Arron of Deadman Relay answers my questions on whats going on with the band and their new cd dropping soon
So Arron how did you come up with the name Deadman Relay? I work (in real life) as an electronics engineer. It's an electronic component very similar to a kill switch. Like, take your lawnmower for example: If you (man) fall off (dead) of the seat, the switch (relay) is thrown and the mower shuts down. It also lent itself to a zombie theme, which is killer (literally). And I liked how is sort of gave a name to the game that the zombies are playing. They sort of keep passing death along in a relay style.
So what got you started in music? My momma played the guitar in her teens and she had one sitting around collecting dust. That was my first real pleasurable experience in music, but I guess I didn't really get into that guitar until I went through concert band in grade school. The conductor of the band was this real cool jazz type cat name EE Pointer. Taught us about Parliament, Aretha Franklin, Miles Davis, Tower of Power and really kind of got me out of the 80's hair bands shit that i was listening to at the time. The hair band stuff came from my uncle who has sang in rock cover bands all his life. My grandma plays piano, grampa the drums, aunt and mom also sing. Hell, I should have put together a family band like the Patridge's or Hanson.
How did the bands current line up come to be? I went to high school with Roach (drums) and Ace Falco (Mic Check). I met Wesley (bass) through a mutual friend in a college town in Missouri, where he was living at the time. We had a pretty big following there and he'd been to some of our shows at the local joints, so when we needed a bass player, we knew where to go. Wesley also brought a hardcore side to the music that really wasn't there in the earlier stuff. He had never played punkrock before, though. We used to fuck with him in the studio sometimes because he would be trying to play this really difficult bass line, really fast over a punkrock section. "Man, it's punkrock! Fucking...who cares! Play that bitch like you stole it."
You got an sound that has alot of Reggae and Punk Elements mixed like a good drink who's your biggest musical influences? Sublime. Mostly. Bob Marley, Toots, Tosh, Dub Allstars as far as reggae. The punk is mostly influenced by NOFX, Ramones, Misfits, The Vandals, ALL. Mostly Southern Cali punk and hardcore from 80's and 90's. Plus, like The Doors, Hendrix, SRV, Hank Williams and a ton of other sort of outlaw musicians who liked to break conformity.
The band used to be called KB Posse for the fans out there that don't know. Why the name change to Deadman Relay? When we named KB Posse, we just thought that it was hilarious to use the word Posse in a band name, especially after ICP. We grew to dislike it, but that's not the full story of why we changed it. People do help to keep you pretty fucked up with a name like that, though. We enjoyed it for a good long while. But, really, we changed it because of a falling out with our "manager" at the time. He had some mental instabilities. Roach had broken his hand on a door in Little Rock, AR where he'd tried to punch a club owner for dicking us out of some dough. Our "manager" was going to sit in for him on the drums for a show in Lawrence, KS. Well, he flipped his fucking lid two days before that show. It's always about a girl, right? He called my girlfriend a bitch for no reason. When I confronted him about it, he tried to stab me with a homemade shank that he made out of a toothbrush. Now, this dude is one cool motherfucker on a day to day basis. To see him do some shit like this was completely out of character. I was worried that he was having a breakdown or something, so I sat down and tried to talk to him (shank in hand, mind you). He is a dear friend of mine and I'm genuinely concerned about him, but he didn't want to talk. He shut himself in his room (right next to mine) and he smashed glass all night long. When we found him in the morning, he had cut himself all up. He cut out parts of his scalp and left a love note for my girlfriend with pieces of hair and blood in it. Now, we were really concerned about him, but more concerned about our well being in the end. We broke all ties with him. He had created and ran all of the social sites and websites for the group and when we lost contact with him, we saw it as an opportunity to start over. I have not spoken to that dude since that shit went down. I hope he remembers to take his meds nowadays. Really though, I hope he's better.
Whats the Kansas City music scene like how do you guys fit into it? The scene here in KC is different. I would say that we do not fit into it at all. You get a lot of artsy stuff. Blues. A fuck load of metal, thrash. Some punk, but those dudes are traditionalists and really frown at the other shit that we do. We haven't actually performed as Deadman Relay for a number of months. Me and Roach play in a blues and outlaw country band that fits in a ton better. It also makes more money. So, that's how we deal with the KC scene, I guess.
Anything happen during any of your live performances you would like to share? Lots of shit. We were playing a gig in a college town on the Missouri/Iowa border one time and Roach passed out in the middle of a song, fell back on his thrown and cracked his fucking head on a concrete wall. When we finished the song two minutes later (without drums), he was still passed out on the ground. We were able to "revive" him and he played the last hour and a half of the set. The P-Funk Allstars came up and jammed with us one set in Iowa City. It was sick. Another time, one of our past bass players got fucking wasted and jumped into the drumset. One of the cymbals put a big nasty gash on Roach's face about a centimeter below his eye. Almost lost that one. He did knock that bass player out after the show in the name of liberty. Most of the best stories generally happened on the road, but off of the stage, thankfully.
If your drinking what are you drinking? Myers's Rum and Coke. Jack and Coke. Wine. Boulevard Wheat Beer. Red Stripe.
Pipes or Blunts? Pipes. I like it as clean as possible. But, peach Optimo on occasion.
Who would you like to play on a bill with if you could pick any band/artist? Toots. Dirty Heads. Sublime w/ Rome. NOFX. Vandals. Hank III.
Whats the good word on the new cd? It's finished. We are exploring our release options. It will likely be a download only (with cover art). We just don't know who we are selling it through yet. You will probably see it out during the month of August.
What else do you and the band have planned for 2010? Playing shows and getting back in the studio, brother. It's what we love to do.
Anything you want to say to your fans/peoples out there? Yeah man. We really appreciate all the support. We love playing music, but it's totally different to do it in front of people who love it too. I have bad stage fright and it's kind of a battle sometimes to get up and play, but it's a ton easier when the crowd is like real laid back and dancing and singing along. Nothing like it. Bless you all.
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