I interviewed Brandon from Dead Poetic around the time Vices was set for a release, so a fair few months back now! It went a little something like this ... FOR THE BENEFIT OF THOSE UNEDUCATED WHEN IT COMES TO DEAD POETIC COULD YOU INTRODUCE YOURSELVES: We are Dead Poetic - your new favorite band. Brandon sings, Zach plays guitar, Jesse Plays drums, John plays bass, and Dusty plays guitar.
HOW DID THE TOUR GO WITH THOUSAND FOOT KRUTCH AND FAR-LESS? The tour was cool. Far-Less have been good friends of ours for a while, so we always get along real well with them. The tour was just what we needed, as far as playing some new material, and seeing how it translated live. We're playing quite a few new songs now, so it was a big relief when they flowed well live.
WHAT SORT OF RECEPTION DID THE NEW MATERIAL GET FROM THE CROWDS? Oddly enough, the new songs got a great reception from the crowds. I think there are something about these new songs that can stick in your head right away, and is much easier to grasp from the first listen. We've been getting great feedback about the new songs, and I think our old fans are excited to see that these new songs flow well with the old.
THE SUMMER DEATHRIDE TOUR BEGINS NEXT WEEK WITH SULLIVAN AND SHOWBREAD, HAVE YOU PLAYED WITH THESE BANDS BEFORE? IS THIS A HEADLINE TOUR FOR YOU? Yeah, we'll be headlining the tour. We've known Showbread for a long time, but have never done a proper tour with them. Both them and Sullivan have been touring their butts off, so we're expecting everyone on the tour to draw their fair share of kids. It should be a real good time.
YOU SEEMED TO MELLOW A LITTLE FROM FOUR WALL BLACKMAIL TO NEW MEDICINES, WITH NEW MEDICINES HAVING A MUCH MORE MELODIC TOUCH TO IT, AND FROM THE TASTERS IVE HEARD YOU SEEM TO HAVE GONE BACK TO PRODUCING MUCH HEAVIER MUSIC WITH VICES, WOULD THAT BE A FAIR ASSUMPTION? Yeah, the music is much more heavy than New Medicines. A lot of people don't understand that the new record can have no screaming, but be a heavier record than any we've done. Vices sort of takes the rawness that Four Wall Blackmail had, the melody that New Medicines had, and points our band in a whole new direction. I think we're finding our nuche more and more with each record.
WERE YOU EVER TEMPTED TO DELIVER SOMETHING TOTALLY OUT OF THE ORDINARY, SOME REALLY UNEXPECTED? As artists, I think we always want to be unpredictable. Not that we go out of our way to do the unexpected, but we're never hesitant about doing something we've never done. The type of band we are, I think we'll continue to switch it up, in order to keep ourselves satisfied with the music we're creating. Doing the same thing twice is lame and uninteresting, and for the artists themselves - usually proves to leave them with a lack of achievement.
WILL YOU BE TOURING CONSTANTLY UP UNTIL THE RELEASE OF VICES? We will be on the road as much as we can until the release. After the release, we'll be hitting the road even harder. We just want to be sure we're doing smart, worrthwhile tours. We want to strategically hit a broad range of demographics with this record. Therefore, we'll keep looking for interesting tours that will allow us to appeal to a fanbase we haven't hit yet, all while staying loyal to the existing fans that have been so loyal to us.
ARE YOU PLANNING ON VISITING EUROPE TO SUPPORT THE NEW ALBUM? Yes, definitely. We had a great time in Europe when touring New Medicines, and we cannot wait to get back. We have plenty of places on the globe that we want to hit.
HOW LONG DID YOU ACTUALLY SPEND IN THE STUDIO RECORDING VICES? HOW MUCH NEW MATERIAL HAD YOU WRITTEN? WAS IT DIFFICULT CHOOSING THE TRACKS FOR VICES? We spent a week in Sacramento, CA and then a month in Seattle, WA recording Vices. We went into the studio with about 11-12 songs written, with the intention of writing a few more. We ended up with 14 tracks on the new album, so choosing tracks for the record basically meant "Put all these songs on the record." We didn't really have any full songs that didn't make the record. There we're a couple demos songs that we opted to cut, but all in all, we put every song that we prepared onto the record.
DO YOU WRITE TOGETHER OR SEPERATLEY? Our writing style is a collaborative effort. These songs are all written by all five of us. It's definitely important to us to make sure every member of the band takes ownership in these songs, and gets to be satisfied with what they are doing with their respective parts. Many bands have a one writer that comes in and says, "Okay, this is the song, this is what you play..." We definitely are not that type of band. These songs are what naturally happens when our combination of guys write songs together.
