Enjoyable Problems

Here's the beauty about music – you've never heard it all. No matter what the past has given us, the future will always hold more. And this year, some of the more unlikely sounds to have enveloped our airwaves have been created by a bunch of bookish Scotsmen based in London. In a world full of genres and pigeonholes, Django Django have managed to craft something new and fresh using weird chanting choruses, shallow tribal percussion and minimal amounts of riffs on top of their rhythms, the end result being a crosspollination of styles – Afrobeat, indie, pop, disco – that's currently taking the quartet around the world.

On an early morning phone call from a road stop in Switzerland, a previous late night in Germany still evident, Maclean is sleepy but open, admitting that the places really connecting with the Django Django sound aren't the ones that you'd typically expect.

“You can have a huge crowd somewhere in a major city and the vibe can be a bit, y'know, average. Then you can play somewhere where you never knew you had fans, Hamburg or something, and it just totally goes off and they know all the words, so it's completely impossible to tell. I guess the size of the venue doesn't really have an influence on how well [the show] is going to go or how many people are into it – it just depends on the night,” says Maclean. “So there's been a lot of surprises where we've gone to a small town or a strange city and people have just been crazy for it – it's great when that happens.”

After meeting at art college in their hometown Edinburgh back in 2009, the foursome migrated south to the grimy streets of the English capital. There they slowly chipped away at an album in Maclean's cosy East London bedroom, three years' worth of work in all, before introducing themselves to an immediately warm reception at the beginning of 2012 with their self-titled debut. But for all the plaudits that have been bestowed upon them (including a five-star review from The Guardian), Maclean assures that the foursome had no inklings they were onto something special. In fact, it seems they thought the complete opposite.

“I guess the songs to us were quite odd and there were a couple that had choruses and stuff that we thought, 'These could go down well at Reading or whatever,' but for us I think the album was a bit strange compared to what other people were doing. So no, I think we thought it would be quite underground in that a certain amount of people would [understand], but we never thought many people would get it and be into it, especially outside of the UK.”

And indeed they are. The band are returning to Australia for the second time in six months following a celebrated set at Splendour In The Grass. Then, after a victory lap around the UK as the headline act on the NME Awards Tour, they'll head back over the Atlantic and continue their US push. And although the road's not the most conducive place to be fleshing out legitimate ideas, the percussionist and producer does confirm that they've been tinkering with some new sounds. For the next few months, though, he's accepted that the skeletal basics will remain just that, although it's clear that these initial writing sessions will be vital to the completion of album number two.

“I think it's difficult because, like, Vinnie [Neff – frontman] can do a certain amount of writing and I can do a certain amount, but until we get into the studio in April they're just sketches,” Maclean explains. “It's important for us to have as many clearly written songs as possible because the music can change and go in any direction; it doesn't really matter, it's just about having the song in the first place, and a certain amount of that can be done on the road. And it's just about motivating yourself and keeping going with it as the schedule is pretty demanding at the moment, so it's just about adding that extra amount of work, as we do it now things will go a lot quicker and easier in April, y'know?

“[But] our heads are so in the live side at the moment, we're just focused on getting it done on stage. We don't really have time to go away and make headspace. The schedule is so full on that it's hard to keep these things... just juggling everything and making sure that all the balls stay in the air: the live thing, the artwork, the videos, new songs. It's just about making sure that you give everything the right amount of attention really.

“It's a nice problem to have to be too busy to get all these things done though, but the remix album that we're doing – we have to concentrate on that too, and the artwork for that. There's always a backlog of things to get done and I guess it's a sign of how well things have gone so far that we've had this pressure. It keeps us constantly trying to get things finished, like, it will be a joy just to get the touring out of the way and to say, 'That's done, and let's move onto the next new songs.'”

But hold the phone Davey, let's wind it back... remix album?

“It's the first time I've actually spoke to anyone about it,” he admits, “but we can talk about it now because it's all done. So yeah, the debut album, every song on it is going to be remixed by someone different. Then that's going to come out later in the year.”

And with members of Franz Ferdinand, The Horrors and The Beta Band (for whom Maclean's brother, John, played) behind the reinterpretations, it's sure to be an eclectic album.

“You do get an idea in your head of what that person or that band should sound like, so you have expectations... It's a weird thing, you almost think that you know what you're going to get but usually you don't, and there's been great surprises. There's been a couple where I've actually liked the remix better than the original!”

Whether or not these remixes will inspire new sounds from a band that is already difficult to pin down, Maclean isn't totally convinced. By the sounds of things what we can continue to expect, though, is the unexpected – just as long as the quality is there.

“Sometimes I think it will be minimal, then I will think it will be layered and psychedelic again – we're into so much different music,” Maclean confesses regarding a second release. “But the key thing is the songwriting; as long as the songs are strong then I'll be happy to go and experiment in a few different ways. It's just about getting those key songs written, then seeing what clicks and what doesn't really.”

Django Django will be playing the following dates:

Thursday 10 January - The Zoo, Fortitude Valley QLD
Friday 11 January - The Metro Theatre, Sydney NSW
Saturday 12 January - The Hi-Fi, Melbourne VIC