Air Drawn Dagger on their Virtual Universe, LA Biker Gangs & Touring

Air Drawn Dagger

Sheffield-based trio Air Drawn Dagger create excellent electro, punk-inflected, angst-pop songs and their profile is fast on the rise. 

Thanks to a growing, diverse and ever-so-slightly fanatical fanbase (appropriately known as Church of Dagger) they’ve been clocking up tens of thousands of streams and touring the country.

The band formed from interesting beginnings, at first writing songs in the back of a small cake shop in Sheffield. They’ve since toured the UK, throughout North America, signed a publishing deal, secured airplay courtesy of BBC Introducing and been championed by publications such as Hit The Floor, and Mosh & Punktastic. 

In addition to releasing music and touring internationally, the band have published their own Zine and have been busy building a universe within their music videos. 

We had a chat about everything from their new music, biker gangs in LA and their upcoming, Dragon Soop sponsored UK tour.

Interview by music journalist, Derick McKinnon

Introduce yourselves, tell us about the band and how you got together, where are you based?

We are, Maisie – vocals, Lewis – guitar and backing vocals and Ross – drums and backing vocals. We are based in Sheffield and are often described as an electronic, punky, angst-pop collective. Myself (Lewis) and vocalist Maisie began writing songs in the back of a cake shop in Sheffield before we cut our teeth winning over diverse crowds, from older punks at hardcore shows to young couples in tapas restaurants. Early on, we embarked on extensive national tours, played loads of festivals, and did a DIY North American tour. From there we have been creating music, touring, publishing our own Zine, and building a universe within our music videos. 

Where does the name Air Drawn Dagger come from?

The name Air Drawn Dagger comes from Macbeth as it is a “characterisation of an emotional outburst”.

You toured the US in 2018, how did audiences across the pond compare to the UK?

That whole experience was incredible, we did the tour completely DIY. Just us in a van. We encountered biker gangs when we played at one venue, groups of emo skater kids when we played another, and of course, the vibrancy and madness of Hollywood when we played The Viper Rooms. The crowds were diverse to say the least, but extremely warm and welcoming, we can't wait to return one day. 

We love your single My Murder of Crows, tell us about your songwriting and recording process, how do you put everything together?

Often Maisie and I will flesh out the chords, lyrics and melody acoustically before demoing a song. That's how Crows began, as a wonky demo from my bedroom. Ross then helps bring it to life with drums and production. We recorded, mixed and mastered this single ourselves over lockdown. We are used to self-recording now as we have a studio space that we have been slowly developing with recycled gear. When I originally started the demo, I was chasing that 'bouncy festival anthem' feel you might get from a Two Door Cinema club track, which is why the lead synth line is so simple, it was written for people to sing along to.

Air Drawn Dagger

Tell us more about the creation of your music videos, who is involved and did you get permission to film in a local church for My Murder of Crows for example?

Recently we have been working with Aaron Mckenzie, bass player of While She Sleeps and Daniel Barnes of Volca Media, the man behind the camera for them. They are both a dream to work with, they take our ideas and help us bring them into the world. The Chapel is in the centre of Sheffield city centre and they were super cooperative. We had an extremely tight window to film it, but they were great hosts. Not every church we contacted was thrilled about a rock band filming a video inside their hallowed grounds.

You have an upcoming tour, do you have favourite cities / venues / places to play live and if so tell us more?

Hometown-wise Corporation and Leadmill in Sheffield are both iconic. Manchester is always special for me as I’m Mancunian, Night & Day Cafe is legendary, as is Factory, Star and Garter and Satans Hollow. We love Scotland, and can't wait to play both Ayr and Aberdeen for the first time. Getting to travel to new places is one of our favourite parts of playing music. We will also be returning to Percys in Whitchurch, and if you don't know about that place already, you NEED to visit. From the taxidermy tigers to the pulpit sound desk, there is no place like it. An absolute gem. 

What do your career highlights look like?

There are so many highlights for us, from signing a publishing deal in our first year as a band, recording in London, touring internationally, writing and creating our own world through Zines and music videos, constantly melting different genres into our sound, and people getting tattoos of our logo. We were delighted to receive support from BBC Introducing, as well as lots of underground media attention, we all loved our debut mixtape TBA featuring the likes of Kid Bookie (Cory Taylor/Tech N9ne).  

Overall, it means the world to us, touring and building our community, using gigs as a space to welcome those that don’t belong anywhere else, and enabling them to celebrate their darker side at our therapeutic parties / shows, we feel lucky.

What’s your plan for the rest of the year and into 2023?

We’re about to announce the details of our debut mixtape which features everything from recent singles to collaborations and unreleased material. It has taken 2 years to get to this point with the project and we can't wait to bring it into the world. We then get to tour into the new year (thanks to Dragon Soop for supporting us with that) and there might just be some new music after that... 

Dragon Soop Blue Pineapple & Kiwi

Tell us something most people won’t know about you / the band?

Maisie once threw a biker gang out of their own bar in Las Vegas (in an alternative universe somewhere that might have been a bad idea!) 

Which Dragon Soop flavour best reflects the bands music and why?

I would say Blue Pineapple and Kiwi, not just because we are pastel-goth branded emos, but because none of those fruits mentioned are blue, yet it works. It's delicious and it shouldn’t really work but it does… a bit like ourselves.  

NOVEMBER UK TOUR:

  • 2 November 2022 - The Prince Albert, Brighton

  • 3 November 2022 - Crowleys, Swansea 

  • 4 November 2022 - Percy's, Whitchurch 

  • 5 November 2022 - Hive, Rotherham 

  • 9 November 2022 - The Parish, Huddersfield 

  • 10 November 2022 - Harleys, Ayr 

  • 11 November 2022 - Krakatoa, Aberdeen 

  • 12 November 2022 - Head of Steam, Newcastle 

  • 17 November 2022 - Tower Ballroom 2, Hull 

  • 18 November 2022 - New Continental, Preston 

  • 19 November 2022 - Star and Garter, Manchester 

All tickets are available directly from the venues and airdrawndaggerband.com   

Dragon Soop