ONE ON ONE…Nicole Laurenne of The Darts

with David Kasheta, June, 2024

The Darts were established in 2016 as a garage rock band infused with surf influences, unveiling two self-produced EPs. Their work quickly captured the attention of the Dirty Water (UK) label, leading to the release of their debut full-length album, "Me.Ow" in 2017. This success led to various European tours and garnered recognition from notable figures like author Stephen King, comedian and musician Fred Armisen, and game show host and Underground Garage DJ Drew Carey. 

After Dirty Water reissued the initial EPs as a second full-length album titled The Darts, American fans enjoyed multiple tours alongside artists such as The Longshot led by Billie Joe Armstrong and Australia's The Living End. The band's long-time supporter, Jello Biafra from the Dead Kennedys, signed them to his label, Alternative Tentacles, and unveiled their third album, I Like You But Not Like That in 2018. Sharing the stage with bands like The Damned, Rancid, and L7 further cemented their dedicated fan base and broadened their reach through songs featured on TV shows like Peaky Blinders. 2022 saw the release of a three song European release entitled Love Tsunami and another European tour.

Thanks for joining us today and taking the time out of your busy schedule to give us a glimpse into the band. I love the energy and melody of your material. I’m blown away by the strength and enthusiasm of your shows and your tour schedule seems unrelenting. How do you physically compete with the demands of such extraordinary output?

NICOLE: Well, I am kind of a health nut, vegan/keto/low-carb/sober, trying to run and work out all the time, I’m the worst person ever. But still we all get the dreaded tour sickness (kind of like a really bad cold) the second week of any tour, plus just being out in the world we get little injuries and even medical scares that happen on the road that have nothing to do with touring. 

For example, I am a breast cancer survivor and I had a little scare in Spain last summer, and ended up getting scans and everything while we were on the road. Over time, we have collected a bag of weird medicine from foreign pharmacies that we just keep with our agent in Europe and put in the van at the beginning of the tour. And then we try to let the sweat do the rest of the work.

How would describe your feng shui on stage?

NICOLE: If I understand it right, Feng shui is about arranging things so that it brings you peace and harmony or something, right? On stage, what brings us peace and harmony is 1) a good monitor mix so we can all hear what we need, which almost never seems to happen and makes us all crazy 2) making sure Christina has nothing but a bass amp on her side of the stage. If you give us those two things, we’re pretty harmonious. We have learned to work with almost any stage challenge at this point. (Tiny stage? No problem, Nicole and Farfisa will play on the floor with the crowd. No room for a second amp?No problem, the keys will run direct.) You make it work, you have no choice. Maybe I will start putting “feng shui” on our rider.

How do you decide on a playlist and does it change nightly?

NICOLE: We suffer a lot making the setlist. It has to flow right, with the right changes in tempo, a combination of new and old songs, talking breaks, possible encores, etc. Plus none of us live in the same place so there is no ability to rehearse - we all have to prepare at home alone and be ready to jump on stage with the set the first night. So once we all agree on the songs, we all do our homework and it’s pretty set in stone for that leg of the tour. We made setlist t-shirts for one tour so that someone in the front row could wear it and help us out.

Is there any pre-show ritual(s) that are honored? Superstitions?

NICOLE: My Farfisa is from 1968, with essentially all original parts. I’m not a religious person, but when I plug in the organ during soundcheck, I whisper a “please please work” and then I turn it on.. and when the light comes on, and then actual sound comes out of it, I always do a little gratitude dance.

How did you hit upon the band name and how does it represent the dynamics of your music?

NICOLE: We didn’t think too hard about a name because we thought it was going to be just a fun little side project when it started. So I chose something that most women know but most men don’t: “darts” are the seams on the sides of a blouse that make room for boobs, and most women know that. The maximum example of this is the 1950s bullet bra, which was our first logo. It represented a kind of sisterhood that our brethren just don’t quite understand fully. Plus the bullet bra logo was super cool - a little retro, a little sexy, definitely bold female stuff though, and that is how I wanted this band to come across overall.

How would you best describe your music?

