DEADSEA – Interview with Guitarist/Vocalist Adam Smith, Drummer Jeremy Spears, Bassist Alex Conley

After thirty-five years of heavy metal, there is little a band can do that hasn’t already been done. Soon after a  groundbreaking band appears, a million bands from every corner of the world will play that sound to death, and then tap into it some more, like a loony necrophile returning to the grave of a favorite victim for desert. One mode of remedy is combining many sounds and styles, leading to a progressive tag. That is precisely what Midwest metallers, DEADSEA have created with their latest, self-titled effort—released in 2007 via Chrome Leaf Records (owned by bassist Alex Conley). The mere combination of styles is not enough, though, to make a great album. An excellent progressive band should emphasize other aspects such as flow, catchy riffs, proper use of dynamics, lyrical depth, and melody. DEADSEA excels in all these areas. How does a band like DEADSEA gather all these elements and smoothly incorporate them into their music? In an email interview with all three members of DEADSEA, Metal Centre set out to answer that question and find out more about the band.

In your bio you state, “We always strive to capture the essence and raw energy of the moment.” Please elaborate on that comment.

Adam Smith: When we play live, we always orchestrate our music from the vibes we’re picking up off of the people and place we are at that time. We never go in with a strict set. Maybe that night should be more punk and avant garde, maybe more doom, maybe more epic, maybe just straight up thrash. Once we feel we’ve aligned ourselves with that particular “essence” we just push our energy as a trio to the maximum. If we’re totally submerged into the music and the people, there’s no sign of bullshit to get in the way. DEADSEA’s performance just becomes a reaction to that vibe.

Alex Conley: The music we create is not meant to be studied under a microscope (though it does have moments). It is meant to sweat and yell and bang your fucking head to!

Jeremy Spears: I personally believe too many hard rock and metal bands play a tight set of songs ‘at’ the audience, rather than taking risks, improvising and trying harder to bring the audience into the music.

Was DEADSEA ideally a progressive/improv band from its onset or was that something that progressed with time?

AS: Yes, progressive more so by just expressing different arrangements and moods. Musical freedom more than anything else. I always wanted to push the band to do more improvising from the start, but I also strived early on to set the guys up with different landscapes within each song. Also, I knew that Alex and I could go some unique places together and I feel now more than ever we are truly starting to reach that crest. Jeremy has been the perfect match for what we are going for in this music. He has the ability, creativity, and is right there, ready to lead the way or to back you up tooth and nail.

Chrome Leaf Records caters to indie and experimental acts such as MELT BANANA. How did you connect with this label?

AC: I have been running this label since the mid-nineties, though with a different name then. After graduating college, I have been working on rebuilding the label the last few years and wanted a fresh start, hence the name change. I have always lived by the DIY ethic and by releasing your own records, you really have much more opportunity to meet people in other bands, labels and towns. It’s a lot of work but I enjoy the ups and downs that come with it. I cannot offer fame and stardom and all that bullshit. I just like to put out records of my friends’ bands and support them and the scene. So far I have released the last two DEADSEA releases, a local two piece blackened death metal band called PROSANCTUS INFERI, and am building it up this year with a release from Australia’s PORTAL and a few other tentative releases.

Much of DEADSEA’s music is free flow. How much of the writing is improvisation and how much is planned?

AS: It depends on the song. Lyrics are an important arrangement denominator more than many listeners might suspect. The music is there to “score” the visuals or feeling in the lyrics lots of times. Sometimes we may just want to jam a simple riff because it feels good. Or we may like an intense fast passage that makes your hands hurt. We play best when we’re going for it and not thinking about it too much. Just playing what feels best at that time.

AC: Typically when I write, I have a general scheme or flow to which I want to set the song. Starting points can be a song title or a lyric or idea but they are mostly riff oriented. Within that scheme there can be elements of calculated precision as well as improvisation. I feel that we strive to combine both of those elements without consciously falling into cliches.

JS: We try every night to bring something new into our set. We may talk beforehand about where to inject new improve, but that’s about it.

