In profile: Dead Red Sun

These south London boys may write seven-minute instrumental epics, but don't you dare call them post-rock.

L-R: Ollie Bremner, Tom Murphy and Mike Guppy (Photo: Alex Harley)

“Sausage sandwich and a morning breakfast, extra beans?” Two plates are slammed down in front of Mike Guppy and Ollie Bremner, guitarist and bassist with instrumental rockers Dead Red Sun. Completing the trio, drummer Tom Murphy has settled for a glass of orange juice.

The noisy, greasy-spoon café in the band’s native New Cross is a world away from the hipster clubs of east London that the trio have so often frequented in the year they’ve been together. After all, aren’t alternative art-school types supposed to eat only the finest organic lentil soup with a seeded loaf on the side?

“Nah, it’s all about the fry-ups,” says Guppy. “I couldn’t be a vegan, I just love bacon too much.”

Despite the smell of fried meat and the clang of cups and saucers, there is still something quintessentially east London about the trio, with their obligatory vintage clothes and elegantly disheveled hair.

They tell me they first ran into each other three years ago in university halls. Guppy and Bremner were studying at Camberwell College of Arts, taking courses in graphics and fine art, while Murphy was at Central Saint Martins doing illustration.

It was only when they moved into private accommodation that they managed to persuade Bremner, whose house had a garage, to host jamming sessions, where Guppy’s experimental guitar lines would slowly develop into full-blown songs.

At first though, one thing was missing.

Guppy explains: “We were writing songs with the pretense of getting a singer. Then a mate of ours came along and said, ‘these songs are good as they are, you don’t need a singer’ and it just stuck.”

Despite their lack of a lead vocalist, the group say they would never describe themselves as ‘post-rock’ and are keen to distance themselves from the genre, claiming they were introduced to American soundscape giants Explosions in the Sky and Godspeed You! Black Emporer only after they had began writing themselves.

“‘Boring’ is the wrong word, but dynamically, there’s a lot of similarities between different [post-rock] groups, and it sort of pigeonholes itself,” says Guppy.

Murphy adds: “We were never aware of a scene, so we never tried to emulate one.”

So without a singer, who is the frontman?

Murphy, the youngest, and most enthusiastic of the three, is quick to reply. “There’s definitely a leading voice, and that’s Mike’s guitar.

“You will always have a frontman and because Mike plays guitar, people will look at him. That’s just how it is.”

Guppy responds to this modestly, instead pointing out that Bremner is the most talkative on stage. Interesting then, that Bremner has said the least so far, choosing to pensively take in the conversation dominated by Murphy, who explains his own confidence comes from his days playing pop covers of hymns in a Christian worship band that he was subsequently ejected from for being an atheist.

“You had two hundred people at a service, and at Christmas there’d be four hundred. But it was actually more terrifying playing our first gig in front of ten people.”

The band have come a long way since that night in Camden last March, when their cheap equipment exploded on stage. In October they played to a sold-out Old Blue Last, supporting Japanese trio Mice on the Keys – a gig they count among their top achievements.

After recording a couple of demos and releasing first single ‘Facility’ to critical acclaim in January, they are currently working on their debut EP. 

The single is a whirlwind of atmospheric sounds layered to reach a crescendo that is as brutal as it is intricate, but how much variation can this lyricless troupe offer with new material?

“If you heard ‘Facility’ and thought all of our songs were like that, you’d be really surprised with the second track on our EP. It’s seven minutes long and doesn’t have any structures,” says Murphy.

The band reveal there will even be some vocals on the release, although so distorted that they will become “just another instrument”.

So kind of like Sigur Rós then?

Bremner chirps up defensively: “I suppose, but no way as airy-fairy as that.”

If the trio’s claims of ignorance to their most obvious influences are true, which artists did draw them together?

“We’ve got varied tastes, but things changed when Mike got me into Radiohead,” says Murphy.

But Guppy is more keen to point out his band mates’ guilty pleasures. Although Murphy admits he does have a soft spot for early-noughties nu-metal – “I really like Alien Ant Farm, but they’re not our main musical influence” –  it is Bremner who gets the biggest rinsing for being a self-confessed Coldplay fan.

With the EP release pencilled-in for May, do Dead Red Sun have their sights set on Chris Martin-scale success then?

Apparently not, according to Murphy, “We’re not too blasé about it, but we’re not too serious about it. We just really like playing music.”

For a band whose songs are laced with such epic grandeur, those behind the music seem disproportionately humble.

Click here to visit Dead Red Sun's myspace.

Check out 'Facility' by Dead Red Sun below.