Reading time: 6 minutes
In this interview, party rock band Dirty Saints tell us what they're doing in the attic of a church and what equipment they're working with.
Hello Felix, could you tell us something about the origin of the band? How did the name come about? How long have you been around? How did you get to know each other?
Hello! We, the band Dirty Saints, have been playing together since 2004. At that time in a slightly different line-up and under a different name. After we changed the line-up in January 2006, we also changed our name to Dirty Saints. Why Dirty Saints?
The second part of the name is due to our rehearsal room. This is located in the attic of a church. However, this does not mean that the band should be equated with a church choir, as our music has about as much in common with a Christian trombone choir as Mozart has with techno.
The first part of the name is also easy to explain: On the one hand by the rock and party music, on the other hand by our distinctive way of living it, the choice fell on the resolution "Dirty". This completes the name.
Wow! Such a rehearsal room is anything but ordinary! With 5 guys, a girl on bass and instrumentation besides the classic rhythm section also trumpet and saxophone in the luggage and on the videos sometimes additionally a female singer on stage. There you have all kinds of musical possibilities. How would you describe your musical concept?
We have experimented with various instruments in the many years we have been playing together. For us, the audience is always in the foreground and here variety and adaptability is always required, so we also use these measures specifically depending on the audience. By the way, in our rehearsal room, besides banjo, which we already use, there are also other instruments waiting for their premiere on stage.
You play from the Cannstatter Wasen to carnival balls and galas/corporate events, even weddings. Do you also vary the lineups?
Yes and no. We usually don't vary the basic line-up. However, since our performance at the Cannstatter Wasen we have the singer Beccy at our side, who additionally supports us at some gigs.
You yourselves come from Esslingen. In which regional area do you play? Didn't I read something about Canada on your website?
Yes, that's right. We have also already played a gig in Halifax, Canada. That was also by far the craziest booking we've had so far.
But let's get back to the question: We have not set ourselves an exact limit in which radius we play exclusively. However, gigs with a distance greater than 300 km are rather the exception. But basically we are up for any fun and also like to travel by plane.
Great thing! At the big events you work with FoH and a big technical team. Can you tell us something about your equipment at the bigger events?
At large events it is always important that you can rely on your technical team. Mostly the circumstances are different from event to event, so here we always adapt the technology to the local conditions and use different line arrays. We completely do without amps on stage for guitar and bass and all play with inears. This way we always have the perfect sound in our ears no matter where we are on stage. Because of the inears, we rely on an extremely good mix for the monitor mix. However, thanks to the new digital consoles, we can usually control the monitor mix ourselves from the stage using Ipads, so that the FoH technician can concentrate completely on the FoH sound during the concert.
How do you adapt to the smaller space available for stage equipment at small events like weddings or birthday parties? Do you go a different way stylistically or sound-wise?
For small events, we rely entirely on our own equipment and control this also without additional staff. In the meantime, in addition to a medium-sized PA from RCF, we also have moving heads and Led-Light-Show in our portfolio. Sound-technically we do not go special ways at small events: By means of Ipad every corner in the room can be checked and the mix can be adjusted. Thanks to wireless microphones, this can also be checked again during the concert and adjusted if necessary.
What performance or feedback are you most proud of?
As you have already guessed, our performance at the Cannstatter Wasen and directly afterwards the concert in Canada was a special highlight for us in 2015. But we are also happy every time when the bridal couple or the organizer comes to us at the end of the evening and thanks us for the super party and the successful evening. Fortunately, this happens to us very often and that is also the reason why we have been making music together for so long.
Great! Then we wish you continued success and cool gigs!