{"id":148132,"date":"2012-12-16T15:00:09","date_gmt":"2012-12-16T15:00:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/socancom100stg.wpenginepowered.com\/dragonette-make-their-own-way-in-the-u-k\/"},"modified":"2012-12-16T15:00:09","modified_gmt":"2012-12-16T15:00:09","slug":"dragonette-make-their-own-way-in-the-u-k","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/uat.socan.com\/fr\/dragonette-make-their-own-way-in-the-u-k\/","title":{"rendered":"Dragonette make their own way in the U.K."},"content":{"rendered":"

Les traductions pour les articles avant l\u2019automne 2013 ne sont pas disponibles pour le moment.<\/strong><\/p>\n

When Toronto\u2019s Dragonette first began making waves with its shimmering brand of electropop back in 2007, they did something unusual: they left the country.<\/p>\n

The husband-and-wife team of Dan Kurtz and Martina Sorbara, who \u2013 along with drummer Joel Stouffer \u2013 comprise Dragonette, high-tailed it across the Atlantic and settled in London as soon as the ink was dry on their contract with Mercury Records U.K., the label that signed them at the time.
\nThe relocation was about more than business.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe lived in London for seven years, and our relationship with our label ended two years into that move,\u201d recalls singer Sorbara. \u201cOne of the reasons we stayed there is because we needed to prove to ourselves that we weren\u2019t there because of the label, but because we wanted to be there.\u201d
\nDragonette had their work cut out for them when it came to promoting and exploiting their music. Radio formats in Europe and Asia are very fragmented, and Dragonette were reportedly blacklisted by the BBC, so things weren\u2019t easy.

\u201cWriting songs is the most daunting thing that we face,\u201d says Kurtz. \u201cIt\u2019s an endless chasm of fear and self-loathing.\u201d \u2013 Dan Kurtz<\/div>\n

\u201cWhat made our career work was that we axed Canada out of the deal that we had with Mercury in the U.K., so that made us be able to release the record [ourselves in Canada] and actually continue working as an indie band,\u201d Sorbara explains, adding that it was imperative for them to be perceived by the rest of the world as standing on their own two feet. \u201cI think Canada really supports its artists in a way that is amazing, but at the same time\u2026 I think it feels like when you go out of the country, you\u2019re taken at face value.\u201d<\/p>\n

Dan Kurtz, whose credentials include producing Feist\u2019s solo debut album Monarch (Lay Your Jeweled Head Down) and being the co-founding bassist of The New Deal, said a number of factors were key in helping the band survive their formative era.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe started with a cushion of money that was our advance from our U.K. record deal, which we let trickle out so that it supported all of us for three or four years,\u201d Kurtz explains. \u201cThat got us to the point where we were able to capitalize more on the songs that had gotten licensed into some big TV commercial campaigns and a couple of movies [included ads for Jacob\u2019s coffee, Dell computers and Vicks medicinal products, all using \u201cGet Lucky.\u201d]

\u201cThere\u2019s always been the one dream gig that\u2019s come along at the right time\u2026 A license or a show that\u2019s kept the band in the black and trucking along.\u201d \u2013 Dan Kurtz<\/div>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s always been the one dream gig that\u2019s come along at the right time, whether it\u2019s a license or a show that\u2019s kept the band in the black and trucking along. We did take advantage of the internet, and when our record Galore came out in Canada, \u201cI Get Around\u201d got radio play. The grassroots thing has basically been the backbone of what we are, with the exception of some great radio play in Canada in the anomaly that is \u2018Hello.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

Ah yes, \u201cHello.\u201d The high-profile collaboration with French electro music DJ Martin Solveig has paid handsome dividends, landing the band its first Juno Award in 2012 for Dance Recording of the Year. On the heels of \u201cHello,\u201d Dragonette\u2019s constant touring, appearances at two crucial 2012 festivals \u2013 Lollapalooza and Coachella \u2013 and a spot on ABC\u2019s Good Morning America have all generated a buzz for their third album Bodyparts. It debuted at No. 17 on Billboard\u2019s retail-driven Dance\/Electronic Albums chart.<\/p>\n

Which was a great relief to Sorbara, who writes the melodies and lyrics, and Kurtz, who originates the bed tracks, since both confess they\u2019re very slow writers.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s the most daunting thing that we face,\u201d Kurtz admits, calling it a process of \u201cpulling teeth\u201d and \u201can endless chasm of fear and self-loathing.\u201d The duo started writing Bodyparts in Rio de Janiero, but after two months they\u2019d only finished two songs. \u201cWe wrote two beautiful songs \u2013 \u2018Run Run Run\u2019 and \u2018Lay Low\u2019 \u2013 but we felt like we weren\u2019t getting anything done,\u201d says Sorbara. \u201cI\u2019m really precious with my own stuff and I agonize over it. I know I\u2019m trying to represent something real and true inside of me, so I\u2019ll go to whatever extent I can to make sure it feels true.\u201d<\/p>\n

As the couple relocates to Toronto, Kurtz is hoping to build on the duo\u2019s creative momentum. \u201cI don\u2019t want us to take another 18 months to write another album.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Leaving home, coming back<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":110271,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[97],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-148132","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-non-categorise"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/uat.socan.com\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/148132","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/uat.socan.com\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/uat.socan.com\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/uat.socan.com\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/14"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/uat.socan.com\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=148132"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/uat.socan.com\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/148132\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/uat.socan.com\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/110271"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/uat.socan.com\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=148132"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/uat.socan.com\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=148132"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/uat.socan.com\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=148132"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}