DENVER COUNTY COUNCIL ON THEIR WHIRLWIND YEAR | INTERVIEW

Manchester based Denver County Council may have only just released their debut single less than a year ago, but for this Americana inspired Northern quintet, they have had propelled to the heart of the local live scene. Boasting supporting slots with the likes of The Hunna and The Blinders already, Denver County Council are flying right now, proving to be one of the most exciting new bands coming out of Manchester. Those curious what all the fuss is about can find out for themselves when the band perform at this years Neighbourhood Festival on Saturday 5th October.

INTERVIEW with DENVER COUNTY COUNCIL

You burst onto the scene with your first official release back in December 2023. How have you found the past year? What are some key highlights as a band?

The past year has been a belter for us, from our first live debut of 100 cap in September last year, to then most recently a UK tour with The Hunna playing sold out 500 cap rooms, it really does remind us of how far we’ve come in such a short space of time! I’d say the highlights for us are exactly that, a UK tour for us was something which we probably felt wasn’t on the cards for us in year 1 so to be able to tick that off has been amazing, collecting a lot of fans and support along the way! As well as that we have managed to release 2 singles which we recorded with Ben Etches at Kempston Street, Liverpool, it was important for us to get some studio singles out into the world so for sure, that was another big highlight for us! 

Other highlights include supporting The Blinders at New Century Hall on their final Manchester show, that was a special one for us, with it being only our 3rd live performance to be playing that stage was a great moment for me and the lads, and to be part of what felt a special send off for a great Manchester band! Also playing live stripped back acoustic session at the AO arena, another mind blower! So yeah, a very busy and important first year for us! 

This first release was a collection of ‘Live Tapes’ with SoundON which captures your energy as live performers. Do you think it was important to establish DCC’s live persona from the get-go with your audience?

Yeah, so we kind of fell lucky with that one, a kind of ‘meant to be’ moment if you like! It came after our first show back in late September, we knew our guitarist was going to the states for a 3 month period which could have held up progression for the band so we knew we needed to do something in the way of a ‘release’ before he left just a week or two after that show! We toyed with the idea of a live session, and out of sheer coincidence we were contacted by Johnny at SJM/The Rodeo Mag who was actually at our debut show, about a potential opportunity to record and film a live session with Chris from SoundON! 

Safe to say we jumped at the opportunity, and to work with Chris on that was an absolute pleasure, a top guy! We just needed to find a studio and engineer, with only a couple days notice, this wasn’t the easiest of tasks, but again we were somewhat saved, by another stand out bloke in Ben Etches! He had the studio, the experience in live recording and production plus the availability to make it happen, again forever grateful for that and another reason we decided to go with Ben for our first couple of singles! 

For sure, these sessions really allowed us to get our music out there early doors, show what the band have to offer not only sonically but visually too, so coming into the live scene we were able to display a real feel of what it means and feels like to experience Denver County Council! Albeit we have developed a hell of a lot since then, those sessions are almost a year old now! 

You’ve got a distinctive, consistent aesthetic across all your releases and social media. Where did this aesthetic stem from?

Good question, not exactly one for myself as I can’t say I’m the greatest when it comes to all this social media stuff, even though it’s annoyingly a very impotent part of being in a band these days! We’re lucky enough to have our guitarist Jake Chatterton who knows his way around an instagram post! I guess we wanted to keep aesthetic fairly consistent and traditional so keep our style recognisable and start to almost create some proper branding! I think we definitely achieved that early doors with our black and white, kind of Americana feel to what we were posting, and I think it worked! Since then and introducing our studio releases we wanted to introduce a slightly newer exciting feel, hence the introduction of some colour throughout both of our single campaigns! 

What does the songwriting process look like for Denver County Council?

The early process was pretty straight forward and a very familiar collaboration which helped us achieve what we have in this first batch of songs! Jake and I have been in bands together previously, so we have that natural dynamic of songwriting and we know what we both like! Jake has always brought to me a few tunes he’s written either on the acoustic or on his laptop and sent them over for me to write the Melodie’s and lyrics to, I’ve always said to him it’s like I get to write songs for my favourite band every time I come to write the melody or pen the lyrics, so im very grateful that I’m in that kind of position when it comes to writing these songs! Then once Jake and I have the bones of the song we then take it to the live room with the rest of the lads where we would develop it further working on structures and adding the ‘bells and whistles’ if you like, again very grateful in having such unreal musicians in Josh, George and Ryan when it comes to bringing these tunes to life in a live format! As we move into the, let’s say, second stage of our songwriting we like to do this in the live room together as a band and taking previous influences from of the other lads as we look to create this new era of songwriting for us!

What artists inspired you when establishing your sound?

For me, it’s always been Kings of Leon, vocally, lyrically and even aesthetically that’s always been a thing for me since the beginning, back when I was 14 picking up a guitar and learning my trade as a singer, it’s always been a go to, and I think you can hear that coming through in some of the songs! Whilst developing and making the first couple records for this band I think Wunderhorse also played a huge part in the aggressive vocal style, hooks and general attitude of some of the tunes! Jake’s guitar sound stems from a band called Yuck who he loved way back when we were in our first band The Covelles, it’s safe to say that influence still runs through into this band and has certainly been a key part in our song writing! 

Which of your songs is the biggest crowd-pleaser live … and will we be hearing it at Neighbourhood 2024?

I think initially it was the second single we released in ‘Mad Love’ this one always seemed to be a crowd favourite with people singing the chorus right back to us since day one, which has always been a great feeling and a blast to play live every time! However recently, there has been one tune which has been noticeably getting the crowds attention, especially whilst being on tour with The Hunna, and we may have just been working on a studio version of said tune recently, I won’t be telling you the name that one, but I will tell you, you’ll be certainly hearing it live at NBHD!

It’s been great chatting with you… lastly, what else is in store for DCC this year?

Thanks for having me, great chatting with you guys too! Well even though it’s been a big busy debut year for us at DCC HQ it doesn’t stop here! We’re going to have more live show announcements, AND more music announcements in the very, very near future, so please keep your eyes and ears peeled and until then, we’ll see you down the front at NBHD October 5th!!!

See you at Neighbourhood!

Manchester’s Neighbourhood returns to the city on Saturday October 5th with remaining tickets available HERE!

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