CUR1350 meets Does It Offend You, Yeah?

Does It Offend You, Yeah?, fresh off the NME tour, are one of the hottest new bands. CUR1350 chats to Morgan Quaintance, guitarist and singer to find out more about them and what they’ve been up to…

The Klaxons were said to have invented new rave, a term they disavow. Electro-meets-punk-meets-indie-meets-rock outfit, DIOYY? are also not too fond of the label. Comment on guitarist/singer Morgan Quaintance’s multicoloured shoes as “very new rave” and he’ll tell you off, and that wearing colours does not amount to “new rave.”

As for the music? The label “new rave” works in terms of covering the repetitive aspect of DIOYY?’s more electronic-sounding songs, such as “Let’s Make Out” and “With A Heavy Heart.” But it doesn’t explain how live this is music which people can mosh to as much as rave, as the sweaty, heaving crowd, spilling over onto stage only too well demonstrated this evening at Bournemouth ibar. As Morgan explains after much deliberating in response to “define yourselves”, they make electronic music with guitars.

After the show, CUR1350 catches up with Morgan Quaintance to find out a bit more about the band…

CUR1350: Tell me briefly how it all started.

Morgan: Basically Dan [synths] and James [bass/vocals] started the band in their bedrooms and decided to make some sort of electro music. And then bizarrely, they got signed. It’s like some sort of Pinnochio-fairytale existence. They got signed straight away…About a few weeks after that, I met them in a club, and we were talking – “We got signed” “Oh that’s cool” – and then we just hung around for about year. And then they were like “We’re gonna do a band, and we need people to join.” So I decided to join. Basically, Dan and James started it first, and then me and Rob [drums] came in and got involved.

So do you have a main songwriter or do you share songwriting duties?

The main songwriter for this project [Does It Offend You, Yeah?] is James, really. My main focus is arranging and organising the live setup. So when you see us live….I sorta coordinate the show and direct it. It sounds so like a production of The Lion King or something – I direct how it’s supposed to go!

So where does the name Does It Offend You, Yeah? come from?

The name of the band comes from, they were watching the Office or something, and they were looking for a name for the band, and then Ricky Gervais said “Does it offend you, yeah? My drinking?” so they were like “OK, put “Does it offend you, yeah?” and cut out “My drinking?” It’s really strange cos loads of magazines are having a go at us for being pretentious.


Ricky Gervais is from Reading and you’re from Reading, so there’s a connection there.

I’m not personally from Reading – I live in London. But the other three are from Reading.

So are you the oddball?

Oh no, I’m just the coolest one out of them.

London tops Reading, doesn’t it?

Of course, yeah! Sorry Reading people!

How is your throat after that gig?

It’s all right, not bad, it’s holding up. Basically, what happened, when we played South By South West, we played six gigs in three days, I think.


That must have been intense. How did it feel to play it though? Was it an achievement to go out there?

Yeah it was amazing. But kinda annoying. Cos we f***ing smashed South By South West. We f***ing smashed it, man! But there were no f***ing camera crews, nobody checked us out, nobody was like “does it offend you?” And it was just sometimes – oh I don’t wanna get on my high horse – but, yeah, it did offend me. We f***ing worked our f***ing arses off, man. We went to a lot of shows and people were just f***ing standing there. We did shows like that every day but more intense than that, but I dunno. Whatever though. Cos the people who were there saw it, and that’s what counts.

So how did it feel to play the NME tour? Was that like a landmark moment?

Yeah, it was like a landmark. It was like our first big, mature step into professionality or whatever. We did a month’s worth of gigs. We got better at playing as a band, and we got better at handling hangovers!

How have you found the reactions to your album? Have you read a lot of reviews?

We’ve read a lot of reviews. And they’re split really. Some say it’s good, some say it’s shit. To be fair, I don’t really give a f***.

Isn’t it good to get a reaction?

Yeah, it’s good to get a reaction. And also it doesn’t really matter what journalists say. It just matters that people turn up to see what you do and see what you play. I think journalists have their own kind of agenda which is outside the arena of music. Which is like when you read a review, they’re really communicating with other journalists, and perhaps their employers and perhaps – I’m going to get in a lot of trouble [laughs] – and perhaps, it’s a dialogue with other journalists to show how much they know and how much better they are and how much they need to keep their job. Music is really something you come to see and experience, it’s not something you read about. I’m guilty of reading about it though; I buy the NME, I buy Mojo. I love those magazines… I don’t think we’re too fussed about reviews. Obviously, if they’re really bad…I don’t mind what anyone says but if they’re personal, it’s not very nice.

Yeah, when it goes beyond the music. Just to conclude – plans for the future? What’s happening the next two months? Busy schedule? You’re playing a few festivals, aren’t you?

We’re touring, touring constantly. We’re finishing here, then we tour Europe, then we tour America with Yo Majesty. Then we come back, we do Coachella festival, Reading festival, Glastonbury , Lollapalooza, Summersonic in Japan. Just constant touring. Gatecrasher Summer Soundsystem. We’re just trying to play as many shows as we can.

Last question. What is with the anime theme on your drum kit and the Pikachu on your guitar?

Basically, I bought that Pikachu on my guitar about 8 years ago. I don’t know if that’s good or not, but I bought it before Pikachu was famous…

That’s good. It makes you the trendsetter…

…or the weird guy who likes anime. The Japanese thing on our kickdrum is….we went to Japan a few weeks ago to do a couple of shows out there, and our record company in Japan designed the Does It Offend You logo in Japanese. And we were like “Wow, amazing!” so we got it printed. It’s awesome.

Thanks for chatting to CUR1350.