Dry Kill Logic
By:
The Dead And Dreaming is some of your most melodic material yet, but also some of your heaviest material.
Cliff: I think it was just an evolution as people and as musicians. With the addition of new members in the band, the music developed a little bit more. We have 2 completely different members in the band now than our first record. Between Jason and Phil writing the music and then me writing the lyrics, it just seems to me to be the perfect evolution from The Darker Side of Nonsense. I think with this record, we really did accomplish what we set out to do musically.
It seems as though you’re trying to adapt to a punk rock mindset, the way you’re touring and promoting the record.
Cliff: I think that this is the best way to put things; this band like is like a small business, like any other band out there. To be successful in business, because that what immediately happens when you try and sell a record, is to understand you’re craft and your marketplace. So being able to do it this way not only ensures that we have our own stamp on this, but it also ensures that we’re building a career oriented business practice that will be fruitful for everyone involved.
It seems like you’re very levelheaded with your approach to this business. Most bands would just put everything on the label and then blame them when something goes wrong.
Cliff: You’re right, but what a lot of bands don’t realize is that record labels only do one thing and that’s put records in stores and move units. A lot of bands think that labels are responsible for providing them with career opportunities and money necessary to do all these things like promote the band. The bottom line is that this is your band, your message and for god’s sake it’s your music, so you almost have to have a firm grasp on how everything is being done because you’re not just creating music anymore. Granted, artists aren’t businessmen and businessmen aren’t artists, but like anything else in life whether you’re selling toothbrushes or music; you just have to know your market. (Chuckles) We’re not splitting atoms or curing cancer here, man, we’re just trying to be a rock band; it’s the industry that makes things way harder than they need to be.
Do you have to go in knowing that the cards are stacked against the artist?
Cliff: It’s just become very dependent on record labels to do for the artist and record deals are set up to rob artists of royalties and other things that they should traditionally have their hands in. It’s hard to say because if an artist doesn’t want a hand in his career, then a record label is forced to take the reigns. Then when something goes wrong the artist is quick to turn the blame on someone else and I think it’s an unrealistic way to look at your career in a long-term fashion and that’s why you see so many artists come and go these days.
Was there a point when you said, “Fuck it - let’s just call it a day”?
Cliff: There are definitely days where you question your existence, but I don’t think there was ever a day where I wanted to just stop doing it. I’ve always enjoyed being a musician and performing far too much to let the music business tell me when I’m not able to be a musician anymore. I think the greatest thing for me personally was being able to release a record on my own terms and not have the music industry dictate to us when this band will stop putting out records. I’ve seen far too many bands that have come and released a record, got dropped and then broken up as a result of it. To me it was always like, “You’re going to let all these other assholes, take away from writing music?” To me that always seemed wrong and I think anyone who was ever in a band just to get a record deal was never really in it for the right reasons anyway. For us, being able to release this record meant that we were in this for the right reasons.
What kind of involvement did Dave Ellefson (Ex-Megadeth bassist) have in this record?
Cliff: He had no involvement in this record. Part of our deal with Roadrunner was that they wanted us write a record that was geared more towards their mindset at the time and they offered us the opportunity to write with other people to achieve that. One of those writers was Dave Ellefson, who’s a really nice guy, but musically he’s not even close to where this band wants to go or is looking to be. While we had fun hanging out with him, I don’t think there was one riff that came out of those sessions that would have even made it as a Dry Kill B-side’s record. His grasp on music and where he writes from is just a lot different than where we write from. We have a certain way of writing songs and he has a certain way of writing songs and it just didn’t work out musically. While it was cool to hang out with a heavy metal icon, he had zero influence on this record. There’s not a riff of Dave Ellefson on this record.
I always thought you were unfairly pigeonholed at times as a nu-metal band when you definitely had this thrash and death metal influence.
Cliff: I do think that there was a nu-metal tag associated with this band rather quickly and I do think it was unfair. I think humanity needs to label things and name them in order to clarify them and it didn’t surprise me that they saw this band that was on the same label as Slipknot and immediately said, “Nu-metal; they sound like Slipknot.” I don’t think that was necessarily an accurate description of the band and I think, knock on wood, that with this record people are finally starting to see us more than that nu-metal band that existed for a hot minute back in the day. I think people are now seeing this band has come into their own in the songwriting sense and they’re forced to take it seriously. That’s all we ever wanted was for people to hear the music, enjoy it and say, “They write good songs.”
The melodic parts on this record sound like you were really stretching the limits of your vocal chords on ‘Neither Here Nor Missed’ and ‘Paper Tiger’, ‘Thick As Thieves’ and then the acoustic ‘No Reason’.
Cliff: Well I think that as a musician, I was just looking to push the limits and be the best musician I could I be. There was no song that was written with a particular intention other than, if it feels like a singing part should go there then a singing part goes there or if a screaming part should go there then it does. It’s very off-the-cuff when we write and I’ve always had people tell me that we shouldn’t do it that way because there should be more of this or that in a song. I always tell them that writing music is about how you feel and that’s how I was feeling. I just wanted to contribute everything I could to making this the best record possible.
Is the song ‘Neither Here Nor Missed’ lyrically pointed at anyone in particular? It sounds like you may be lashing out against the people who’ve held Dry Kill back.
Cliff: There’s not really any literal interpretation for any of the songs on this record. It’s not like track 1’s about my dog and track 2’s about my mom or anything like that. These songs are kind of like streams of consciousness of things that I’ve seen over the last 3 years. I think that in every sense of life, including my own and the world’s, the things that frustrate me manifest themselves when I write music.
Is that where the title The Dead And Dreaming originated?
Cliff: Well Jason had actually come up with the title and I think it’s a fairly accurate view of society today. Most people in society today are dead inside; they don’t like their job, their spouse, their financial situation or whatever and they all seem to dream of something better. “God, if I could just get this job,” or “If I could just get this girl,” always dreaming of something else. I think that what most people forget is that hard work is what always brings you the things you want in life – not wishing and hoping. Hard work is really the tool you need for success and it seems to me that a lot of people just piss and moan about the things they want, rather than doing the hard work. I think apathy is probably one of the main catalysts for my particular lyrical aggression.
Do you think that the current state of political affairs is what directly contributes to the high level of apathy today?
Cliff: I just think that politics are another example of a society that needs to look inward and reconnect with themselves. I do have my own political views that I won’t mix with the music, but I think there are enough ills in society that if we just pulled on the reigns a bit and took a good look at ourselves and said, “What can we do to make ourselves better as people?” We’d see many more peripheral things fall into place as a direct result of that introspection.
So what do you think this record offers the hard rock world and music in general?
Cliff: I think it offers a fresh insight and perspective into this band as people and as musicians. I think that this is a really great record that people will gravitate to and hopefully they’ll enjoy listening to it as much as we enjoyed making it. [END]
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