Deardarkhead | Matt Connarton Unleashed

0:00 Speaker 1: That is letting go from Dear Dark Head. The album

0:04 Speaker 1: is called The Pendulum Swings. Just came out July tenth,

0:06 Speaker 1: so it's very new. And let's see, we've got Rob

0:09 Speaker 1: Weiss on the phone line, I believe with us on

0:11 Speaker 1: the studio line.

0:12 Speaker 2: Hey Rob, Hey there, how you doing? Is it just your?

0:16 Speaker 2: Are any other band members with you that?

0:19 Speaker 3: We have Kevin Harrington here the guitar player as well.

0:22 Speaker 2: Oh awesome, Hi Kevin? You doing good? Good? Welcome guys,

0:26 Speaker 2: So I really like this.

0:29 Speaker 1: I was surprised to learn you guys have been around

0:33 Speaker 1: for a hell of a long time. So is this

0:35 Speaker 1: true that The Pendulum Swings is your first new full

0:38 Speaker 1: length album in twenty five years?

0:40 Speaker 2: Is that accurate?

0:42 Speaker 3: Yeah? Actually yeah, I mean we have. We did put

0:45 Speaker 3: an EP out back in twenty sixteen that was instrumental,

0:48 Speaker 3: but in terms of a full length album, the last

0:50 Speaker 3: thing we did was an album called Unlocked the Valve

0:53 Speaker 3: the Feeling when we had a vocalist. So it's been

0:55 Speaker 3: a while for a full.

0:56 Speaker 1: Length Okay, okay, I gotcha. So this album obviously is

0:59 Speaker 1: all it's all metals.

1:00 Speaker 2: Correct, yep?

1:02 Speaker 3: Correct?

1:03 Speaker 1: So you did have a vocalist at one at one time.

1:05 Speaker 1: So for for the EP, you said, so, I mean,

1:08 Speaker 1: how does that what goes into the decision whether or

1:11 Speaker 1: not to work with a vocalist or record an album

1:13 Speaker 1: of instrumentals? And this is by the way, you know,

1:15 Speaker 1: it's a full length album. But for people who haven't

1:17 Speaker 1: listened to it, who are skeptical of instrumentals, it's really good.

1:21 Speaker 1: And my you know, in listening to it, my perception

1:24 Speaker 1: is it's kind of like as you can hear with

1:25 Speaker 1: those songs, you know, the lead guitar kind of fills

1:29 Speaker 1: that that space that a vocalist might, right, But what

1:33 Speaker 1: goes into that decision to do instrumentals.

1:37 Speaker 4: We haven't really made a decision to be instrumental. We

1:40 Speaker 4: just ended up being instrumental once are there are formal

1:43 Speaker 4: singer left. Yeah, So it's basically we carry on until

1:47 Speaker 4: we find a vocalist or we stopped. So we basically

1:51 Speaker 4: always wrote instrumentals even when we had the singer. So

1:55 Speaker 4: now we just are instrumental, and it's just because of

1:59 Speaker 4: having to move forward versus stuff.

2:02 Speaker 2: That's interesting.

2:03 Speaker 1: Is it a challenge to do it that way or

2:07 Speaker 1: does it because it almost sounds like it's probably pretty organic, right,

2:11 Speaker 1: you don't you know you didn't decide.

2:13 Speaker 2: To approach it this way.

2:14 Speaker 1: This is just how you're doing it out of Really,

2:17 Speaker 1: it sounds like out of necessity more than anything else.

2:19 Speaker 1: I mean it is that a challenge to make these

2:21 Speaker 1: songs work as instrumentals or is it pretty pretty simple?

2:27 Speaker 4: Not necessarily at all anymore?

2:29 Speaker 3: This is just the way we write, Yeah, I will

2:32 Speaker 3: I will say I think it puts a little more

2:34 Speaker 3: pressure on Cavit because he's since there is no vocal

2:37 Speaker 3: as you point out, melodically, he's carrying the weight of

2:40 Speaker 3: the song and the emotion and you know, the effects,

2:43 Speaker 3: and so he puts a lot of time and effort.

2:45 Speaker 3: So I think it would be nice to have a

2:47 Speaker 3: vocalist sometimes if we found the right person, but we

2:50 Speaker 3: don't really rely on it, and we're pretty comfortable doing it,

2:53 Speaker 3: and Kevin does a great job handling that role.

2:55 Speaker 2: Absolutely.

2:56 Speaker 4: Interaction with a live show, I think a singer would

2:59 Speaker 4: be nice, because it always was great to have a

3:02 Speaker 4: dedicated singer, a dedicated person to interact with the crowd.

