I have always believed in a thing called rock ‘n’ roll. In high school, The Darkness taught me that. And love…I believe in a thing called love now, too. After a long hiatus, The Darkness are back in action with a new record and are touring the U.S. extensively for the first time in their careers. Corresponding for Pop Culture Madness, I recently got a chance to sit down with lead guitarist Dan Dawkins to talk about the band’s comeback. “It’s been great,” Dawkins stated. “We’re finding that because we didn’t really tour America on the second album, or anywhere particularly that extensively, there are a lot of fans that are maybe getting to see us for the first time; maybe we were their high school band, or maybe they didn’t get to see us because they were too young. Now, 8-10 years later, they finally get to see us. There’s a lot of very excited people in the audiences, which is cool.”
The band’s new album, Hot Cakes, released back in August 2012. This album meant
so much more to The Darkness than just putting out new music. “I produced the record in my home studio. It was really great fun, it was like getting to know each other again. We lost touch with each other half way touring on the first album. It was brilliant just to reconnect.” Dan continued, “I think what we valued more than anything the fact that we got our friendships back. We’re all really good mates again now, and we weren’t even talking to each other before. That’s the best thing about all of this.”
As far as the album itself goes, the band just wanted to be themselves and write kick-ass rock ‘n’ roll tunes. “The whole thing was just to kind of capture the excitement of the first record, and not to make it too perfect like the second [album],” Dan said. “And I think kind of hit it somewhere in the middle with the production value of the second [album], and the excitement of the first [album].”
The Darkness exploded onto the scene with their classic-sounding brand of British hard rock. Their debut album, Permission To Land, shot straight to #1 on the UK Albums Chart and has since been certified 5x platinum. In the US, the record hit #36 on the Billboard Top 200. In addition to their heavy touring schedule, the band briefly supported Metallica on their Summer Sanitarium Tour in 2003. In 2004, the band won three BRIT Awards for Best Group, Best Rock Group, and Best Album. They also nabbed two Kerrang! Awards for Best Live Act and Best British Band.
Back. The album debuted at #11 on the UK Albums Chart and eventually went platinum, spawning two Top 10 UK Singles. After their world tour that took them to Europe, Scandinavia, Japan, and Australia. The success of the band was short-lived, however. In 2006, frontman Justin Hawkins was admitted to a rehabilitation facility for addiction. Thegroup disbanded almost immediately after.