of them are little old ladies’ cafés.
MGM: What can you tell me about your next plans? The last album has been out a year. Are you writing more music?
Adam: We’re in that lovely pocket now where when you’re ‘x’ amount of albums in, you’ve got a healthy backlog of stuff that you’re always revisiting, tweaking, and adding more. It’s not an arrogance thing, but getting a nice stockpile of stuff for the next album isn’t a worry. It’s like, Right, what’s the good shit? It’s the quality control. What do we want the next album to sound like? What’s good enough to make it? That’ll be the focus probably at the end of this year, and the beginning of next year.
MGM: Earache Records look to be very supportive of you too.
Adam: Yeah, they always are. Digby’s a legend for a reason. When he’s gone, there’ll be no one else like him. I think we’re very lucky to work with him in this era.
Scott: They’re on a roll with a lot of the other bands they’ve taken on recently. Always seems to be a new album coming out, or in the top 10, or top 20. So, their system is pretty good.
MGM: You recently had a bunch of shows lined up in Spain, but had to pull those. What happened there?
Adam: Well, we had to pull out at short notice. Sadly, John had to go out to Australia for personal reasons, which has taken up a lot of his time. It’s obviously very sad for him and what he’s going through. But then on the band level, it’s sad because Spain has always been a great market. A few times we’ve been there, they’re batshit crazy for it. It would have been a great run. But the promoter knows the score, and hopefully we’ve parked it to next year.
Scott: We did Rock Emporium a couple of years ago. It was the first year and it was part of the Whitesnake farewell, with Europe, and the Scorpions were there as well. I think it helped our profile overall getting on that festival.
MGM: What will happen next for you guys?
Adam: We’re doing these two dates, and then it’ll be probably focused on writing. John’s got to go back to Australia for some stuff, and then we’ll focus on next year. There’s a few things in the pipeline for the end of the year, but will they, won’t they? We’ll see. There’s always something fun that might happen.
MGM: AC/DC have just been to the UK, and it reminds us that it’s still been the same bands headlining Wembley Stadium, Donnington Park or Hyde Park for the last year for 30-40 years. For emerging bands, and even mid-tier bands, the gulf to breaking through still feels immense. Where do you feel the Dust Coda are on that journey?
Scott: It is tough. The big rock stadium bands that are still doing it are the ones that have been around for at least 20, 30, 40 years. But, Mammoth; they’re not been around as long as us, but they’re breaking through and supporting the likes of Metallica and the Foo Fighters. I think some of those big bands will nurture newer bands. I think the challenge is more for the wider industry to be backing them at some of the bigger festivals.
Adam: I’d say we’re in the worst part of the journey. It’s just timing. We know loads of bands who go, Oh, God, you guys are doing great. We’re like, Are we? We’re in that horrible no man’s land. The further you get in, the further away it is as well, because you get to know more about it. But equally, we’ve worked long enough to get where we are. We still enjoy it. The music’s good. And you just keep trucking, right?
Scott: Ultimately, I’d like to think quality prevails. We have been around a long time and we’ve already got a legacy of material that we’re already proud of and it’s the best you can do, isn’t it?
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