Dappled Cities Are Optimistic About Sydney Being A 'Capitalist Wasteland'

"Oh my God," guitarist Dave Rennick laughs in disbelief. "Fuck, let me think back!" First question off the blocks is about their inception over 18 years ago, and Rennick sounds suddenly, acutely aware of time. "We were school buddies, we started our band in high school and it's been more or less the same core members ever since."

Attending a prestigious all boys private school ("but you don't have to put that in the article, it really dispels the rock'n'roll image") 1997 saw Rennick and original drummer Hugh Boyce join forces with bassist Alex Moore and Tim Derricourt on guitar. Over the years, keys duties were left to Mark Bradshaw, and as of 2006, to Ned Cooke, and finally Allan Kumpulainen on drums as of 2008. "We were the cool kids let me tell ya," Rennick reflects on their formative years. "Actually no, I lie - we were the handball squad.

"When we started playing, techno was the 'in' thing, to be perfectly honest. Coming outta the '90s, the scene was very club-based. So we got to see that whole rock revival come in throughout that decade - clubs started putting bands on and setting up stages and trying to capitalise on the rock era kicked off by The Strokes and some of those bands.

"Now, obviously, I've seen the lockout laws come in and a lot of venues shut down and Sydney just be the capitalist wasteland that it's destined to be," he continues, "but I still have a level of optimism about the whole thing. I'm not upset if Surry Hills becomes gentrified and Marrickville becomes cool - all these venues are popping up, and people are still making music and finding places to play."

Now up to album number five, dubbed IIIII (or, you know, Five) Rennick say that despite rumours of disbandment or instability, "There were never 'problems'. It's always just part and parcel of being a hardworking and ambitious band... Exhaustive is such a negative word, but you just hit a point where you lose a bit of perspective, and you just need to take a step back, and that's just what we needed to do."

Taking "five years off, we've come back and everyone's still interested!" he laughs. "We just made this record for us."

Designed to be played traditionally - from start to finish - there's one sonic blip that sticks out like a sore thumb in the form of the second last track (and lead single) That Sound. "I know what you're talking about, fully, isn't it? It was an accident. We wrote that song and we loved it. When it came time to sequencing the record we had trouble putting it on, and it was the first single - and by the laws of releasing music we had to put it on somewhere! We decided to make a point out of this and trip the record up right before the end. It became an artistic twist... it grew into art," he laughs.