3:08 Speaker 4: But we're so used to doing it this way that

3:11 Speaker 4: this is really just the way we think.

3:13 Speaker 1: Right, No, that makes sense, and yeah, and Rob as

3:17 Speaker 1: you pointed out, Kevin, you know is able to you know,

3:20 Speaker 1: really kind of carry the weight of what a vocalist

3:22 Speaker 1: does in these songs and it it just works. I'm

3:25 Speaker 1: curious live, I mean, do you approach these any differently

3:28 Speaker 1: when you play them live than versus how you recorded them?

3:31 Speaker 1: Is there a little bit extra pressure when you're doing

3:35 Speaker 1: these live or or how does that work?

3:37 Speaker 2: What's your approach live?

3:40 Speaker 3: I mean, I don't think really we change things up

3:42 Speaker 3: too much. Occasionally there'll be a song where we did

3:44 Speaker 3: something in the studio and we've had to adapt it

3:47 Speaker 3: slightly differently live just because you know, we wanted to

3:50 Speaker 3: spend a little more time in the studio. We can

3:51 Speaker 3: do more or track more guitars, and we might do

3:55 Speaker 3: a slightly different version of the song. But in general,

3:57 Speaker 3: it's pretty pretty much what you hear is the way

4:00 Speaker 3: we found live.

4:01 Speaker 4: You may not have a rhythm guitar track live because

4:05 Speaker 4: it doesn't really well, we can't do it. But we

4:09 Speaker 4: do things in a way that you really probably wouldn't

4:11 Speaker 4: even notice that it's not there. Yeah, exaccurate because we

4:16 Speaker 4: fill the.

4:17 Speaker 1: Space right so right, that makes sense and you know,

4:21 Speaker 1: for me personally and some people will disagree with me

4:24 Speaker 1: on this, and I know that to a lot of people,

4:27 Speaker 1: it's very important that when they go to see a

4:30 Speaker 1: band live that they hear things as close as possible

4:34 Speaker 1: to what they did in the studio. And I've always

4:36 Speaker 1: looked at that a little bit differently. If I go

4:38 Speaker 1: to see a band live and there's something different because

4:41 Speaker 1: you know, as you guys pointed out, you know, maybe

4:43 Speaker 1: there's not that rhythm guitar track there because you can't

4:45 Speaker 1: do that live, you know, unless you were to bring

4:47 Speaker 1: in an extra guitarist, Right, if that means that it

4:51 Speaker 1: sounds a little bit different, and maybe live it sounds

4:53 Speaker 1: a little bit, a little bit raw, it sounds a

4:55 Speaker 1: little bit.

4:57 Speaker 2: You know.

4:59 Speaker 1: I don't know exac the term I'm looking for, but

5:01 Speaker 1: but I think you get what I'm saying. If it

5:03 Speaker 1: changes a little bit live, that's that's actually to me,

5:08 Speaker 1: that's a good thing. I find that interesting. I know

5:11 Speaker 1: not everyone, not everyone looks at it that way, but

5:13 Speaker 1: that's how I've always looked at it.

5:15 Speaker 3: Yeah, I get that. I think you know, in the past,

5:18 Speaker 3: we've kind of just performed things as we did things

5:21 Speaker 3: on the record, and I think we've loosened up a

5:23 Speaker 3: little bit more and kind of try to find different

5:26 Speaker 3: ways of doing things. When you're instrumentally, you have to

5:28 Speaker 3: find new ways of sort of entertaining yourself and making

5:32 Speaker 3: the songs very accessible, uh, even though there's no vocal.

5:36 Speaker 3: So we spent a lot of time doing that, and

5:38 Speaker 3: I think we've been really happy so far with the

5:41 Speaker 3: reviews we've been getting back. It seems like people really

5:44 Speaker 3: are getting getting it as an instrumental record and not

5:47 Speaker 3: feeling like not having vocals is a detriment.

5:52 Speaker 1: Right right When when the singer left, was it like,

5:59 Speaker 1: did you guys going to make some I guess I'm

6:04 Speaker 1: wondering because it sounds like it was just a very

6:05 Speaker 1: organic thing. Okay, we're going to do this live until

6:07 Speaker 1: we find a singer. I mean, we're going to do

6:09 Speaker 1: this instrumental until we find a singer. If we don't

6:11 Speaker 1: find a singer, you know, we'll just keep doing what

6:13 Speaker 1: we're doing. Was that your initial reaction to when the

6:18 Speaker 1: singer departed or was there ever a moment where you

6:22 Speaker 1: guys kind of talked about it and said, well, we

6:24 Speaker 1: have to find a singer because if we don't, we

6:28 Speaker 1: can't continue. And then maybe your mindset shifted.