Tell me about the writing process for your Self-Titled effort.

AS: Some of the songs have been in the band for a while and were given new life when Jeremy came into the band. Some were written while we were just getting out live with Jeremy and we wanted to see where we could go. We felt this was a good collection of tunes to represent the band at this point in time. The writing process is very different from song to song. We strive for contrast, yet a balance that we feel good about. Sometimes we like shit to be esoteric and other times in your face. Really, the songs and album production just kind of unfold naturally.

JS: Adam comes in with many of the main riffs, vocal melodies, etc. However, we all have a hand in arrangements, changes, dynamics and so on.

Many of your songs are long. How do you know when a song is finished?

AS: Some of our tunes are very long and some are super short. It really just depends on the image and feel we want to project with each piece. One thing that we’ve really been into is each guy arranging the song or a section in a song and just doing more arrangements as a band. When it feels right, we’ll know it’s done. It’s a lot of fun to bring in a song and if one of us is really stoked to do something to it, change it, really take it out there or reel it in. We just focus on it and do it.

AC: A song is never drawn out to epic proportions just to say we have a 28-minute long song (which we do). Mood and visual/aural dynamics typically dictate where the songs venture.

JS: Whether a minute and a half or sixteen, a song should move well and convey what we feel. We never set goals for how short or long a song should be.

DEADSEA is obviously influenced by a wide array of musical styles. Who are some of the bands that inspired you to make DEADSEA?

AC: There are such a variety of influences amongst the three of us that it could easily fill up an entire magazine. Some are more obvious than others. A few for me are: PESTILENCE, MAN IS THE BASTARD, CONFESSOR, NILE and DEAD CAN DANCE.

AS: A few for me would be MERCYFUL FATE, OZZY OSBOURNE, CROSSED OUT, TERJE RYPDAL.

JS: KING DIAMOND/MERCYFUL FATE, RUSH, JOURNEY, MORBID ANGEL, SLAYER, METALLICA, POSSESSED, BLACK SABBATH, FATES WARNING, etc.

What were some of the films, books and artwork that helped in your creation of you latest album? Are there any passages that refer to nature?

AS: I like this question! And yes, there are many! I would say a great majority of my writing stems from my association with nature: Its dynamics, its atmosphere, the sights & smells, its power to feed us or destroy us, its history, all the thatch-work of ghosts that reside in nature, and all the guiding spirits that swirl around in nature.

When a new song comes to me, the arrangement is laid out before me like a landscape. That’s how I can really answer your question above about how the lengths of songs are arrived upon.

Just looking out at an evening sky in the woods, there is music everywhere: Chord-shapes in the colors of the clouds and rhythm arrangements in collections of trees. So on and so forth. You’ll always find truth in nature. So it’s usually there where I like to write or think about art & life. As a song develops, it’s almost more of a vision than just something I hear. I can see the peaks and valleys of a song, the colors, the approaching storm of fire-clouds, or the kind of silence you hear in a pre-dawn winter sky. The deep flow of a murky brown river that blankets a crypt of the undead. Being hot, lost, stoned, and thirsty in an encircling city. Listening to the sound of the night near an old backwoods cemetery, and on and on… It’s these kinds of things that project music to me easily more than just listening to other records or just reciting what I have learned about music over time. I am also very much inspired by film, cinematography, and great actors. An unusual scene always sparks a riff or even an interlude. Books: of course, horror-fiction; I love books about astral projection, mythology, occult, eroticism, auto-biographies, I love friends’ artwork, because when you get to talk with them about their work you get the chance to interact about that expression and the details behind the technique involved. It not only brings musical ideas, but also production and even lyrical inspiration. Outreaching to many different types of artistic development is always elevating. I’m pretty into it and feel indebted to music & art. There are many people on this planet who do not get the privilege.

JS: The woods and nature inspire me to no end.

The songs on your latest album relate strong lyrical concepts. Explain some of these stories.

