Twenty-five years into their gloriously outrageous career, The Darkness remain refreshingly unburdened by the weight of expectation or the creeping solemnity that often afflicts veteran rock acts. On their latest album, Dreams on Toast, the British rock quartet has delivered what bassist Frankie Poullain describes as their most eclectic work yet—a schizophrenic sonic journey that careens from stripped-down country to 1980s Mötley Crüe-inspired anthems with gleeful abandon.
“Yeah, we like to challenge each other, challenge ourselves. And most of our albums are characterized by their eclecticism. But this one, I think, is the most eclectic. It’s almost like schizophrenic, really, in the way it’s one minute is kind of stripped down kind of country. And then the next minute, it’s kind of like 1980s Mötley Crüe, like Rock n Roll Party Cowboy. In fact, I think Rock n Roll Party Cowboy, it almost sounds like an AI-generated rock song. I think that’s kind of maybe the joke,” Poullain explains with characteristic wit.
The album’s ambitious scope reflects a band still eager to push boundaries well into their third decade. Tracks like “The Longest Kiss” showcase their songwriter-y ambitions, while “Weekend in Rome” ventures into cinematic territory reminiscent of European arthouse cinema. “The Longest Kiss is quite musical and quite ambitious. That’s more a songwriter-y thing. So that was a challenge, to do something that was very songwriter-y. And then on the other end of the spectrum, Weekend in Rome is cinematic. That’s the first time we’ve really gone into a cinematic mode. It’s almost like European kind of art house Italian cinema kind of thing. And the voiceovers make me laugh because they’re like something out of a Woody Allen film or something, you know, this kind of ironic voiceover that was done by the actor Stephen Dorff.”
For Poullain, whose French surname translates to “baby horse” or “foal,” the band’s enduring playfulness stems from a deliberate embrace of childlike wonder. It’s a quality he attributes primarily to frontman Justin Hawkins, whose theatrical stage presence and soaring falsetto have become The Darkness’s calling cards. “We do it with love. But at the same time, we also do it with a sense of playfulness. And we try to, what people would call, access the inner child. Obviously, Justin takes the lead in that regard. That’s, I think, his strongest quality. It’s his ability to be childlike. And I think that playfulness is what’s missing from rock music.”
This philosophy stands in stark contrast to the po-faced seriousness that Poullain believes has infected much of contemporary rock. “I kind of believe that solemnity kills a lot of art, especially full of themselves or fake celebrity. There’s nothing worse than somebody taking themselves seriously, especially when they’re not particularly talented like a lot of those indie bands who think they’re kind of messiahs. Spinal Tap is more real than some of these bands.”
The comparison to the fictional heavy metal band from Rob Reiner’s mockumentary is apt, though The Darkness have always existed in that liminal space between parody and genuine musical prowess. Dreams on Toast has garnered some of their most positive critical reception since their 2003 breakthrough Permission to Land, joining that debut and 2019’s Easter is Cancelled as their most celebrated works with critics.
“Permission to Land, Easter is Cancelled, and Dreams on Toast are our three most celebrated albums when it comes to critics. But, you know, we’ve never really been critics’ favourites because we’re very fun, you know. The jokiness doesn’t vibe with them. We actually do what we do seriously and the humour is really just a flavour. A lot of media and critics, they tend to think, oh, they’re just a joke band, you know, because they don’t take the care to listen to the albums. But the people that listen to the albums properly realize a lot of really serious kind of rock fans, you know, get really into it. And these fans, the other bands they’re into are stuff like Opeth and prog rock and kind of really interesting stuff in the periphery.”
That peripheral status has proven to be The Darkness’s secret weapon, allowing them the creative freedom that often eludes more mainstream acts. “We’re quite happy being on the periphery because I think when you’re on the periphery, you can do what you like, and if you build up a cult following like we’ve done, we have creative freedom, and it’s just a lot more fun.”
The band’s contrarian nature extends beyond their music into their career choices. When asked about the potential resurgence of glam rock in popular culture, Poullain’s response reveals their delightfully self-defeating tendencies. “Wouldn’t surprise me. But knowing us, you know, we’re very contrary. So if it did become popular, we’d probably change and do like a different thing. For some reason, we tend to spite ourselves quite a lot. I would say we make life quite hard for ourselves, really.”
As The Darkness prepare to bring their Dreams on Toast tour to Montreal, their live show remains the ultimate expression of their commitment to rock and roll as pure, unadulterated joy. The secret to maintaining their explosive stage energy after more than two decades lies in the almost pathological competitiveness of the Hawkins brothers. “Well, the Hawkins brothers are probably the two most driven and ambitious people. They’re the two most competitive people I’ve ever met in my life and you see it when you go on the tennis court or in the football pitch, even when they’re playing against little kids, they just hate to lose. When they’re on a run, I came back from the run after five kilometres, but those guys are doing like a 15-kilometre run on the day of the gig. They’ve just hit a different level.”
Justin Hawkins’s dedication to physical fitness borders on the obsessive, driven partly by the band’s spectacular implosion in 2005 following his struggles with substance abuse. “And the workout that Justin does with weights and everything is just unbelievable. He really pushes himself hard. I think in a way he pushes himself so hard because you know, we imploded back in 2005. And he’s made a vow or a promise to himself, if he gets another chance to do it, just to really kind of give it everything. And that’s what he does. He really is inspirational. You know, they both are.”
The frontman’s second career as a YouTube personality has introduced The Darkness to new audiences, particularly in the UK and Australia where they’ve graduated from theatres to arenas. “Yeah, for sure. I mean, I think in the States and Canada, our fan base is kind of stabilised, but that’s OK. You know, we play theatres and big clubs and we’re kind of happy, but we don’t really promote ourselves very much in the States and Canada because we’ve been on an indie label for the last two albums. But so I would say that the YouTube channel has really helped us in the United Kingdom and Australia, where we’ve moved up to arenas in those kind of places.”
Poullain’s own story reflects The Darkness’s commitment to authenticity over artifice. Born to a French mother who raised him largely as a single parent, he chose to perform under her maiden name as a tribute to her sacrifices. “Yeah, that’s my mother’s side of the family. I use my mother’s name because she brought us up. We had a father and a stepfather, but they didn’t do a great job. So they weren’t really around all the time. So just before the band became successful, I decided to use my mother’s name because she’s the one who made the sacrifices. I very much appreciate that. Poullain is obviously, as you well know, French for baby horse, foal.”
This personal authenticity mirrors The Darkness’s musical philosophy: beneath the spandex and theatrical bombast lies genuine craft and emotional truth. Dreams on Toast stands as perhaps their clearest articulation of this principle, an album that celebrates the joy of rock music while pushing the boundaries of what The Darkness can be. In an era where rock often takes itself too seriously, they remain gloriously, defiantly committed to fun—and in doing so, they’ve created some of their most serious and accomplished work to date.
The Darkness play Club Soda on September 14.
Photo credit: Simon Emmett
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