A punk show and an acid rave: two scenes where, in the dark of night, your face can feel like it's melting off your face from the vibrations of the room. The Leeds synth-punk band Adult DVD exist in a space that forces both shows to play at once, maintaining the highest energy possible by clashing three synth lines with a big, beating heart of the drum, the tremor of electric bass, and layers of hard guitars.

Adult DVD — initially founded by Harry Hanson (vocals/lyrics) and Greg Lonsdale (synths/lyrics/vocals), but which now includes Danny Blackburn (production/synths/guitar), Jake Williams (synths), Jonathan Newell (drums), and George Manson (bass) — emerged in the early 2020s, first sharing electroclash-seasoned punk rock songs before remixing them for the club. The split-nature of their sonic identity came mostly from a seasoned guitar-led punk rock group's curiosity for synths and dance music, which only a few members knew enough about at the time of formation.

Now on their self-titled debut, out today via Fat Possum, the Leeds band have planted both poles firmly into the ground and included everything in between in their music. Intricate acid house break downs, buzzy electroclash melodies, intense techno punk ragers: anything and everything gets folded in the framework of an album that, as described by the band, is also about anything and everything.

"It's just... a fucking horrible mix that seems to work for us," says Hanson, who spoke with me earlier this month about the bombastic, chaotic character of Adult DVD. Lyrics that portray everyday people spiraling into a tech-induced madness, a sequencing structure that mirrors an endless night partying at both the mosh pit and the dance floor: the album is a true flash of the group's neon personality. In our chat, Hanson gives a tour of his favorite things folded into the mix.

This interview had been edited for clarity and length.

Victoria @ The Needle Drop: One thing that I was really interested in is that you guys have, from the beginning, very much owned this identity of both dance music and punk music. Could you talk more about the dance aspect of it — the electronica and the synthwave — and how you came into that scene and used it in your music?

Harry Hanson: When we started the band — me and Greg [Lonsdale] — we were both getting into dance music, so we were almost discovering that together, which was nice. We both come from guitar bands and were always listening to guitar music, so it was nice to get into something different. We threw ourselves into the deep end, really; we started listening to as much dance music as possible but also tried to make it accessible. We were comfortable with writing songs with guitars and drums, and we didn't ever want to leave out that aspect because… Well, my favorite thing in the world is guitar music. As much as I love watching a DJ play a show, I think there's nothing better in the world than going and watching a band with a loud drum kit and artists screaming at you in a tiny venue. With that being said, we were also delving more into Chemical Brothers, Soulwax. They still have that indie element going on. Now we've gone out of our comfort zone and listened to loads of footwork, and Greg loves techno. From the start, it was very much punk as a safety net for dance music.

Towards the end of the album — especially the song "Ghillie Suit,” which is just a big, loud, acid house number — I was wondering if you could talk about the moments where you go out of your comfort zone to contrast the guitar, more traditional punk music that's at the beginning.

The album runs how we do it live. A live set has the same sequencing order, really: it starts off with the more guitar-y tunes, and then before you know it, you're into a full-on club night. I think that's what we wanted to do in the album. The way I imagine it is that it starts at about 7 pm; everyone's a bit awkward getting the first drink. After what feels like 39, 40 minutes, it’s suddenly then 3 am, and you're straight into club mode. We wanted to capture both elements for sure.

I find that interesting because the story you’ve crafted lyrically within the album portrays how people can just become bored and horrible really easily. But, it’s all set to this very anxious BPM. How did you want to explore the contrast between the two and, by complementing lyrics about regular life with hyper-bizarre synths, essentially make boredom fun?

That’s something we've always done in this band but not in others. None of the lyrics are written from our point of view or about any of us. It's all made up stories. Which is partly because it's the best business plan ever: we'll never run out of ideas, and we don't have to go for anything traumatic. Secondly, we're not very confrontational people, so you can actually slag people off, and they'll never know because you’re actually singing about a made-up character.

But also, I think it's just a fun way of writing. After the EP that we did before this album, we saw the reception was good, and I realized that people were into the more out-there tunes. Because Greg and I write the lyrics, we were like, “Well, why don't we just double down on it and just go stupid as we can on the record?” I mean, there are some lyrics in the record where I'm like, “Fuck me! I can't believe that actually made it onto the album!” But I'm happy it did in hindsight.

