A Few Minutes With The Wombats’ Dan Haggis

Haggis adds, “If you want to stand in the back in a dark corner and get all moody, then you can definitely do that. I think there’s a little bit of something for everyone.”       

Pollstar talked to the drummer/keyboardist/backing vocalist in late October in the middle of the indie rock band’s European tour. After playing the U.S. this spring and returning in August for a handful of dates, including an appearance at Lollapalooza, The Wombats will be back in the States later this month. The group just added a handful of gigs including stops in San Francisco and Columbus, Ohio.

Along with Haggis, the band features lead singer/songwriter/keyboardist/guitarist Matthew Murphy and bassist/keyboardist/vocalist Tord Øverland-Knudsen. Haggis chatted about The Wombats’ new album, Glitterbug, and how the group keeps things fresh in the recording studio after 12 years together.  

Released in April, Glitterbug is the follow-up to 2011’s This Modern Glitch.   

In its four-star review, AllMusic writes, “The Wombats build upon the buoyant, dance-oriented vibe of This Modern Glitch, honing their sound into a tight, glossy sheen that hints at the bombastic new wave productions of ‘80s bands like Tears for Fears, while also fitting nicely alongside more contemporary releases by acts like the Killers and the 1975.”

Singles include “Your Body Is a Weapon,” “Greek Tragedy” and “Give Me A Try,” which is at No. 32 at Alternative Radio and No. 4 on Alt Nation’s Alt 18.

You’re playing the O2 Apollo Manchester tonight. The show must be starting pretty soon.

Yeah, we’re on stage in two hours. Just having some dinner now.

How’s the tour been going so far?

It’s been great. We actually just had about a week off. [After] tonight we’ve got Liverpool on Friday, our homecoming show, which is always fun. It’s a big crazy party with all our friends and family … back where we started. And then we go to Copenhagen and start a European tour on Monday. From there until mid-January we’re busy touring around America and Australia, as well.

Taking a look at your Facebook page, I saw that the band recently created a playlist for IndieShuffle. Did you help contribute to that?   

It was either me or Tom. I did one for Spotify and I might have done one for IndieShuffle. I don’t remember, but we listen to a lot of the same things anyway. If it was a good playlist, then it was probably mine.

So who are some of the artists or albums you’ve been listening to lately?

Some of the favorite ones of the moment? I guess releases this year … probably Father John Misty. And I actually went to go see Ron Sexsmith. Do you know that singer-songwriter from Canada?

Did he put on a good show?

He jammed for quite a long time. I went to see him last night in Liverpool. He was really good. It was just him and an acoustic guitar playing songs from all of his albums. That was really nice to see. Most of his albums are [from] a while back but I think he has a new one out this year.

It seems like a lot of artists, being so busy with touring, don’t get the chance to see live music that often.

Oh yeah, it was honestly so nice to go to a gig and you know, go for some food beforehand and have all the anticipation of seeing some of your favorite songs [performed live], just sitting down and watching someone play really nice music for a couple of hours. Even if you don’t know all the songs, it’s such a nice experience. When we’re on tour, we’re always the other of the stage and obviously it’s so fulfilling and amazing that we get to do that. But it was really nice to get back on the other side. I guess it kind of helps you, it makes you realize what the gigs are and what they mean to people. … I think maybe sometimes you forget that when you’re constantly on tour. You’re just in this weird bubble.

Wikipedia says that you play drums, percussion, keyboard and backing vocals. Is that as far as what you contribute to the album? Do you mostly stick to drums on stage or do you switch instruments?

Yeah, on stage it’s mainly drums with some keyboards when I can actually play drums and keyboards at the same time (laughs), not very often. Obviously I sing backing vocals as well. In the studio … just to see what comes up, and because we all play different instruments, we often change around instruments. I’ll play guitar for a bit. On this album especially – Murph was in Los Angeles a lot so myself and Tord would record keyboards, guitar, drums, bass and everything and then we’d send it over to him and then he’d sing on top of it. It’s really fun because …  after 12 years of making songs together, I think it’s a good way to keep things fresh and exciting for us to just switch things around a little bit and mess the formula up.

Your new album that came out this spring is your first release to debut in the top 100 in the U.S. Have you been seeing your fanbase grow in the States?

Oh yeah, [with] this album we’ve really noticed the difference in the crowds. I think also, because we’ve done a lot of touring over the last two albums, especially the second album, it really helped. You play to 50 people in places and then you go back there and then you play for a couple hundred. We’ve just seen it growing and growing. It’s so nice and exciting for us. Obviously all bands want to crack America and just to have that sort of enthusiasm coming back from the fans every night [while] being that far away from home, and to feel like it’s actually going in the right direction, it’s amazing for us. It’s like a drug. You can’t wait to get back there and keep working at it and hopefully convincing people to come and see us and support the band. The American fans have just been so nice, making us feel at home. 

Do you think there was something different with this album that really connected with U.S. fans or do you think that it’s that after releasing three albums now, more fans are catching on?

Ah, good question. I don’t know really. I mean, obviously all we’ve ever done is just make and record the songs that we love and that come out of our brains and our hands and bodies. I guess this album sonically is kind of more suited for America maybe but it’s not like we actually think about what we’re doing and which country it’s going to appeal to. It’s just what we’re inspired by and what we’re feeling at the time. I don’t know, I would like to think that it’s just, you know, people over the years have told their friends and said, “Oh, check this band out.” Hopefully that’s just word of mouth that’s gone round, I don’t know, maybe we could get a bit more radio play. Who knows, there’s so many things that go into people finding out about bands that I have no idea really.

Well, whatever the explanation, it’s a great thing. So congratulations on the new album and its success.

