Artist Spotlight
Adult DVD

Leeds has long been home to influential indie bands over the years, spawning bands such as Gang of Four, Kaiser Chiefs, The Cribs and alt-J. One of the bands we’ve been especially excited about this year is Adult DVD, who blend the edge of post-punk, dance-floor momentum and indie sensibilities into something playful, strange and impossible to stand still to.

We caught up with Adult DVD fresh from their debut at Austin’s SXSW festival, where late-night sets and mechanical bull rides marked their first run of shows in the United States. With a debut album in the works and a growing reputation for turning rooms into sweaty dance parties, the Leeds collective feels like a band who are stepping into a bigger moment, one pulsing synth line at a time. Pop on their music and read the interview to follow.

For someone discovering Adult DVD for the first time, how would you best describe your music?

Don’t overthink it; if you want something deep and thought-provoking, it’s not that. It’s for people who just wanna have a good time. 

The band came together during COVID lockdowns, which feels like a very common origin story with a lot of the bands we’ve interviewed recently. What do you remember most about those early days of sharing ideas remotely? What lit the fire? 

It was quite refreshing to write music without thinking about playing it live, because at the time we had no idea when that would be.

There was just no rush on anything, so we could focus on the music, which came at a good time 'cause we were new to playing synths. But I am glad it’s over, it’s much better now.

Over time you’ve grown into a six-piece band with a lot happening sonically, especially with multiple synths. Did the band always feel destined to be this big, or did it evolve organically?

This goes back to writing music over lockdown. As good as it was just thinking about the songs and not playing them in a live setting, we did shoot ourselves in the foot with how many synths we were putting on stuff, but it worked.

And even with the songs now, all the synths / 6 people are necessary. Otherwise, we’d have to use a laptop live. And we’ve always said no laptops on stage, someone would step on it or something.

What’s the weirdest idea or image that’s ever made its way into one of your lyrics?

All the songs are pretty weird lyrically; they are just made-up stories. But the new album is especially full of strange imagery and lyrics. You’ll see what I mean when it’s out. I hope people have the same mental image of the characters as I do. Otherwise, they might think we’ve lost the plot. 

Were there any particular artists or records that shaped the idea of blending indie rock energy with dance-floor rhythms?

As there are quite a few of us, we naturally listen to a lot of different music individually. So the blend kind of came from that. We wanted to keep the ‘guitar band’ element, cause it was familiar to us whilst we started to explore the dance music side. For example, Jonny listens to a lot of hip hop, and I think you can hear that in his drum style on our tunes. And Greg is really into punk and hardcore, which he brings to the writing process. That was a long winded way of saying yes, there are a lot of different artists that have influenced our sound. 

I was lucky enough to catch your set at Swan Dive for SXSW in March. The show felt closer to a dance floor than a traditional rock show. What’s the key to getting a crowd moving like that?

Playing late! Everyone’s past caring, trying to look cool at that point, so they are more likely to get into it. Either that or they go home, and the real ones are left. Swan Dive at 1AM was a perfect example of that. Thanks for coming by the way.