NICOLE: Well there’s a question. Over the years, reviewers have called us everything from pop to stoner to metal to garage to classic rock, and now I’m just confused. I would say we stem from a garage rock foundation sonically, mainly due to the instrumentation of the fuzzy distorted guitar and bass and the Farfisa floating on top, but the songwriting wanders around lots of these other categories freely. I think it’s kind of spooky spy garagepunk rock. Maybe. I don’t know.

You’re a classically trained pianist. Can you describe what an incredible influence that must be in your work within the band?

NICOLE: Honestly, it is everything. There is no substitute for hours and hours of practice, and knowing music theory intimately, and being able to make your hands do what your mind comes up with. Obviously a lot of great musicians get there without classical training, but that’s what worked for me. 

I use the music theory every single day in every single moment of every song, it is just how I organize the parts in my head so I can keep a handle on what’s going on. Practicing arpeggios for years, hours on end, has served me well on the keys; even though I no longer have my classical chops up to speed, I can still do those arpeggios in a rock context and they always sound cool. Mozart was onto something, the ideas translate into pop very easily.

I love your influences, including The Trashwomen, Thee Tsunamis, The Cramps, Nick Cave and Dead Weather. Describe what you loved in their raw, unfiltered, sonic energy and how it’s influenced your writing.

NICOLE: That is exactly what I love: the rawness, the nasty distorted vibe, the pure and simple chord progressions, the painfully blunt and honest lyrics. I guess I want the music to hurt a little, I want to hear the broken heart in the lyrics and some real anger and resentment in the instruments, that’s when it all speaks to me the most.

Your latest release, “Boomerang”, is an impressive continuance of what was laid down on “Snake Oil”. I loved the brilliance of that album, as did listeners, especially on Spy Girl, Love Tsunami, Underground and the title track. Love the production on the new one as well. How directive was Mark Rains in honing your sonics to sound so vibrant?

How is the overall recording process for you?

NICOLE: In one word.. fast. We do all our preparation before we ever set foot near a studio, since we are all in different locations. We know the songs inside and out, I have made demos that have all the parts worked out exactly like we want, including effects and backing vocals and everything, and so once we enter the studio, we are ready to play it in one or two takes into the machine and go home. I usually do all the vocals and backing vocals for a whole album in about six hours. It works really well for us this way.

You’re now on the Alternative Tentacles label, headed by the legendary Jello Biafra. How did you come to meet?

NICOLE: Jello was somehow a fan of our last band, The Love Me Nots. He DJs and used to play those records apparently. He even came on stage once and sang the last chorus of a song with me once in that band, and then talked politics with me for an hour after the show of course. When The Darts started, someone wanted to bring him to a show and he apparently didn’t want to come because he didn’t think he would like The Darts as much as The Love Me Nots; he had already kind of written us off. But he came to the show, and by the end, he was with me at the merch booth saying it was even better than the old band and before we knew it we were planning a seven-inch release on his label.

What are the plans for The Darts for the next 6 months?

NICOLE: To survive 100-plus days of touring in a zillion countries. I take that back. To rock the hell out of 100-plus days of touring in a zillion countries. But also we will stop in Lyon, France, and record a couple of new singles with Louise on guitar, we will do a short spin through the Northeast US which we haven’t done in awhile, with Becca from Spindrift on guitar, I will have eight million protein shakes in the van, and we will finally identify the best travel pillow.

You have also been a Municipal Court Judge in Arizona. Impressive! How did you become interested in the legal profession?

NICOLE: Very accidentally, actually. The first love was always music and I really wanted to study it and make it my first and only career, but my scientist parents wouldn’t have it. So I ended up choosing the only other major that even remotely interested me, which was psychology, at the University of Michigan, and then when the parents insisted on grad school, I decided criminal law was probably the most interesting non-music thing I could handle. 

So I went to law school, worked as a judge’s law clerk while I studied for the bar, and then got hired as a prosecutor in a tiny Arizona town, where the court was in a trailer at first actually. Then that town grew exponentially and they needed a judge - so at 27 I was hired to be a judge in a trailer. Eventually it became a very large and well-respected suburb of Phoenix with a beautiful courthouse and I was lucky enough to be in the right place at the right time as the court grew and grew. Meanwhile…I toured with my bands on every day off I could get. 

