American post rock/ instrumental kids Deadhorse released their excellent debut studio album We Can Create Our Own World late last year in between a hectic touring schedule of the states. Drop-d caught up with the band’s guitarist and all round nice guy Brian Morgante to discuss among other things the highs and lows of recording their debut album, the bands three live recordings and why Deadhorse have no problems with people stealing their music. Drop-d: Thanks for taking the time to do this Brian. Can you tell us a bit about how Deadhorse came to be?
Brian: Deadhorse started as an idea to put a full band sound to my solo stuff. I was doing a lot of acoustic/folk music at the time, as well as playing in another band called Awaken, North Wind. Rachel and I got some other friends together to start turning the folky stuff I was writing into something with a lot more life in it. It was a lot of fun and meant as something to be a side project as Awaken, North Wind was still the main focus. Through a series of events that if I explained would make this a ridiculously long interview, Awaken North Wind was no longer, and we moved Deadhorse to the forefront of our focus. After doing some shows with the material we had, we decided it was time to write. When this started, we toyed with the idea of going completely instrumental as it would be a challenge for all of us, something we have never done, and something we had been wanting to try. The curiosity was well worth it, and we started going in that direction, and here we are today.
D: The band seem to rotate a lot of different musicians, is there a reason for this?
Brian: We face the same exact challenges as any other band. When it comes down to it, you have to know what your priorities are, and what you’re trying to accomplish. Deadhorse is meant to be a work machine, something full time and out on the road as much as possible. We have gone through a wide number of people just on the basis alone that people were unable to tour. We also come from a part of the country where we are the only band doing anything like this, and there aren’t a lot of people that want to commit full time to a project like this. The passion in our area is still firmly rooted in the hardcore scene. There is nothing wrong with that, but it has made it difficult to secure a solid lineup because of it. We had to play with a lot of friends at the beginning who were willing to fill in when they could to get this going. Now we are spread out across 4 states, but finally have a solid lineup. A lot of bands trying to do something full-time go through the same stress of finding people that are passionate about the music, are talented at what they do, able to get along with one another, and tour full time. That is a very small minority of the population when it comes down to it,(laughs).
D: The debut album We Can Create Our Own World, which I thought was excellent, was released late last year. What were the highs and lows when making the record?
Brian: Well thank you, I’m glad you have been enjoying the music. We finished up and released the album in June of last year, after we had started recording it in November of 2009. There was a lot of start/stop in the recording process for many reasons. First off, we were still writing the songs as we were recording them, so we were constantly changing things up, and revising songs before we were happy enough with them to go to record. We were busy with shows, and everyone was busy with work as well, so schedules would conflict with spending time in the actual studio. Also, we were recording with friends here in Erie that were also working on a wide variety of other projects, and we were splitting up the time equally to give everyone a fair chance at making some progress, so it was slowed down for all of us, truth be told.
On a good note, it was great to work with our friends Mark Graziano and Eric Buman, whom I had recorded with before with Awaken North Wind. They are just local friends of ours who have an intimate studio, a lot of knowledge, and a lot of passion for what they do. Sure, they’re no “big name” producers, but we have a lot of fun, a lot of control, and we get things sounding exactly how we want them to sound without spending tens of thousands of dollars. It was laid back, and we were able to try a lot, take our time, and really make the record all it was supposed to be. Also, the studio is located behind what is now a defunct venue in our area called Forward Hall. It was a legendary place locally, and for thousands of touring bands over the years. We were able to record a lot of the guitars in the empty hall during the days, which made for some of the really big sounds on the album. We had mic’s from the front to the back of the venue, stretching over 40 feet for some real big room noise. It came out beautiful, and we were quite happy with it.
As far as lows go, it mostly came at the very end of the entire process. Everything was behind schedule and and we were leaving for tour in just a couple days, and still did not have the album finished. We spent sleepless nights recording the final touches and mixing/mastering together to get everything done. I’m not going to lie, we were quite delusional by the end of it, and had not slept in over 30 hours on the last day of straight mixing. It was crazy to take it all the way to the deadline like that, but it still came out awesome, and we owe it all to Mark and Eric for sticking through with us and helping us create exactly what we were shooting for.
D: With one studio album under your belt do you think is it going to get harder to make music that you are excited to make?
Brian: Not in the slightest. We were very excited about this release, and even though it has started to get a bit redundant on our ears, it has been super encouraging to share the music with new audiences each and every night on the road. It has given new life and depth to the music, to where it is still very much enjoyable to go out and share these songs. We’re getting geared up for the vinyl release at the moment, which is within this very month, and that alone has even poured some new excitement back into this music we have played to death,(laughs). We already have a lot of ideas for new material, and are excited to actually find some time to get writing and working on it. We would like to get back into the studio at some point in 2011, and make it a much quicker process than last time,(laughs). We want a more raw feel, that’s for sure, but still big as ever, if not bigger than We Can Create Our Own World. We’re going to be trying a few different things, some interesting collaborations, but nothing that is going to reinvent our sound or mark us as something you won’t be able to recognize. We’re just ready to keep the gears rollin’ and make sure we have new music to share with the world as soon as possible!
