Going With the Flow: On Deadmouth's New Single "The Middle" and Why They Aren't So Consumed With Being Original, but Just Doing What Feels Right
When you hear Deadmouth for the first time, it's not a sound that you can readily put on to paper what it actually sounds like. It's adventurous and risky, but sometimes when you go off the beaten path in rock music, not following the rules often gives you something truly new and magical. The beautiful noise that has emerged from their new single "The Middle" is not something one would call overrated. Deadmouth has invoked something within their vocals and instrumentals that is imposing and progressively textured. "The Middle" is a powder keg full of atmospheric screeches and colossally vicious guitars, bound to command the attention of its listeners from start to finish. When speaking to these creative talents, however, this is just the kind of approach you would expect.
While the band has done some rebranding to strive for something more within the industry, Deadmouth is proving with their songwriting, detailed atmospherics, and brutal vocal range that they want to stand out in the industry. Despite the plethora of successful bands' that have come forth last year, Deamouth is doing exactly that with their charismatic attitudes and just doing what feels right to them. Deadmouth is adding an element of sound that is barely present to the genre right now. If they continue to capitalize on their unique and crafty sound, these Nucore newcomers will amount to something great in the future. Here to explain more about the new single, I talk with Deadmouth about what's to come within the new year!
Deadmouth Album Art
How did DeadMouth come to be?
Matt: Deadmouth was a continuation of a project I didn’t want to let die after a few failed attempts to achieve a sound I didn’t know how to convey to people I would work with and after writing a particular set of lyrics and reflecting on them, a rebranding came about with the name Deadmouth, which is a reference to suicide and mental illness, and how your tongue gets the best of you when you sometimes can't control your brain.
Nico: Originally, I had been approached by a previous member of the project to fill in on the first dates of a run the band did in the very beginning with The Last 10 Seconds Of Life. It didn’t happen and some time passed till Matt approached me about filling in again. This time I filled in and from there it was asked if I’d just like to join.
How did your musical influences help shape your band's sound?
Matt: Oh our influences had everything to do with shaping our sound, especially for me personally because without how awesome I felt because of these bands, I wouldn't write music professionally, and the more comfortable we get with this original sound we are working towards, the more you'll see how they influenced us long term. I am in love with bands like Cane Hill, Emmure, Diamond Construct, Alpha Wolf, all those bands that modernize an older sound, some flair to stuff we already love.
My guitar player Nico would say "we're building on the shoulders of giants" and I liked that a lot and reference it to my own saying that I got from the guitar player from The Devil Wears Prada but it was something to the effect of "don’t try and be the next most original project, write what you wish your favorite bands would have written but never did" and that has stuck with me, so we take this from that and that from there and glue it together into what we hope is a cool fresh sound.
Nico: It’s kind of funny since I legitimately haven’t played in a band with a sound like this one. So I take influence from Dying Fetus for more of the thickness, Prince for melody and layering, and then I’m an absolute fiend for the riff. Bands like Power Trip (RIP Riley), Ringworm and their peers are what makes me try and keep this music fun.
Sprinkle in that more modern groove from Ion Dissonance, Tony Danza Tapdance Extravaganza, and Emmure. Slapping all of that together is pretty much what I’ve brought out. As Matt said, “Build on the shoulders of giants”
Your band has such a large sound that branches on the lines of audacious and daring. It's such a unique sound and quite ballsy. What was the writing and recording process like for "The Middle?"
Matt: Man, so this song is almost literally the first song Nico and I wrote together before we were as comfortable with our writing process as we are now. It started with him sending me a few riffs and it instantly matched a set of lyrics and patterns I was working on myself. When we sat down to write it out it flowed really well, probably the best beginning flow to any song we have had thus far, and we tracked almost all of it ourselves.
I finished the vocals with a producer buddy of ours, Cory Brunneman, so the writing and recording process ended up being inspiring, self-motivating, and eye-opening and gave us a little confidence about our next few tracks (which are coming out wild!) P.S. I like audacious and daring as a description, I've never been so open with my lyrics melding into this sound. It’s going to continue and I am more than confident Nico’s riffs will match.
Nico: That’s an awesome way to describe it. I tend to write music daily. Whether it be metal or not. Matt and I worked on the beginning of this together at my house one day and got really excited. We pretty much mapped out everything and knocking out the base. I took this to my friend Zach Greatorex and he helped to coach me on structuring it out and layering it correctly. It really broadened my ears to what we can do and how to do it. After that, we got to send it off to Cory to listen and set up for mixing, mastering, and Matt to knockout vocals.
Can you tell me a little bit about "The Middle"? What's the story behind this track?
Matt: A lot of my lyrical content, for now, is based on mental illness and the point of view I had when writing at the time. Unfortunately, my best writing comes when I'm having the worst time in my head, so the cooler the song, probably includes a bigger price I paid in my head to write it, so "The Middle" was also significant to me lyrically. The lyrics talk about spending most of your life struggling with who you are and what your purpose is in the world, how you go from one extreme to the other with your attempts, struggling to find a balance in your life, finding a "Middle," and to be specific.
