Urbanscapes: Damn Dirty Apes

At KLue Urbanscapes 2009, Junk have been anointed high arbiters of musical taste, and we're bringing you only the best music the city has to offer. Click on the links if you don’t already know which bands are confirmed and which have been nominated, but what we can tell you is that we’re bringing Lazarus act Damn Dirty Apes to Urbanscapes, where they’ll be doing a mind-blowing collabo with visual artist Perez Oldskool!

Today we caught up with lead singer Pedram from the Damn Dirty Apes and shook him down for info.

DAMN DIRTY APES
Do not be fooled. Psychedelic rock/reggae troupe Damn Dirty Apes (DDA) are the first to reference the Charlton Heston line from Planet Of The Apes. Other incarnations who then adopted the name are gash and not worth our time. Frontman Pedram of the original DDA speaks to us after years in the wilderness.

What have DDA been up to lately?
Over the years I have been collecting equipment for my own studio. DDA is a permanent project for me. We have enough songs for three albums: one is similar to the old DDA, the other is a dub-based album and the other is a collection of dreamy shoegaze pop songs. I hope to have one album out by the end of the year.

You've been through a few breakups. How long can fans expect this incarnation of DDA to last?
That’s like asking “How long will you live for?” I have no idea how long this incarnation will last. A band is a collaboration; sometimes things don't work out and sometimes people leave the country. As long as I have songs to share, I will keep at it. Luckily, I have two members who have been sticking it out with me for the past few years: my drummer and guitarist. I couldn't have continued without them.

Charlton Heston (Colonel George Taylor in the original Planet Of The Apes) passed away last year. Did it affect you?
I have no emotional attachment to Mr. Moses. He was the poster boy for the National Rifle Association in the States. ‘Nuff said!

What can we expect from DDA at Urbanscapes 2009?
We haven’t really decided yet, but most probably it will be all new songs. I am very excited about the collaboration with Perez Oldskool. I think we are well suited to play soundtrack music rather than “Hey everybody, look at us!”

Name us three things bigger than Urbanscapes.
My belly, KL traffic and Salladin, the new 3D animation TV series my singer Choong Chi-Ren is writing for. It’s going to put Malaysia on the map!

*Taken from Junk's June 2009 issue