Dirty Pretty Things

Formed by Carl Barât in 2005, the Dirty Pretty Things comprise him up front, floppy-haired American muso Anthony Rossomando and Didz from the Cooper Temple Clause on the strings, and tweed-infatuated ex-Libertine Gary Powell on drums. A group that despise highly stylised looks and man-made bands, the DPTs are what all great rock bands should – effortless cool. We sat down with Carl and Anthony to see if any of it would rub off on us…

What’s the best song you’ve heard lately?

Carl: I’d go with Glasvegas, just for the fact they’re doing something classic that sounds different, and they do it so well. It’s cool. It just blows everything else out of the water. There’s a moving song about real things, with real instruments. They’re a band who have fought their way there… It’s a slap in the face to all the crap that’s about.

Let’s talk about ‘Romance At Short Notice’. How does an album start with you lot? Where do the ideas stem from?

Carl: For me it’s just something that comes out of your head. Either something you play on the guitar or something you think of, or a line someone says, or something you see on the bus, and it just grows from there.

Anthony: A strong nugget becomes the nucleus of a song. Sometimes it’s just one line. Sometimes it’s the first line of the song, like with ‘The Truth Begins’. We had that one line, and that whole song grew from there.

Carl: The worst thing is when you think of something you should write down, but you can’t be arsed, and then you beat yourself up about it for ages.

Do you ever get to a point where the new album’s just come out, and you’ve got loads of ideas for new stuff, and you think, ‘I wish we could’ve included this track’?

Anthony: You get used to that over time, because it happens on every record. You have to pick a point where you stop. It’s not like a painting you keep in your attic and just keep adding to for years and years. But that’s OK, because if it wasn’t for Dictaphones and cell phones and shit like that, that’s where you record a lot of those nuggets like Carl’s talking about. It’s good for our self-confidence that we’ve got loads of material that’s still to co me. You can get into the touring cycle and you really get into that for a while and then you start longing for the time where you can record more nuggets.

Who are the band’s biggest musical influences?

Carl: We’ve all got different influences we’re in to.

Anthony: But there are some we agree on, like The Velvet Underground and Blur.

Carl: Everyone likes The Clash and everyone likes Elvis Costello.

Anthony: Everyone loves their quirky Beatles songs.

Carl: Everyone loves The Beatles.

Is this the sort of stuff that’s getting played on the tourbus then?

Anthony: We end up having iPod wars. But we listen to all kinds of stuff. Even very new, American hip-hop – Lil Wayne and stuff. We love listening to all kinds of shit, it’s great.

Does the band have any style icons?

Anthony: I want stuff that’s off the beaten path that no one else is gonna have. I’m very like that, when I find a T-shirt or something that I know was made by some six-year old in a class and sold for a dollar outside their house, I love that.

Carl: I’m not really that bothered with it. I don’t really have that many clothes, or if I do they’re often from shoots like this. Otherwise it’s stuff I get from a charity shop.

Anthony: Or stuff that’s left after gigs. Our mates get a lot of our clothes – none of us are real hoarders.

Who’s the worst dressed in the band?

Carl: Gary’s got some orange parachute pants…

Anthony: …and some almost like Ugg-boots.

Carl: He’s also got a ski-jacket in the colours of the gay flag, and matching trainers.

Anthony: And I’ve got a pretty ridiculous collection of shit jumpers.

What’s the shittest thing you own?

Anthony: I own a ridiculous grandma-looking cardigan that goes down to my knees. I love it though.

Carl: I’ve got a smoking jacket. It’s blue.

Did you wear shellsuits in your youth?

Anthony: What’s a shellsuit?

Carl: It’s what townies used to wear. It’s made of stuff that makes a noise like tracing paper.

Anthony: Oh yeah, right. Yes, every day. Er, no, I haven’t.

If there was one photo from your youth that broke all sorts of fashion rules and is a source of much embarrassment today, what would it be?

Anthony: I’d be wearing a Captain America costume with a cape. I used to wear capes to school all the time. I don’t know why, but the pictures are pretty embarrassing. I was obsessed with capes.

Carl: There’s a few pictures of me in just red wellies.

Anthony: There’s that picture of you in that straw hat, when you were like six years old, drinking a can of beer. That’s quite cool though, that’s pretty John Wayne.

Ok, you’ve got a bit of dough on you, you’re out clothes shopping, what’s the first shop you go in to?

Anthony: I don’t know about you Carl, but I’ve never really gone out purposefully to buy some clothes, we get thrown so much. If I was to buy a winter coat, I’d look for that and I’d get something quite nice though.

Carl: I bought you that lovely T-shirt with the wolf on that I’ve seen neither hide nor hair of…

Anthony: Oh yeah, my tie-dye wolf shirt. I’ve been wearing it while I was ill, in my house. It’s not ’cos I don’t like it or anything…

It’s not really the done thing for rock stars to be seen on the high street, looking out for a bargain, is it?

Anthony: I’m into my bargains, man! I don’t like spending too much money on shit.

Carl: I hate shopping, unless it’s for food. I love food shopping.

Who’s the least stylish band in Britain?

Carl: McFly.

Anthony: Yeah, they’re terrible. One of those dudes had a hat on, flipped back like a bad 90s Californian skater guy. And the hair that was out of his hat had been styled, bleached, frosted and styled some more. Not good.

Your biggest fashion faux pas?

Anthony: Open-toed stuff is just wrong.

Carl: T-shirts tucked into blue jeans.

Anthony: Yeah, acid-washed blue jeans with the T-shirt tucked in… that’s pretty awesome. I don’t mind mad oversized weird clothes though, I’m kind of into mismatches, so that doesn’t bother me. All that, ‘You can’t wear blue with black,’ and shit like that? I don’t give a shit. The thing that really gets me is when you can tell someone is fucking loaded and they shop in Mayfair and Kensington, but they look stupid. You can’t fucking buy taste.

What about hats? To a certain extent, The Libertines were responsible for bringing hats back…

Carl: I don’t know where to go with hats right now. I’d like to see the bowler hat come back, but it’s quite hard to orchestrate. The top hat’s a good one, too.

If you’re headlining Glastonbury next year, what will you wear and what song will you play last?

Anthony: We’ll be wearing whatever we can find on the bus. I’d probably wear a whole bodysuit of live bees and end with a McFly cover.

Carl: I’d play the Welsh national anthem, in a green bikini.

We’ll look forward to that then. All the best, chaps.

A&C: Cheers.