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Dexeter

Ten minutes with Dexeter

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Introduce yourself / Band

Hi! We are 8 piece Leicester-ish based American Country band Dexeter! We are Deeanne, Gareth, Paul, Jim, Mad Party Pete, Sizzlin’ Pete, Rachel and Corrine.

How did you get into country music?

(Gareth) It was an accidental journey initially, I was really into rock and metal music but when I was 14 I heard The Thunder Rolls by Garth Brooks for the first time on the radio and fell in love with that.

I bought a Garth Brooks greatest hits album and discovered The Dance and Standing Outside The Fire and I was hooked. Country music was a dirty secret for me for a long time after that, but it kept coming back to the surface and here we are 23 years later!

How would you describe your sound?

(Gareth) Our sound… well, I think I would describe it as modern country for sure, we write the songs in a pretty poppy style, then add the double bass and the accordion, the pedal steel and the four part harmonies to give it a country kick. We write about real things, in a fairly British way I think, things that people can relate to – relationships, heartbreak, dreaming big, having to go to work, etc… a lot of the references are from this side of the Atlantic – I always get a little uncomfortable when British acts use overtly American references out of context, like driving their pickup trucks to whiskey bars, etc, so I try to avoid it – we have plenty enough to sing about here for sure, and I think it allows UK country to have a bit of an identity that sets it apart from our American cousins.

What is your favourite country music song?

To Listen to (and why)

(Gareth) Ah man, this changes ALL of the time and depends on my mood. At the moment I am listening to Frankie Ballard, Eric Paslay, and Lee Brice, but at a push I keep coming back to a few songs: Lee Brice – That’s When You Know It’s Over, Tim McGraw – Live Like You Were Dying, Keith Urban – Once In A Lifetime and Brad Paisley – Then. I will have changed my mind by tomorrow, and again the next day.

To Perform (and why)

(Gareth) For ours, it’s probably Tired Of Being Tired, we always kick the show off with it, love the harmonies that open the tune and it’s a proper foot stomping anthem. Though we are just getting a new song ready to record called Meet Me There – I think that is going to surprise a lot of people. We do some covers though, and tend to play one for a couple of shows and then get rid of it, for some reason If I Die Young by Band Perry has survived longer than most and love playing that one.

Who would be your dream collaboration? (Gareth)

From my perspective it would be a collaboration as a writer rather than as a performer I think and there are so many to choose from. I’m not going to tell you I wouldn’t want to write with Keith Urban, because who would turn that down? But, I’d love to work with one or two UK based writers who are inspiring me at the moment.

If we came to a Dexeter gig, what should we expect?

(Gareth) Lots of hugs and smiles for a start as we are a happy little bunch. I would be disappointed if you came away without a melody or two in your head. We like to laugh and have fun on stage and involve the audience in that. One or two people on the UK scene take themselves very seriously and whilst we take our music seriously, and work hard on getting it right, we want our audiences to have a lot of fun too.

Whats newwith Dexeter?

(Gareth) Lots! We have just taken on two new people into the fold – a pedal steel player and another backing singer to fill out our big harmonies. We recently got funded on pledgemusic for our new album and start recording that on November 22nd – CANNOT WAIT!

It can still be preordered here: http://www.pledgemusic.com/projects/dexeternewalbum/ and we are looking forward to getting that out to people in March.

We are opening for The Shires and Ward Thomas on the first date of their Homegrown tour too, which is lovely – we have a few shows lined up and some nice festival slots and hopefully C2C will want us to come back and play again too. Tons of plans in the pipeline, but I think putting out a great album needs to be a priority to prove to people that we can consistently make good country music. I think 2015 could potentially be quite an exciting year for us.

Where can fans find out more about you?

Come to show and ask us anything!

In the meantime we are here:

Website – www.dexeterband.co.uk

Twitter – twitter.com/dexeterband

Facebook – facebook.com/dexeterband

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Annette Gibbons
Hi, I’m Annette, I have been a huge country music fan since the early 90s those were the days we were lucky enough to have CMT in the UK. I enjoy nothing more than listening to country music whilst having a cold beer (or a moonshine) with friends. I try to as many gigs as I can here in the UK and in the USA; I think of Nashville as my second home and I am lucky to have made some amazing friends in Tennessee. Think Country is something I am very proud of, I just want to share my love and passion of all things country music related with you all.
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