00:00Hi, I'm Andrew Trendle. You're watching NME. We're here on the final day, the final night,
00:10the final hours of Reading Festival 2025. I'm joined right now by The Dare.
00:15That's right.
00:16How's it going, man?
00:17Pretty good. How are you?
00:18Good. Is this bass getting to you? I think it's D-Block Europe in the back. I feel it in my soul.
00:24I mean, I've been on tour, so I've been in like bass heavy environments for like a month straight.
00:29So, I'm used to it a little bit.
00:31I thought you were going to say, I've been on tour, so I feel nothing.
00:34Yeah, I feel nothing at all.
00:35Just numb from the eyes down.
00:37Yeah.
00:38But Leeds Festival will do that to you. I mean, so was it Leeds last night?
00:41Two nights ago.
00:42Yeah, so you've had time to recover.
00:44Yeah, we had a little bit of time, but it was really fun, really intense.
00:47Yeah. I mean, this is your first Reading and Leeds, right?
00:50This is my first Reading and Leeds, yeah.
00:53Do you feel like the weight of the legacy of the festival, or is it just another party?
00:57No, yeah. This one definitely has a bit of lore and mythology behind it.
01:02I think that's like pretty exciting. I don't know.
01:05I mean, I definitely heard about it growing up in the US, but not all festivals make it there.
01:10Yeah. And did you feel like, because you're technically headlining,
01:13you're headlining that stage, right? The Festival Republic stage.
01:15Yeah, it's great.
01:17So is it a little bit extra going up against Travis Scott?
01:19Fortunately, I'm not at the same time, so that's nice for me.
01:24So you get to share the insanity.
01:26Yeah. Hopefully get people, you know, get a little bit of people amped up for him.
01:32And you could be the best dressed man at Reading.
01:35It's possible. It's possible.
01:37I mean, how do you do it? How do you keep it up in this heat, in this dust, in this filth?
01:42It's hard, honestly. You know, schlepping a suit around is a lot of careful folding.
01:48And, you know, usually there's a garment bag involved and stuff like that.
01:54Do you ever wear shorts or is that a personal question?
01:56Never wear shorts, ever. There's a famous quote, you know, a don does not wear shorts.
02:03That's a good album name. Or the title of your autobiography.
02:05Yeah.
02:07So fresh from releasing Frequencies.
02:11Yeah, that was two days ago.
02:13How does it feel to have it out in the world?
02:14Oh, it feels really good. I've just like had those songs for a second and,
02:19you know, been just perfecting them, touching them up. And I wanted to release like a club
02:24forward, dance music forward, kind of acid and big beat related thing. And that feels like really
02:32fun and fresh for me. So it's part of a series, right? There's more to come.
02:36Yeah, I think the idea is just like, I'll be able to release a lot of dance music under that sort of
02:40series. Yeah. So there's like Frequency World and then there's like The Dare Album World.
02:47Yeah. So I mean, just a lot of my favorite like techno or house labels, you know, will do like
02:52compilation series. And I kind of wanted to do something similar. So like maybe in the future,
02:56there'll be like features or other people can contribute to it. But yeah, that's for like the
03:01dance music, strictly more dance music. And then The Dare is for the more pop leaning stuff.
03:06Who would you invite into your dance music world then? Man, I don't know. There's a lot of people
03:11I really like, you know, like a lot of legends like Boyz Noise or Gustafelstein, I would love to have
03:19and a lot of like new people like Fuckers or I don't know, Horse Girl or just people who are doing
03:26fun and interesting things in dance music right now. And all these people in your contacts?
03:31Some of them, I know a couple of them. Yeah, I know Fuckers, they're from New York and
03:35Gustafelstein. And you've got Boyz Noise on speed dial. I did actually just DM him the other day.
03:41I'm trying to trying to finesse some tickets to the Nine Inch Nails tour off of him. That's sick
03:46because that remix album of Challenger soundtrack was unreal. Yeah, yeah, that's a great soundtrack.
03:52Are you trying to just creep into the Trent Reznor's world as well? That would be great. Yeah,
03:57I think he may or may not be aware of The Dare as a thing, but you never know.
04:02Hero of mine. Trent, are you listening? Call. Please.