6:31 Speaker 2: I don't know. I mean, what was your initial thought

6:34 Speaker 2: when the singer left.

6:36 Speaker 4: I think we just expected to find a singer. But

6:38 Speaker 4: then once we started auditioning a few people, we just

6:42 Speaker 4: realized how hard it was going to be to find

6:44 Speaker 4: someone that was the right fit. And eventually we realized that, well,

6:48 Speaker 4: we're not fighting the right fit. But at this point,

6:51 Speaker 4: like I said, we've always done an instrumental or two

6:53 Speaker 4: on our previous work prior to Mike leaving.

6:57 Speaker 3: Yeah, but we were really accustom.

7:00 Speaker 4: Them to just playing you know what we played, whether

7:03 Speaker 4: it's a song with vocals or not. And the more

7:06 Speaker 4: time that passed, we just really got used to it

7:08 Speaker 4: and we started writing around it, and here we are now, yeah,

7:12 Speaker 4: many years later.

7:12 Speaker 2: Yeah.

7:13 Speaker 3: I think also Mike, we were really accustomed. Mike had

7:16 Speaker 3: been in the band for a very long time, and

7:19 Speaker 3: you know, he played, he sang, and he also played guitar,

7:23 Speaker 3: and he also played bass, and he was just a

7:26 Speaker 3: really great composer and he'd been with us a long time.

7:29 Speaker 3: So it was kind of a hard act to follow,

7:32 Speaker 3: you know. We just, like Kevin said, we thought we'd

7:34 Speaker 3: find somebody. We just were disappointed with anybody that we

7:37 Speaker 3: actually you know, auditioned, and we didn't sort of want

7:41 Speaker 3: to ruin our legacy of what we'd done with a

7:43 Speaker 3: vocalist right passed, So going instrumental felt the kind.

7:47 Speaker 4: Of like organic yaka. I think having another input maybe

7:52 Speaker 4: not that it would jeopardize what we were used to,

7:55 Speaker 4: but when Mike was with the band, the three of

7:57 Speaker 4: us were all songwriters contributed relatively equally. So then Rob

8:04 Speaker 4: and I took over and we maybe were a little

8:07 Speaker 4: reluctant to add a third party in that didn't share

8:10 Speaker 4: the same direction.

8:13 Speaker 2: Let's though, Yeah.

8:14 Speaker 4: For reasons of control, it's sort of I mean, I

8:17 Speaker 4: was always pleased that we maintain just the two of

8:21 Speaker 4: us without an outside source that really didn't follow the

8:25 Speaker 4: same vision.

8:27 Speaker 1: Yeah, that's always the hard part when you have to

8:29 Speaker 1: replace somebody or try to replace somebody, you know, there's

8:32 Speaker 1: always that worry, well, what if we bring somebody in

8:34 Speaker 1: and what if they seem like they fit in the beginning,

8:36 Speaker 1: but then it turns out the chemistry isn't there. They

8:38 Speaker 1: don't quite fit as you refer to, you know, fit

8:40 Speaker 1: the vision of what you're doing. That can be very challenging,

8:45 Speaker 1: and so for you guys to be able to make

8:47 Speaker 1: this work as well as you do, and it works

8:49 Speaker 1: really well without even having to necessarily worry about having

8:53 Speaker 1: a singer. I mean, that's that's excellent, and I think

8:55 Speaker 1: it says a lot about what you're doing and what

8:57 Speaker 1: you know, what the chemistry is that you guys have. Obviously,

9:00 Speaker 1: you guys have incredible chemistry together to be able to

9:03 Speaker 1: pull this off. I'm curious about the title, The Pendulum Swings,

9:07 Speaker 1: if that has anything to do with uh, kind of

9:10 Speaker 1: the history of the band, or maybe I'm reading too

9:12 Speaker 1: much into it. But and I also noticed too that

9:14 Speaker 1: it closes the album, which is unusual. You know a

9:16 Speaker 1: lot of times the title track from an album will

9:19 Speaker 1: be the opener, but in.

9:20 Speaker 2: This case it's it's the closer.

9:22 Speaker 1: But but tell me about that, and tell me about

9:24 Speaker 1: why you chose the title the Pendulum Swings.

9:28 Speaker 4: It was really the title of the song because it

9:32 Speaker 4: just felt like something relevant to time when I was

9:35 Speaker 4: writing it. Yeah, and Rob liked this for a closer. Yeah,

9:40 Speaker 4: Kevin's good.

