A few questions - interview with blackened death metal band from USA - DEADSPAWN.
Ave, can you introduce your band to our readers? – When was it founded and what style of music do you play etc.?
Deadspawn is a blackened death metal band out of Phoenix Arizona. In the early days of our band we we’re split between Phoenix and Flagstaff Arizona. The band began in late 2009 out of the demise of Curt DuRocher(Ashes of Babylon, Winds of Leng, Malnurture) & Brian Millers (Detritus, Lago, Depraved Heretic, Malnurture, To Be Eaten) former band. It was always our focus and remains to this day to play aggressive & evil music. An audible assault of relentless drumming coupled with ruthless yet melodic riffs.
Where and under what conditions were you recording the new album? Who was in charge of sound, production and mastering?
Our recording process was a long and argues one which spanned approximetaly 2 years. We began pre-production in our available free time with Andrew Spreeman (Winds of Leng) of Sliver Studios. Initial guitar rhythm & leads were under his watch as well as drum tracking and editing. Roughty about a year and a half into the recording process we began tracking Vocals and Bass with our former drummer Brian at his home studio. We weren’t initially going to go with Brian for mixing and mastering but he ended up taking the reigns by just showing the initiative of offering us mixes. He dialed them in for us completely under the premise that we we’re going to send it to a professional. At the end of the day what he was able to create for us even prior to mastering was monstrous and professional for what I consider a DIY record. Between Spreeman and Miller we got and outstanding record with a very crisp and defined sounds all while retaining a very oldschool death metal grit.
How many copies were released and which medium was used for this new edition (CD, digital, vinyl, cassette)?
We started off by ordering 100 Copies of the original CD pressing through our distributor, I couldn’t be happier to say that we are down to maybe 30 copies in hand after the first month. The album is avalable through digital download on our bandcamp page: www.deadspawn.bandcamp.com as well as all online streaming platforms. Spotify, apple music and so on. We’ve had some request for vinyl’s but at this time im not sure if its something we’re going to be able to do. We’ll probably keep track of the demand and go from there.
Who is the author of the lyrics and how were they created and about what do the lyrics deal with?
Curt DuRocher is responsible for all the lyrical content in Deadspawn to this date with the exception of the title track “Pestilence Reborn“. This track was initlaly brought to the table by our guitar player Ryan Roubison. His initial lyrical content was blended with some previous lyrics that Curt already had available for use and expanded on in order to fill the songs music out.
The majority of our lyrical content is influenced by a writer that Curt has been following for years, Brian Lumley. His Series “The Necroscope“ has offered a massive amount of source material for us. The lyrical content though does not stick strictly to the book series, however, there are a lot of overlapping themes of horror, fantasy and science fiction that repeat themselves.
I would say that from the fantasy/horror perspective theres a lot of our stuff that focuses on tyranical oppression & control over weaker subjects as well as the suffering that goes along with it. Suffering, Despair, cosmic ascendency would be a good generalization of our words. Theres something very comforting dwelling within the obscure and grotesque when it comes to writing. It allows us to be the savage disgusting animal that is the core of our existence.
Who created the logo of the band, and who took care of the graphics and the website? What about you and social networks? Do you consider these things important?
Imperfect Design created our latest logo which we feel is the best representation of our current sound with respect to our previous releases.
All the digital work though on our sites and within our album was handled by Curt. He also manages the social media presence.
Social media is absolutely an important factor to a bands development and growth in our opinion. Never in the history of man has it been as easy as it is currently to reach across the globe and tell the individual that their music has effected your life in a positive or negative way. I do that myself on a regular basis. Its a tool that allows you to set the level of interaction and marketing that you want to commit to. For some its an amazing tool and for others not so much.
Which label did you choose for releasing your album and why this label? Are you satisfied by how your label represents you and takés care about you?
Deadspawn is a completely independent band. We self produced and self financed this entire venture.
Which bands do you idolise and where do you get your inspiration?
Every member of our band finds inspiration in completely different bands and genres so that is always a tough topic to address. We would like to throw ourselves along side Hate, Belphegor, Setherial, Naglfar, Death though as our major influencers though.
Did you send your record to some Labels - which are the labels? How was the response?
We have not actually pitched the album to any labels at this current moment. If the opportunity came up though and we could find a mutually beneficial deal then I think we would highly consider it.
Its a tough decision though in this internet age and with how many bands you hear being completely ripped off of their hard work and time by labels. I guess it all comes down to what a band is trying to accomplish and the bands/labels expectations which sets the standard of their needs for a label/distribution.
With that being said I think we would be open to a dialogue with a lable or even just distribution.
How many gigs have you played? Which type of gigs do you prefer, whether it's (clubs or festivals) and which of your performances would you consider as the best?
We’ve slowed down live shows significantly in the past couple years due to the responsiblitiies of life unfortunately but I believe we are probably at about 60 to 70 shows under the Deadspawn banner. We’ve played house parties, small bar/venues, large club venues and outdoor venues and they all hold value to us in different ways.
The small house parties and bars are always great because they become extremely intimate and it only takes a few bodies to get the whole place moving. They also seem to be a more aggressive and lawless environment as well which we thrive off of.
As far as performances go its really hard to pinpoint the best one. We’ve had a lot that we felt absolutely amazing about on stage only to hear we sounded like shit and didn’t have much energy unfortunately. The silver lining though is that we have all felt angry and embarassed about a performance before only to be told that its the best performance to date from the audience perspective. I suppose its all in the eye of the beholder. In my opinion though I think one of our best performances was actually at a new years eve house party a couple years back. Its incredibly validating to be surrounded by countless peers from the Arizona metal scene that are significantly better and accompolished musicians than us telling us how much fun they are having.
What about your plans for the future? What do you want to achieve with the band?
We have a lot of ideas for the future regarding Deadspawn. With this being our first full length and getting such a good response from it we are only empowered to continue this chaos. I forsee us evolving as a band in the near future and diving deeper into a more dark and sinister sound.
We have made progress on the next currently untiled EP and are really hoping to have that to follow up Pestilence Reborn with in the next year or so. Unfortunately we are all professionals by day and some times move a lot slower then we’d like to. I suppose that comes with the territory of chasing passion. We’re extremely hopeful though and I guess we’ll see where it takes us.
As far as achievements for the band go we are open to all opportunities that come our way. We are not set on anything at the moment. We’ll let the organic nature of this entity take us on a journey, things never last when you try to force it.
How and where can your fans contact you? Can you provide some contact information?
We can be found/contacted on our social media platform.
Instagram: @DeadspawnOfficial
You can listen to or purchase the record on our webshops as well as these streaming services:
Spotify
Apple Music
Thanx for the interview.
Thank you! We really appreciate you helping us spread our art across the globe. We cant express how much it means to us that you have taken the time to listen to our record and given us a platform to share it. To you and your readers; You have our utmost respect.
Cheers from Arizona!
