Dead To Me
Interviews | Jul 18th, 2006
How did Dead To Me come about?
I met Brandon who used to play drums in OMA right after I got out of rehab, and I was looking for some positive things to do to stay out of trouble. We started playing music together and like a month or so after that he called Jack (OMA) and told him we had some songs and stuff and asked him if he wanted to come play. Jack was into it, and we had a different drummer at first, but the line up we have now has been together for about two years now.
Was it hard thinking of a band name? What were some of the rejected ones?
Yeah, coming up with a good band name is always one of the hardest parts of being in a band. Cesar Chavez Army was one we threw out, as soon we thought of Dead To Me though, we knew it was good and we stuck with it.
How do you think your first album on Fat Wreck as turned out? Would you do anything differently now that the album is released?
We are very pleased with how our record came out. We love it!! I will always over analyze things, and pick apart my lyrics and such, but I wouldn’t change a thing. Ani DiFranco said that “a record is a record, as in a record of an event.” I agree, it is what it is and it captures a certain period of time or a certain series of events, so to look back now and want to change it wouldn’t be fair to that record, or to the series of events that led to that record.
Have you ever found anthrax in the mail at Fat Wreck Chords? Also, is Fat Mike a mean boss?
I have never found Anthrax in the mail at Fat. I have found underwear, candy, naked photos, and foreign currency, but never any Anthrax. Fat Mike is easily the worlds nicest boss. He has a nap rule…you can take a nap for a half hour at work if you want, you just have make up that half hour some day, but how rad is that?
How did you manage to get Ian Anderson to play drums for the band? So I guess he’s not playing the flute in Jethro Tull anymore?
No, his flute playing days are long gone. Traded in the ‘ol magic whistle for the boom bap as it were. Funny thing is, I actually used to listen to Iron Lung and smoke insane amounts of weed when I younger. Haha.
So what exactly happened with One Man Army? Sorry, I’m out of the loop.
Dude!! You didn’t hear? Oh my god, seriously? I can’t believe you didn’t hear, what are you living under a rock?! They broke up dude.
Do you think the comparisons to OMA will get tiresome after awhile?
Being that Jack sang and wrote songs for OMA, and he sings and write songs for DTM, I suppose those comparisons are inevitable. However, I personally don’t mind being compared to them. They are a great band.
Who decides who sings the songs? Is there a steel cage wrestling match and the winner gets to sing the song?
Haha…no, we just kinda play around with stuff in the practice space and whatever sounds better or fits the song better is what we’ll go with. I like your idea though, I’m gonna institute a new band rule!!
Quiz time! Who’s Dead & Who’s Alive:
George Harrison: dead
Fred Schneider: no idea
Falco: Alive, I think
Dennis Brown: dead
Courtney Love: alive
Keith Richards: alive
Wendy O. Williams: alive
Luther Vandross: dead
Johnny Marr: no idea
Michael Hutchence: dead?
Followup: Fred Schneider is alive, Falco is dead, Courtney Love is really alive (sadly), Wendy O is dead, Johnny Marr is thankfully alive, and Michael Hutchence is dead. Thanks for playing the Dead or Alive game!
What’s your favorite song to sing at karaoke?
I don’t get down on karaoke, not if I had to I could fuck some old NWA for sure!
What’s your porn name (middle name + street you live on)?
Joseph Hampshire…that is weak!! hahaha
Have anything to plug? Any tour dates, websites, crap like that?
We have a myspace page, you can find it at www.myspace.com/deadtomesf We will be touring extensively this fall, so check out our myspace for new dates!!! Thank you very much for the interview and for checking out our band, I really appreciate it.
What question should I ask the next band I interview?
Why aren’t you guys as good looking as Dead To Me?
