DYNAMIC DRINKING CLUB
Pre-order: www.belugarecords.com
ARTIST DESCRIPTION
The Dynamic Drinking Club began as a passion project of Andy Hekkandi (Trench Dogs) and Anton Meriläinen (Dave Kusworth). Their debut album “Piss and Cancer” is a collection of semi-acoustic, downbeat and rather melancholic ballads. The album holds honesty-in-narrative and freedom of creativity above all else, Andy and Anton’s mutual creative respect for one another birthed a really free-flowing, natural but unorthodox songwriting style.
The once “little acoustic project” blossomed in the recording studio with the addition of a roster of talented musicians with a shared love of drink and good rock n’ roll.
The end result is a fusion of folk, punk, poetry, rock n roll, country and something rather different and unique. “Piss and Cancer” doesn't want to capture the party, instead it finds you on the lonely drunken journey home. A tongue in Cheek juxtaposition of the beautiful and the ugly.
DDC Biography (Written by Andy)
Around Touring with Trench Dogs and putting out rock n’ roll records I was writing these kind of gentle acoustic songs that didn't really have a place in the band.
My love of The Jacobites, Waterboys and albums like Darrell Bath's “Love and Hurt” were always huge to me. I would have Johnny Thunder’s acoustic album “hurt me” spinning all through my teens when I wasn't blasting Nick Cave and The Bad Seeds in my childhood bedroom back in Australia. That little corner of rock n roll was always a huge part of my musical obsession.
I had all these little songs and nothing to do with them so I took the bedraggled bones over to Anton (as I'd seen him playing with Kusworth) to see if he was interested in getting involved.
Truthfully I needed a musician of his calibre to bring the songs to life, I'm a pretty crappy guitar player and he is absolutely beyond brilliant so it made sense to try and get him liquored up and on board. He liked the songs and showed me some of his. brilliant. We really hit it off right off the bat, both musically and personally. The project very quickly turned into a joint effort in songwriting and we started writing under the name The Dynamic Drinking Club.
I would often take the train out to his property in Köping (because Anton just refused to come to Stockholm) for writing sessions between 2019 and 2022. We'd write music all day and then get absolutely plum-drunk in the evenings, it was a good balance between work and play. We shared books, smashed pints, visited historical sights, told stories, caused trouble and I always ended up getting injured for some reason or another. The writing was mostly done during the Pandemic years so it was actually a pretty nice and peaceful time to be in the countryside getting sh*tfaced, i mean, touring with Trench Dogs was suddenly illegal.
When taking our songs to the recording studio we sort of abandoned the idea of a stripped back acoustic record and opened the doors to a bigger production with friends and musicians from around the world.
Martin Andersson (Trench Dogs) was my only choice of drummer, he's just the best guy and as solid as a bloody rock.
Tsuneharu “Gen” Fujiwara (Lipstick Killers/Naruzy Suicide Band) was keen to record some Casio Keyboards in Nagoya and had his musical companion Lily (Lily and Gen) join us with some beautiful haunting backing vocals.
Anton was all fired up to have his childhood friend Sebastian Cojocaru (Dave Kusworth) jump in on Piano, organ, mandolin and a few other bits and pieces. Sebbe was such a perfect fit and an incredible musician, a real weirdo like the rest of us. I couldn’t have been happier to have Martin and the gorgeous Romanian pirate Sebastian on board with the project, it just made sense.
The violins were recorded separately in a tiny room behind the movie screen of a cinema in suburban Stockholm, we had to wait for the quiet parts of the film to record the tracks.
The Fiddle player was a friend of mine from America and a Jewish music teacher in town. I had to beg and bribe him to be a part of the project, it was exhausting. Being so desperate for a fiddle player I even did an open-mic which told me he would meet me at (he wasn't even bloody there for it!) I played some DDC songs to a bunch of nerds and got the f*ck out of there there. Thankfully and finally he agreed to lay down those sweet strings on the Album and he was just as brilliant as I knew he would be.
Honestly I really should pay him what I owe him, I can't keep dodging him forever.
So our “little acoustic project” now had an Aussie, a Romanian, a Finn, a pair of Japanese, a Swede and a Jewish-American.
