Pete Doherty was recently backed by an array of some of Manchester’s latest talent – Where’s Strutter, Tapestry and singer songwriter Danny Mahon – at the historic King George’s Hall, Blackburn. Living up to the fantastic reviews he’s been receiving lately, Danny Mahon produced the goods with a storming set, which included his latest release ‘Odd Socks‘.
Speaking to the Live4ever Ezine literally minutes before going on stage, Danny talked to us about his new album, support slots with Beady Eye in Italy, and being proud of his city’s musical history and influence.
Have you always been a solo singer/songwriter Danny?
I’ve been for going years in different guises, different bands and that. What were they called? Erm, I’d rather not mention them to be honest (laughs) you know what I mean, proper ropy. But as a young kid at 14 you think it’s the bee’s knees at the time, then I packed it in for a good couple of years. It was Johnny from Twisted Wheel who had just left his old band and was going solo and so asked me to do a couple of gigs with him, which I did. That’s about four years ago now and since then I’ve just carried on. If it wasn’t for Johnny I probably wouldn’t be doing this now.
Though a standard question, what influenced you growing up in Manchester, musically?
The usual stuff really, all the classics. Largely what my Dad would play: The Jam, The Who, The Beatles, The Stones, as well as artists like Billy Fury or he’d play some Motown, it was quite eclectic and he was just a big music lover really. Getting older it was all those influential Manchester bands – it’s a right of passage you have to go through, getting into bands like The Mondays, The Inspirals, Northside, The Roses and Oasis. Though I’ve noticed how it’s cool now to be a bit obscure about the Manchester thing and go against the history of it all, mainly kids that aren’t from Manchester who came here to go to Uni and formed a band, not from the city. All Mancunians are really proud of its musical history, I’m not saying you should keep copying it, but there shouldn’t be any hatred towards it either. I mean why did these kids want to come to Manchester Uni in the first place, if they say it’s nothing to do with the musical past? They’re lying, they get here then want to be all quirky and obscure and it’s annoying.
Fair to say your establishing yourself as one of Manchester’s up and coming artists, it seems to be coming together for you right now.
Yeah, seems to be. Probably since the video for ‘Odd Socks’ came out really as it’s done all right. It kicked it all off again because I released a single last year, ‘AK47’, which sold out, which amazed me to be honest, but it seems to building again which feels great.
You are supporting Beady Eye in October aren’t you. bet you’re looking forward to that.
Yeah made up. Two confirmed dates for Italy; Rome and Padova, and hopefully a couple more to follow.
How did that come about?
Well it was a combination of things really. After talking to the Beady Eye management about a a tune I sang on with an Italian band called The Hacienda, which they sent over and I put my vocal on, it just went from there really. I mean, I know they know what I do and they were aware of me so yeah, really looking forward to it. In fact, the song I sang on with The Hacienda is being released to coincide with the Beady Eye dates.
…and your new album, what’s happening there?
We’ve got the album done and recorded, it’s been finished for a while but no-one’s heard it yet. It’s like what we were just talking about, and waiting for the right time to release it, which’ll be soon. The next single will be after the Beady Eye dates and hopefully the album not long after that.
I personally love hearing people’s accents come out in their tunes – when you sing you know you’re from Manchester.
Yeah totally, it just represents me and where I’m from really. It’s very regional, very northern. There’s also a lot of guest musicians on this album so it’s a lot more of a ‘fuller’ sound, but it isn’t too different to what people have heard.
As a resident of Mancunia let’s say, what are your views on the recent rioting and looting in the city?
Well sadly I think it was quite inevitable really, because once people saw what was happening in London and other parts of the country, they sort of just jumped on the bandwagon. But, without making excuses for it, the kids have got hardly anything to do these days and, as obviously as wrong as it was, it was also something exciting for them to be involved in, which says a lot about the youth today and the opportunities they have. But at the same time if I was 16 I still would’ve said it was wrong, and it was real sad to see the images of the looting in the city.
Would something like the riots in Manchester influence your writing?
No, not really. I did notice straight after the riot there were plenty of poems and songs going about, it’s too opportunistic. My stuff has always said that anyway because no matter what’s been happening on a national scale it’s always happening in pockets where I’m from. Whether it’s kids smashing a car up at the end of the street, or shops being ram-raided or whatever, you know what I mean, so that’s what I write about anyway.
In fact, a tune I’ve written on the album actually has the type of content which fitted the situation just right really, and it was ‘lets get it out now’ you the day after the riots, but I just thought “I wrote it five years ago or what ever” – I’m always writing and don’t need to jump on something like that, it’s just not me.
(Carl Stanley)
