Dead Blue Sky

“Beneath The Autumn Sun,” the first track on Dead Blue Sky’s freshman album begins with controlled picking of classical acoustic guitar mixed with angelic near-castrato tenor of a vocalist who sings “Nothing I call love can clear away the clouds.”  This tender introduction lasts nearly long enough to have the listener double-checking the disc that’s in rotation.  

Never fear, the “clouds” of mangling metal, the blistering thunderous rhythm, and tumultuous, fierce vocals are on the horizon.  If that was enough, they whole thing is tinted pitch-black by dark and atmospheric keyboards.  But, this isn’t your hesher older brother’s Scandinavian black metal, nor is it your younger brother’s neck tattoo touting chugga-chugga hardcore.  Dead Blue Sky’s lyrics, which explore emotion rather than evil, and their title track, a thoughtful, atmospheric instrumental, is testament to this.  

Bettawreckonize caught up with these guys in early 2002 to get the scoop on their tour agenda and plans for world domination.

Interview conducted in person, February 2002.  Pictures by Victoria Moon.

Names: Aaron Hiser (guitar), Josh Conway (guitar)

Band: Dead Blue Sky

Tim: So is Goodlife Recordings, the label that signed you guys, based out of Europe?

Aaron: Belgium.

T: How did you get hooked up with them?

A: We recorded the two songs ("Reduced To A Whisper", "The Dawn of Everyday") that were originally put out on the seven inch and sent them off to a bunch of labels.  They were the only one that responded.  He was really excited to put it out.

T: Who did the artwork for the seven inch?

A: They did the entire layout.  We didn’t get to see it before it was released.  They were just like, “It looks sweet, we promise.  I hope you like it.”  They rushed it really, really fast.

T: Were you happy with it when you got it?

A: Absolutely not.

T: Were you not happy with the layout or….

J: It is a naked girl laying on a bed.

A: With a crooked picture of us on the back.

J: Augustus is written across it….we don’t even know who that is.  (laughter)

T: Who did the layout for the full-length, Symptoms of an Unwanted Emotion?

A: All the artwork that is inside the layout is from Eric Patton.  Those are his original paintings that we manipulated in Photoshop.  We had some disagreements with them about what the cover was going to be.  Edward from Goodlife wanted to use a picture of us and we didn’t want to be promoted that way.  We wanted to do something more artistic.  We had a painting for the front cover and what we compromised on was using the top portion of the photo, which was just the blue sky cutting all of us off of it, and just mixing it with the painting.  That is how we ended up with it.

T: Who did the photography for it?  Were those just promo shots then?

A: David Maki.  He goes to the Ohio Institute of Photography and Technology, OIPandT.  

T: He is a friend then?

A: He is a long-time friend of Josh.

J: We met back in high school in Springfield.  We didn’t go to the same high school, but we both went to school in the same town at the same time.

T: So your first tour will be in Europe?  When are you going there?

A: We are going in June and touring for three weeks to a month.  We’ll be back in late July.

T: Has Goodlife already established a fan base for you there?

A: We were thinking that Europe would be the best place to do our first tour since that is where most of our fans probably are.  Goodlife has the best distribution there.

J: You can get Goodlife Recordings stuff in stores there so it is a lot easier for kids to get a hold of it there then it is here.

A: I’m not sure who they go through in Europe, but they go through Lumberjack in the United States.

T: Do you know how well your album is selling in Europe then?

A: It sold out of the first-pressing in four months, about 3,000 copies, without playing any shows.

T: Why was there such a long-time between your last two shows, the show in April with Zao and your last show, a week ago?

J: We’ve had members that have quit on us…

A: We had a two member line-up change.  We have a new drummer and a new keyboard player. Alex Vernon and Matt Melinger that played on the full-length quit the band and we replaced them with different people. 

T: Who did you replace them with and where did they come from?

A: David Mann is playing drums and he played with Twelve Tribes on the Instrument CD and he also played bass in Rune.  Greg Lahm played guitar with Dead Limb Sleep…

J: And, he also played on the Rune seven inch.

T: Dead Limb Sleep had three guitar players right?

A: Yeah, he was one of the three guitar players in that band.  He drives up from Columbus to play with us.

T: Do you think that part of the success of the full-length was that when the seven inch came out that it was billed as ex-Morning Again?

A: Maybe at first.  Edward asked me when I was in Europe….we were trying to figure out the best way to promote the band and we’ve always been opposed to promoting it as ex members of Morning Again.  I though that when people hear this, the music will sell itself.  I knew it was going to be word-of-mouth and that it would take a little while, but I didn’t want to be an “ex-members of” band.  I think that we are offering something that is totally unique, and when people hear it, it will really catch on.  The music is something special.

J: When it comes down to it, none of us were original members of Morning Again,n just substituted in for one tour.

A: Yeah, I was just a scab for the European tour.

J: We didn’t have anything to do with writing any of the music.  That is why when I get e-mails from kids asking me to tell them about the Martyr album I say, “I don’t know anything about the Martyr album.” I wasn’t involved.  He wasn’t involved in that.  It was good when it came out, but now…

A: It was good for its time, but we are talking about us, so…

T: Dead Blue Sky is a totally different line-up now than the seven inch…

A: We are the only two original members from the seven inch.

T: Do you like those songs?

A: They were good songs when we wrote them…

J: We were still trying to feel each other out with our writing style.  Those were the first two songs that we’d written together….well actually Aaron and I were in another band where I sang and he played guitar.  I helped him write stuff, but know we are in a different band, where we both play guitar, and have to do two different things.  Those were the first two songs that we wrote together with two different guitar lines.

A: It has been a learning process all along. We’ve improved along the way as we’ve worked with each other.  The rest of the band has a lot of input on the new stuff too. 

