The Stanleys
TALKING POWER POP WITH THE STANLEYS
Based in Perth, Western Australia, power pop outfit The Stanleys recently released their wildly innovative music video for “Everybody Dance,” a contemporary visual compilation seemingly inspired by the movies Roller Ball and Bay City Bomber, and Sir Walter Scott’s Ivanhoe.
The Stanleys | Photo: Rachael Barrett
Made up of Mark Di Renzo (lead vocals, bass, keyboards) and Jamie Horsburgh (guitar, vocals), along with the talents of Tomas Dahl (drums, guitar, vocals) in the studio, and John Di Renzo (guitar, vocals) in live performances, as well as the production gifts of Michael Carpenter, and Ken Stringfellow of The Posies, The Stanleys pump out pure power pop, the kind that puts a smile on your face.
Rawckus sat down with The Stanleys to find out more about what makes potent power pop and, frankly, to ask who came up with the brilliant idea of hoverboard jousting.
How would you describe yourself?
The Stanleys are a super-charged summery, new wave, power pop band.
What is the most trouble you’ve ever gotten into?
We once got a gig closed down for playing too loud at a college show. We were playing right outside the entrance of a library so we knew we were in trouble from the start!
What’s your favorite song to belt out in the car or the shower?
That differs all the time but “Bohemian Rhapsody” has certainly been given some airtime recently.
What musicians influenced you the most?
I always find this a very difficult question to answer because there are so many artists that in some way touch you musically along the way and too many to mention. Perhaps to name a few we could say the Beatles, Cheap Trick, the Ramones, Fountains of Wayne, Hoodoo Gurus and Perth’s own DM3.
How, if at all, do your musical influences shape and impact your music?
I think that fantastic music and the way it makes you feel really does inspire you to create your own music and hopefully you can give “that feeling” to other listeners.
How did you get started in music? What’s the backstory there?
I guess you could say music was in my blood and I grew up around music so it was unavoidable … but a very good unavoidable! My grandfather, Giovanni (on my dad’s side), played bugle in the Italian army in the Second World War. My dad, Charlie, built his first guitar when he was 16 and still plays a little guitar but more keyboards now. He ran a music business for many years with music studios, his own brand of speaker enclosures (which I use – Di Renzo Custom Sound), road cases, etc., and at the age of 74 he still is active in some of the aforementioned activities. My older brother John plays guitar and has been a member of the Stanleys live band since our first-ever show.
I started on piano as a kid but to this day only really dabble in the playing of black and white keys. I played and sang in school bands in primary school and graduated to the real stuff in senior school but only took up bass guitar when I got to university. I put out my first original music single release when I was 17 in my first year of University.
How does one go about writing power pop? What’s your writing process?
When writing power pop I think there’s 3 essential ingredients – catchy melodies, lush harmonies and crunchy guitars.
The most important rule of the writing process is there are no rules – let the songs come out naturally and let everyone throw some ingredients in and toss the musical salad.
Where did the name The Stanleys come from?
I’m a little rusty as to how we got to the final decision right now but I know I felt The Stanleys sounded very power pop which we are all about and there are a couple of KISS fans amongst us so there’s got to be some Paul Stanley in the mix!
The most important rule of the writing process is there are no rules – let the songs come out naturally and let everyone throw some ingredients in and toss the musical salad.
How did you hook up with Ken Stringfellow and Michael Carpenter?
I’ve been quite a fan of Ken’s work over the years, he liked The Stanleys early demos and invited me to stay at his apartment in Paris to work on a couple of songs when our schedules allowed. It was a great excuse to jump on a plane and pick up a few production tips. It was an absolute pleasure working with him and great to see another side of Paris through the eyes of someone who actually lives there. I almost felt like a local
And as for Michael Carpenter, he invited my previous band Gigantic to play on a travelling Australian Power Pop festival many years ago. He was a great power pop mentor to me in my earlier days especially in regard to international touring. Michael contributed all the awesome layered backing vocals on “Everybody Dance!”
The video for “Everybody Dance” is totally cool! How did you come up with the idea for the visuals, which seem to channel Don Quixote and Roller Ball?
Thank you!! I can’t take too much of the credit for our very cool video but really have to shoot that across to our fantastic Director/ Producer Johnny Ma (also from Perth Australia) together with the team at 2D Films. Johnny actually imported a stack of hoverboards from China as a business idea but this didn’t quite go to plan when he found out there was a manufacturer’s error with some batteries exploding. He’s being looking to do something with the hoverboards for a long time and we all really wanted to create something a little angsty and edgy but super fun and importantly visually exciting. I’m really happy with how it turned out.
What’s next for The Stanleys? Will you be touring?
We’ve begun work on some new tunes and we’re in talks with a Japanese label about a possible release so we’ll see what happens there. We will tour next year. I think we’ll be back to the US and Europe and if we can fit in Japan or anywhere else into the mix all the better!