I was even able to pull off inserting a reference in the breakdown of the song that talks about me falling off that balance a few times due to my self-destructive tendencies. Whether it be drugs or being mean to my friends because I let my depression get away from me or taking it out on a loved one in general and how sometimes my life "just goes south."
Nico: To be fair, I can’t necessarily say what the message is. Matt kind of delivers that through his voice and such. I just wanna riff and play fun grooves while writing music that I enjoy.
Matt: I'd like to comment on Nico's reply and point out that his riffs are part of the message, and he helps bring out a message that I sometimes don't know how to convey myself, being told a story is cool but having a story painted in your head for you is way cooler, I write certain things in certain ways because of how Nico riffs, so we can't let him relinquish credit!
Deadmouth
In what ways did this release challenge you to think outside of the box from traditional ways others have approached this genre?
Matt: I think because of how easily this song came to us, we challenged ourselves for that to be the lowest quality song we would ever release, which isn't low at all in my loving opinion, and we did a decent mixture of our influences with also making it fresh with how the song rolls along into each new section.
We even stumbled upon a tricky kick drum pattern that we are proud of being difficult, and I pulled off some vocal techniques I've been trying for a while that I cant wait to point out to my musical friends and stuff out of pride, and it challenged us to be more catchy and even more put together on future releases. Sometimes bands overthink songs because of what the rest of the industry tells them they should do instead of writing what they know and love, and we were able to avoid that with this song.
Nico: The release was challenging in certain areas because I was putting together and mapping out the instrumentation for instruments I’m not necessarily “great” at. Since we didn’t have full-time members to work with at the time. So having to use what I have at home to get out to Zach and then from there to Cory showed me a good amount of things musically. You can do it at home with some effort and time.
What have you taken from this release as an artist?
Matt: I think I have personally taken gratitude. I've always liked my music and appreciated my bandmates in prior projects and stuff, but I've never got to fall in love with a sound I was helping to create. I've never had someone be patient with me, I've never had someone really listen to what I wanted and wanted to help me achieve that sound. So I've taken gratitude from this release for sure.
Nico: Honestly, work with more people. Music is a living breathing entity. It evolves the more people you can collaborate with it. It forms a bigger, more cacophonous sound that turns into something you enjoy.
What do you want others to take from this release as listeners that are just hearing you for the first time?
Matt: listeners? They should take it as a beginning. They should take it as a warning. They should take it as that smell in your Grandma's kitchen that means you're about to eat lol, I get excited, but the beginning of some heart-filled music is what they should take from it. Beginnings. The good kind that starts what is hopefully the start to a long story.
Nico: Be open to listening. Whether it’s us or things you hear your peers rag on. You’ll come to find there are pieces in everything you’ll find yourself enjoying.
What can we expect from you guys musically? Listening to the track here, you gave us a lot to chew on, and there is a lot to unpack here instrumentally?
Matt: Musically, you can expect to see how we spent our time in the pandemic for the next year or so, you can expect us showing ode to our predecessors and trying to focus on being fresh instead of just being original. You can expect us to give you every version of heavy that we deem necessary to heavy music, we will take parts of "The Middle" and expand on them, while also making sure not to rewrite the same song.
Nico: More songs and consistent songs that are gonna keep getting better.
Last year was a hard time for a lot of people. I'm sure it's a chapter we all best want to close as we all have approached a new year now. But are there any ambitions that you didn't realize last year and want to get done this year?
Matt: Actually, honestly, not really. There weren't many ambitions we didn't "realize" per se, we knew what our ambitions were right out the gate, and the pandemic sucked for every human being personally but professionally we took what we could out of it instead of focusing on what it took away from us. I handle a lot of the managing duties of the band and was professionally bummed at all the shows we had to cancel, for I deemed them important to our career, but instead of letting it knock us down, for the first time in my life I capitalized on a negative thing out of everyone's control and had something to show for it whenever we are allowed to go public.
If you're an artist and you didn't spend the pandemic working on your craft, you're going to get swallowed up and left behind. I am more than excited to see what this industry brings when shows and touring come back. I'm stoked to see everyone brings their "A-Game" back and what the bands I KNOW have been working on, I'm excited to hear what they felt during this whole ordeal.
If there were ever a time for a fresh start, if there were ever a time for a new you, and if there were ever a time for a rebranding of yourself and your art, that time is right now. Not tomorrow, not next week, not AFTER your industry picks back up, but now. I also hope fans of music don't take shows and touring for granted anymore, or at least appreciate them a little more, the industry is going to boom at the end of all this, and Deadmouth plans to be inside that explosion, right at the center of it all.
Deadmouth is here to make you listen.
Nico: I tend to spend a lot of time at home and with loved ones anyway so the pandemic wasn’t too bad. I missed a lot of time with my son because of it, however. Some personal ambitions took a back seat because of it, but I was able to put more time into this because of it. The ambitions I didn’t get to realize have passed, but I’m looking to work with more people. Musicians, producers, whoever and learn and grow more.
You can listen to "The Middle" down below!