Mojo - The Music Magazine

"The application of wit and humour will scupper the presumptuous and pious values of the establishment," states David Johansen after MOJO asks the New York Dolls singer to sum up the everlasting appeal of this most timeless of bands. Not quite the stock 'still rocking' answer, but the dryly eloquent Johansen has come a long way since the flamboyant, Jagger-pouting motor-mouth who fronted the first incarnation of the band nearly 40 years ago.

In 2010, original members Johansen and Sylvain Sylvain still retain that reckless spirit - originally sparked in a midtown cycle shop in 1971 and boosted since the Dolls regrouped in 2004 for Morrissey's Meltdown.

"When we got back together I just thought we were going to do the one gig," drawls Johansen as the band prepare for their upcoming London show at Koko on April 19. "We just got together to do [Morrissey's] gig but then kept getting asked to do more. We kept doing them and it was like a year, then nobody was doing anything else any more so it was like, 'Let's face it, we're doing this'. It wasn't like we had some kind of plan."

The Dolls are returning to active road duty after a spell pursuing individual projects, including Steve Conte's solo album, Sylvain's collaboration with former Dead Boy Cheetah Chrome and Johansen's gigging around New York ("Sometimes with a band, sometimes just with Brian Koonin on guitar. I do pretty much anything, just singing..."). He also still hosts his David Johansen's Mansion Of Fun radio show on Sirius XM.

"Everybody's been doing their own thing and now we're gearing up again," he says with some pleasure. "It's kind of like a fraternity now. We just get together and everybody knows what to do. We just get on stage and it's really enjoyable."

Last year saw the Dolls break with tradition and record away from New York for the first time, holing up at Todd Rundgren's studio on the Hawaiian island of Kauai. Against these idyllic surroundings, Rundgren produced the sparkling mix of Dolls-style turbo-blues and rooftop ballads which grace Cause I Sez So - the second album from the current line-up of Johansen, Sylvain, Conte [guitar], Sami Yaffa [bass], Brian Koonin [keyboards] and Brian Delaney [drums].

This was a vastly different scenario from the endless party in which Rundgren produced the group's epochal 1973 debut: "We were kids on St Marks Place, then going to the studio like a circus parade," he remembers. "People were asking where we were going; 'We're going to make a record, come with us!' It'd be like a bacchanal with 50 people in the studio. There weren't any distractions with this one. It was beautiful there. It's nice when you're looking out and there's whales cavorting in the bay.

"We made the album really fast. With Todd it was good because he really just documented the band. He wasn't trying to make it something that it's not. We only took in a couple of files; Todd said, 'Oh man, come on!' It's then you just got to use your imagination.

"For me, it's the best way to work. It's a rock 'n' roll record. It's not something to be laboured. You look at these bands that have a record that sells five million or whatever. I would imagine that's paralysing by the time you have to make another one but we just get together and say, 'Let's see what we got', and that's what it is. It's not like we're thinking we've got to do something different. I don't want to be running around all neurotic. I just want to play, so we don't agonise over it. It's, 'Okay, lets make some songs and record 'em'."

"To us making a record is really like an entry to playing live. We have to make a record so we get to play live again for another 18 months or whatever. That's what we love to do. If we can't play it's like a retriever without a frisbee. We just start walking into walls and stuff. For me, it's a lot less responsibility so I like it. Once we're on the road and things are semi-organised then we have an idea how the day's gonna go. We need a little structure in our lives!"

"The Dolls is really very free. Its a rock 'n' roll show. That's the fun of it. We get together, start to levitate and a lot of people come along with us."

Kris Needs

Photo: Victor Frankowski
 
New York Dolls play their only UK show of their European tour at London's Koko on April 19. Tickets: 08700 603 777 / www.aloud.com.