Into the Ark’s Dane Lloyd: From the Voice to the Hippodrome

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On this edition of INTERVUE, Dane Lloyd and Taylor Jones were on sixth series of The Voice UK. Through their hard earned efforts, they were the Runners-up! Since then, the dynamic duo have been traveling the world with Sir Tom Jones, their mentor on the Voice. This Wednesday, the three are making a stop in Charm City for a ONE NIGHT ONLY show! I recently sat down with Dane Lloyd.

I heard that you and Taylor Jones, your partner in crime for Into The Ark, met while you both were working at a charity gig in a Welsh Rugby club. How did that come to be?

We’re from a tiny, tiny little village in the south of Wales. The music scene isn’t very big there, so you kind of go out and get what you can when you want a gig, and at the charity gig, he was playing as a solo artist; I was playing as a solo artist. He happened to be playing some John Mayer. We ended up bonding over some awesome music and then next thing you know, we go out singing together. And that’s how we stated doing the band, I guess.

Well, that is amazing how the love of John Mayer and a small town brought you two together. Do you remember the song you were playing for John Mayer?

It was “Slow Dancing” and “Gravity”.

Ooh, two of my favorite songs of John Mayer. Excellent! You’ve been going about for almost six years, and then that lead you to “The Voice” in the United Kingdom. So, whose idea was it to go and audition for the voice? Was it yours? Was it Taylor’s, or a combination of the two?

It was a bit of both, really. We had done some amazing stuff to an extent back home, but we kind of hit a standstill with our music and the funds to fund the band, so we were like, “ah, man, why can’t we just (I could not make out this part) and just carry on, doing what we do? So, we kind of hummed and hawed about it for a while, when we did the audition. And then, we just guessed our way to every thick of “The Voice” and we kind of made our way to the finals. I don’t know how it happened, but we did. We were totally, very happy.

I am happy for you too, especially since I saw that you performed the Drake and Majid Jordan single, “Hold On, We’re Going Home”, and it’s a lovely song. And you almost had butterflies in your stomach, when you made it from the blind auditions and then you had the toughest decision of choosing between the three chairs that turned around and you finally picked Tom Jones. I mean, that had to be an agonizing decision as is. 

It was, it was. It was like, do you go with someone in your generation like Jennifer Hudson, who is doing the current music.

It was a wonderful decision, even though you didn’t win. But, you got the admiration of the music community, not only in the United Kingdom, but abroad. Now that you’re on tour, with Tom Jones coming up in a week or two, I’d like to know what it’s like to be on tour with Sir Tom Jones? That must be an amazing experience so far.

Yeah, actually it was. It was a bit odd to start with because the most we ever played to was about four to five thousand at the festival, and then we got onstage with Tom and we played 18,000 people.

Ooh yeah.

And then we did about 60,000 back home. It’s unbelievable. We’re used to (couldn’t make this part out), now we’ve upgraded to hotels. You should see Tom Jones coming in on his helicopter. We’d just think, “oh, one day, one day.”

And one day is here right now. You’re on tour, you’re hitting the big venues, and you could’ve picked a great venue to come to in Baltimore, the Hippodrome. The Hippodrome is one of the best venues for any musician, no matter what genre to come to. Now, will this be your first time in Baltimore?

This will be my first time ever in the USA!

Get out of here! Really?

No lying here, man. This is honestly ever…I’m so ecstatic! I’m looking forward to trying your burgers.

(laughs) Really?

Yeah. I mean our population of our village is probably like, two-thousand, three-thousand people. So, coming to the US man, it’s awesome. I can’t wait.

I will have to give you a recommendation as a long time Marylander. Even though burgers are a good thing in the United States, if you’re going to come to Maryland in the next few weeks, you have to try crabs. You have to go get a bushel of crabs, because that’s the state food for us. It’s the Maryland Blue Crab. You cannot leave Maryland until you try the crab. You have to promise me that.

I will definitely go for that.

Excellent! I know you guys have an upcoming EP that’s coming out, “Valencia” on June 22nd via Blackwood Records. What can our listeners expect from your upcoming EP?

This EP is kind of special to us, because we feel the “Valencia” recording, we did everything in the most old-fashioned way we could. We brought live musicians in. There’s no auto tune. There are no edits or cuts. We all just played from start to finish in one take, so I guess they’ll expect old sounds, quite sad lyrics, I guess. I just hope they like it. We’re just making music from our souls.

Well that is amazing. I like it when artists can go back to the original studio process of having live musicians, no auto tune, just play the music and rock on. That’s the spirit.

Yeah, yeah, exactly, exactly.

Who were your musical inspirations growing up?

Growing up, it was probably Simon and Garfunkel, Elvis, Tom Jones, obviously—

Yes indeed, especially since you sang “Burning Love” on your blind audition, so that’s perfect. You took your musical influence and performed that song and that’s what lead you on this blossoming career right now.