9:41 Speaker 3: He often is very good at openers or closers.

9:44 Speaker 2: Yeah, well it matters.

9:46 Speaker 1: I mean, that's you know, the way you sequence the

9:48 Speaker 1: album and that's something people don't don't necessarily think about,

9:50 Speaker 1: but if you, uh, it matters a lot, you know,

9:54 Speaker 1: because you're trying to with an album. You know, you're

9:56 Speaker 1: you're sort of trying to tell a story, even if

9:58 Speaker 1: it's not, even if you don't have really think of

10:00 Speaker 1: it that way, there has to be in order for

10:02 Speaker 1: the album to be cohesive, there has to be a

10:04 Speaker 1: certain flow to how the songs are ordered, so that

10:07 Speaker 1: that matters a lot. But yeah, I do think it's

10:11 Speaker 1: the perfect closer for the album. I did listen to

10:13 Speaker 1: the whole thing, and I really like it. I'm also so,

10:18 Speaker 1: you know, I'm curious about some of these songs. Are

10:21 Speaker 1: these all relatively new or because you guys have been

10:26 Speaker 1: around for so long, or any of these songs that

10:29 Speaker 1: maybe go back to an earlier period of the time

10:32 Speaker 1: period of time.

10:33 Speaker 2: Or did any of them maybe even you.

10:35 Speaker 1: Had recorded before with a vocalist and now we're getting

10:38 Speaker 1: an instrumental version of them. I'm curious about the actual

10:41 Speaker 1: songs that are on the album.

10:44 Speaker 3: Yeah, so it's kind of range of stuff. For instance,

10:47 Speaker 3: some Tears that was a track we were doing when

10:50 Speaker 3: Mike was in the band, So that was an instrumental okay,

10:54 Speaker 3: and also sad songs in Better Days. That one actually

10:57 Speaker 3: had vocals and was one of the last songs we

10:59 Speaker 3: did with Mike vocally as a new song at that

11:03 Speaker 3: time period. And then there's a lot of new songs

11:05 Speaker 3: on the record too, like the Pendulum Swings and Black

11:08 Speaker 3: Pearls and in Another Life Letting Go. They're all relatively

11:13 Speaker 3: new songs. It's really a.

11:14 Speaker 4: Split five relatively older they're reaching back and five relatively

11:19 Speaker 4: new ones as to much more new ones are brand new. Yeah,

11:23 Speaker 4: we did the last three songs on the record after

11:27 Speaker 4: we recorded the first seven, Okay, you just wanted to

11:31 Speaker 4: round it out and spend a little bit more time,

11:33 Speaker 4: so those were brand new.

11:35 Speaker 2: Okay, Okay. I'm also curious about this.

11:39 Speaker 1: So you recorded at minor street recordings in Philadelphia, is

11:44 Speaker 1: that correct?

11:45 Speaker 4: That's right, and you.

11:46 Speaker 1: Worked with this, says Brian mctairr. I hope I'm saying

11:49 Speaker 1: the name correctly. And Amy Morrissey, And I'm really I'm

11:52 Speaker 1: really interested because again, you know, certain genres of bands,

11:57 Speaker 1: you know, they're they're everywhere, but there's not a lot

11:59 Speaker 1: of instrumental bands that do what you do, you know,

12:02 Speaker 1: truly instrumental in terms of this album. What went into

12:07 Speaker 1: deciding to work with them and them deciding to work

12:10 Speaker 1: with you, because I would imagine because this project is

12:13 Speaker 1: unique because it is all instrumentals. You know that probably

12:17 Speaker 1: wasn't you know. It's not like you were throwing throwing

12:19 Speaker 1: darts at Aboard in terms of who you wanted to

12:22 Speaker 1: produce the album, right, Yeah, I'm sure a lot went

12:24 Speaker 1: into this decision to record at Minor Stream Recordings. But

12:28 Speaker 1: tell me about that and how you came to work

12:29 Speaker 1: with Brian and Amy.

12:32 Speaker 3: So, actually this is the second time we've worked with them.

12:36 Speaker 3: We did an EP called Strange Weather, and we recorded

12:40 Speaker 3: that there at Minor Street, although they weren't behind the deck.