D: You have released three live recordings, what was the thinking behind this?
Brian: The thinking behind this was quite simple – why not? As far as those three recordings went, it was nothing that was planned, or had any sort of strategy behind it. Both The Blot Spot and Musica had just come to us before we had played our sets that night and said “Hey, we’re recording this, do you want the tracks?” We said yes, tore them apart, and said, why don’t we just put these up online so people can check it out. People are always 50/50 about live releases, and in my personal opinion, I don’t even really like them that much. We just wanted something else we could share with people, and want to continue to do the same thing with other live sets we might get. Every one has a different feel to it, or those little mess ups you can pick up on, it just puts life into what we’re doing, and just a silly way to document what we have been up to. The radio show was a ton of fun as well, and definitely the best “live” album we had done so far. It’s almost like we release our own bootlegs, so think of it in that way. These are nothing special, just something you would be able to hear if you came and saw us live, and something we want to share with you for free. Sure, pay for the studio tracks if you can, but you can have these ones for free.
D: Are the band working on any new material?
Brian: Yes, we are working on a new piece for this next tour. We have not changed up the set at all since we started touring, and we wanted to introduce a new piece on this one. I’m not going to say too much, but what I do want to say is that it is going to be collaboration between us and our tour mate – William James. He does “punk rock performance poetry” and we’re going to combine what we do with what he does, so it will make for something quite different all together, we’re really excited about it. We might have a new intro as well, but we will not be playing any of the full -length newer songs live as they are not completely written as of yet. As the 2011 tours progress though, we will slowly introduce more new material before we start recording!
D: What would you say has been the pivotal moment of the bands existence so far?
Brian: We have had a few stressful moments on tour where it felt like it was do or die and coming down to a decision of trying to stick it through or give it all up and try something else. One that really sticks out to me was on our last tour in October, when our bass player since the beginning decided he was going to part ways with us right in the middle of the tour. We all sat on the floor in a friend’s dorm room in Harrisburg trying to figure out what we were going to do. We had to decide if we were just going to call it quits and head home, or try to figure out a way to continue the tour, and keep the ball rolling for Deadhorse. Sure enough, we made some phone calls, and ended up with Michael, our new bass player from Delaware, that has been a friend for years. It just happened to work out that we were headed south, and we left Harrisburg bright and early, picked him up in Delaware, started teaching him the songs in the van on the way to our next show in Virginia, and he started playing with us that night. It was unbelievable, and I still can’t believe we pulled it off, but we did. The tour ended up being a success, and he is now our new full time guy, and couldn’t be happier about it. It was probably the most stressful/pivotal moment for us as a whole as of yet,(laughs).
D: How much does illegal downloading affect your sales and does it bother you that people steal your music?
Brian: Illegal downloading has affected everyone’s sales, but honestly, it really isn’t that big of a deal to us. Truth be told, we made sure to send the album out ourselves to the trusted download sites that we download music from. Let’s all be real – we all download music. Most of us download music before we purchase it these days to make sure it’s a band we want to support and music we will continue to enjoy for a long time. We figured if most people are truly thinking like this these days, its not time to change everyone’s minds, but rather start changing how bands are dealing with their music. We sent our album out to every blog site, peer sharing site, etc. etc. we could, just to get it out there. Because of that, we have seen the album spread to literally hundreds of other sites, and really stretch to all corners of the country, giving us a lot more exposure than we could have imagined if we would have frowned upon the illegal downloading. The people that have really enjoyed the music have stayed in touch, and have even purchased albums, shirts, vinyl, etc. off of our online store that we operate ourselves. We are connecting with audiences that we do not have the ability to reach yet in person due to being an independent band, but whatever is going on, it’s working.
If anything, we would like to encourage other bands to do the same thing. Stop being stingy and get off your high horse when it comes to your music. People are going to find a way to get it for free, but if it’s good, you should have nothing to worry about. People that connect with what you’re doing will want to support it just as you support what you love. We just have to remember people cannot support you if they have never heard you, so make sure you’re heard as far as you can push the envelope!
So by all means, we encourage people to steal our album, listen to it, burn copies for friends, put it on your iPod and everyone else’s iPod on your street. Re-blog the album downloads on your site, and send it to 10 of your friends’ download sites as well. At the end of the day we’d rather people be listening to our music for free, then not hearing it at all.
D: A lot more bands nowadays are being forced to go it alone – do you think the lack of investment and risk taking by record companies is going to have a negative effect on the development of new bands?