Yeah, it definitely did. It was a good choice in the end. I like old music. I’m definitely a massive fan of Michael Jackson growing up. Marvin Gaye, Otis Redding, soul music. And kind of now, in this day and age, there’s this guy called Gregory Allan Isakov. He’s an American guy, I’m not sure where he’s from. He’s a very amazing poet with his lyrics. Major props to him.

Yes, major props to him, and major props to you that you’re on tour, your promoting your album, you’re performing with Tom Jones. I’ve got to ask the obvious question. Of all the Tom Jones songs, you’ve met the man and you’re working with him, what is your favorite Tom Jones song? 

It has to be the Green, Green Grass of Home.

Ooh, why that one?

DL: I just love the piano playing in that song. I feel that it’s the most soulful song he’s got. And it’s not an upbeat soul song. The lyrics are very soulful. All the people playing on the track, there’s so much emotion in all they play and I just love it.

I’ll have to listen to it. I think I’ve heard about it a long time ago. I’ll have to re-listen to it. One last question for you, and this is for all the people out there. If you have people who are your nearest and dearest fans and they want to be like you one day. They want to be on The Voice—whether it’s in the United Kingdom or here in the United States, they want to be a singer, songwriter; what advice would you give to someone who wants to be in the music biz?

I feel like its the best way to start any career in music. You kind of have to build your confidence yourself and you get a good understanding about what people actually like and what they want to hear. I think that’s one of the best ways to start doing it. Don’t listen to what anyone says; do what you want to do. I know it sounds cheesy, but it’s so true. You mustn’t care what anyone says. Just go for it.

It’s not cheesy. You’ve got to go for it, you’ve got to continue with your craft. If you’re passionate, if you’re driven, because if you want it bad enough, you’re going to go get it.

That’s exactly it, man. You’re going to get knocked back. Me and Taylor have had so many in the past, before doing “The Voice”. If we didn’t do the audition—our lives have changed since then. I couldn’t be more grateful.

That is true. After the tour is done, since you said you’re on the last leg of the North American tour, are you going back to the studio, are you just going to relax; take a breather; what are your plans after the tour?

Well, it will be festival season when we get home, so we’ll be doing some of the festivals back in the U.K. We’ll be finishing off our album. It’ll be out next year, I think. So, we’re going to finish that and we’ve got festival season to do.

Ooh, amazing. Well, Dane, thank you very much for talking with me, and I want you to keep up with us. Please let me know when your album drops, because we will definitely promote it here. And for those who want to find you and follow you on social media, give us the details; where can we find you?

Be sure to catch Into the Ark with Sir Tom Jones at the France-Derrick Performing Arts Center this WEDNESDAY May 9th at 8:00pm. Tickets are available thru Ticketmaster starting at 69.50!

About The Author

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Dean Rogers

Editor-in-Chief/Entertainment Reporter

I knew early on that I wanted to take my place among the stars. One day, my mother saw me reading The Washington Post at a very young age. Who would have known that it would be the building blocks of my journey? Since that day, I dedicated my life to learn all that is learnable. I read everything from encyclopedias, to books, to dictionaries, to magazines. I’m also an avid consumer of television, with my favorite genre being game shows. If you’ve seen me on Who Wants to be a Millionaire or Wheel of Fortune, then you know that this interest has served me well!

My unique style of reporting began back in junior high school, when I started to chronicle the events that shaped my life. Whether it was the annual family vacation or the local science fiction convention, I shot numerous pictures and recorded my thoughts so I could truly appreciate the history. During my senior year at Friendly High, I wrote what was to be my first masterpiece, “Advanced Space Academy – A One Week Journey.” I sent the eleven-page article back to the U.S. Space Camp staff. The article was highly praised for being “one of the best written articles in the history of U.S. Space Camp.” From then on, I knew what I wanted to do for rest of my life — to be a reporter.

Since then, I have trained in Broadcast Journalism at Bowie State University (2008) in Bowie, MD earning a B.S. in Communications. I gained experience in news production and editing through field experiences with Bowie Community Media Corporation, Prince George’s Community Television, and Bowie State University Television. I also wrote scripts for a variety of quiz shows for over five years.

As a lifelong movie buff, I now see close to 100 films every year. I took this love of movies to the next step when I became a co-host for Eclipse Magazine TV in the fall of 2005. While at EMTV, I interviewed celebrities, worked red carpets, and attended a wide variety of movie screenings. In January 2009, I took a leap of faith and started my own entertainment news magazine, The Rogers Revue. Shortly afterward, my life-long journey of studying the silver screen and writing about what I learned finally earned me a place in the Washington Area Film Critics Association.

All of this has led me here, giving you the latest entertainment news for the DMV and the entire nation, and I am truly excited for whatever will come next.

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