12:45 Speaker 3: There was another gentleman there named Jonathan Love who was

12:47 Speaker 3: working out of the studio. But that's we did record

12:50 Speaker 3: in the studio for the six songs. Okay, So it's

12:52 Speaker 3: kind of we really are pleased with the way that

12:54 Speaker 3: EP came out, so it was just a no brainer

12:56 Speaker 3: to go back there again. But this time Amy and

12:58 Speaker 3: Brian were know engineering everything. They're the owners of the

13:03 Speaker 3: studio and we actually just we had our record release

13:06 Speaker 3: party last week in Atlantic City and their band Bitter

13:09 Speaker 3: Bitter Weeks came and played with us, so it was

13:12 Speaker 3: a really great night. But they're just they've done a

13:14 Speaker 3: lot of really great artists in Philly, like people like

13:18 Speaker 3: We're on Drugs, Dead Milkmen, Kurt Vile. They're just like

13:22 Speaker 3: one of the best studios in Philly and in the

13:25 Speaker 3: fish Town area and kind of like we're just very

13:27 Speaker 3: comfortable there and you know, it's.

13:30 Speaker 2: Like home excellent.

13:31 Speaker 1: Yeah, so it was, you know, obviously everyone was happy

13:35 Speaker 1: to work together.

13:36 Speaker 2: That's that's good. Do you think that.

13:37 Speaker 1: I mean, I don't know how far ahead you're thinking.

13:39 Speaker 1: I understand this album is very new. It just came

13:41 Speaker 1: out July tenth, but are you thinking of going back

13:43 Speaker 1: there in the future to work on the next one?

13:45 Speaker 1: It sounds like you guys are always writing, so I

13:48 Speaker 1: assume there's going to be more recording in the future.

13:51 Speaker 3: We have a handful of new things, and I mean.

13:56 Speaker 4: It's time to start working on new stuff. We've been

13:58 Speaker 4: well acquainted with these throughout the recording process and playing

14:02 Speaker 4: them live. Yeah, so I'm really ready to start working

14:05 Speaker 4: on some new stuff. Of course, to push this as well.

14:07 Speaker 3: Okay, Yeah, I'd like to ideally I'd like to get

14:10 Speaker 3: in there sooner than later and maybe do like a

14:12 Speaker 3: four song EP, just to rather than try to get

14:15 Speaker 3: a whole new album out, and you know, get something

14:17 Speaker 3: out quickly on the tail of this, because while we're riding,

14:21 Speaker 3: you know, the press wave of this and you know,

14:23 Speaker 3: keep the keep the momentum.

14:25 Speaker 2: Going right right.

14:26 Speaker 1: No, that makes sense. That makes sense. So I have

14:29 Speaker 1: not asked you the obvious question yet. I try not

14:32 Speaker 1: to open the interview with the obvious question. But what

14:35 Speaker 1: does the name mean? Dear Darkhead? And I should say

14:38 Speaker 1: too for people who don't know, it's it's one word.

14:40 Speaker 1: It's it's stylized as one word. But what does that mean?

14:43 Speaker 1: Dear Darkhead?

14:45 Speaker 3: Yeah, so when we started the band nineteen eighty eight,

14:50 Speaker 3: we used to rehearse at my house and nobody could

14:52 Speaker 3: do at the time. Nobody could decide, you know, on

14:56 Speaker 3: a name. So I went through all the books. I

14:58 Speaker 3: had this giant book shelf behind my drum kit, and

15:01 Speaker 3: I went through all the books and I literally wrote

15:03 Speaker 3: down like two hundred names, and I would just run

15:06 Speaker 3: through the names, and you know, I just looked through

15:08 Speaker 3: the books and out of context, anything that caught my eye.

15:10 Speaker 3: You know, whether it was a book, an architecture, or airplanes,

15:13 Speaker 3: or the encyclopedia or poetry. I would write down anything

15:18 Speaker 3: that caught my eye, and so I'd read through the

15:20 Speaker 3: list and everybody's like no, no, no no, And I

15:23 Speaker 3: got the Deer to our kid, and everybod raised their hand.

15:24 Speaker 3: I'm like, Okay, that's it. That's the name. We all agree.

15:27 Speaker 3: It was the only name that we all liked, and

15:29 Speaker 3: it's just the It's an Irish poem from like the

15:35 Speaker 3: eighteen hundreds, and it's just like a love poem about

15:38 Speaker 3: a woman with like, you know, a beautiful woman.

15:40 Speaker 4: With dark hair.

15:41 Speaker 3: But we kind of liked it out of context and

15:45 Speaker 3: we wasn't something that wouldn't be like a name that

15:47 Speaker 3: anybody else would come up with. And it actually kind

15:50 Speaker 3: of worked in our benefit because later on when the

15:53 Speaker 3: Internet came about, you know, if you google it, the

15:57 Speaker 3: only two things that come up are that poem and us,

15:59 Speaker 3: so it makes.

