Shoegazing is back in style with Daniel Land and the Modern Painters, their Voss EP causing Line of Best Fit to stare intently at their trainers whilst layered guitars fly around quite nicely. And of course, we had to take the opportunity to put to them those all important 20 Questions. Daniel himself and drummer Marcus were only too happy to oblige.1. Describe your sound in 3 words.
Daniel: Ambience. Horniness. Saudade.
2. What was the first record you ever bought? And where did you buy it?
Daniel: “Twist and Shout” by Deacon Blue. Where from? Oh yeah, the branch of Our Price (Ha! Remember them?!) in Barnstaple, Devon. Summer 1991.
Marcus: Kim Wilde’s “Second Thought” - Because I fancied her.
3. What’s the best cure for a hangover?
Marcus: A Dam good fry up.
Daniel: A good, long, hard…. band practise.
4. What’s on your rider?
Daniel: Ceylon tea for before the gig; vodka martini for after. It’s so embarrasing. I can’t drink before I go on stage because I have the bladder of a pensioner.
Marcus: Bottle of Baileys + Vanilla Slices from Greggs.
5. How do you get ready for a live show?
Marcus: A nice cold cola.
Daniel: By panicking, losing sleep, slamming doors, and bossing people around.
6. What’s your favourite song to play live?
Marcus: Within The Boundries
Daniel: Any song where the band remembers the chords!
7. What’s your guilty pleasure?
Marcus: I Love Tiny Planets
Daniel: At the risk of sounding repetitive, I’d have to say Deacon Blue. Check out “Bethlehem’s Gate” and “Circus Lights”, they’re so ambient. Two songs I wish I’d written.
8. Who would win in a fight, a stoat or a goat and why?
Daniel: I don’t know who would win in a fight. But if a stoat and a goat were both contestants on an anthropomorphic edition of Countdown, the stoat would win, because it’s more consonants.
Marcus: Sometimes you wish you hadn’t asked, don’t you?
Daniel: Feck off.
9. What was the last album you bought?
Marcus: Idiot Pilot/Wolves
Daniel: Sway “The Millia Pink and Green EP”
10. If you could rid the world of one song - what would it be?
Daniel: “You’re Beautiful” by James Blunt… the rhyming slang man.
Marcus: Chesney Hawkes - “I Am the one and only”.
Daniel: Ah see, that should have been my guilty pleasure. I like that song!
11. Who would play you in a film based upon your life?
Marcus: The fat guy from Full Monty.
Daniel: The fat guy called Monty from Withnail and I. (Laughs). “As a youth, I used to weep in butchers shops”.
12. Dead or alive. What 5 acts would you have play with you at a festival?
Daniel: The Blue Nile, Peter Gabriel, Harold Budd, Mojave 3, Cocteau Twins.
Marcus: James/Sigur Ros/Cocteau Twins/Slowdive/Simple Minds.
13. If push comes to shove, what is your all-time favourite album?
Daniel: Cocteau Twins Milk & Kisses.
Marcus: James Laid.
14. What’s your most memorable on the road story?
Daniel: Sniffing Yule Brenner’s noggin. No, I’ve not been on tour yet so I can’t really say. Although the time somebody on the street thought I was Daniel Bedingfield sticks in my mind. The horror. The horror.
15. If your life flashed before your eyes, what would be the highlights?
Daniel: My first three months in Manchester. Summer 2003 on Jersey with my friend Elly. One particularly amazing night in Mantos Breakfast Club in 2001. Meeting Brian Eno.
Marcus: Meeting Beck in Aussie.
16. What’s the best piece of advice someone has ever given you and did you take notice?
Daniel - Yes I certainly did. “Never trust a man who, when left alone in a room with a tea cosy, wouldn’t eventually try it on his head” - Billy Connolly. The man is a philosopher.
17. If you had to leave a body part to science, what would it be?
Marcus: Legs - because they are sexy lol.
Daniel: I am completely physically unremarkable, so I don’t think science would have me. Perhaps my brain could be used for one of those Frank commercials though - THIS IS WHAT DRINK DOES TO YOUR BRAIN. And then a shot of me like Father Jack going DRINK!…. DRINK!…. DRINK!…. DRINK!….
18. What’s the best book you’ve read and film you’ve seen in the last 6 months?
Daniel: Film - Scott Walker: 30 Century Man. Book - Robert Reich’s book about serving in the Clinton administration, “Locked In The Cabinet”.
Marcus: War of the Worlds - Loved it.
19. What three things could you not live without?
Daniel: Time alone. My Fender Jazzmaster. Radio 4.
Marcus: Music/Food/Sex.
20. Tell us a fact about yourself we probably don’t already know.
Daniel: My grandfather was a minor celebrity.
Marcus: I live in a caravan haha.

Links
Daniel Land [myspace]