Which vocation is more influential and why: The Darts or The Bench?

First moment where you thought that people dug what you had to play and say?

NICOLE: I still don’t know if they do, I just do my thing. No one really paid any attention to my little original songs throughout my life, until one night after a show with a new wave band I was in, a kind of well-known guitarist in Phoenix came up to me and asked me to front a band he wanted to start, and then we formed The Love Me Nots, and signed to a French label very quickly, and .. honestly I’m still shocked that any of this music means anything to anyone but me.

When did you first discover your voice?

NICOLE: The first time I sang publicly was in junior high school, maybe 12 years old. I was studying classical piano all the time, writing my little songs secretly, harboring a love for the little bit of pop music I was exposed to, which consisted only of occasional AM radio. There was a talent show at my junior high school. I decided to play piano and sing “The Rose” by Bette Midler. My parents were floored - they had no idea I could sing at all. I didn’t do anything else with singing though until much, much later when that new wave band started in Phoenix, so I am still kind of shocked and horrified that I am singing every day and traveling around the world pretending I know what I’m doing.

First album, cassette, or CD purchased? Where? When?

NICOLE: I’m sure it was a Mozart concerto, which I was studying hard and ended up performing with orchestras, as a kid. But for pop music…do I have to answer this? Embarassingly, I loved Journey because they had a lot of piano in their songs, and I know I bought Journey’s Escape and The Police’s Ghost In The Machine on vinyl when they first came out, probably at K-Mart somewhere in a Chicago suburb.

What advice, in life, music or both, would you give your younger self?

NICOLE: Speak your mind. Diplomatically, of course, but don’t shy away from confrontation. Trust your instincts. (Not above love, of course; those instincts are clearly off haha). I still have lots of trouble with both of these things, and try to work on it constantly.

Dream band to open for?

NICOLE: Amyl and The Sniffers

New or recent bands you’re most excited about?

NICOLE: I love Plague Vendor and Shitkid right now.

Best stereo system you’ve ever had?

NICOLE: Marantz receiver and Rega turntable, with some vintage speakers Bob Hoag sold me. My daughter has the whole rig now, and it makes me so happy to see her loving it.

First concert attended? (who, when, who)

NICOLE: Boston Pops, at the Chicago Public Library, with my mom and brother, when I was about 5 maybe. First pop concert was accidental - I was camping somewhere in Michigan while I was in college, and we heard cheering so we wandered across a field and Sting was playing a big outdoor venue; so we kind of watched from the trees. I’m still not a big concert-goer.

Most unforgettable concert attended?

NICOLE: The Damned, when we were on tour with them across the US, and Dave Vanian invited me on stage almost every night to waltz with him, sing with him, and then share a glass of port. The man is one-hundred-percent class and talent. I also loved seeing The Trashwomen, Death Valley Girls, and The Mummies with Christina, all at Mosswood Meltdown in I think 2016, right after a difficult divorce, and it was exactly the cure I needed.

Top 5 albums?

NICOLE: I really love these albums for reasons that aren’t necessarily musical genius - some of them represent a time in my life when the album was just kind of what I needed - and they are in no particular order, and I might give you a different list if you ask me tomorrow: Amphetamine Ballads, by The Amazing Snakeheads, I Do Not Want What I Have Not Got, by Sinead O’Connor, Saturday Night Sweethearts, by Thee Tsunamis, Conversations With Myself, by Bill Evans, and Eyelid Movies, by Phantogram.

Thank you for dedicating time to your audience. We are thrilled about the band's future and excited about your commitment to bringing your exceptional, energetic catalog to stages across the planet. We look forward to seeing you perform live! How can fans show their gratitude to the band and where can they grab your music?

https://alternativetentacles.com/

NICOLE: Everything is always on our link tree site: https://linktr.ee/thedartsus. Come to a show, buy a little something if you can, drop us a line on social media (which I handle myself so I will see it and respond, I promise), and there is a virtual tip jar on our Bandcamp page if you’re really feeling generous or just won the lottery. Thank you so much for listening!