15:59 Speaker 4: The need for us to be found.

16:01 Speaker 2: You were ahead of your time in that sense. That's great.

16:04 Speaker 3: Yeah, we pre con you know, we prefigured the Internet.

16:08 Speaker 2: That's awesome. No, that's great.

16:10 Speaker 1: Also, I'm curious to ask you about fertile Cress and Records,

16:13 Speaker 1: because this is a label that you guys, you guys run, correct,

16:16 Speaker 1: this is your label.

16:18 Speaker 3: Yeah, it's just for us to put our own things out.

16:20 Speaker 3: I mean, the last EP came out on a small

16:23 Speaker 3: label in Texas called Saint Marie Records that kind of

16:26 Speaker 3: focused on shoegaze music, but they kind of morphed into

16:30 Speaker 3: a brick and mortar mail order record store, so they

16:34 Speaker 3: stopped putting out records. Okay, so we just decided we

16:37 Speaker 3: shopped it around. And you know, let's be honest, when

16:41 Speaker 3: you've been in a band for thirty eight years in

16:43 Speaker 3: your instrumental shoegates band, it's a tough sell and music

16:48 Speaker 3: industry isn't as strong as it used to be, so

16:50 Speaker 3: we don't really get any bytes. So we put it

16:53 Speaker 3: out ourselves and we're very happy with the way it

16:55 Speaker 3: came out.

16:56 Speaker 1: Absolutely, that's excellent. Yeah, and you know, of course, because

16:59 Speaker 1: it's your own lay, it gives you, you know, total

17:01 Speaker 1: control over everything. That's that's that's excellent. And this is

17:05 Speaker 1: the album too. Obviously it's available digitally. It's on band camp,

17:09 Speaker 1: and you know, I love band camp. I encourage everyone

17:11 Speaker 1: to support band camp and very artist Friendly and so

17:13 Speaker 1: forth on CD. And you've also released this on vinyl, correct.

17:17 Speaker 3: Yeah, just a short run one hundred and eighty grand

17:20 Speaker 3: black vinyl. You know, if we sell out, we'll do

17:22 Speaker 3: another We'll do another run of it. Yeah, you know,

17:24 Speaker 3: there's definitely a We definitely sold more copies of that

17:27 Speaker 3: than we did on the CD at the record release,

17:29 Speaker 3: So there's definitely a h an appetite for vinyl out there.

17:33 Speaker 2: Absolutely. Well.

17:34 Speaker 1: My theory is too, I think a lot of people

17:36 Speaker 1: who purchase vinyl never actually play it. They I think

17:40 Speaker 1: that I think that a lot of people purchase vinyl

17:42 Speaker 1: because if you're a fan, you know, so if you're

17:44 Speaker 1: a big fan of Dear Darkhead, it's cool too. Even

17:46 Speaker 1: if you don't have a record player at home, it's

17:48 Speaker 1: cool to just have it, you know. And and you know,

17:50 Speaker 1: I've seen people, you know, they they'll mount the the

17:53 Speaker 1: album covers on the wall or something, whether the actual

17:56 Speaker 1: record is left in.

17:57 Speaker 2: It or not.

17:58 Speaker 1: But but yeah, Vinylly is the resurgence of vinyl. And

18:01 Speaker 1: of course it never actually went away, which is something

18:03 Speaker 1: people don't realize. But the incredible resurgence of it, you know,

18:07 Speaker 1: that's happened in the last several years is amazing, and

18:11 Speaker 1: and physical media in general too. You know, CDs people

18:14 Speaker 1: are still releasing CDs. A lot of people thought those

18:17 Speaker 1: would be gone by now, you know, by twenty twenty six,

18:20 Speaker 1: but no, CDs are still being released. And I mean,

18:23 Speaker 1: is it important to you guys to have that physical media?

18:26 Speaker 1: I mean, obviously vinyl nothing sounds better than vinyl, But

18:29 Speaker 1: is that something that's important to you guys? And was

18:32 Speaker 1: there ever a point, because again, you guys have been

18:34 Speaker 1: around a while, was there ever a point where you

18:36 Speaker 1: guys said, yeah, we're just gonna release things digitally for

18:39 Speaker 1: right now, because that seems to be because if we

18:41 Speaker 1: were having this conversation ten years ago, that seemed to

18:44 Speaker 1: be where everything was going. And you know, it turned

18:47 Speaker 1: out again physical media is still very important. But has

18:50 Speaker 1: that always been important to you guys or was there

18:52 Speaker 1: ever a point over your career where you thought, nah,

18:55 Speaker 1: maybe we will just release things digitally.