To contrast it to the music, I think it goes back to what I was saying about the safety net of guitar music. As much as I love dance music, I do love big choruses, and I love sing-along moments, and you don't get that a lot in dance music. It's a lot of repetition, and it's all about focusing on a little hook. I think we want to make the most intense dance music we can but also have the song element of having lyrics. And I think by doing that, you can write stories. I hate the word "fusion," but it is just like… a fucking horrible mix that seems to work for us.

Why do you hate the word fusion?

I don't know. It just sounds really lame.

Real. I feel like it's one of those words people throw around a lot.

No one really knows what it means, and everyone's just like yeah, fusion… What??

When you think about it, that's just kind of how music is when you’re the one composing it. It’s just a combination of everything that you like.

Yeah, exactly! And especially because there are six people in the band, we're trying to please everyone here, so I think that's why the music's got everything in it.

How does that dynamic work with six people, especially because a lot of you guys are working on synths. Like, the band has at least three people on synths, and then you have the drum, bass, guitar, and vocals. What is the process like of coming together and writing these big numbers?

We have a really weird way of making music. We've never actually been in a room altogether and written a song before. We do it in twos; I've got a little home setup. Jake [Williams] has one, and Danny [Blackburn] has one, and we pair off and then send that Logic session around. It’s all MIDI drums at that point, and then when we go in the studio, the track's already kind of done, but we make sure to put the real drums on, re-record the vocals, and somehow learn the songs in a practice room. It's like we're like cover band, essentially, because it's not like we've written the song in a room together. It's like karaoke, I guess. So yeah, we do it in a really weird way. I don't know if we'll always do that, but it works for us for now.

I wanted to go back into the EPs for a bit because I feel like there's a clear through-line between, for example, the song “Bill Murray” where you confuse the actor with Tom Hanks, and “Real Tree Lee” where allegedly it's about someone that you guys know and owned a bunch of guns. How do you take these really stupid or everyday human scenarios and draw something from that and be like, “This is interesting for a song. We're gonna put a sick beat to this!”

I've only realized this in that last week that Greg and I kind of share a brain in the sense that they seem to work like sketch shows. We go to the pub or whatever, and we're just watching. And I know that he's thinking, “Imagine if this thing happened!” and I'm thinking the same thing. Because of that, we just bounce off each other. We both have notes in our phones that honestly, I probably need to organize into sections because they look insane. But it's just stuff that I hear, read, and see, and I'm just I'm just writing stuff down all the time. When it comes to writing lyrics, we're just like, “Let's pull all that in.”

I mean, people are interesting and strange.

Yeah well, that's it! Do you know my favorite thing about going on holiday? I’m sat in a café or park with sunglasses where people can't see my eyes, and I'm watching people. I just love it. I could do that for three weeks or so.

When it comes to structuring the album as a night out, especially as it’s modeled after a live show, how did your own experience of growing as a live band shape your songwriting, composition, lyric writing, and kind of who you wanted to become in the studio?

I don't think the album would sound the way it does if we didn't play so much. Our favorite bit of being a band is being on tour and playing shows, and I think we wanted the album to reflect that. It’s that high energy and the feeling of having a crowd going nuts at gigs — that’s our favorite thing. Touring all the time meant that we could try loads of songs for the album live, and if they felt a bit flat, or they didn't feel good to us, they didn't make the record. That's a good way of testing stuff, at least to me.

What was the perspective of building that crowd, playing to a lot of people, and getting fans from places that you wouldn't expect?

Yeah, we’ve been very lucky. Especially this year, it's been fucking nuts, man. I mean, we did SXSW…

I heard a lot about the SXSW show! Reading the reviews about your set was how I tuned into you guys, actually.

Oh, really? Well, we turned up a day later than planned because our flight got canceled, so we actually missed two of the shows. I'm glad we made up for it, though!

We'd obviously like to play as much as we can and see as much as we can. And I definitely think that comes into the songwriting as well, because we’re just exposed to so much more. Especially for me, the people watching thing is great; I'm literally getting paid to people watch, so it's the dream.

Aside from going big on the live shows and creating an intense sound with the combinations of punk kit and synth boards, how have you come to the point of changing your mind about guitar music or growing to love it in a different way?

Yeah, I've actually gone the total opposite way now. I loved guitar music, then we started Adult DVD, and I hated guitar music and just wanted to listen to synths and pounding drums. Now I just fucking love guitar music again, and that's all I'm listening to.

