Parallel Universe

Down the phone from his Hackney apartment in East London, Frankie Poullain is sounding like a man enjoying his second bite of the cherry. His former band The Darkness are riding high once again following their return to the stage last year and the boys haven't wasted a moment making up for lost time. They've already completed tours around their native England, and America, as well as recording a new album as the follow-up to their 2005 release One Way Ticket To Hell... And Back. It's casually mentioned that the morning after this interview they have a photo shoot with Scarlet Page, the daughter of Led Zeppelin guitarist Jimmy Page. Yep, it seems like rock'n'roll has well and truly returned to Poullain's world and the 45-year-old is more than chuffed.

“First it felt unreal; then it felt nerve-racking; then it felt a bit magical coming back y'know,” Poullain tells. “Now it just feels a bit surreal really, it does. Actually, surreal is probably the right word. Not often in life do you do that, do you go back and do something that you thought that you'd never do again. So it's a pretty strange feeling and it sort of feels like a parallel universe really.”

Poullain isn't wrong in voicing his disbelief. It's doubtful many rock fans expected to see The Darkness on stage again, let alone back in Australia, following their split in 2006. The fact that Poullain is with them on this journey is all the more incredulous, considering his rash departure in 2005. Depending on which reports you believe, the circumstances were either due to musical differences or a proclaimed 'freeze out' by a cocaine-addled frontman Justin Hawkins. But that is neither here nor there. Whichever the case, Poullain regrets it got to that point in the first place.

“I never thought it should've happened,” he laments. “I got offered a few different things in various bands, but it wasn't really the kind of thing that I wanted to do. So I hadn't really played in a band for six years actually until I stepped into a rehearsal room with these guys and we went through a few songs – and it sounded terrible just because we hadn't been together for so long. Then we just started laughing and soon we were playing again like we did back in the day. Obviously, there are a lot of talented musicians out there, but I feel very blessed to have that kind of chemistry when we connect with each other; I feel very fortunate.”

Although The Darkness last toured Australia in 2006, for Poullain it's actually been almost a decade since he's hit our shores, his last visit during the 2004 Big Day Out. Slotted in barely after lunch on the main stage, The Darkness thrived in the stifling conditions, the set full of costume changes, pompous glances and the anthemic singalongs that a field full of beer swilling revellers were gagging for. The bassist recalls the experience with reciprocated fondness.

“Ah yeah, the Big Day Out,” he draws out the words with a dreamlike ease. “I remember The Dandy Warhols. I remember the girl playing keyboards in The Dandy Warhols was at the side of stage dancing and her boobies were jiggling up and down, 'cause she never used to wear a bra. I remember Courtney from The Dandy Warhols too; he was quite an articulate guy and a real interesting character. And I remember Peaches – she was just amazing and really kicking arse back then. She blew me away and that was a great discovery, her music.

“The Kings Of Leon were there too, they were really nice little kids at the time, just getting into it, really young pups,” he continues. “But in those five, six years following they've probably aged 15 to 20 years because they have just worked so hard and that's probably what screwed them up, y'know? They just toured too much. But they're great guys; really nice lads, very talented and I hope they can come back and sort out all their problems.”

In early 2011, it was announced that the original Darkness line-up would be reuniting, Poullain reclaiming his former role from replacement Richie Edwards. The quartet returned to stage in emphatic fashion at the Download Festival, a celebration only made possible by one thing.

“We just needed time really,” he admits. “We needed different people involved in the band and around the band – guiding us – and just more positive energy, y'know, realising what we missed, realising we all missed each other and that we missed having the most fun you can possibly have, being in a rock'n'roll band together, just standing onstage together – you really miss it.” The response to that show was critical to the position the band now find themselves in, ready to take on all-comers once again. “Big time,” he agrees. “You always feed off the energy of the crowd and you enjoy receiving that visceral kinda response from people. There's a real symbolic relationship between you and the crowd and it's a really important part of it. It's just something you sense, when you are playing a song to someone and you feel as though you've got that edge, that unknown quantity, the X-factor that makes people excited again.”

Poullain explains that album number three is in the bag for the band. If lead single Nothing's Gonna Stop Us is anything to go by, then the only shock for Darkness fans will be the wild, upper-lip caterpillar Justin Hawkins will be trying to smuggle through passport control. He says that the album will be a 14-track extravaganza, full of the trademark bombastic rock that exploded on to the scene like a codpiece full of dynamite back in 2003, however, he remains mum about the title. What is obvious though is that The Darkness are embracing their identity once again and are riding that horse into the sunset. Sure there is apprehension, but being able to capture that unstable energy and build their performance on it might see The Darkness growing on us just one more time.

“We're always egging each other on. Before Download we were imagining standing in chicken feed, just scratching around, just waiting – we were all really petrified,” he confides. “So we try to really create this element of fear and really encourage it. We do it on purpose because we really want to be on note and fear creates those great moments within yourself. It's a strange place to be, like, you don't want to be vomiting every night or you'd turn into Karen Carpenter. It's just all 'bout making things hard for yourself, y'know, you don't want to be in that comfort zone – that's the worst place to be,” he concludes. “But right now, we're probably more energetic than we were in 2004, just because we are trying to make up for lost time.”