A few questions - interview with death metal band from USA - LEFT TO ROT.
Answered Jason Dahlke (guitars, vocals), thank you!
Ave, can you introduce your band to our readers? – When was it founded and what style of music do you play etc.?
What’s up y’all! Thanks so much for having us Jakub. The band was founded by myself (Jason Dahlke) and our drummer Justin Olejnik in Spring 2021. Our bassist Aryan Nawim joined us in late 2021 / Early 2022 to round out the lineup. We are a Death Metal band from Austin, Texas.
Under what conditions were you recording the new album? Who was in charge of sound, production and mastering?
We did all the tracking on the EP ourselves at Justin’s home studio. We did the same on our original demo. I ran the board while Justin was doing drums, he was producing while Aryan and I recorded our parts. That’s the last time we do that hahaha. We got extremely tunnel visioned and wrapped into the songs way too much.
After we tracked everything we sent it off to my friend Nick Forkel who mixed and mastered it for us. Our good pal Slade Williams from Emerging Void Audio mastered it for tape. He also mixed / mastered our demo and subsequent single release.
How many copies were released and which medium was used for this new edition (CD, digital,vinyl, cassette)?
We are releasing a limited run of tapes in November with an awesome label. Keep an eye on our socials for that drop!
I’m self releasing CDs for a run of release shows we are also doing in November through Southern Death - it’s my booking / promotion company out here. We are going to keep it to 50 CDs and tapes will be determined by pre-order, so go buy one!
Who is the author of the lyrics and how were they created and about what do the lyrics deal with?
I write all the lyrics, but get ideas from Aryan and Justin as well. The ending track ‘Already Dead’ for example - it was a prompt that Justin thought was cool and I took the idea, morphed it, and ran with it.
Lyrics vary, but I really try to write things allegorically. I want there to be a surface level of brutality that’s easily accessible for people that just want no bullshit death metal. However, if you are a lyrical nerd, like I am, you can really dive into a deeper theme in all the songs. I want to leave them up for interpretation so people can create their own stories. With that being said, if you ever see us on the road come talk to me and we can geek on lyrics!
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?
We’ve gone through a couple iterations of logos at this point, but this new one is here to stay. It was created by Matt Stikker who also did our EP cover art. You should follow his instagram @bargainbinblasphemy - he does killer stuff and is in a sick band.
For all the graphics I just reach out to artists that I like and who are involved with the scene to make our shirts / flyers etc. There’s an insane amount of talented people involved with metal and they are generally easily approachable. I normally get ideas for shirts that I’d like to wear and relate to what we’re doing and get them done up. If I wouldn’t wear it why would someone else?
Social media is such a necessary evil nowadays. It’s extremely important to the growth of bands, businesses, or artists of any kind. Without Instagram I don’t know where we would be honestly - I’ve booked all our tours and shows through it and we’ve met an incredible amount of cool people because of it. It’s such a great way to keep in touch with the scene, get an inside look at rad shows happening, pull inspiration from other bands, and get your own stuff out there. If you can keep the noise quiet and not make it your entire purpose it’s a great tool to get cool opportunities.
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?
As previously mentioned we are self releasing the CD and we are working with an awesome tape label for our cassettes. We haven’t announced who it is yet, but they are great and really doing things for the underground death metal scene. Couldn't be more happy to work with them.
Which bands do you idolize and where do you get your inspiration?
We have such varied musical tastes in our band, so I’ll try to keep it to death metal bands we like. I get inspired by Grave, Gorguts, Death, and Bloodbath. I draw a lot of inspiration from all our homies putting out music - being in a band is a grind and staying active in the underground isn’t for the faint of heart. Justin draws from more early 2000’s stuff like Vehemence, but is also really into Cannibal Corpse and Bolt Thrower. Two of his major influences for drumming are Enslaved and Horse the Band. He certainly isn’t a typical death metal drummer and I absolutely love that about him. He always has really fresh and cool ideas. Aryan is a death metal head and his love started with Cannibal Corpse’s The Bleeding. Alex Webster became the model and influence moving forward. That got him into Morris Sound Studio stuff and he went off the deep end from there. Playing wise he’s going for Webster, Steve Digiorgio, and Derek Boyer - aggressive fingering while holding the bass vertical and grooving. He’s the best at keeping my riffs in the right pocket.
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?
Not sure of the exact amount, but we’ve done around 4-5 tours at this point. We don’t really have a preference, just wanna continue to play shows and expand our set while making new music. Our best performance is always our last, cause you never know if you’ll get to do it again. We don’t take any of this shit for granted and are just excited we have a chance to play music with our friends in front of crowds who wanna headbang and mosh.
What about your plans for the future? What do you want to achieve with the band?
We’ve got a couple tours coming up that we will be announcing soon, and we are working on new material. Lots of cool opportunities are coming our way next year and we’re stoked. We just want to keep making the music we want to make and playing shows with bands we are into.
How and where can your fans contact you? Can you provide some contact information?
Easiest place to get a hold of us is Instagram or Twitter. You can find us @LefttoRotTX on both. I’m always into e-mail conversations too, so if someone wanted to really deep dive on music, songwriting, touring etc. hit me at leftorottexas@gmail.com and let it fly. Appreciate you having us, see y’all in the pit!
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