Dragon Welding Talk New Album, Musical Influences And More

Dragon Welding is an anagram of Andrew Golding, a multi-instrumentalist and the co-founder of indie noise-pop legends The Wolfhounds. ‘The Naughty Step’ is the fourth album by his electronics meets noise-pop group, but the first to feature new vocalist Nik Cockshott. Their new album ‘The Naughty Step’ is out now via Dimple Discs and we sat down with the band for a chat:

Who is in Dragon Welding, how did you meet and what do they play?

 

Nik – Dragon Welding is the solo project of Wolfhounds guitarist Andrew Golding. They are anagrams of each other, a fact which I somehow missed entirely for the first four years and three albums of being an avid fan. I am Nik Cockshott (formally of Hertfordshire’s The Keatons & Bedfordshire’s The Spores) and I joined Dragon Welding in 2023 purely to provide vocals. Andy does everything else (programming, guitars etc).

 

What is your earliest musical memory?

 

Nik – Being about 7 and regularly playing a pile of random scratched 7” singles on a Dansette-type record player with my 4ish year old sister in Teddington. The collection included Amateur Hour by Sparks, My Boy Lollipop by Millie Small, You’re So Vain by Carly Simon & Be Not Notty by Elke Sommer. I have no idea how they got there, in my memory we just found them on the floor. Probably left by babysitters.

 

Andy – playing 7 inch singles at the wrong speed. 16 and 78 rpm rocked my childhood.

 

When did you begin songwriting?

 

Nik – I started writing songs at 15, one of which took me till I was in my fifties to finish and finally got played live at my second ever solo gig last year alongside some Dragon Welding songs. I’m slow but thorough!

 

Andy – Actual song writing, in about 1992, two years after the Wolfhounds went on their first gap period.

 

Your latest album ‘The Naughty Step’ is out now. How did you want to approach the making of the album?

 

Andy – I write and record all of the time, so when a group of tracks seem to fit together, it’s probably time to release them as an album. We’ve got two more albums ready to mix. Or a double album. That would be fun.

 

Where did you record the album and who produced it?

 

Nik – It was recorded at Andy’s studio at his house and produced by ourselves, then mixed by Andy and Ant Chapman from Collapsed Lung in London.

 

Do you have any interesting, funny or memorable stories from the album recording sessions?

 

Nik – Before we actually recorded it, I was initially struck by a lyric from the last song on the album which points out the relative non-importance of hairstyles and is quite derisive of exercise bikes. As a person who had literally just been prescribed an exercise bike by a particularly obnoxious but expensive knee specialist and who is also notoriously particular when it comes to hair (I used to travel from London to Huntingdon to have mine cut), I found it slightly difficult to find my motivation to sing that verse, but I got there in the end. Also, at the time of recording the album I was in the process of moving from London to Manchester and had spent the weeks prior to recording packing a VERY full 2 bedroom flat into boxes. The resulting dust was considerable and I can definitely hear its effects in my voice on the album. It won’t be obvious to anyone else but for me it will be a permanent subliminal reminder of the most stressful of times! We recorded the vocals for the album at the weekend and then I moved up north on the Monday morning so it’s basically the last thing I did as a Londoner.

 

Andy – I don’t find anything funny.

 

Do you use any particular instruments, microphones, recording equipment to help you get a particular sound/tone for the album?

 

Nik – I used a RØDE M3 condenser microphone at Andy’s studio initially and have since got my own (same model) to record subsequent vocals with my set up in Manchester which can then be shared with Andy via email.

 

Andy – My trusty Mexican Fender Stratocaster. I always go back to it.

 

Which of your new album tracks hear you at your a) happiest, b) angriest and c) most reflective?

 

Nik:

a) It would be most obvious to say Up & Away is the happiest just because it has a lot of “up”s in it but personally I find It’s Not Tomorrow Forever gives me the warmest glow.

b) Come On Flat Earthling is definitely the most blatantly confrontational but I like to slip anger into my singing in subtle ways too such as in the more ostensibly gentle Hiding Things For Fun (which is my favourite overall song).

c) Again, obviously Pensive Eco Ponderer is reflective as it has “ponder” in the title but I would also take the title track The Naughty Step into consideration here.

 

Andy – a) Up And Away b) Pensive Eco Ponderer c) The Naughty Step

 

Who created/designed the album artwork?

 

Andy – Long time collaborator and award winning graphic artist Andy Royston. He won an award for his graphics on TV program John Cravens’s Newsround back in the days when TV graphics didn’t really exist. I gave him free rein on the album cover and the videos for ‘We Dance Among You’ and ‘The Naughty Step’. I trusted his judgement on this one and I love the results.

 

One of the tracks is the single ‘We Dance Among You’. What was the inspiration/story behind the track?

