The Leeds Gig Guide

Band Biography for driver drive faster:

Driver Drive Faster are a new band from Manchester, but you wouldn’t necessarily tell: this masterful debut album presents a rich, timeworn sound that exists somewhere between Americana and spectral indie rock. It’s crafted song-writing at its best, hinging on stirring chord sequences and moments of fragile beauty. “A review described us as ‘misfits’,” says singer/guitarist Dylan Giles. “We took it as a compliment.”

Named Open House and recorded in the shared digs in which the entire band reside, the album was a labour of love begun in late 2009, poured over in 2010 and set for release in 2011. The result is a lush, layered record that slowly draws you into its world. Think Mercury Rev’s Deserter’s Songs for a new generation. “We spent around nine months editing, overdubbing, mixing and tweaking every little detail until we couldn’t obsess any more,” says Dylan. “It was all self funded through working day jobs so we had no deadline, nor any expectations outside of the band’s own ambitions and ideas.”

Before the album, the single It’s All Over It’s Everywhere is released in May. A fine slice of harmony-laden pop, it’s a song about the public’s preoccupation with salacious gossip. “It started with the obsession there is of unearthing things in people’s private lives and past and moved on to the general urge to gossip and spread intrigue,” says Dylan.

Taking their name from the first line in WH Auden’s poem Calypso, in which he’s running late to meet his lover, Driver Drive Faster formed in Manchester and have, in their short career, supported The Aliens, The Phantom Band, Darwin Deez, Japandroids and more, recorded live sessions for Radio 6’s Marc Riley and received airplay on Radio 1 and Radio 2. They will grace this summer’s festival season too with slots at Green Man, Beacons, FOM Fest and Sounds From The Other City all confirmed.

Dylan and Japan-born bassist Yuri Caul met at school in Torquay, Devon. Durham-born Peet Earnshaw joined the fold after meeting them at an open mic night in Withington, South Manchester. Completing the line-up, drummer David Schlechtriemen was recruited via a friend, who described him as ‘excellent’ but ‘very German’. “It fell into place at the first run through as a four-piece,” says Dylan. “When David left the room Yuri punched the air.”

Coming from such far-flung places, the players create a sound that’s got little to do with the music of Manchester’s past, but plenty to do with its future. “We like variation in a record; ups and downs, fast and slow, happy and sad, serious and not so serious,” says Dylan. “I guess there is a restlessness in our approach to music: in life too, as an example, David can never settle on which brand of cigarette he smokes. It’s different every time.”


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