Known for their lunatic personas and stage antics backed by solid musical skills and songwriting chops, D-A-D made their international breakthrough in 1989 with the album No Fuel Left For The Pilgrims which spawned the hits ‘Girl Nation’, ‘Jihad,’ ‘Point Of View’ and the MTV favourite and global smash single ‘Sleeping My Day Away’. Now with D-A-D about to hit Australian shores for a tour fans can expect to hear these classics and other favourites including ‘Laugh ‘n’ a 1/2’, Bad Craziness’, ‘Grow and Pay’, ‘Everything Glows’ and more.
Many bands never get to stick together and celebrate their 40-year anniversary without any breaks, but the fact this is currently happening to one of Denmark’s best and most popular rock band, with an even greater audience beyond the country’s borders, is remarkable. It’s in fact more than that, according to bassist Stig Pedersen: ‘’Turning 40 as a band is in and of itself totally crazy. We are a social experiment!”, he states. They even got their own museum exhibition at the Danish National Museum.
Now with the tour rapidly approaching I sat down and had a chat with lead guitarist Jacob Binzer to see what the band have in store for Aussie fans.
“We are so excited to be heading back to Australia again,” he says with a laugh. “Some of you might remember we were there in November 2022. That was great it felt like a big welcoming home even though we hadn’t been there for years and years and years. It was great, the audiences were amazing and we had such a great time – that is why we are really looking forward to coming back.”
“And this time we are calling it our greatest hits tour but we have a brand new album out as well,” he continues. “This time it feels like we are going somewhere. Last time it felt like we were catching up but this time we want to take you and introduce you to the new stuff as well.”
As we continue to talk I ask Jacob why Australia feels like a second home to him.
“I think we realised that people there have really listened to our albums over the years,” he explains. “They’ve kept listening to us over the years and really stuck with us and then they came along to the shows and sang along with the songs – that was truly amazing. It was like we had never left and because of that it really felt like we were just seeing old friends again.”
As he had previously mentioned D-A-D are in a unique position. While they are celebrating their 40th Anniversary they don’t have to rest on playing tracks from 20 or 30 years ago because they come to Australia armed with their new album Speed Of Darkness their 3rd new album in just over a decade. I ask Jacob how having new material so far into their career changes things for D-A-D.
“You don’t have to bring out new albums,” he says after thinking for a moment. “But I feel it keeps you alive and keeps you communicating. It shows people where you are and when you make a new album it shows that you aren’t willing to just settle. You also have to realise thought that if you make a new album then you have to work – you need to pull yourself together and tell the world who you are – that shows the world that you still take the music seriously and people can sense that.”
“Some people say you make your best music in your 20s,” he says laughing. “Maybe we did as well but I will let the audience make the decision on that. But deep down I think we have managed to make a great new album – an album we are really proud of. And the new tracks have been going really well live. We have played a few shows since we released the album so it is still really fresh for us.”
“Australia is actually going to be the first tour outside of Denmark where we will play quite a few songs from the new album,” he continues. “That is really exciting for us. I think we are going to play some stuff from the No Fuel album of course but we are going to play some new stuff as well. We have a really rocky, energetic set list ready for you guys.”
The 40th Anniversary is a huge milestone to reach and I ask Jacob whether or not he had any inkling in the beginning that D-A-D would last for so long.
“We were about 14 or 15 when I first joined,” he says. “And we had tried to start so many bands then – we were even in a few bands at the time. My friends and I were skateboard kids on the streets of Copenhagen and we were just doing what we thought was cool – and that was riding skateboards and being in a band. I never thought any of the bands that I was in would last any period of time – it was just an idea and we were mucking around with the whole thing. Then my brother and a couple of my friends started this band and they thought it would be funny if I joined as well as the guitar player. I joined on the Saturday and we played our first gig on the Monday night and that was just it. We just played the next and the next and the next gig and it just went on – we weren’t even really conscious of what was happening. We were really just messing around and then after a while we started to make money and we thought and saw that people were actually showing up, standing in line and buying tickets. It was then that we thought that perhaps we had something going on here.
I just had to ask how did it go from a band just ‘messing around’ to a hit album taking the world by a storm just five years later.
“That was an amazing feeling,” he agrees. “When we first started to write No Fuel For The Pilgrims we felt that we had to start making less fun of it and to start making some rock n’ roll that was a little deeper and more substantial. It was all a joke in the beginning but about then we started to think let’s make some really dangerous rock. We were thinking let’s do something really real now. We had a real passion for writing and we rehearsed every day, we worked really hard and we wanted to get a record deal and so we did!”
“Personally, I thought maybe this album would sell a little more than the one before,” he continues. “But I had no idea that it would get us a record deal in the US and become a huge hit. I had no idea at all.”
D-A-D’s tour of Australia kicks off on May 20th.