18:59 Speaker 3: I'd say that, but we've always put out physical media.

19:02 Speaker 3: I think it's important to have physical media. I think

19:04 Speaker 3: one of the biggest issues is like, if you're the Beatles,

19:07 Speaker 3: nobody worries about that record disappearing.

19:10 Speaker 4: Like digitally or physically.

19:11 Speaker 3: But if you're a smaller band, like how many times

19:15 Speaker 3: have you gone to Spotify or any streaming site and

19:18 Speaker 3: something you was listening to is no longer on there

19:20 Speaker 3: right If you don't have a physical copy of it,

19:22 Speaker 3: it disappears. So I would encourage people if you like

19:24 Speaker 3: something from a band that's maybe not as you know,

19:28 Speaker 3: big as the Beatles, you might want to purchase the

19:30 Speaker 3: record and it's just nice to have a physical you know,

19:34 Speaker 3: keepsake of that, whether you went to a show or

19:37 Speaker 3: I worked in a record store. So I'm a little biased,

19:40 Speaker 3: and you know, so I'm a bit of a record junkie,

19:43 Speaker 3: So yeah, I'm a little biased. We've always done physical media,

19:46 Speaker 3: and I think it's I think you see people like

19:48 Speaker 3: to support bands when they go to the show, and

19:53 Speaker 3: I just think that's the way to go. Digital is nice,

19:55 Speaker 3: but it's kind of like it's kind of it's just

19:59 Speaker 3: kind of people. I think, what tangible experiences?

20:02 Speaker 2: Oh yeah, yeah, you know.

20:04 Speaker 1: When I was growing up, I always loved looking at

20:06 Speaker 1: especially if I was a really big fan of an artist,

20:09 Speaker 1: looking at liner notes, and you know, I would geek

20:11 Speaker 1: out on all that stuff and I was so happy

20:13 Speaker 1: if I opened something up and the lyrics were actually

20:15 Speaker 1: printed in there.

20:16 Speaker 2: I was in heaven, So yeah, I absolutely get that.

20:20 Speaker 1: By the way, So you brought up a really interesting

20:22 Speaker 1: point too, as many conversations as I've had about this

20:25 Speaker 1: very subject on the show, something no one's ever brought

20:27 Speaker 1: up before. But it's a fantastic point. If you are

20:29 Speaker 1: depending only on digital media, You're right. You know, something

20:32 Speaker 1: that's on Spotify today for whatever reason, might not be

20:35 Speaker 1: there tomorrow.

20:36 Speaker 2: Maybe the artist or the label or.

20:38 Speaker 1: Somebody decides to pull it off of Spotify for some reason,

20:42 Speaker 1: or you know, something happens that causes it to disappear.

20:44 Speaker 1: And if that's where you were depending on, if that's

20:47 Speaker 1: the platform you were depending on to get that particular release,

20:50 Speaker 1: and now it's gone and you don't have a you

20:52 Speaker 1: don't have a physical copy of it, well now you've

20:54 Speaker 1: got to go digging. You know, maybe it's on YouTube,

20:56 Speaker 1: maybe it's not.

20:57 Speaker 2: You know.

20:58 Speaker 1: So that's a really great point that you brought up.

21:00 Speaker 1: And so the one thing you can depend on if

21:02 Speaker 1: you have a physical copy of something is that you

21:04 Speaker 1: have it and it's never going anywhere and no one

21:06 Speaker 1: can take it away from you.

21:09 Speaker 4: Absolutely, your friends might steal our records. But yeah, maybe

21:12 Speaker 4: they weren't friends anyway exactly. So what's more, it just

21:18 Speaker 4: proves that they were friends with better musical taste than

21:20 Speaker 4: you thought.

21:22 Speaker 2: Well, there you go, class af full.

21:24 Speaker 4: You know this record, yes, and hang it on your walls.

21:26 Speaker 4: They make great artwork, just like you said earlier.

21:30 Speaker 1: So circling back just quickly to the live aspect, do

21:33 Speaker 1: you guys playing a lot of shows? I would imagine

21:35 Speaker 1: you're you're doing shows to uh, to support the album,

21:37 Speaker 1: But what's what's that like?

21:39 Speaker 2: What's your touring schedule?

21:40 Speaker 3: Like?

21:40 Speaker 1: Right now, we've just got.