 

Nik – As I understand it’s about the idea that the people who are causing the mess this planet is in are for the most part invisible but everywhere amongst us (and indeed ARE us to some extent) and how future generations will look back at ours in disbelief at how we managed to screw things up so badly. That’s assuming there will *be* future generations…

 

Andy – That sounds about right. It’s also about getting older and not really giving a hoot about not fitting in.

 

Was it a difficult album to write?

 

Andy – No. I find it hard to stop writing.

 

12 – What two things do you hope to have achieved once you have left the stage?

 

Nik – To have sung all the words correctly to the best of my abilities on stage and then not to have fallen over whilst leaving it.

 

Andy – Not to have screwed up too much, and not to have lost yet another guitar tuner.

 

Do you have any favoured stage instruments, effects, pedals, microphones etc?

 

Nik – I bring my own SHURE SM58 stage microphone to gigs for general hygiene purposes which I almost invariably swap in for one of the venues own SHURE SM58 stage microphones as they appear to be industry standard. I have also very recently invested in a new tambourine in lime green which is suitable from ages 3 and upwards, which were my main requirements.

 

Andy – I use a Zimmer frame as a keyboard stand. My guitar pedal board fits perfectly underneath it.

 

Where is your hometown and could you please describe it in five words?

 

Nik – Manchester : They do things cheaper here.

 

Andy – Romford : A long way from Manchester

 

How do you look after your voices?

 

Nik – I generally go on stage with a triple Jamesons whiskey, as beer is way too gassy for singing with any semblance of class. Before recording I have been known to imbibe a Celestial Seasonings’ Tension Tamer tea with honey, containing Siberian ginseng, chamomile, liquorice, hops & catnip (which incidentally has a dragon on the box but no welding equipment). The rest of the time I just generally avoid shouting at people, or if possible, talking to them at all.

 

Andy – I don’t

 

You are given the opportunity to write the score for a film adaptation of a novel that you enjoy. Which novel is it and why?

 

Nik – Good question! Initially I want to say Darkmans by Nicola Barker as it’s just about my favourite novel ever which no one to my knowledge has attempted to so much as dramatise for radio let alone film. It’s so full of contradictions for me, being both set in everyday, humdrum Ashford in Kent whilst also being sinisterly surreal with a truly terrifying court jester in it for some reason, and being one of the longest books I’ve ever read whilst also one of the ones I’ve finished reading the quickest. So I can imagine enjoying employing some liberal use of juxtaposition in music styles to produce a suitably repetitive yet trippy soundtrack. On the other hand, there is actually a trilogy of books by Paul Magrs (The Mars Trilogy) which I totally visualised as a classic family sci-fi film as I read them, so palpably that I am now genuinely disappointed every Christmas that I can’t actually include it in my festive comfort watching schedule. So obviously that would also be something I’d love to be part of and can completely imagine the kind of sounds that would lend themselves to its style and themes (although wether I’d be capable of doing them justice is another matter…)

 

Andy – Finn Family Moomintroll because it was the first book I read. Mackenzie Crook stars as Snufkin.

 

Who are some of your musical influences? Do you have any recommendations?

 

Nik – By dint of my age my initial influences were all horrendously New Romantic. The first record I ever bought was Gary Numan. My first “favourite album” was Tears For Fears. An important precursor to my singing in Dragon Welding was my briefly singing for the (otherwise) all female Duran Duran covers band Joanne Joanne. But other than trying to look like a member of Japan, I have spent most of my life mainly adoring The Fall who influenced me greatly and Nightingales who I wouldn’t dare try to emulate for a second. There was also this band I saw accidentally when I went to see King Of The Slums as an 18 year old whose guitarist really blew me away. Literally (they were promoting a record called “Blown Away” at the time). I have to pinch myself when I glance across the stage at him sometimes these days…

As for recommendations: Blue Orchids, Vice Versa, Slap Rash, Lemonade Sin, Chris Bridgett, Glimmer Pit, Maria Uzor, XUP, Where We Sleep, Dierotica, L//NES, Factory Acts, Bhajan Bhoy, The Dirt, Charley Stone, [slab], A Grave With No Name, The Sewer Cats, The Happy Couple, Poppycock, Parenthesis…

 

Andy – I just had an MRI scan and I was able to listen to a Motörhead compilation for the whole 40 minutes. I can recommend that. Lemmy won.

 

Do you have any live dates planned in the UK/Europe in 2025?

 

We are open to every opportunity…*

 

none that I know of yet, unfortunately

 

What makes Dragon Welding happy and what makes you unhappy?

 

Nik – It made me very happy when the first person who came up to me after my first gig with Dragon Welding immediately quoted my favourite line from my favourite song as an example of what she liked about us. It also makes me very happy to go on long walks listening to audio dramas or comedies and pretending the world isn’t really there. It makes me unhappy when I remember the world is really there.

 

Andy – I still love playing and writing music. It makes me unhappy that I can’t do it more.