We caught up with Dive Bella Dive to talk about their debut single 'Spend The Night Living' and to also find out what the band have planned for the future.

First of all can you give us a brief history of the band such as how you came together and came up with the name Dive Bella Dive?
Barnaby: The band started as an idea between Dan and I before it actually came to fruition. The two of us met on a T.V show called Orange Unsigned Act. I was constantly arguing with my current project and Dan was looking for someone else to write with. We started sending each other Logic files (song ideas) through the internet whilst looking for other potential members. From the start, we knew we wanted to construct a band with multiple songwriters. After a month or two, we stumbled across Sam on myspace and fell in love with his music. As it happened he wrote on Logic studios too and so we sent him everything we had written so far and began to get a grasp on our sound. All that was left to add was a drummer. And so it was that we set about the task of stealing our friend Ben from his band (not our proudest moment but well worth the bad karma). Thus, Dive Bella Dive finally came to be.

As for the name, we simply liked the juxtaposition between Dive (something horrible) and Bella (Italian for beautiful). Not much of a story...

Who would you say your main musical influences are?
Dan: Somebody described us as "The children of The Cure and The Clash" but we all listen to such different music, somedays we'll vibe to some 90's hip hop, then we'll have some nice free form jazz. But the influences change with every new song, it's just whatever that particular song needs. The songs are bigger than the band, they all have their own space in the world, we're just the canon they're fired from.

Your current song ‘Spend The Night Living’ is a catchy fast paced number how did you find writing and recording the track?
Dan: We wrote the song when we first moved to London, there was a buzz in the house. We recorded it all in our bedrooms over the space of a week or so, fitting in vocal takes and overdubs hungover, between big nights out in London. We were mad to 'live' so we wrote a song about it. Spend the night living.

You have just released ‘Spend The Night Living’ as a free download, what was the idea behind this and what has the response been so far?
Ben: The idea behind releasing the first single this way was to get the single out to as many people as possible and spread the word! Everyone likes free stuff! And while we've been on tour we've played to tons of new people and it's a great way to get them involved or interested in the band!

The video for ‘Spend The Night Living’ is extremely energetic and looks like a lot of fun how long did it take to shoot and was it as fun as it se ems?
Dan: The whole shoot took 2 days, the first day was spent in an abandoned warehouse in East London, the floors were caked with 40 years of pigeon crap, and we kept falling over in it. Halfway through the shoot, bits of glass started flying, we quickl y realised that people were shooting at us (with real guns) through the windows, I nearly cried with fear. The directors looked worried because we were behind schedule so we had to just carry on, literally dodging bullets whilst we played. If you look clos e enough, I look terrified in most of the shots. The next night we had a gig in Skegness, so we drove up in our riot van, and shot the rest on the beach after we played. It was a really fun shoot, all the editing, directing, lighting was done by our best f riends. So we pretty much had a 2 day party and ended up with a music video!

Are you currently working on material for a debut EP or album, if so what can you tell us about it so far?
Sammy: We’ve spent the last year working and recording the album with our producer, eagerly awaiting its completion, but its quite funny because in the time of us working on it and finishing those songs we managed to write a lot more material in our bedrooms and recorded new demos, so the music has turned into a big morpheus blob! So we cannot wait to get the album out so we can start firing out songs like golden diarrhoea.

You have announced your first ever headline show for the Barfly in London on the 13th May, what can we expect from this show and your live shows in gener al?
Barnaby: The live shows are definitely our favourite aspect of being in a band. We've always had visions of elaborate and theatrical performances - it's important to give people a reason to come to your gigs. You can listen to music at home, but it's quite different to fully immerse yourself in a physical experience. People should expect to be cajoled into a spasm of high energy sing alongs as we romp around a stageful of bizarre props and musical inventions.

Where do you hope to see Dive Bella Dive in a year’s time?
Ben: It'd be awesome to be doing exactly what we're doing now, writing and performing music but on an ever growing stage!! We'll probably be in court being sued by our landlord for the damages we've done to his house!

One last random question that we ask every band, if you could be an animal out of a zebra or Giraffe which one would you be and why?
Sammy: At first Glance I didn’t think this question carried much weight, then it plagued my mind for a while so I had to answer it correctly. I would choose a Giraffe purely on the basis that they have better dance moves… Zebra swag is overrated. Also Giraffes have more stomachs so more honey for the money really, I would be able to eat anything from a mouse to a plane, I could spit at tar gets 50 paces away, I could bend down and pretend I'm a camel, I could peak on Margaret Thatcher getting changed in the open cubicles at Brighton beach…. and the list goes on.

Thanks for your time is there a message for your fans reading this?
Spend the night living.

Interview by Trigger