FEATURE:
Spotlight
Do Nothing
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AS I normally do…
PHOTO CREDIT: Adrian Vitelleschi-Cook
there are going to be some interviews and various bits quoted, as it gives a bigger impression of the act that I am recommending than I could on my own. Nottingham’s Do Nothing are among a wave of new bands coming through that are primed for big success in the future. Their E.P., Zero Dollar Bill, was met with positive reviews, and I will bring one of them in near the end of the feature. I have been aware of the band for a while, and their single, LeBron James, is still bouncing around my head over seven months since I heard it! I love what the guys are doing and, last year, they were being tipped by various sources for success in 2020. NME spoke with the band’s lead Chris Bailey, where it was revealed that the singer has a unique approach to performance:
“With plenty of room for listener interpretation and grey areas, the music and performance of Do Nothing isn’t to be taken at face value. “I hate when singer-songwriters are so obviously trying their best to make you feel something,” Chris says. “I sit there like ‘No! I refuse to feel the thing that you want me to!’ I like when things allow you to feel that yourself rather than trying to tug your heartstrings the whole time.” It’s firmly clear that they’re not ones to patronise their audience.
Chris is also heavily influenced by stand-up comedy when thinking about his onstage persona, and towing the line of acceptability. “It’s definitely an influence on the music and me as a person, in terms of delivery and timing and the set-up of a lot of onstage comedy,” he affirms. “A good comparison is with Stewart Lee. He has an onstage persona which is, again, an exaggerated version of himself, and a cynical, angry version of himself, which is sort of a similar thing to what I am trying to do. He describes it as quite a ‘high-risk strategy’, because he basically berates the audience half the time, and tries very hard to make them not enjoy the show, and within that are the ingredients for them actually enjoying the show. It’s an interesting way to potentially take it”.
I found, last year, that there were a few bands hitting my ear, but very few that were making a genuine impression. I was aware of Do Nothing in 2019, and I felt they were a lot stronger than most of the bands out there – even if I do think last year was defined by solo acts. Many sources were attuned to the brilliance and promise of Do Nothing. In their excellent Class of 2020 feature, DIY caught up with Chris Bailey, as they were eager to laud the Nottingham band:
“In London there's bands everywhere, whereas in Nottingham you can wriggle away in the shadows before anyone notices, just being a little Nottingham band,” nods the singer. “We took a year off, and then it took another year even to find a name for this [project]. We wrote a whole bunch of songs, and then scrapped songs.” “The benefit of being from a small town is you can truck along and make all of those really important mistakes, and learn the lessons from them without it being spotlit in front of everybody,” Andrew picks up, before Chris continues: “A lot of that old material was very meandering and trying to be clever, but now we're just trying to be dumb. Trying to be dumb, dumb men...”
However, with breakthrough single 'Gangs' colliding The Fall's knack for sardonic storytelling and LCD Soundsystem's leftfield dancefloor sensibilities, and 'Handshakes' allowing a slower, more unsettling side to unfurl, Do Nothing's early teasers actually strike a far artier chord than their assertions might suggest. Piecing together a collage of strange, intriguing lyrics (“I phone home fast to get a hold of my provider/ I eat every single thing I own and then catch fire”), Chris might play dumb, but there's a lot of thought not-so-secretly going on behind the scenes. “I watch loads of stupid shit on the internet, and [the lyrics] all seem abstract because they're just little phrases smashed together, but they're actually all really laboriously thought out. I do it on my computer so I can cut and paste it all. People are always on about, 'Oh I only write with a pen and paper',” he continues, adopting a snooty voice and an eye-roll. “Fuck off! Why?! The lyrics all make complete sense to me, but they wouldn't make any sense to anyone else. It's sort of pointless for anyone else to listen to them”.
I want to stick with press from 2019, as it is great to see how Do Nothing were being hailed, and how far they have come since then. They were brilliant in 2019 but, with an E.P. out, I think they have grown in stature and potential. That said, there are some fantastic articles around that gives us some different sides to the band and what they are about. I want to bring in some words from Loud and Quiet who spoke with Chris Bailey; they remarked how the band have complexity and depths that some might miss:
“Chris Bailey has figured out how to be himself. The frontman of Nottingham band Do Nothing, who are set to release their debut EP early in 2020, might have taken the long route to arrive at this point, but the British guitar music firmament had better steel itself for his impact.
“In the past I’ve tried to be something else, I’ve always tried to emulate something that I like,” he tells me. “But there came a certain point when I just started doing exactly what is me. We used to play quite complex music, but I just wanted to do something a bit more minimalist, that just had the ingredients that it needed and left a bit of space. And then later on you can add some fucking bells and flowers and shit when you’ve run out of simple things to do.”
If ‘LeBron James’, the lead track from the EP, is anything to go by, then Do Nothing are not quite the simple band that he makes out. Kasper Sandstrom’s guitar is clipped and chirrupy, slick and abrasive in alternating turns, grounded by the devious post-punk groove of Charlie Howarth’s bass and Andy Harrison’s drums, over which Bailey scatters a flurry of spoke-sung attack lines, a stream of non-sequitur exclamations. It is a wry, knowing track that side-steps the obvious confrontations of punk, detouring with unexpected left turns just when you feel you are getting a grasp on their character. As breakout songs go, it is a slam dunk”.
I will wrap things in a moment, but I wanted to show how great Do Nothing are by dropping in some songs and interview clips. It is clear that, in Chris Bailey, the band have a passionate, unique and excellent frontman who is taking the band to new levels. If you missed their Zero Dollar Bill E.P., then check out their Bandcamp page – the link is at the bottom of this feature -, as it is one of the best from this year. When NME reviewed it, they had this to say:
“‘Contraband’ will likely be the release’s defining moment, though. It’s a dropping of the guard where their signature absent delivery eases off, and the guitars and lyrics coalesce into something flecked with a gripping sadness and agony. The confusion and anger from those early singles remain on ‘LeBron James’, a sinister track and witty lyricism where Bailey ends up bemoaning that he got “all dressed up for nothing”, like a moody child mid-tantrum. ‘Fits’, penned about the emotions of drifting away from the things that meant a lot to you when you were younger, delivers a final thrilling sucker-punch.
PHOTO CREDIT: Adrian Vitelleschi-Cook
If you’re faced with a sense of confusion or boredom at the state of things in life right now – then Do Nothing are the people providing your anthems. After all, the band have said they deal in such currencies. It might have taken some working out, but this EP has all the makings of a legendary first statement. They’re a voice that we should be immensely thankful for right now”.
I am excited to see where Do Nothing head in the next year or so. I am not sure how many of their planned live dates can go ahead this year, but I know they will be back in force next year! I love their Zero Dollar Bill E.P., and I think that the band are going to be festival darlings soon enough. The whole band market is very healthy right now, and there are some great acts coming from the Nottingham area. Follow Do Nothing, and go and support them any way you can. Maybe it is early days for them and, whilst they have made some smaller impression at the moment, the boys in the band are primed to leave…
A huge footprint.
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