Dead Cures happened naturally – three artists working on a project who found something altogether new. It was born out of a simple enjoyment of the music creation process. Great music is an outpouring of that spirited enjoyment, and Dead Cures have tapped into that.
Their song “Say Everything Now” is catchy in a really likable way. It has a swagger that is both infectious and well measured. You get the feeling that it came in a rush and a flurry; nothing feels forced. That lack of insistence is what we can expect from Dead Cures and what makes a quick listen to their music worth every note.
NYMM: I know you guys started working together as Kink Ador, but now you’ve started something new. How did that happen?
Sharon: I was spearheading the previous project, and it was rewarding in its own way, but there’s something next-level about getting a group on the same wavelength. When the three of us started writing together it felt much better than what I could do on my own, and it was a lot more fun.
Michael: Sharon had been doing Kink Ador for a while, and I joined about two years ago. All of the guitar lines I was playing had been written by someone else. They were fantastic guitar lines, and it was great; but, as we progressed and learned each other’s writing styles, something different began to develop. It seemed like a natural progression, but instead of keeping the same name for a very different project, we decided to just start fresh.
NYMM: Was it a big departure from what you were writing earlier?
Sharon: I’d say it was more of a pivot. I still have a lot of the same influences, but my songwriting has matured, and working with these guys – just letting them express themselves – has changed things.
Evan: The level of musicianship is great with these guys; it makes our writing style more reactive so that we are encouraged to work together. I was also working in another gig as a sideman, performing drum parts that I hadn’t written. That was great for a while, but I like being in a group where I have a say and can write in a way that is very collaborative.
NYMM: It sounds like the recording process has changed a lot as well.
Evan: When we’re writing, we do a lot of critical listening. We’ll record a rough track and then take some time to listen back and think about the parts. We really work on every part to make sure it’s cohesive.
Michael: We get to record in a home studio, which allows us to get our ideas out quickly.
Sharon: In previous projects, the recording process included a lot of external influences. As an artist, you want everyone to be happy with the project, which isn’t always the best thing. Sometimes, it’s better to take fewer opinions and just see what you can accomplish without the stress of making everyone happy. If you’re paying high dollar for studio time when there’s a mistake, you have to just learn to love it. Having the luxury of recording whenever we want, we can just keep doing it until it’s right.
Michael: In a lot of the other projects I’ve been in, when I’m tracking guitar, it would just be me. I didn’t mind it, because not everybody needs to be there. However, one thing I love about this is to have everyone there when it’s happening. It’s cool, because I get feedback, and it helps me make critical decisions in the moment. There’s no ego here. No one gets their feelings hurt when something isn’t going right. Everyone has the end goal of the best possible song in mind.
NYMM: Tell me a little about “Say Everything Now.”
Michael: That was the first song that we had written together. I think that was really the start of Dead Cures. We were still performing under another name. We had half of a guitar line written, and we brought it to rehearsal and the whole thing formed very quickly. Like Evan said, it’s very reactive. He doesn’t just write the drum parts – he helps write guitar parts and Sharon helps write guitar parts, and we all work together. That’s rare. It’s not often that you find people who have the musical scope to look past their own instrument.
Sharon: The song was more streamlined and more alternative rock than what we were doing before. We were looking at how we could be more minimal, and create more riff-based, melodic songs. Also, as the person who is writing the lyrics, it’s nice to get the encouragement and feedback from these guys. Getting help there is awesome, because it takes the pressure off, and I don’t have to do it alone.
NYMM: Tell me about the video for that song.
Michael: How many times have you seen a local band try to do something big, but it just comes across as lacking or a little cheesy? None of us have a huge budget to work with for videos. One of my friends in another band did a video entirely on an iPhone, and it turned out great; but those are the kinds of resources we have to work with. So our idea was to not try so hard to be super serious with it and to show instead the struggle itself.
Sharon: Listening to the phone and singing along with the track is the kind of thing that happens. I had this idea of shooting in this beautiful place with a waterfall, but when you get out there it just feels so stupid. You’re singing along with a phone, and you feel like an idiot; but that’s what happens, and so we decided to show it and to have fun with the awkwardness of being in that situation.
You can find more Dead Cures here:
Images by Jon Karr
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