AS: “Killing Faith (Crying Death)” is a vision of a reaction to eminent domain and a burning desire to be possessed by all Native American spirits of the dead to orchestrate and achieve a complete ritualistic mass genocide. “Coming Home” is a self-apocalyptic lyric. A search to live your life free from depression before your time runs out. “Vampyre’s Kiss” is a scene in the candid and colorblind fantasies of the malignant Vampyre. “Frozen Rivers” is about an intense astral projection I experienced many years ago. I had left my body and soared over these two rivers in the freezing night. Within these rivers I saw the floating corpses of who I knew and felt were ancestors. As my mind’s eye focused on the sounds beneath the ice, I could hear a cacophony of voices. As the voices intensified and resonated, the dual melodies in the middle section of the song very clearly appeared. To superimpose the layers of your consciousness in an astral experience, you have to overcome the fear of the paralysis of death. You have to be willing to leave all things on this earth behind. Once beyond that threshold, you may find yourself propelled far back in time, in the presence of the dead, or seeing colors and hearing sounds that simply will not correlate with our framework of awareness on earth. Astral projection has had great precedence in my musical contribution to DEADSEA. “Assault” is about commitment. “Northwitch” is about esoteric scenery, babes who are witches, being Free and being Metal.

Prior to your self-titled effort, you released “Desiderata” and a Demo. How do these recordings compare to your current release?

AS: The first demo we recorded more or less in two days and mostly live in a basement. I kinda wanted it to sound like the first SAINT VITUS record, just a murky sound and vibe. “Desiderata” was a very epic record, but recorded more like a punk record. Very raw and at times gnarly, yet there is some unique old & bleak production stuff that comes out at times. There are also a lot of different types of orchestration going on at times. It’s an “old” record. The new disc is a full frontal recording. A good live representation of the band yet with an “album” feel. Putting some sonic embellishments where they felt good and just making a solid recording is a journey you go on more than just a quartz perfect approach you hear a lot lately. We all like some rough edges, but it’s certainly not lo-fi this time. Also, there are some elements that make it a cool “stereo” experience. That’s my favorite shit about 70s albums. Motherfuckers were not scared to get ripped, play some demanding music, and mix for the stereo-heads. Scott Robinson, who sets the sails in our live sound and also brings many ideas and inspiration to the band, had a hell of lot to do with the way this disc sounds. Scott really made sure each tune had its own feel and space. Scott also really tried to achieve all of my demands within the sound, and believe me, there were many! Scott has been there and really acts as a part of the band. He knows everything that happens in the music.

Also on the record, Brian Simakis’s sound talents are featured. Brian was also very important. He made sure we got the best takes and captured the best sounds. For the first time it was nice to really have two guys who really had strong feelings about our music, strong abilities and wanted to really participate in it and be proud of it. It was a lot of hard work and at times very challenging, but this record was lot of fun to make.

Your bio states you are label shopping for your next album. Do you have any prospects?

AC: We have had a few responses from labels but nothing is solidified. In the last few years we have really been working hard to get out there and get DEADSEA known. Perhaps the only thing going against us is that we don’t sound like every other band out there, but we do feel that making an imprint in trying something new is an important part of why we do this band. I feel when the opportunity knocks, it will be a great fit for us. I guess if we sounded like Lenny and Squiggy’s band, we would already be passed out in the pool with ϋber empty, floating bourbon bottles around us.

How is the writing process going for your new material?

AS: The new songs capture much more group arranging and re-arranging of parts. Alex is bringing more and more to the writing, and Jeremy is right there to take it into the landscape that is DEADSEA. All the songs so far are pretty epic, and take no pity on those who want their Metal Music predictable or conformed in any way. We’ve been bringing them out in our recent live sets and really digging hearing them come together.

AC: This will mark the first time we are writing new songs with Jeremy, as he joined the ranks about two years ago. We are all anxious to make the best, most twisted, most rockin’ album we can.

JS: Adam and Alex are great songwriters and I’m not too bad of an arranger/supporter if I do say so myself.

www.myspace.com/deadsea
www.chromeleaf.org