Dinosaur Pile-Up Interview

Their debut album is full of awesome riffs, amazingly catchy melodies and a wonderful sense of 90's nostalgia. Turns out Dinosaur Pile-Up are also really nice, chatty and funny guys. Want to know what their favourite dinosaurs are? Keep reading!


“This tour has been a long time coming.”

So says Matt Bigland, frontman of Leeds’ rock trio Dinosaur Pile-Up. In the year the group have had off touring, Matt has recorded an album, recruited a new bassist and drummer, released two BBC Radio 1 playlisted singles and kept Pitzacano takeaway in business.“It’s rad to be out – especially as for us three as a band this is our first time. We’ve been practising the album for six months, going out of our minds,” he says. “There were some dark days, we were going nuts!”

“That’s my favourite thing about this tour,” adds bassist Harry. “It’s training.”

Released last month to murmured excitement and whispers of big things to come, the group’s debut Growing Pains is a set of straight-up Foos-esque no-nonsense rock’n’roll.
“It was rad to eventually get that out – again, it was a long time coming. It’s nice for people to hear the songs that we’ve been hearing for God knows how long,” explains Matt of the release. “It’s something I’ve wanted to do for a long time.”

After receiving heaps of praise from those who heard it, the band’s debut E.P. The Most Powerful E.P. In The Universe!! certainly gave Matt a pretty lofty bar to surpass, particularly as he went on to write and record the album solo.

“I put myself under a lot of pressure to make a rad record that I was happy with. If we’d put it out there and I wasn’t happy with any aspect of it, I’d have been heartbroken.”

“It’s a really unfashionable record,” Harry notes. “We weren’t going to change that to fit any kind of fashion, but we were very aware that we were going to release this record that’s a like a black sheep in a world of indie.”

Whilst recording was something Matt could achieve on his own, it still left the problem of finding two new musicians to join the band.

“I rang up Harry, and I said ‘Do you know anyone who can sing and play guitar?’ Harry was like ‘Well, I know one obvious person’, obviously meaning himself. But we were so freaking emotionally weird about it because we were mates,” laughs Matt.
“It was like when you’re friends with a girl and you sleep together and it gets weird. And there was a real weird tension about it,” grins Harry.
“We promised that it wouldn’t get weird, and I was like ‘OK, I’ll speak to you later’. Then for the next week we kept texting each other like ‘I know this is weird, but… I can’t stop thinking about it!” continues a now hysterical Matt.

After the challenges of recording alone and finding new band mates came a whole new set of trials – notably teaching Harry and new drummer Mike how to play the songs.
“I’d go to Matt’s, listen to the album, then play it, then go to work listening to it, come home from work, play it, eat pizza,” Harry recalls.
“I was stoked when I first heard the album, it was just like my drumming style. It was great – I really liked the record, otherwise I wouldn’t be here!” says Mike.

Between the three of them, how do they aim to recreate the absolutely huge sound present on the album recordings? Simple.

“We just use loads of massive amps!” Matt says. Like the one Doc Brown has in his flat at the start of Back To The Future?
“That’s what we were going for,” he laughs. “We watched that in the van the other day,” he says. “We got in the van and forgot all our DVDs, and when we opened the DVD player the only one we had was Back To The Future! It’s definitely one of the best films ever.”

Before leaving, I make sure to ask – which is each band members’ favourite dinosaur?
“I’m gonna throw this out there, try and be a bit alternative,” says Matt. “Either a brontosaurus-“
“There’s one bigger than that, a brachiosaurus,” Harry interjects as Mike adds “The herbivore”
“The fucking nightmare massive monster one!” Harry continues.
“And there’s the Triceratops,” remembers Matt.
“I didn’t used to like those as much,” Harry claims. “But when I grew up I realised they’re just fucking vicious!”
“Yeah, just like, ‘I’ll fuck you up’! I’m going with brachiosaurus,” Matt decides.
And Harry?
“My favourite’s the stegosaurus. When you think about stegosauruses, you think about the spines on its back, but you forget about that nightmare tail situation! That’s gonna fuck shit up!”
“It’s like a mace!” laughs Harry
And finally, Mike’s favourite?
“Definitely the velociraptor!”

Dinosaur Pile-Up’s debut album 'Growing Pains' is out now. Listen to it here on Spotify, or buy it here on Amazon. It is most definitely worth it!