Brian: I think if anything, it can be more of a positive effect at this point. I could write pages an pages on this question alone, but I will try to keep it brief,(laughs). With the evolution of music over the last few years, we saw this pivotal transition of all things considered “underground” moving to the forefront of a lot of media, and popular society. Because of that, there was finally a lot more money to be made in a culture that never really had much money to begin with. Just like anywhere else that people find there is money to be made, we saw a gigantic influx of bands jumping on style wagons to ride all the way to the top of the charts without having to do any work. Labels knew how to market the underground to a wide mainstream audience, and the fans and bands bought into it.
With a lot of that disappearing, I feel it’s almost a breath of fresh air for a lot of us that are trying to do something real, and not just get a free ride to the top of the world. It is going to help weed out a lot of the bands that are just trying to jump on a bandwagon, and completely cut out a lot of elements that were starting to ruin music in and of itself. Without all the help from the record companies, bands have to get smart and creative – something a lot of bands do not know how to do these days. They have to take care of their own business and expenses, make their own budgets, and not rely on big record label banks to bail them out with tour support, and cd sales to stores worldwide. There is no more money like it was before, so it has to be more about connecting the true passion, the true creativity, the true art form of what we do. It will be back down to the die hards, which is something I am excited to see.
D: Deadhorse have toured the states quite extensively, what do the band do to pass the time on the road?
Brian: We stay pretty quiet in the van, and do not really do much different than other bands. We like to read, listen to music, watch movies on laptops, etc. Sometimes we just have simple discussions, and we take a lot of naps, eat a lot of snacks. We’ll put on 90’s hits and sing really loud sometimes. Other times we’ll just watch the scenery roll by as well as all of the people in the cars. For a while we were really big into the video game emulators, so Oregon trail for windows 95 became a staple of van activity. We’ll do band work that needs to be done, which could involve interviews like this, or taking care of booking some shows over the phone for future tours, working on new merch designs, that sort of thing. We just do whatever we can to make the long drives not seem so awful,(laughs).
D: What is the bands tour schedule for 2011? Any dates planned for Ireland?
Brian: As of now we are headed out in Feb/March with our friend William James, whom I was talking about earlier. Check out what he does at http://williamjames.whatis174.com . Our drummer is going on a short tour with his other band first few weeks of April, but we’re looking to be back out on the road April 16 to May 13. That will be New England loop for the first time, as well as some upper Midwest. After that tour, we really want to go west, and finally hit the left coast for the first time. We’re trying to play Cornerstone festival this year, and hoping that we can figure out plans to get overseas by late 2011, or sometime early 2012. We’ll be looking for as many other bands to tour with as we possibly can this year, and we want to show no signs of slowing down. Hoping to tour 90% of the year if we can.
D: Who is the best band you guys have played/toured with and why?
Brian: We have met a lot of incredible bands on the road, and it’s really hard to say just one. There are so many people that we feel so connected to, and really enjoy everything about the people and their creations. If I can name a few, I would highly recommend checking out some of the following bands that we have had the pleasure of sharing the stage with this year: Analecta, William James, Halibut, Anderson Cale, John Gold, Like Wild, Torch Runner, Low Sky, Braveyoung, The Never Setting Suns, Advent, Skyline Summer, Run Forever, Aficionado. They are all doing amazing things, and all deserve so much credit, so check them out!
D: Who was the last person you went to see live?
Brian: It was a local show here in Erie after we got off the last tour. Rachel and I went to see The Chariot at a venue called The Hangout. The Chariot has always been a favorite of mine due to their wild stage antics, but unfortunately for the performance, Josh Scogin was not at this show because he had to fly home that day, because his baby was being born. This is obviously a great and exciting thing, but definitely a bummer for the show, as it was The Chariot with no front man, which meant no vocals, and no Josh Scogin antics(laughs). I am excited though for right after this upcoming tour, Rachel and I got tickets to see Godspeed You! Black Emperor in Philly, which will be one of their final shows ever after a 10 year hiatus.
D: How would you describe Deadhorse to a person that had never heard of you?
Brian: I usually tell people we have a very big, very epic sound, something comparable to “movie soundtrack music”. We just play heart-felt, passionate music that put a big smle on our faces, and can only hope it puts a smile on yours.
D: Any last words?
Brian: A huge thank you for this interview, it was a lot of fun to do, and hope it was a good read even though my answers can be quite long sometimes(laughs). We want to invite you guys in Ireland to be a “fan” on our face book page to keep up with what we’re doing, as well as where our tour dates are headed. www.facebook.com/deadhorsemusic . Also, we have our full length album coming out on vinyl shortly after the next tour begins, so you can pre-order one of those over at our online store, www.deadhorse.storenvy.com as well as pick up shirts, cds, hoodies, patches, all other kinds of merch. If you do the “tweet” thing, check out @deadhorsemusic, and follow us. You can listen to our entire full length for free as well as download the three live albums we were talking about before exclusively through our band camp site, www.deadhorse.bandcamp.com . That is all the online promotion I will do for now(laughs). Thanks again, and hope to see you all out there on the road in the near future!
D: And thank you Brian, we hope to see you guys grace our shores real soon.
