Caz Meets The Walnut Dash By Caroline Murphy

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And now to the Walnut Dash. So who are these people who text me at the eleventh hour and expect me to drop everything and come and interview them! Well actually they're extremely entertaining people, and their music is bloody brilliant! They suggest we meet at The Coal Hole on The Strand, but naturally, 3 days before Christmas it's too busy and noisy to conduct an interview here, so we move to somewhere quieter and more conducive to my in-depth conversation.

Sadly, only two of the three band members are able to join me for this interview, but rest assured I will catch the third on my next visit! For your delectation, here is the content of our rendezvous! (To make up for the absence of the third member of the band, I had with me Aaron Devine, guitarist of Manchester's own 50Leaves (www.50leaves.com), who at one point almost caused a riot debating the relative merits of the London and Hull music scene!).

In the tranquillity (!?!) of the alternative venue, our interview began ... with me were Tom Braham (vocals/guitar), Malcolm Moore (bass/vocals), and the afore mentioned Aaron Devine. Caz: Ok, so introduce yourselves to the world! Tom: Can we introduce each other? That'd be more fun... Malcolm: Hi we're The Walnut Dash ... Tom: Shall I pretend to be you? This fine specimen you see before you, is Malcolm. Disappointingly, he has as much beard as he has head hair at the moment!

Malcolm: I can only apologise for that... Tom: Last time I aw him on stage, he looked like a slightly more masculine David Beckham. I probably need glasses, and I was right at the back of the room... so... Britain's finest bass player, five strings aren't enough for this man, but a six string bass is unheard of in the normal pop world. He's my great partner and we're the new Lennon and McCartney! You'll have to ask your mum and dad about that.. Oh and he's a marvellous singer as well... haha this is an embarrassment... Caz: Your turn Malc... Malcolm: I don't know how to follow that... This is Tom Braham, lead singer and leader... and creator of The Walnut Dash, and its main songwriter as well. He is basically the personality of the band. This fine specimen you see before you, is the band! Caz: The hair of the band as well... Malcolm: Mine was so shameful I had to shave it all off! Tom: I think what it is, every band has its quota of hair, ours isn't a particularly large band, so Malcolm and Daryl the drummer, who can't be here today, between them have quite short hair, which allows me to grow mine long! If they want to grow their hair, I have to keep mine short... facial hair is generally frowned on. Malcolm: This is just sheer laziness, I do apologise. I knew it wasn't going to be a photo call.. Caz: Well I have actually got a camera in my bag...

(What do you think I brought Aaron along for?) Caz: What style of music would you class yours as? Malcolm: Pop... next question. Caz: hahaha.. Fair enough, how long have you been together? Tom: ...as a homosexual love couple? About 5 minutes... haha, as a band... what does it say on our bio? Since 2001.... we're kind of on and off, Malcolm's a professional, so we have to fit around his busy international touring schedule. Sounds like a joke, but it isn't.

Malcolm: I'm a member of a band with James Blunt, who's album is released in January.. It got a one star review in "Loaded", which I saw today, which said "Blunt, you sicken us.." That was the review of his album, so... maybe I won't be doing that awful much. I play bass for him.. They're great I should say, but Loaded don't think much of him. Caz: Have you played in any other bands? Tom: Yeah, we met sort of doing the pub circuit. We bumped into each other doing the rounds and then finally decided to get rid of all the shit people we were playing with and make one good one... the same boring bands play, but we're different, interesting and a stylish band! Malcolm: In the 60's, 70's, and 80's everyone just went around playing, and anyone who was any good ended up in a band together. What we mean when we describe ourselves as "pop", is not that we're trying to bracket ourselves with people like Britney Spears, but it is in the sense that hits like "hit me baby, one more time" do grab a certain group of people and shake them about a bit and make an impression. It's a way of playing.. Tom: It's heart first, head second.

continued ...next page

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