04:07But speaking of Dance Fulfillers, I mean, your remix of Guess continues to have a life of its own. And
04:12it's like, I'm sure, well, as a dance music fan, you must like feel the honor. It's not every remix gets
04:17to be bigger than the original, man. So what's your secret? I don't know. I guess,
04:22uh, yeah, I don't know. Putting Billie Eilish on there. That's sort of the secret sauce. But
04:28yeah, no, uh, I just think it's a fun song, you know, it's almost like a dirty nursery rhyme or
04:33something. It's got sort of just like an instantly, you know, parodied, uh, kind of hook. And that's
04:40kind of what it takes to make a great hit, I think. And how would you describe that chemistry,
04:44the alchemy of the three of you together? Well, a lot of it was done remotely. So
04:50interesting. It's sort of non-existent in a way, but Charlie and I are, we share a lot of the
04:57similar tastes and interests. And we went back and forth a billion times about the song and how
05:03it's going to turn out and where it's going to be. And then she was just like, and Billie is really
05:08into it. Yeah. So it's great. Well, it's interesting. So I remember reading that Charlie
05:12wanted her next record post-Brat. I think she was like mentioning tones of like Lou Reed and going,
05:18kind of transformed, but like, I know you kind of straddle those worlds of like
05:22dance and rock and a bit of everything as well. I mean, what do you make of that? Would you get
05:25involved? I would love to be included. I guess we'll see what happens. I mean, I'm a huge Lou Reed
05:30fan, obviously, you know, like trying to carry the torch of New York music. And, uh, I don't know,
05:38it would be an honor. Yeah. Well, the world, you've been called the new king of indie sleaze. What does that,
05:43what does that mean to you? Cause you obviously you don't invent your own like persona. People
05:47give it to you. Like, yeah. Uh, I don't know. It's just, it's a little bit ridiculous. Uh,
05:53I don't even really know what indie sleaze means, uh, staying up late and liking guitar music,
05:58staying up late, having fun and making like, it's kind of just like a return to extroversion and music,
06:03you know, making music that's for other people to be heard in real life. You know, that's not just meant
06:10to end up on a playlist or end up in a coffee shop or something. It's music that has like a lot more of,
06:15uh, you know, an intense, sometimes hedonistic thing. So that's just stuff I'm all, I'm all about.
06:22So, yeah. So beyond that, I mean, do you ever like sense, are there any great misconceptions
06:27about the dare or do you just not pay mind to that? Hmm. I don't know if there's any great
06:32misconceptions. You know, if anyone's saying that I'm not the most talented, sexy man on the planet,
06:38they might, they might be confused in terms of like championing new, New York music. And there's
06:43like always like connotations of LCD. Are you an LCD fan or is that just not in your work? Cause
06:48sometimes these things aren't even in your world. Like, you know, I love LCD. I've listened to LCD
06:52since I was like 12 or something. Um, yeah, I feel like, uh, LCD. And then after that, like sort of the
07:00parquet courts, like Brooklyn post punk scene, like those two eras are kind of like
07:06super formative and like establishing my idea of like what New York music was. And even parquet
07:12courts went a little more dance punk later on as well. Uh, and then of course I like did a real deep
07:18dive and sort of learned just how, how many people were involved in creating that whole world beyond
07:25those artists, you know, I mean, obviously parquet courts is a whole different scene that happened
07:29a decade or two decades later almost. But, um, yeah, so huge influences on me big time.
07:35And do you feel a new era beginning? I mean, obviously Indies, we just discussed Indies
07:40isn't a thing, but you've talked about that kind of music with substance, but still makes you want to
07:45party. Do you feel that happening around you? Yeah, I think, I think what naturally happens is,
07:50you know, an idea takes hold, a bunch of people, you know, are working within that sort of style or
07:57attitude. They gain some level of success. They leave their local scene or their hometown.
08:02They start touring and playing festivals like this. And then I think the people who are in the
08:08cities still working on their music, they sort of formed something almost reactionary or, you know,
08:14in response to what has just happened. So that's just inevitably happening right now in New York,
08:19as well as I'm personally just excited about London. It's like a whole scene of music that couldn't
08:25have happened three years ago when Girls came out and when people like first started doing this sort
08:30of thing. So it's already happening to some degree. In light of things moving and things happening,
08:35where do you see, aside from the EPs, where do you see the next record going, the next album?
08:39For me? Yeah. I'm just trying to have more fun, like incorporate more diverse influences,
08:46like, you know, have more friends and collaborators involved. And I guess just take it even less
08:53seriously than the first one. Yeah. Relax, man. Chill out. Yeah. You've been taking things far too
08:57serious. I know. So new album 2026 or are you hibernating? I guess it'll be a surprise,
09:03but possibly, yeah. Sweet. What's the first thing you're going to do after this interview?
09:07I think I'm going to go have a drink. And after you're set, more drinks? I'll have another one,
09:12but just two. All right. I'll see you at the bar, man. The dev. Thank you so much. I'll see you there.
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