A Conversation with Frankie Poullain of The Darkness

The Darkness are playing at The Depot on Friday, November 21. Doors are at 7pm.

The British glam rock four-piece has kept busy long past its hit song “I Believe In A Thing Called Love” reached number two on the UK Singles Chart in 2003. More than two decades later, the band’s made surprise headlines on account of Taylor Swift lip syncing to their music at the US Open. They’ve experienced a resurgence, selling triple the tickets they did a decade ago. Once considered one hit wonders, they’re continuing to prove they’re anything but. 

When I chatted with Frankie Poullain, The Darkness’ longtime bassist, he was phoning from Richmond, the same place the TV show Ted Lasso takes place. He shared his adoration for Neil Young, the struggles the band’s survived, and how they’re finally being accepted as a proper classic rock band.

Has Ted Lasso’s popularity affected your surroundings at all?

Not much. Funny enough, there aren’t many signs of it at all. Soccer isn’t big here. Rugby is.

Can I get a closer look at the ring on your hand? Is it like a knight’s armor?

It’s kind of like an armadillo. It’s by Vivienne Westwood. She styled a lot of the Sex Pistols and that whole punk scene in the UK. You know, the difference between American and English punk is the English one is it was as much a fashion movement as it was a music movement. The English ones are often more fashionable while American bands are more about musicianship. The great American bands are usually better musicians, but the English have more style, you know.

You started a band that morphed into The Darkness later, correct?

It was a different band, but Justin (Hawkins), played keyboards. I formed the band with the singer, and his brother Dan (Hawkins) got into the band. We were playing gigs, but we took ourselves far too seriously. The gigs would die a bit because we weren’t good enough to live up to the hype. Justin would break the ice by cracking jokes and being stupid, and it was often the most entertaining part of our gigs, just him pissing around.

Did that lead to the personality you adopted as a band with The Darkness?

Well, it took a while to realize that that’s what we should be doing with his charisma, just letting him do his thing. But eventually we did, when we were so desperate and there was nothing else we could do. Embracing glam rock as The Darkness was the last thing we thought to try. It was like, OK, fuck it, let’s do this. Let’s go in a new musical direction.

What was the former band like musically before this one came about?

It was a classic late 90s thing. And everyone in the late 90s was into The Pixies. We weren’t necessarily. It was more tasteful stuff, like Pink Floyd. We wanted to be panoramic. A proggy, indie thing. We didn’t quite know what it was. The problem was we didn’t have any direction.

And now you do.

Oh, yeah. Too much.

I remember when you hit it big with “I Believe In A Thing Called Love” in the early aughts. Is it fair to say the band’s having a resurgence?

Not necessarily in your country, but in the UK, yes. A big resurgence. We’re tripling our ticket sales from 10 years ago. In America, we’re plateauing, you know. We’re still a one-hit wonder there. But it’s all word of mouth for Americans. They don’t care what’s fashionable. They just tell their friends, ‘Oh, there’s this great band. You’ve got to come with me,’ you know. Americans recognize rock and roll. The English don’t so much anymore, but Americans still have that rock and roll thing, because it’s where it came from.

On a similar note, my friends in Americana bands over here have huge responses to their music when they play in the UK.

It’s true. Americana is big. I finally went to see Neil Young live, and I think of him as the godfather of Americana even though he’s Canadian. He brought in these young guys with him, and he’s teaching them how to do it. I get the sense he’s the guy who sets the template. I just can’t believe a guy his age is still so cutting edge. When you see him play live with a band with three young guys — and one of them is Willie Nelson’s son, apparently — 

Lucas Nelson, I think.

— they’re just such a great band. I couldn’t believe the way he was matching their energy and vibing with them. It’s incredible to see.

Yeah, he’s still got the chops. He can still hit those incredibly high notes.

He’s got everything. He’s got poetry. He’s got his own guitar style. He invented a way of playing that no one else can do. He’s unbelievable, the supreme artist. Obviously McCartney and Dylan are great but, for me, Neil Young is more unique and important, I’m not sure why. To me, he’s like John Donne. A classic. A metaphysical poet.

So you’re saying you liked the show?

I guess I’m exaggerating a little bit. But I was blown away.

Looking back to how your band started and up to now, what’s the experience been like?

It’s been a lot of years of struggle. It’s often like that. That’s reflected on our albums. You know, one is enjoyable and has a sense of fun, while the next reflects the struggle, because of our personal lives and relationship issues, but not so much our issues with each other.

We get along really well compared with most bands who have been together this long. It’s because our singer is not a typical lead singer. He might look like a prima donna, but he’s not. In terms of behaving like a dick, he almost never does. I guess that’s because his brother’s in the band, and also because they were brought up with really strong values by their parents.