21:43 Speaker 3: We just finished this record release party. We don't really

21:45 Speaker 3: have anything lined up at the moment. We're kind of

21:48 Speaker 3: taking at the time, regroup, work on some new material,

21:50 Speaker 3: and then book a bunch more shows. So you know,

21:53 Speaker 3: we kind of do it we can. It's not our

21:55 Speaker 3: We don't do this as a full time thing. It's

21:59 Speaker 3: more of a life and we've been at it for

22:01 Speaker 3: a long time. The longevity is sort of our goal

22:04 Speaker 3: for success and being able to do what we want.

22:06 Speaker 3: So we try to play when we can fit it

22:08 Speaker 3: around our schedules and whatnot, But we do spend a

22:11 Speaker 3: lot of time on it and we try to do

22:13 Speaker 3: it to the best level that we can do and

22:14 Speaker 3: get ads to as many people as we can. We'd

22:17 Speaker 3: love to play anywhere.

22:19 Speaker 2: Absolutely excellent, excellent in a moment.

22:22 Speaker 1: Well, we're going to play another track from the album

22:26 Speaker 1: at the end of our conversation, but before we start

22:28 Speaker 1: to wrap up, And by the way, I want to

22:30 Speaker 1: thank both of you very much for joining us today.

22:32 Speaker 1: This has been a wonderful conversation. Rob Wis and Kevin

22:35 Speaker 1: Harrington of course from the band Dear Darkhead. But let

22:39 Speaker 1: me ask you this, where is the best place? Well,

22:41 Speaker 1: as we discuss, it's very easy to google you, but

22:44 Speaker 1: where's the best place for people to go online to

22:47 Speaker 1: keep up with everything that Dear Darkhead is doing.

22:50 Speaker 3: So deardarkhead dot com. If you go there you can

22:54 Speaker 3: get to all our social media and streaming platforms pretty

22:59 Speaker 3: much sets the the main place to get get our stuff.

23:02 Speaker 3: But we're on all the you know, Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, whatever.

23:06 Speaker 3: But if you go to our website gear at arkhead

23:08 Speaker 3: dot com, it has all the latest news and links.

23:11 Speaker 2: To other places outstanding, outstanding.

23:14 Speaker 1: Well, okay, so one more question, guys, I'm going to

23:15 Speaker 1: kind of put you on the spot here, what song

23:17 Speaker 1: I'm gonna let you pick? I did open today with

23:20 Speaker 1: I played the Pendulum Swings and I played Letting Go.

23:23 Speaker 1: I was able to sneak into what song should I

23:25 Speaker 1: play at the end of our conversation from the album

23:28 Speaker 1: I'll let you guys pick.

23:33 Speaker 2: Told you I was going to put you on the spot.

23:36 Speaker 2: I know, right, my children, exactly exactly.

23:40 Speaker 4: How about sad songs in better days?

23:43 Speaker 1: Sad songs and better days? Let's see, let me just

23:46 Speaker 1: make sure yep, there it is boom, all right. Any

23:50 Speaker 1: particular reason for is does a song anything we should

23:53 Speaker 1: know about it? Any any particular meaning that we should

23:55 Speaker 1: know about? And why you chose the song.

24:00 Speaker 4: This one because of the energy. It always has a

24:02 Speaker 4: great live presentation.

24:06 Speaker 3: Okay, perfect, It's just yeah, it's just got.

24:09 Speaker 4: Good energy to it.

24:10 Speaker 2: Perfect.

24:11 Speaker 3: And this one was, as I said, this one used

24:13 Speaker 3: to have vocals. It was like the last the last

24:15 Speaker 3: song we did vocally with our old singer.

24:18 Speaker 1: Oh okay, interesting, gotcha? Okay, Well, so we will close

24:22 Speaker 1: our conversation with that. We're gonna hit that track Sad

24:25 Speaker 1: songs in Better Days. But again, Rob and Kevin, guys,

24:28 Speaker 1: thank you so much. It sounds like you've got a

24:30 Speaker 1: lot of good stuff coming up, so we will definitely

24:32 Speaker 1: do this in the future again, and congratulations on the

24:36 Speaker 1: album and I'm sure we'll talk again soon.

24:39 Speaker 4: Thank you very much.

24:40 Speaker 3: Thank you for having us.

24:41 Speaker 4: We really appreciate it.

24:42 Speaker 2: All right, anytime, guys, Thank you, Take care, Bye.

24:44 Speaker 4: Bye, ye bye bye.

24:46 Speaker 2: All right.

24:46 Speaker 1: That was Rob Wise and Kevin Harrington from the band

24:49 Speaker 1: Dear Darkhead. And let's give this a spin. This is

24:51 Speaker 1: from the new album and again it just came out

24:53 Speaker 1: July tenth, very new. This is called Sad Songs in

24:56 Speaker 1: Better Days