DID YOU HAVE A LENGTHY BREAK BETWEEN TOURING IN SUPPORT OF NEW MEDICINES AND WRITING MATERIAL FOR VICES OR WAS IT CONSTANT WORK, WORK WORK? Writing for Vices began in April of 2005. We were still touring New Medicines that following summer, so writing and touring have overlapped a bit. During 2004, we met once a month to write songs. While all living in different parts of the country, it allows that one week each month to be an extremely productive one.
WHAT'S YOUR FAVOURITE SONG TO PERFORM LIVE? I would have to say 'Narcotic', one of the songs from the new record. There is something about that song that we all love, and we've been nailing it live. I really love playing a lot of these new songs, but the old ones are cool too. They're all a lot of fun, and I know that there's none that I really hate playing.
HOW DO YOU FEEL YOU'VE PROGRESSED MUSICALLY SINCE NEW MEDICINES? There have been alot of changes in the band since we wrote New Medicines. The biggest and most obvious change is bringing on three new members. The progression from New Medicines to Vices is huge, I think, and we are all a little more focused with the direction we want this band to go. There are no heavy creative differences with us now, and we are all on the same page musically with what we want to do. I think we all have a great deal of pride when hearing how well this new record turned out. We're much more mature musicians this time around. By that, I mean that we're all comfortable in what we're creating, and have honestly got to a point where we feel this will be our finest album, regardless of album sales. We did what we wanted to do, and know feel like we've created a record that is still going to be a solid rock album that we can listen to when we're 50, and still dig it.
VICES HAS A VERY DARK FEEL TO IT, COVERING SOME DEEP SUBJECTS, WERE ALL THE TRACKS BASED ON PERSONAL EXPERIENCES? All of our lyrics are extremely personal. But while being personal, they still may be a bit cryptic. This helps the listener to make that song wrk for them, and to mold the song in what they want it to mean. The album is simply honest, and maybe my reality is a little 'darker' than most, but this is just me being true to myself. If people interpret my honesty as dark, that's fine. But maybe truth is just a scary thing for most people.
NOW YOU HAVE A STURDY BACK CATALOGE OF RELEASES, WHICH ALBUM ARE YOU MOST PROUD OF? We're proud of what New Medicines did for us, and proud of the respect that it received. But, we will always be most proud of the newest thing we're working on. We're always trying to top ourselves, and we've always succeeded in that (so far). After a record has been out for a while, we starting thinking about what we wish we would have done, or where we want to go with the new one, etc. So I think after you get to do new things with an album, that becomes your favorite.
THE MUSIC SCENE TODAY IS VERY PETTY, BANDS ARE PICKED UP AND DROPPED BY FANS ON A REGULAR BASIS, HOW THEN DO YOU LOOK AT ACHIEVING LONGEVITY IN TODAYS MUSICAL CLIMATE? By staying true to ourselves. The kids buying records cannot dictate your career. Everyone has ADD - no one stays dedicated to a band like they used to. They download the new song, and they are through with you. All we can do as musicians is to constantly make music that we are proud of - so proud of that we can still love our music, even if it fails on a sale point of view. The minute you do a record that you know you only did to please people, is the minute that it stopped being art. It became something commercial that was created with a financial agenda. We just want to write good music, and stay satisfied with ourselves because we continue to write good music.
HAVE YOU HAD ANY CRAZY FAN EXPERIENCES? ANY WEIRD GIFTS? Yes, too many to recall. Fans say some whacked-out crap sometimes. We actually had a girl in Rochester, NY who said some of the most raw stuff I had ever heard a female say. She told me that based on watching me live, she knew exactly how I ... Well, yeah. We've heard some pretty crazy crap. None of the gifts have been too weird, none that I can remember anyway.
DID YOU EVER ENVISAGE BEING AS POPULAR AS YOU ARE TODAY WHEN YOU FIRST GOT TOGETHER, NOT ONLY IN THE USA BUT ALSO IN OTHER COUNTRIES? We want to be the biggest band in the world. So we feel very blessed that our name has spread so well. While we are very flattered and thankful for what's happened so far, we still have a long way to go before reaching our goal.
WHAT DO YOU FEEL YOU'VE ACHIEVED SO FAR AS A BAND? WHAT DO YOU STILL HOPE TO ACHIEVE? I feel like with New Medicines, we wrote one of the best albums of an entire genre. While I hate Screamo, and everything it is, New Medicines stood out as being one of the most solid albums of that whole genre. We don't want to rewrite New Medicines, but instead, we want Vices to be part of the movement that weans these kids off the horrible music that's out now, and taking them back into a era of good, solid rock and roll. We hope Vices can be part of the spark that gets things good again.
'Vices' Is available through the usual outlets online NOW!
Check Dead Poetic out at www.myspace.com/deadpoetic
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