Interview with Darling Imperial
Okay I’ll be honest with you, I do not know much about local band pop rock, alt-country slingers Darling Imperial except for maybe what I’ve read on the pages of Deep Cutz. But with their show with local pop sweethearts Serenity Court at the Belmont this coming Friday night, a light bulb went on above my head. Why not hit up lead guitarist George Jacobsen with a straightforward set of “five questions” so we can all get up to speed with this talented team of musicians? Here’s what I found.
How did Darling Imperial first get together?
The easy answer is necessity. There was an earlier version of the band that Sarah (Sadovsky, vocals & percussion) and I were a part of that fell apart with some shows already booked – one Valentine’s Day show and a spot on the 2008 Metro Times Blowout. Carl (Yute, bass and guitar) helped Sarah and I with what became an acoustic set last February and Chris (Vieau, guitarist) was pulled in for last year’s Blowout. The four of us got along great – Sarah and I knew Carl well from his days in Hotness and Chris and I grew up on the same dead end street in Shelby Twp. It took some time to find a drummer, so much so that we just started booking acoustic shows with three guitarists. The first show we did like that was at Jacoby’s in August or September of last year. We picked Adam (Hayes, drums) up at that first show. He was playing drums for the last band and liked what we were doing. And it’s been good for us since then.
Describe Darling Imperial’s sound?
I like to just keep the description as pop/rock. I’m not a fan of slashes and hyphens, but that’s what it is. Because we operate more on a song-by-song basis – some end up sounding jangly, some will have a blues or shoegaze feel, and some will have more of a classic or glam rock feel – we’re not really pigeonholed by the description. There’s not a particular aesthetic we adhere to and there’s no band we are trying to emulate. We’re also not trying to recreate the wheel.
Tell me about your debut Darling Imperial recording?
It’s an EP called I Know Everyone You Know. It’s six songs, each of which are fairly different in terms of sound and structure than the rest. We recorded it between December and February with Jon Weier and Adam Cox at their space in the Russell – the Brooksfield Gentleman’s Club. Jon played keys on a good chunk of the songs, which really added effect to the songs. Anyway, we’re really happy with the experience and how everything came out. I think it shows us to be a pretty diverse band.
FEATURED DOWNLOAD:
“Company You Keep” – Darling imperial
Who are some of your favorite bands to play with?
With this band, we really haven’t played multiple times with other bands to really say so-and-so’s a favorite to play with. I think we really enjoyed shows we played recently with The Prime Ministers, The Croff Family Band, and Last Tourist. The Vamps were fun too. I really enjoyed one show at The Lager where Mick Bassett played acoustic. In looking ahead to Friday, I’m sure we’ll very much enjoy playing with Serenity Court, which I’ve done before as part of Troy Gregory’s band, and Jaye. I really like what I’ve heard from The Rogue Satellites and am curious to hear what The Jaye Thomas Band stuff will sound like.
What can we expect at the Belmont show Friday night?
You’ll hear some new things. You’ll see cool people you know and some you only kind of know. You’ll buy bottles of High Life. We’ll all be friends and have a good time. And it’s Carl’s birthday. We’ll all be in good spirits for that.
** Darling Imperial play with Serenity Court and Jaye Thomas at the Belmont on Friday night.