Not far from the tree — the twitchy post-punk of Despistado has found new life with Geronimo
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When Dagan Harding walked away from the blazing post-punk project Despistado, he didn’t do it because he couldn’t handle the pressure. He didn’t see his friends become lost in a sea of loose women and easy drugs, and he didn’t hit a creative roadblock. He just got a feeling in his gut, a nagging in the back of his mind that this wasn’t the path he wanted to be walking down, and this wasn’t the way he was supposed to be walking it. He needed to make a change, romantic notions of rock ’n’ roll be damned.
Rather than play into the clichéd imagery that comes with walking away from a band poised for what seemed like inevitable success, he went home to Regina, took a deep breath and waited to make his next move. Geronimo was not born from the ashes of Despistado with some kind of phoenix-like majesty, as the press will have you believe. It was born out of patience, careful consideration and Harding’s realization that there’s more than one way to run a rock band.
“The decision was made that we’d rather do it in a way that recognized quality, health and longevity,” Harding explains, “because success is ultimately a relative idea, and we believe that you can be successful on your own terms. It’s possible, and the product is probably going to be of more quality in the end, anyways.”
Harding says that he’s more focused on developing the band slowly. They’re far from working at a snail’s pace, however, as Geronimo have recently recorded a brand new demo — one that Harding hopes will blossom into a full-length album later this year. If it’s anything like their 2006 EP, Enlightenment in a Small Town, listeners can expect another electrical storm of jangly guitars driven by a pummelling rhythm section, all perforated by Harding’s punchy vocals.
The band is currently without a label, but to Harding, having taken time off school to become the band's manager as well, this is a mere detail. Geronimo is poised for their third western tour, which brings them to Calgary on Valentine’s Day, and will include a visit to massive music bonanza South by Southwest in Austin, Texas, next month. With a potential new album in progress, as well as regular rotation on CBC Radio 3, Harding is bracing himself for an exciting year.
“It’s cliché, but we have high hopes for 2008 — 2007 was sort of our set up year, and 2006 was like ‘Let’s get a recording out and tour,’” he says. “[Last year] was like, ‘Well maybe let’s think about how we’re gonna do this.’ I think there’s more potential now. We’ve been writing slower, we have a larger plan and we’re more in control. So we’re more explicit about what we’re doing.”
