Isle of Man alternative rock band Circus worlD are happy to announce a new release, The Dandelion Radio Session E.P. It is available to download now on a name-your-price basis from here, or it can be purchased on CD which comes with five extra from the Circus worlD archive, including two that have never been previously released anywhere.
2018 is the 20th anniversary of Circus worlD, so when the band had the honour of recording a session for Dandelion Radio late last year they decided to revisit some old favourites and introduce them to a new audience. The EP features some of the songs that defined the band in their early days including anthemic fan-favourite Green, the alternate tunings of Pandora and No Light Shines and epic art-rock closer Brood. Opening track Flamethrower is one of the bands earliest songs and features a guest appearance from Postcode vocalist Marie Reynolds who appeared on the first recording of the song way back in 1998. Check out the new EP below!
We managed to catch up with the band as they talked about their latest EP and more!
So how has the release of The Dandelion Radio Session E.P gone down so far?
Mikie Daugherty: It’s still early days yet so it’s hard to say how well it will do, but we’ve had some nice feedback from people. Hopefully it will reach more people that will also enjoy it.
What’s your favourite track from the release?
Mark Sayle: That’s a hard one. It’s like trying to pick your favourite child. That being said, I’ve always had a soft spot for the song ‘Brood’. It’s got a groove that’s undeniable and it brings me back to a certain time in the band when I just wrote for writings sake. It’s a horrible twisted little tale about drug abuse and a toxic relationship gone to extremes. I really love it a little bit I think.
Mikie: ‘Flamethrower’ was a lot of fun to revisit because it was the one song that we hadn’t played in a long time. My favourite is ‘Pandora’ though I think, I just really like it as a song.
Can you tell us something about the release no one else knows?
Mikie: I think this recording is the first time I played the breakdown of ‘Viscera’ correctly, despite the fact we played it at most of our gigs after it was written back in 2003. Live I would play the high part, but I always used to use a different timing. The version on this E.P. is how it is supposed to be played.
So it’s a name your own price basis, have you done this for your fans?
Mikie: It’s something we do with all of our releases now. Unfortunately music has become so devalued over the years that some people wouldn’t even consider paying for it. At some point you have to ask yourself whether you would prefer to have people download and listen to your music or to refuse to give it away and have no-one listen to it, and still make no money. So this way we give people the option of paying, or not, as they wish. Some will, some won’t, but at this point I just hope they listen to, and enjoy, the music. We also feature bonus tracks on our CDs as a reward for anyone that supports us by buying the physical product.
So 2018 is the 20th anniversary of the band, what has been your most memorable moment?
Mark: My most memorable moment is probably not supporting The Damned. They were due to kick off their tour of the UK in the Isle of Man but for some reason Dave Vanian never did get on the plane to come over. I had to tell the audience half way through our set that the band some of them had travelled from as far away from Canada to see wouldn’t be performing. We played amazingly well from what I recall though and the crowd, who you would have thought would be hugely upset by their heroes not turning up, were effusive. It was a strange night. Memorable, but perhaps not for the reasons one would expect.
Mikie: There have been plenty of highs and lows over the last two decades, a lot of memories on stage and off. My fondest memories now are of our most creative times; the earliest days of the band in ’98, when Mark and I lived together in a couple of different places and wrote so many songs in a pretty short period of time; 2016, 18 years later, writing and recording 20 new songs in a six month period – a time that was simultaneously very different from the old days and almost the same.
If you could work with any band in the world, who would it be and why?
Mark: My favourite bands in the world are The Sisters of Mercy and Iron Maiden. I’d be more than happy to get the chance to work with either of them. Andrew Eldritch is a great songwriter as are the guys in Maiden. As it happens, in my youth I wrote a song for Maiden but never did have the courage to send it to them. It was written about the Lovecraft story ‘The Rats In The Walls’. Perhaps I’ll get of my behind and record it properly one day. It’s not really a Circus worlD sort of song but you never know.
Mikie: That’s a surprisingly difficult question to answer. There are loads of bands that I love that we wouldn’t necessarily fit well with, or that have split up. Once I’d have been tempted to say Smashing Pumpkins, but given their reputation I’m not sure that would be such a good idea. Maybe Pixies. In fact, yes, that would be perfect. They were a band we listened to a lot back in those early days of Circus worlD, so I think that would be fitting.
Have you got any tours planned for 2018?
Mikie: Sadly not. You’d really think that we would play live to celebrate an anniversary like this, but things are never simple with Circus worlD. We have got more music coming out later in the year though, including a new album that we’re really happy with.
What got you into music in the first place?
Mark: What got me into music in the first place was hearing Blondie’s Sunday Girl. I must have been very young at the time but from that moment on music consumed my life. I knew quite clearly that’s what I wanted to do with my life when I grew up.
Mikie: There was always music playing in the house when I was young, so it was always part of my life. I never really thought about playing it myself though, until I was lent a guitar to learn on. At that point I figured I might as well give it a try and all these years later I’m still making music, so I guess you could say that was life-changing.
What was the first ever gig you went to?
Mark: The first proper gig I ever went to was Iron Maiden at the Royal Court Theatre in Liverpool in 1990. I travelled with a friend of mine and we stayed with his family for a couple of days. To this day it is the gig I look on most fondly. When my friend and I emerged from the concert he couldn’t speak and I couldn’t hear a thing. It made communication very hit and miss but it was well worth it. As an aside, the support band for that gig was Wolfsbane. Their singer Blaze Bailey briefly replaced Bruce Dickinson as singer in Maiden. It’s a strange old world.
Mikie: I’m not sure what the very first one would have been, something involving local bands, as it’s rare that touring bands come to the island. The first big gig I went was R.E.M. on their Monster tour.