T: Do you think that you’ll look back fondly, seeing what you’ve done with other lineups, as the natural progression of the band?  It seems like it would be unnatural to release a seven inch of the first two songs that you’ve written, and go right into recording a full-length with a changed line-up before establishing a strong rapport with them.  It will be either a really embarrassing history or really rewarding history, can you foresee which of those it will be for you?

A: I think it was a natural progression from one release to the next.  When we really took our time between the two….anybody that has heard both release can tell the difference.  We put a lot of thought into what we write and I think the seven inch is a good representation of where we were three years ago.  Fast forward to where we are now and the full-length is a good representation of that.

T: Was there some reasoning behind adding a keyboard player between the seven inch and the full-length?  Was he a friend or was that something you wanted all along? 

A: We kind of heard that all along.  It is hard to find a really good piano player that listens to metal.   People don’t grow up saying, “Oh my god, I’m training for this amazing metal band that I’m going to be in where I’ll play piano.”  We tried a few people out when we first started and it didn’t really work.  Nobody really knew what they were doing, but we got lucky with Matt.  He listens to a lot of electronic music and has brought some good influences.  We lucked out with Greg again.  He is a little more talented and he brings a lot of good influences.

T: One of the few things that is out there about you on the internet says that your sound is very European-sounding metal.  I can hear it with a lot of the high-end soloing that isn’t typical of a lot of the more popular US chugga, chugga hardcore bands.

A: They do what they do with brute force and we do what we do with melody. That is the big difference.

T: Would you say that your influence is rooted in metal like Emperor and other blackmetal bands that have a lot of soloing?

J: We have a ton of different influences.  You can ask each member what they are influenced by.  I am influenced by classical, metal, country, rock and roll….really a wide variety of music.  It is endless.

A: I am inspired by great composers, really talented metal guitar players, but then I also like bluegrass.  It is the speed-metal of country music.

J: Anything that is melodic and emotionally driven….I like my aggressive music too, but…

A: Anything that is really emotional and melodic is inspiring.

T: I think what sets Dead Blue Sky apart from other metal and hardcore bands is that there are a lot of compelling dynamics in the music.  Would you agree that that is the main difference between you and your musical peers?

A: I think that the lyrics and the album tell a personal story.  The way the music evolves does the same thing.  They are epic metal songs that don’t have a lot of repetition.  The music tells are story as it changes from one part to the next.

J: A lot of people say that we sound like a black metal group, but they are all about evil stuff like witches and death.  Ours are love stories and are about personal things that go on in our lives.

A: I really don’t know what people in Europe will expect….whether they’ll want us to paint our faces and burn down churches or what. (laughter)

T: Just from taking the sound at face value?

A: Yeah.  We just look like average kids.  You would never know, you know?

T: So, where are you guys going to play in Europe?  What is the itinerary so far?

A: Goodlife says that they’ve booked two weeks of the tour.  It is probably going to be about a month.  So far they have shows in Germany, Belgium, England and Ireland.  Pretty soon they will pass the job along to a booking agent so they can get the contracts established with the promoters so we will have a place to sleep, some food to eat, and some money to cover the expenses like our plane tickets, the cost of renting a van and all our equipment.  It is really risky.

T: Are you going to try to do clubs or…

A: We are hoping to do some bigger clubs and bars.  A full sound is important to us.  We also want to be on as many festivals as possible so that we can play for as many people as possible and spread the word.

T: What will happen after the tour?

A: We’d like to start thinking about the next album as soon as we get back.  We want to work on a lot of new material.  We are also going to try to do as many weekends as possible.  Three of us are college students now, so all we can do is weekend tours.  We also don’t have a van so we’ll have to rent a van.  That is pretty expensive.  Because our CD is hard to get, we have to hit the road and bring it to them ourselves.  We have a couple really good shows coming up.  March 1 and 2 we are playing in Long Island and Philly.  The long island show is with Today is the Day and Burnt By The Sun and the Philly show should be pretty good.  We’ve gotten really good responses on PAHardcore and the Sharpshooter and some of the other web sites.  Ten out of ten ratings, best band ever, stuff like that.  We are hoping to play to a lot of kids.

T: To be in your twenties and to be a more mature rocker you have to be both involved in making music and being part of the music business.  Does being involved in the business end cheapen making music for you at all?

A: Everybody is in the band for a different reason.  My favorite thing is writing music with Josh.  Writing music with this kid in my bedroom is just as rewarding as playing in front of 2,000 kids.  I am looking forward to get a chance to travel.  I’d like to see Europe and Japan and Australia with this band and hopefully that can happen.

J: I feel the same way.   Meeting this guy and playing music with him is the best thing that has ever happened to me in my life.  He has brought out the best in me and I don’t feel like I could’ve written any of this without him.  We make a great combination.  I’ve never been out of the United States and I’m really excited to do some traveling.  I have dreamed about this since I was a little kid listening to old Metallica records.  I always wished I could do something like this and this is my opportunity to go out and do it.

T: Do you have any other plans for the future?

J: We plan to do a 10 inch live picture disc at Chris Common’s studio.  It will be a live show the first weekend in March.  There is a label in Italy called Vacation House Records that wants to put it out.  We plan on making it a two or three dollar show and kids who come out to it will be in the pictures.

A: Anybody who is willing to sit through are set as many times as it takes to get the songs right.

J: There is a possibility that we will also play a new song that we’ve been working on so they can here what the up and coming stuff will sound like.

A: That same label will probably release the vinyl version of our full-length as well.  It will also have an alternative layout to what Goodlife did and we’ll have more control over it.  We are really excited about that.  We are trying to get as much fresh merchandise out as we can before we go to Europe so we’ll have something new for the kids.