We’re so happy with our new album so it’s really nice when you see fans come to shows and they obviously know the new songs and sing along. It’s always like a good pat on the back.

You talked a bit about the recording process. As far as songwriting, do all members of the band contribute? 

Not with the lyrics. That’s all Matthew, the singer. He always writes very personal, kind of true-to-life stories that he’s experienced or things that he’s noticed from observations or whatever, with a little, probably 20 percent embellishment on a lot of the stories. Musically, we’ve always been all involved in the actual arranging and writing of a lot of the music. As I said, [with] this album, mostly probably due to the distance thing, [because Matthew] was away a lot, we had to try to find a way to keep writing songs without getting together in a room so myself and Tord … would make the sort of backing track of the song and send it over to him to walk around with headphones in L.A. or sit down at a piano or whatever. … There were times where we’d finish a rough idea of a song and then by the time we’d heard it back, we were like, “Whoa, it’s better than we’d ever imagined.” He’d send us an idea over and we’d work on it and send it back and he’d be like, “Whoa, that wasn’t what I was thinking at all but OK, cool, sounds great.”   

Which tracks from Glitterbug would you name as personal favorites? 

Yeah, there’s a few. … “Emoticon,” the first one on the album, when we first starting jamming the intro and the opening bit, we all got really excited and we were like, “Whoa, can we do this? It sounds so different.” Obviously, the vocal approach to the verses, it’s a bit softer singing style and that’s really fun to play live. And it just builds and builds until the end. “Greek Tragedy” is really fun to play live. “Pink Lemonade” as well is very summery feeling and the crowd always seems to jump up and down for that. I get to play the keyboards, which always makes a nice break for me for my arms, playing the drums. (laughs) So that’s always a favorite. It’s so hard because all the songs are like your little babies and you don’t want to choose, you don’t want to have any favoritism between the songs.

You and your bandmates have been together for 12 years with a consistent lineup. What’s the secret to your success and longevity?

I think the main thing is just being friends, really. Friendship and actually listening to each other, being very non-confrontational and sort of understanding with each other and knowing when to leave someone alone on tour. You know, because you obviously spend 24 hours a day together, you live together on a bus when you’re touring, you work together, you eat together and obviously create together. When you’ve got creative decision to be made for songs and if someone isn’t too keen on a melody or a lyric or whatever, you’ve got to be careful with people’s feelings and emotions because everyone’s putting their heart and soul into it all. So I think we’ve always had a way of encouraging each other and trying to stay positive and remembering what’s important with the band and why we were doing it in the first place. … Obviously we’ve had ups and downs, as all bands do, and there have been moments of tension when you get pissed off with each other or fed up that it’s moving too slowly. But in general I think we would never release a song that all three of us weren’t happy with. And if we ever had anything that doesn’t feel right, we just stop working on it and move on to something else. … But as I said at the start, I think it’s just friendship and just making sure that we don’t lose sight of the fact that we’re just three friends who make music together.

Upcoming dates for The Wombats:

Nov. 9 – Leuven, Belgium, Het Depot          
Nov. 10 – Cologne, Germany, Palladium      
Nov. 12 – Eindhoven, Netherlands, Effenaar           
Nov. 13 – Solothurn, Switzerland, Kofmehl Halle   
Nov. 14 – Linz, Austria, Posthof       
Nov. 16 – Berlin, Germany, Astra     
Nov. 18 – Hamburg, Germany, Grosse Freiheit 36   
Nov. 19 – Munich, Germany, Tonhalle         
Nov. 20 – Muenster, Germany, Jovel Music Hall      
Nov. 23 – Boston, Mass., House Of Blues Boston   
Nov. 24 – New York, N.Y., Terminal 5        
Nov. 25 – Buffalo, N.Y., The Waiting Room           
Nov. 27 – Baltimore, Md., Rams Head Live!           
Nov. 28 – Wilmington, N.C., Ziggy’s By The Sea    
Nov. 29 – Atlanta, Ga., The Loft At Center Stage   
Nov. 30 – Nashville, Tenn., Mercy Lounge   
Dec. 1 – St. Louis, Mo., Blueberry Hill’s Duck Room
Dec. 3 – Minneapolis, Minn., Northrop Auditorium (96.3’s Snow Show)
Dec. 4 – Chicago, Ill., Aragon Ballroom (appearing with Bastille)   
Dec. 5 – Broomfield, Colo., 1stBank Center
Dec. 8 – Salt Lake City, Utah, Urban Lounge (The ALT 101.9 Festivus)
Dec. 10 – San Francisco, Calif., Mezzanine  
Dec. 13 – San Diego, Calif., Valley View Casino Center      (Wrex The Halls)
Dec. 16 – Des Moines, Iowa, Wooly’s          
Dec. 17 – Kansas City, Mo., Arvest Bank Theatre At The Midland (The Night The Buzz Stole Christmas)            
Dec. 18 – Columbus, Ohio, A & R Music Bar          
Dec. 20 – Wilkes-Barre, Pa., F.M. Kirby Center For Perf. Arts (appearing with Third Eye Blind)
Dec. 29 – Lorne, Australia, The Falls Music & Arts Festival Grounds (The Falls Music & Arts Festival)   
Dec. 30 – Marion Bay, Australia, The Falls Music & Arts Festival Grounds (The Falls Music & Arts Festival)
Dec. 31 – Byron Bay, Australia, Falls Music & Arts Festival Grounds (The Falls Music & Arts Festival)  
Jan. 1 – Sydney, Australia, The Domain (Field Day)
Jan. 3 – Moore Park, Australia, Hordern Pavilion

Visit TheWombats.co.uk for more information. Plus, check out the band’s Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, Instagram and Spotify pages.