Yellow Is the New Black: Colonel Mustard & the Dijon 5 interview

Colonel Mustard & The Dijon 5 are far from a conventional band. With their bright, yellow garb, disco-ball helmets and wacky stage antics, they certainly know how to grab the limelight. They had a stellar 2016 that included festival performances all over the UK (and South Korea) and a sell-out headline show at their "spiritual home", Glasgow's legendary Barrowland Ballroom. They kicked off 2017 with a double A-side Record Store Day release (each track being accompanied by a music video) and their biggest headline show to date at the O2 Academy in Glasgow is happening on 13 May. “We're having meetings at the moment to nail down the details... we've been talking about a Popemobile that we can drive around the stage... but we'll see.”

John McAlinden, aka The Colonel, brought the band together a few years ago as a way to bring joy and entertainment to the masses. “We're primarily a live band,” he clarifies (for anyone who hasn't seen them in the flesh), “but that isn't my first thought when writing [songs]. I usually write some lyrics or music and show it to the band, then they might add a melody or lyric, then we'll jam with it and see what happens... it's a very organic process.”

The Yellow Movement, as explained in their manifesto is, amongst other things, “an evolution revolution, a symbiosis of (un)conscious and conscience,” which beautifully encapsulates the ethos of the band, especially the idea of the unconscious. “Our song Cross the Road is just something I sang to my kids when we crossed the road,” McAlinden explains, and with regards to the band's live performances he goes on to tell us: "Some things are planned, but I like to be spontaneous, and if something works, we'll try to incorporate it into the next show.”

The performative aspect is not something taken lightly by The Colonel, and operating under pseudonyms is one of the band's greatest strengths: “I can push things further than I normally would, the mask gives me freedom – it doesn't matter how I'm feeling before a show; when I'm The Colonel I can do anything.”

The band's aesthetic originally involved Bowie-esque facepaint, but now is all about bright yellow suits, kilts, disco-ball helmets and anything else that might attract the eye. “We used to have a theme for every gig, but obviously being Colonel Mustard, yellow stuck. It's basically the magpie effect,” McAlinden says, wearing his bright yellow suit for the video he's currently filming. “It's something a bit different – you'd think a herd of buffalo was running through town given some of the looks I've gotten today. We don't want to be told how to look by the fashion houses of Paris, Milan, London... we do our own thing and I think people respond to that.”

The band have a wide appeal and a family-friendly edge that doesn't often go hand in hand with a rambunctious live show. “At our Yellowland show [March 2016, at the Barras], there were all sorts...” he pauses to tell his nephew to stop climbing all over the set, continuing: “....of people because of the variety on offer (five unsigned acts supported the band at that show) and even the punks, who don't normally listen to our sort of music, were getting into it.”

At this point, the band's reputation precedes them in Scotland, and people normally know what sort of show they're in for, but last year when they played the Zandari festival in South Korea, they weren't sure how the crowd would react. “Sometimes it takes people a little while to lose their inhibitions, but when I'm on stage I'm relentless [in getting people going], and by the end even the Koreans were 'crossing the road' [a sort of dance that accompanies the aforementioned song] – I don't even know how they knew!” That performance was later heralded as one of the highlights of the festival by its organiser, Patrick Connor, who said: "Thank you for bringing your awesomeness out here to Korea and making everyone smile with your music and attitude to life. You are a breath of fresh air." The YouTube videos from the festival back up his sentiments. 

The other aspect of the manifesto is 'conscience', which is also very important to the band. The 'Peace Love Mustard' slogan might come across as a humourous skewering of hippy-ish ideals, but The Colonel is not afraid to let his beliefs be known. “That's just part of being a human,” he explains. “If it's a genuine belief I don't see why it would be a problem. It's not for every band, but those ideas are a part of me and inevitably they come through in my music.” The band is strongly anti-war, pro-LGBT and ultimately pro-people. "We don't want to ram it down people's throats, but it might be there in a lyric. We want to help people.”

While the unpretentious, self-aware humour of the band is undoubtedly Glaswegian, they have a sound that would be difficult to classify as anything but 'international'. “Lyrically, we're a product of Glasgow, but we're not all from here and our influences are from all over the place.” This sense of experimentation and a desire to explore new things is something that looks likely to define the band in the future. “We want to play in unconventional places – one of our members is from Trinidad and Tobago, so there's an idea... maybe we'll branch out into Europe, who knows?”