New Zealand's 3Ds
"Unhinged swirling worlds of sonic mayhem"
People outside of New Zealand who love New Zealand music often know The Clean, The Chills, and The Bats. You probably love the Flying Nun record label, too, because it released these bands’ records. But New Zealand’s creative well runs deep, and one of my favorite bands is the 3Ds.
The 3Ds were one of the most ferocious bands of the 1990s, and I completely missed them until the early 2000s!
Formed in Dunedin in May 1988, the Ds in their name come from the three original members’ first initials: David Saunders, Denise Roughan, and Dominic Stones. As veterans of previous bands, David and Dominic had experienced the city of Dunedin when they’d toured there. Dunedin rent was cheaper than in Auckland. Locals made incredible music and drank lots of beer, so they stayed.
“The environment of having a city which has a giant harbor you can visibly see from just about anywhere,” guitarist David Mitchell told the Otago Daily Times, “is a lot better for—dare I say it—your soul, than being stuck in an expensive flat in Auckland desperately trying to get together your rent money.”
In Dunedin, guitarist David Saunders started living with The Clean’s bassist Robert Scott, and they eventually played in a band called Mr. Big Nose, which included a previous Clean member, Peter Gutteridge, and also Alan Haig from Snapper.
Denise Roughan had grown up in Dunedin. Her band Look Blue Go Purple had just dissolved after releasing a few EPs, and in May 1988, she and the other Ds started jamming. She wanted a change from guitar, though, so she grabbed the bass, and a new band was born.
“They started practicing at Cycle Salvage,” writes AudioCulture, “a deathly cold motorcycle workshop which let out space to bands in the evenings. They didn’t set out to be anything more than a good-time band who would play support for other bands, have some drinks and laughs.”
The fourth D, David Mitchell, joined in early 1989, and added the second guitar that defined their debauched sound.