Haggis Super Time at RockNess
RockNess
IF, during their short stay in the Highlands for RockNess, The Wombats need to order a taxi, it will not be the drummer who makes the call.
"It’s a nightmare ordering a taxi in Scotland," Dan Haggis admitted.
"People never believe it’s your real name until they see your passport."
So it looks like his bandmates, fellow Liverpudlian Matthew "Murph" Murphy and Norwegian-born Tord Øverland-Knudsen are on taxi ordering duties if they do need a cab to get them down to Dores this Sunday.
The distinctive name does have its uses, though. Haggis acknowledged that people are unlikely to forget him, for one thing.
"I actually tried getting a free haggis in Edinburgh," he added.
Haggis quickly admits to enjoying our national dish, but also confesses he might not be so likely to partake of the great chieftain o’ the puddin’-race on this trip over the Border. Not after over-indulging on haggis and other refreshments on his last trip to Edinburgh.
"I ended up re-decorating the bathroom with haggis and tequila so I might just give it a miss," he said.
Still, if he is passing up on Scottish cuisine, Haggis is looking forward to being reunited with Scotland’s scenery and especially RockNess with its sweeping views down Loch Ness.
"I can’t wait," Haggis said.
"It’s one of the most fantastic festival locations we’ve ever done."
The ever cheery Wombats are RockNess regulars. Their 2011 appearance maintains their record of playing at the festival every second year.
"The first time we went, we actually camped," Haggis revealed.
"We set up our tent behind the main stage and sat their in our camping chairs and soaked up the atmosphere."
The second time they stayed in a hotel, but tat also had its upside — especially when they found the bar had been left open and someone they did not know served them drink all night.
So have The Wombats changed at all since their last visit to the banks of Loch Ness?
"We’ve got a little bit older, but we’ve not grown beards. There’s maybe a little bit of extra weight around the middle," Haggis joked.
"The primary thing is the sound. The sound of the new album ("This Modern Glitch") involves a lot more synths, but we’ll be playing a mix of the old album ("A Guide to Love Loss & Desperation") and the new album at RockNess."
So does this new love with the synthesizer hint that The Wombats have been looking back to the decade of their birth, the 1980s?
"I think we have always been big admirers of Depeche Mode, The Cure and, especially lately, Kraftwerk, but we try not to listen to too much before we start making things," Haggis said.
"The, when we were in the studio, we found that a lot of studios in LA have these ’80s and ’70s synths lying around, so we started playing about with them. Hopefully people will be pleasantly surprised by the results."
The band took a lot longer over making that second album, which they released in April, than they did with the debut, but that does not necessarily mean that making it was any easier. Haggis suggests that as you get better at something, so the boundaries change.
"You get better at making records, but it doesn’t make it any easier," he said.
"We had an idea of the way we wanted it to sound, so we spent a lot longer getting it that way."
Part of that idea was to capture The Wombats’ live sound, so it should translate well to the RockNess stage.
Haggis was able to snatch a few minutes to speak to The Courier between plane trips. Having flown into London from Seattle earlier that day, he and his fellow Wombats were preparing to fly off to Palma.
However, Haggis is not expecting anyone to feel to sorry for him.
"Sometimes the travelling can be amazing," he said.
"Flying into Seattle the other day is one of the best memories we have, because you’re surrou8nded by all these mountains that look like volcanoes.
"It can be hard though. You have to take it days by day otherwise it gets a bit scary thinking: when will I see my bed again or when will I see my family? It’s so hard sometimes to give 100 per cent — sometimes your 100 per cent is your 50 per cent."
If the travelling is the down side to the job of rock star, Haggis has now doubt about what is the best bit.
"It’s being on stage for us," he stated.
"Without writing and recording songs we wouldn’t be there, but being on stage is the pay off for all those hours in studios banging your head off the walls, hearing all those people singing back the songs you’ve written. Sometimes there’s an energy coming off the crowd that makes the hairs stand up on the back of your neck. I wouldn’t change it for the world."
• The Wombats appear on the Mainstage at RockNess on Sunday.