Dane Rumble made some noise with his first solo singles, 'Always Be Here' and 'Don't Know What To Do'. And as Charlotte Cowan finds out, there's plenty more to come.
Since releasing his first solo singles in 2009, life has been busy for former Fast Crew founder Dane Rumble. He's been signed with Warner Music, is finishing his debut solo album, has a summer tour planned, and a jewellery range to design. Yet Dane is one cool, calm and collected Kiwi boy, loving hisnew-found freedom and ready to take his rap-rock-pop sound to the world.
On day jobs...
"I've given up one of my day jobs because I was really struggling to finish this album. So I had to pull doing graphic design work for a while, but I'm still running Culet which is a jewellery business that Scott [Nicols] and I own."
On his Jewellery label, Culet...
"I've known Scott for years, and at the beginning of last year I wanted to design a silver pendant for my girlfriend so I spoke to him about it. Because I'm also into design and understand the processes he had to undergo to make the piece, I found it really fascinating. He was working for another company at the
time and was talking about leaving and starting his own business – I think within a day I decided 'yep, let's do it together, man'. So at the beginning of this year I jumped on-board and we've been going
hard since then. Things are ticking along quite nicely, and it's another creative outlet for me."
On his new album...
"It's scheduled for release in the first week of March which seems a long time away, but isn't really, especially considering I'm touring [with the Coke Summer Tour] all summer. So I'm just going to go hard from now until then, but I still don't know what it's going to be called! If anyone has a gnarly name that they think will work, feel free to send it to me on Facebook, Twitter or MySpace because I'm really open for suggestions. If something pops up that's great, I'm going to use it!"
On Christmas and NYE...
"Christmas Day will be one of the only days I'll have off over the summer period. I'll go out west [Auckland] to my mum's house in Sunnyvale. Usually me, my brothers and parents just hang out and
have a chilled Christmas Day. On New Year's Eve we're playing in Matakana but we're also doing Rhythm and Vines [in Gisborne] on the 30 December – so there's a bit of travelling, but you get that."
On travelling with the band...
"I'm going to be with all the boys [band members Ben White, Alistair Wood and brother Josh Rumble] so it should be good fun. But my girl's busy at work so when she gets those two weeks off, she wants to relax, she doesn't want to be racing around with a bunch of idiots."
On his most embarrassing moment...
"I vividly remember at primary school, when I was about 7 or 8, we were playing this game called
Gutter Board during Friday lunchtime. Later in the afternoon we had water sports, so I was wearing my togs with no undies. Anyway, this big school bully dude came up and whipped my pants down while I was playing. I had my penis and bum hanging out, and I was surrounded by heaps of girls I had crushes on. It was just shameful. I remember thinking 'man this has got to be the worst day of my life.' So all my classmates saw my wang. Yeah, I was pretty gutted about that."
On good mates...
"I've got some pretty tight friends and they're all from school days. I went to St Peters [in Auckland] and I think high school is where you build most of those solid friendships – St Peters was that for me. I've
probably got about 10 best buddies and we always catch up, have beers and hang out."
On who he'd like to jam with...
"I would love to be with Jimi Hendrix in a jam session! I'd teach him the intro to 'Hey Joe' (that's all I know) and let him take it from there. I'd also want to play tambourine for Led Zeppelin in the '70s ... oh, and imagine hanging around Beethoven when he's jamming on the piano? That would be sweet."
On his all-time favourite song...
"'Over The Hills And Far Away' by Led Zeppelin or 'Back In Black' by AC/DC. I've actually got stacks of all-time favourite songs. One more is 'Know Your Enemy' by Rage Against The Machine, it's so mean!"
On what we don't know about him...
"I used to be New Zealand's top signwriting apprentice; I played drums for a church band; I have a dog called Rocky."
On his fashion favourites...
"My Culet sterling silver bullet pendant and my Federation leather jacket – I wear it everywhere."
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