Easter Dog Weekend

Brisbane's favourite sons, the Resin Dogs, are set to tour Australia this weekend playing alongside the Blackeyed Peas at various festivals (see tour dates below).

Formed in 1996 by mixing hip hop cut and paste techniques with funk and dance - and also mixing real samples alongside real instruments - they've mesmerised crowds at Vibes, the Big Day Out and Homebake, as well had several tours of their own. Their debut album, Grand Theft Audio has sold 25,000 copies and they're currently in the midst of recording their next album, set for release later in the year. I talked to Geoff Boardman (aka DJ Geoff Blunted, aka DJ Jigsaw) about their upcoming gigs and his philosophy behind DJing.

How's the Resin Dogs going?
"We're definitely working on a new cd, which we hope to have come out in the last quarter of the year, and a single before that. Katch and Dave have been working on it a lot. Before then we're going to Germany to a couple of summer festivals there. While we're there we're gonna try and hook up with and work a couple of the people we've met out here in Australia, try and get them to help us out, and work on some of the album in the UK. Add a bit of variety so it doesn't all sound like it's all out of our computer at home."

Does the internet help you guys at all?
"We don't pay much attention to record sales or anything like that - just the reaction from people at the gigs. That's what we're in it for, and when we are, say at Vibes and we're playing a new song, and the crowd are definitely into it, and combined with feedback from the website, it brings it all together."

You also do solo DJing gigs - and Katch and Dave almost have a full career going out of their side project 2 Dogs - do you guys ever use some of the same samples as you do for Resin Dogs?
"Yeah, sometimes. Some of the tracks are good for listening purposes, but not so great to dance too, so you can't play the whole track out. Unless it's a break or whatever. Most of the tracks we use that are playable out in the clubs, have a good beat or whatever, are fairly well recognised already anyway."

What's your philosophy when DJing solo?
"Well, I don't like to be totally obscure, I like to play stuff that everyone's going to be into, plus drop a few tracks that people don't expect you to play, for a nice little breather".

Any solo gigs or releases coming up?
"I play at Empire here in Brisbane. I've also been working on my own Blunted Stylus 4 release coming out on Hydrofunk. It'll be the first one on cd, the others have been on tape and vinyl."

What will that sound like?
"Stuff that doesn't totally fit into the Resin Dogs mould of sound. It's not difficult, but when you make a track, I've got in my mind what the Blunted style is going to be, and what the Resin Dogs vibe has been, so when I come across things that work, some I show to the band and others I keep for myself."

Any surprises in store for your upcoming Easter long weekend shows?
"We've got the full horn section this time, and there'll be about 3 or 4 new songs. A song called Jano - with DNO - kind of up the Nice Mikes path. The songs with MCs are heading into a jiggy upbeat hip bop party kind of direction - not a sinister and dark direction, which is what we try and do for a live thing anyways.

The Resin Dogs Tour Dates:
Wed 27 March - Byron Bay (Great Northern Hotel, w. Skin)
Fri 29 March - Melbourne (33 1/3 @ The Good Shed, w. Black Eyed Peas)
Sat 30 March - Sydney (Deep City @ Wharf 3, w. Black Eyed Peas)
Sun 31 March - Brisband (Advent-jah @ RNA)