So it’s a better experience than what you would get with other bands.

Well, it’s tough being me, as I’m the older one. The touring schedule can be tough. But I’m starting to go running with the guys and I’m working out more. Dan said to me, every day he has a proper run, it’s never a bad show. You’re ready for it. But they’re running like 15K on the day of the gig. It’s unbelievable.

Well, it’s a pretty high intensity show, right? A lot of jumping around and acrobatics?

Yeah, I don’t know how Justin does it. The guys that push themselves to the edge physically are Justin and Rufus. Rufus is one of the hardest hitting drummers in rock music, even compared with the metal guys. He hits harder than his dad. (Editor’s note: Rufus’ dad is Roger Taylor from Queen.)

Justin’s energies suit something that’s highly strong and intense, but that can be emotional too. I think that’s what defines us best: the drama, exaggeration and theatrical flavor we have that other bands don’t.

Will there be jumpsuits on this tour?

The cat suit’s on the show. There are many. He’s still got the physique for it. There’s more improvisation on this tour, too, and more covers as well. We give ourselves new challenges. We don’t rely on gimmicks. It’s lazy.

And what bands or songs do you find yourselves covering?

Well, I want to keep that a surprise.

I was wondering if you were actually going to tell me or not.

I can say we do a huge power ballad that we’re pulling off quite nicely, and it’s one everyone will recognize. I wish it was “Purple Rain”, but it’s not.

I heard Justin say he felt like The Darkness was headed toward becoming a nostalgia act, but now feels like the band’s been given a second chance. Do you agree?

Even a third chance. The second chance was to come back. Now it’s on a different level: we’re playing arenas in the UK now, so I feel like it’s a third chance. People are open to it because in the UK there was a huge backlash against us. It might sound ridiculous, but in the UK it lasted about 15 years. About four or five years ago, it started to dissipate, because the English media is everything. I get the impression Americans are less held hostage by the media and that they think for themselves a bit more.

What was the backlash about?

We were the biggest band in the country, you know, for a year and a half. Our record label pushed it down people’s throats a bit too much. Then David Bowie pulled out of Reading and Leeds, these gigantic festivals, and we ended up in them. Our album was only 35 minutes long, and we had to play sets for an hour and a half. We weren’t ready for that. There was a backlash, because the English hyped us up too much. They got carried away. They felt a bit stupid after hyping us up so much, and then just shit on us for the next 10 years.

Are you in a better place now to headline those kinds of gigs?

Eventually we found our natural place in the order of things. It’s like that in Europe. The countries where we used to be a lot bigger, we dropped slightly, and the countries where we were really small, where they never got us — the French, the Germans — we’re growing. Pretty soon we will be at the same level in every country in Europe. We’ve found our place, which is nice, but it takes so long for that to happen. It takes 20+ years, but it also takes a long time to be a proper classic rock band, and I think we are finally doing that.

What do you like most about doing it?

Job security! No, I like it because it’s enjoyable. It’s great being in this band. There’s a sense of fun, and we dare ourselves to try to take on new things. On the last album, we were not being generic. We’re not doing corporate rock. Thank God we’re not a corporate rock band.

Do you think you’re better experienced live than through your recordings?

When we’re in the studio, we take risks, you know? We make mistakes, you know, but they’re mistakes that came from trying to pull something off in a different genre. We’re not quite as polished as some other bands but, in a way, that’s rock and roll. It’s not always polished. And that makes the albums a bit of a roller coaster ride.

Going back to Led Zeppelin, they left their mistakes in. They become part of the song.

Yeah, thank you. I completely agree with you.

Did that whole Taylor Swift thing have an effect on the band?

Did it have a long lasting effect? No. Did it keep us in the public eye and get people talking about us? Yes. It probably helps a bit with ticket sales, too. Maybe it helps encourage the ones on the fence to buy.

It probably got you on the radar of a younger generation that hadn’t heard your music.

I think it did. It got people talking … if people even actually talk about bands anymore.

I just like that you’re still creating glam rock. You’re keeping a small genre alive.

I guess so, although glam rock means a different thing to you guys than it does to us. I’m guessing you’re talking about Motley Crue, bands like that. Are you?

I’m thinking of bands like Hello or T. Rex. T. Rex counts, right?

T Rex. Definitely. Slade. The big, giant heels and giant flares, all the stuff that inspired Ziggy Stardust.

And The New York Dolls count, too, yeah?

Yeah, yeah, yeah. They’re definitely a cool band. When I said that American bands aren’t so fashionable, they were the exception. They were almost an English art school band, you know, the way they dressed up. It was confrontational. They were important. 

Get your tickets.

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