Nat Dempsey & The Near Strangers
From punky floor movers to dreamy ballads, Nat Dempsey & The Near Strangers are a post-punk/indie rock outfit based in Manchester with a huge range of influences; from Alice in Chains to Arctic Monkeys and everything in-between. The new single ‘Run & Hide’ is out now; a thrashy commentary on political media balancing a strong theme with a fast and loud backdrop.
Having already gained a track of the week slot on release with BBC Introducing in Cumbria, along with constant gigging in Manchester’s staple venues like Deaf Institute and Night & Day, the young lads that are fresh out of university are ones to watch.
Nat Dempsey & The Near Strangers are...?
Nat: We’re an indie/post-punk band based in Manchester, but we’re from all over the place; I’m from Cumbria, Kieran’s from Bristol, Darren’s from Belfast and John’s from Lancashire. We have a cocktail of influences from modern rock/punk/indie to 90’s alt/grunge.
Kieran: I’ve been drumming for 16 years since I was 6, starting on Classic Rock and then getting into Funk, Blues, Jazz, Reggae/Ska etc…
Who inspired you to make music in general?
Nat: All the gigs we’ve been attending from a young age sparked the interest. Influence wise, artists like Wolf Alice and Bombay Bicycle Club (Nat), Lemmy and John Entwistle (John), John Frusciante (Darren), The Who and Gojira (Kieran).
Kieran: Keith Moon and the bands I’m in inspire me to make music as he got me into music at the age of 5/6. And been in bands since year 8 of school
Your latest single "Run & Hide" sounds fantastic, what's the story behind it?
Nat: It’s about how political media outlets with massive platforms, conservative or liberal, can affect our perception of reality and divide us in this age of fast information. It’s so easy for one side to tell their followers the other is the oppressor, and vice-versa.
Kieran: Story behind Run & Hide drum wise is to play with the band and drive the song.
What is your creative process like?
Nat: I’ll write a few songs, we’ll jam them out and everyone will come up with their respective parts. I used to write all the parts but it’s important to get everyone style in as players, so now it’s much more collaborative.
Is there a chance to see you somewhere live on stage?
Nat: I’m doing an acoustic set at The Camden in London on July 26th. We also have a show at Night People on September 5th in Manchester, along with the rest of the Music First roster. Gonna be sick.
Social media...is it fun or more a "necessary evil"?
Nat: Social media is like a toxic partner that gaslights you all the time; you hate it but you just keep coming back. I don’t like how it’s our responsibility to dodge the algorithm, and it pushes the idea that a band has to have this glossy ‘made it’ look before they’ve even played their first show.
It also just adds another layer of work when making music is hard enough anyway! Having said that, it’s a great tool for sharing your work, but it has its problems that NEED addressing. I could go on but there’d be no more space on the whole website, never mind this interview.
Darren: The idea that you need to be posting consistently in order to stay relevant, or the false idea that your likes and follows determines how good you are basically, are both points that everyone working in a creative field can relate to these days. For me it’s one of them things that I can’t live with or without. The sad reality is however that if you don’t exist on social media, you basically don’t exist. At least that’s how it feels.
Kieran: Social media is a necessary evil, I’d rather just play music and tear the shit out of drumkits live to entertain the crowd and bring them back to future gigs, rather than being on fb making posts just to show a strong presence as like daz said, that bands with more listeners are classed as better when it’s more about the time you spend practicing and how you work together to create songs.
What’s next for you?
Nat: We’ve got a few more tracks recorded. They need fully mixed and mastered but we have a plan in terms of releasing songs. We’re just gonna keep gigging as much as we can along with that wherever we can go.