It’s quite refreshing, isn't it, to go back to stuff? I was saying this to someone earlier: I'm in a position now where I have a lot more time to listen to a lot of music, which is great. I'm also just trying to listen to as much music as I can, which has been really fun — whether that's guitar based or not, I’m finding it really inspiring. I'm trying to listen to at least thirty new songs a day, which is my challenge at the minute. I'm failing quite hard, but when I do it, it's great.

Okay, why that number?

I felt like fifty was a lot, and then twenty didn't feel like enough. Honestly, I just spend my days just going on Spotify and clicking on the ‘Similar Artists’ tab; I also like going to record shops and getting recommendations from people. Mostly I feel like I grew up listening to the same shit, and then I got into dance music, and that was really eye opening. But then, dance music — it goes back to what I was saying earlier. Dance music can only go so far for me; I love it, but I do get bored of it eventually. I need the more human feel.

When it comes to that “human feel” specifically, what do you mean by that?

A drummer, a live drummer. A real rhythm section. I think of the electric bass and the real drum kit, not the machine. I mean, obviously it works for other stuff, but I think for us… Going back to I was saying  earlier —how we write songs when we put the drums on last —when Johnny puts his drums on, I'm like, “Ah, that's the Adult DVD track!” That’s what completes it. He’s just got a way of playing that feels really authentic to us. The drums are so important.

Even though it's a very small part of the album (it’s an interlude), I still was curious to know more about “The Steaks Are High.” It’s so strange. Why is it there?

It is really weird, isn't it? It features Denim [Casimir] from TVOD. Do you know the band TVOD? They're from New York.

Yeah, they're sick!

Yeah, the announcer voice on the song is Denim from that band; we made friends with TVOD while on tour.

I think because it's our first record, I knew I wanted to put little bits in there. And because of the whole thing where it goes from the more guitar side to the more club side, I thought, “Well, why don't we just put something in the middle that solidifies that?” I always think of an album as if I was going to listen to it on a record player at home, and it's like “Steaks” is the end of side A before we have to switch off the turntable, flip the record, and listen to side B.

I had a similar idea with “Ghillie Suit”: we put that in because the album's so lyric heavy, and I don't shut up for most of the album. We wanted to put “Ghillie Suit” in there as a little ear break. But what happened is that, as much as it is an ear break from my speaking, it's one of the most intense ones. So it kind of didn't work, but also works. The lyric bit that goes, “He says he was a bad boy” is from “Real Tree Lee.” We made it to be a remix of that on the album before it plays, sort of as an intro to it. It's kind of odd.

With “Ghillie Suit” I understand what you mean by it being an “ear break” because it is the acid house number, but it also kicks off the very last section of the record where you end with “Rolling Face,” which is also simply one of the most intense songs of the year, in my opinion. I’d like to know more about that giant finale and the adrenaline that runs through it. What kind of vibe were you trying to cultivate with such — and I mean this in the best way possible — obnoxious finale?

Unless you knew us personally, you probably wouldn't realize it, but I can see the different personalities of the band throughout the record. Like the start of it is very much Danny and me, and then Greg's kind of across it all. But then the backend is Jake [Williams], and he's the synth guy who loves straight up intense dance music. He's a fucking genius, so the last three tracks on the album are Jake's babies, essentially. He wrote the majority of them all himself and then sent them to me. He was like, "Have you got any lyrics for this?” Weirdly, even being so comfortable in doing guitar music and writing, it’s harder for me to write melodies and choruses, but the last half of the record felt way easier to do the words for. Like as soon as he sent me “Rolling Face,” I was like, "I need to be really talking.” The idea of a guy that works in recruitment and loses his mind in a casino seemed to fit that. But I don't know where that idea came from. I think I just started saying loads of words, and then the story started.

A lot of the record is character studies of insane people, or people who aren't good. They're not real, and they're not necessarily drawn from personal interactions, you are also intentional with the humor of it, making sure that it's not too serious. I was wondering what the purpose of humor is, and how you feel more drawn to it than being a bit more direct with your writing.

I think it really does just boil down to the band as individuals. We look for the fun side of things all the time. It’d be weird to write music that was really serious and then come off stage or out of the studio and then be having a laugh. It feels like you're putting it on a bit. But I mean, the best songs are the most serious ones, and people do it really well. But for us as people, we don't take very thing very seriously. That’s definitely just a natural thing that we gravitate toward when we're writing lyrics.

Adult DVD's debut self-titled album is out today via Fat Possum. Stream it here. The band are currently on tour in Europe and The UK; tickets are available now.

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