The album was recorded at Tilt Recording Studio (by a Norwegian) in Strömstad, Sweden.
Photography by a Greek and a Swede, with Graphic design by a German, a Norwegian and a Frenchman.
Mixed by Harry Darling (Switzerland).
Mastered by Peter In De Betou (some kind of foreign? right?)
Released by Beluga Records (UK/Sweden).
I'm not sure if the album qualifies as “world music” but it sure did get a lot broader than just me and Anton playing guitar and drinking Gin in the forests of rural Sweden.
To be honest I'm not sure where this Album will live, what genre is it? Who is it for?
I know one thing, I feel sorry for whoever has to one day shelve this album into a genre section in a dusty old record store somewhere. If I could save that person some time I'd suggest putting it in the only section it belongs… The bin.
Cheers.
Album Release: 27th September
TRACK BREAKDOWN
SIRENS
A song of departures, hotels and a fear of flying.
The pedal Steel sickeningly carries the listener up out of London and out over the north sea, cut only with sharp blasts from the snare drum. No parting kiss goodbye.
ON A LIE
Acoustically bleak, a ballad of heartbreak and regret with a little foolish sprinkle of optimism.
Time heals all wounds but sometimes the truth and a lie are kissing cousins.
Soft guitars and gentle bells shoulder the tragic beauty of this cheeky little number.
SEED OF A BAD IDEA
An attempt to boil down the white-hot pain and choking guilt often associated with the sudden death of a friend. Empty verses hang whilst full choruses try to wrap up what’s left of the song into some kind of Stonesy reprieve from all that sadness.
BLACK AND WHITE BROGUES
With slide guitar coming down like rain on a tin roof this simple story-telling song pays homage to the late Johnny Thunders and a lovely day spent recording his songs in the rain with Stevie Klasson. “Ain't life grand,” yes it is indeed.
HALLIARDS
Something about the bass guitar gives one the uneasy feeling of seasickness. It’s an arctic new year's eve and the screechy violins, together with the gentle snowfall were enough to save a life that night. A drunken ballad full of despair with eventual stiff-upper-lipped relief and self acceptance.
DAGGERS
Oh the follies of youth, an autobiographical retelling of life in the outer eastern suburbs of Melbourne.
Probably the only upbeat “rock n roll banger” on the record, it tells a story of young love, drugs, live music and jealousy. Sure, open the door for the narrative but put the kettle on for the Hammond Organ and driving drums.
THE ALEXANDER
Mandolin, Accordion, full drums, piano and slide guitar carry The Alexander from England to Botany Bay, over two hundred wretched convicts in her guts. One of those good ol’ boys being a direct ancestor of Andy Hekkandi. This country-gospel-rock-opera is the story of his voyage, highway robbery and the fatal shore that forged a nation.
THE RAIN
Dave Kusworth was involved in the writing of the chorus of this song. He will be forever loved and missed by his friends, family and all of those lucky enough to play music alongside him. The song takes Dave's Beatles gag and sets it on a rainy hungover morning in Nacka, Stockholm.
SHORTCOMINGS
One guitar, one voice… a lonely violin and a very wet guitar solo interject only to mark out the peaks and valleys of this sombre ballad. This tender private moment has gone public for your enjoyment. You're welcome.
AWFUL DUTCH WINE
Delta Blues meets Chicago blues with lyrics written about the recording of this song whilst recording this song. Spontaneous, stripped back and self aware, this blues number rides on the foot stomping beat all the way to the blues harp.
GONE AGAIN
Kevin Junior (Chamber Strings) hipped Anton to this David Gates song, we darkened it with cavernous reverb and rusty old whammy bars. Hauntingly pretty though the original was, we opened it up and let it bleed to death in that big-room-sound kind of way.
THE CROOKED SONG
On the final night of the third session I think that too much drink was drunk. A play on the old nursery rhyme "there was a crooked man" was expanded on and perverted with the foolish idea of "one take, capture it in its purest form."
The final track of the album is exactly (and drunkenly) that, "RIGHT! that's it, we're done, let's go!" cut and print.
For better or worse.
