“Our live show is our greatest strength,” says Harry Hanson, Adult DVD’s lead vocalist.
“We have so much fun doing it. That’s the bit we enjoy the most. It’s the bit that come across the best.”
The Adult DVD live show is, indeed, a high-energy experience. In fact, it can all feel a little unusual, given that the kind of places they’re playing – such as tonight’s venue, The Grayston Unity – are perhaps more typically witness to crunchy, heads-down, indie guitar bands and studious crowds. But with their synths outnumbering the guitar by a ratio of four to one, Adult DVD are unashamedly here to get you moving.
The band’s co-founder, Greg Lonsdale, is surprised how well it works. “I never expected it to be successful live, to be honest. When we were writing the tunes I was thinking: ‘How on earth are we going to do this live?’ It’s thanks to Jake, to be fair. He sorted it all out. He’s the brains of the band.”
Adult DVD are every bit as wilful, bouncy and irreverent as the select artists they most admire – Soulwax, LCD Soundsystem and DBFC. They are refreshingly upbeat, in every sense – the kind of band who are, you feel, mates first and foremost. That’s not to suggest the sound is an afterthought, far from it, but that it benefits from their camaraderie and their energy, flourishing in the cradle of friendship.
It’s a friendship that was first forged in the Brudenell Social Club, Leeds’ famous independent venue, just before lockdown.
Harry: “Yeah, I was working the bar at the Brude. I wouldn’t have met Greg if I hadn’t been working there. Greg and some of the other boys were in another band at the time. I ended up ‘depping’ for one of them at a gig. And then Greg was away and I filled in one time for him. That’s how we all meet really – at the Brude – and how it all started. The Brude is a great place. You walk in and you see everyone you know from the Leeds music scene. It’s become this real hub. And the sound there is great.”
Greg: “And there’s a wide range of bands that get to play there. Smaller bands get the chance too and it’s so exciting when you get to play the Brude.”
Leeds’ premier independent venue has remained a central, and essential, creative force in Adult DVD’s progression. The band even have their own branded beer on tap at the bar! A homecoming show there in December topped off a stunning year in fine style, the six of them purring on stage in their natural habitat. Although, it has to be said, they appear more-than-comfortable on any stage.
Harry: “We’ve all been in bands before. So, yeah, it feels comfortable being on stage. Say if I was playing guitar or synth in a band, I was always singing as well. So I’m quite used to doing that whole annoying bit between songs where everyone’s tuning up and you have to talk. It’s actually become quite easy, especially on tour because you can mention the merch at least three times.”
So, with everyone in the band bringing a fair degree of previous experience, who takes control of the songwriting process?
Harry: “When it started, it was just me and Greg knocking ideas together. Since we’ve become more of a band, everyone brings their own ideas. We’re not a band that sits in a practice room and writes or jams. It sounds terrible when we do that. It’s chaos. Six people all trying to play different notes on a synth. It’s quite a piercing sound. So we do it in sections. Me and Greg might get together one night. Or Jake or Danny will have an idea. Then we send it round and people will add bits. But yeah, it’s very rare that we’re all together writing a tune.”
In keeping with their collaborative instincts, recent song lyrics have even been written over WhatsApp, collated and built up piecemeal through their remote conversations. It’s worked like a charm. Their most impactful release to date, Bill Murray, stemmed from a reddit article where online users were discussing whether Bill Murray and Tom Hanks were in fact the same person, since they never appear in same movie together.
Bill Murray, Bill Murray is lost in Japan
Tom Hanks, Tom Hanks saying catch me if you can
Bill Murray Bill Murray is living the same day
Tom Hanks, Tom Hanks, Tom Hanks is cast away
The same creative approach yielded the words for the single Yacht Money, a wry, bittersweet ode to ageing, wealth and vanity. And the band are currently plying a similar method on a new EP, which is scheduled for release later in the year.
This actually tells you quite a lot about Adult DVD. There’s not one whiff of chin-stroking, literary self-indulgence in the air. Had they been born of another generation, you get the feeling that Adult DVD would have loved the ’90s, a time when the music world was drenched in a giant wave of post-acid house chaos and formulae were ripped to shreds, all in the name of getting loose and having fun. Anything was fair game. The KLF were collaborating with Tammy Wynette one week and Extreme Noise Terror the next and somehow it seemed par for the course. Even shoegazers were dancing.
Yes, Adult DVD would have revelled among the indie-dance crossover fraternity of the time – the likes of Intastella, World Of Twist and New Fast Automatic Daffodils.
But that was then and this is now. The fact that Adult DVD feel so relevant proves they are innovative and progressive, not slave to their influences. Adult DVD are genuine. They’re not here to create a stylised image. It’s not so much about the look; it’s more about the feel. It’s about the moves.
Mini ‘Beams: Quickfire questions with Harry and Greg
What’s the best gig you’ve played so far, outside Leeds?
Harry: Left of the Dial festival in Rotterdam.
Greg: I really enjoyed Brighton. The Prince Albert in Brighton. Manchester’s always good, to be fair. Gullivers. The Old Pint Pot in Salford as well. We played there for the Sounds of the Other City festival. We didn’t expect that to be so rammed.
Which band would you most like to remix?
Harry: Do Nothing. You could do a lot with those tunes. His voice is great.
Who would you most like to do a remix of an Adult DVD song?
Harry: Soulwax.
What’s the best thing about Leeds?
Greg: I’d say loads of really good venues close together. I love being able to get the bus to a gig or walk to a gig. It’s all convenient. You can have a really easy, good night out.
Harry: Thai A Roy Dee. It’s a great Thai restaurant.
What venue would you most like to play?
Harry: New Century in Manchester is pretty cool. We’d have to support someone there though.
Greg: The Millennium Square set-up in Leeds.
Aside from music, what would you most like to happen this year?
Harry: They’re going to build a sphere in London like the one in Vegas. I’m quite obsessed with this sphere in Vegas. So, hopefully, that.
Greg: I would like to go away camping on my bicycle; go cycling round the UK in the summer.
Support the artist
Listen to tracks on bandcamp and follow the band on Instagram.
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Words & media: Stephen Desmond
