Burn To Shine
Following graduation from college I took a full-time job in Cleveland, Ohio, working 16-hour days for a “non-profit” organization. One evening, following a particularly exhausting day at work, I lit a few candles and settled in for some television. I woke up to the sound of my fire alarm at 3:00 am surrounded by black smoke. The next four months was spent recovering from second and third degree burns to my feet. In the aftermath of this accidental fire I learned a lot about pain and perseverance. The emotions that came in the wake of this experience were unlike I’d ever faced before. I was a “survivor” and I was finally determined to make some changes; this was my second chance.

Listening to The Dream Is Dead’s recorded material, it becomes apparent to me that these guys are facing the aftermath of their own “fires.” With every aggressive riff, pummeling beat, and throat-splitting scream, this Indiana foursome purges the third-degree pains associated with friends who’ve betrayed them or taken their own life, a government who’s taken advantage of them, and “The American Dream,” which continues to poison and destroy the majority of the world around them. Though their fast and furious roots hardcore approach is filled with venom and fury, there is a message that runs far deeper than simple apathy here. TDID’s music and message is a wake-up call, a rally-song, and a second chance for those of us who’ve temporarily lost the will to push for real progress and our have forgotten the sound of our own dissenting voices.

Bettawreckonize contacted TDID singer and longtime friend Clark Giles to discuss how they’ve been burned, how they’ve persevered, and how they’ve chosen to approach their unique and empowering brand of personal and political hardcore.

Interview conducted via e-mail by Tim Anderl. Photos by Lisa Thompson.

Name: Clark Giles (vocals)
Band: The Dream Is Dead

Bettawreckonize: The Dream is Dead has been a pretty prolific band having already released two EPs, and splits with Premonitions of War and Find Him and Kill Him. How easy or difficult was it for the members of TDID to find a common vision and run with it?

Clark: Small correction, the split with Premonitions of War actually isn't out yet but they are recording for it on March 20th. It was supposed to be out a long time ago but I think situations with Premonition's lineup changes plus their signing with Victory Records kind of delayed things a bit. We are still super excited about the split though and hopefully it will be out in time for this summer's tour.

Finding a common vision hasn't been that difficult. It is just kind of an understanding between the members of the band. They aren't going to write music that I totally can't sing over and I'm not going to write lyrics of a natural that would make the band's current lineup seem hypocritical. We all pretty much have the same views in regards to what hardcore means to us and in our desire to inject DIY politics into the music that we make. The fact that the Dream is Dead stands for "something" is what makes playing in the band so fun for us I think. On the flipside though, there are topics that obviously I'd like to write about because they are important to me (like veganism for example) that I end up avoiding because I don't feel we all agree on that issue. We might agree on bits and pieces of it but I've always kind of thought that it was a little disingenuous of a band to have like a song about vegetarianism when all the rest of the band ate meat or a song about straight-edge being played by a band where half the members were stoned. There are more than enough topics out there in the world that we all agree on than subjects upon which we differ so I just focus on those and the "common vision" just comes naturally.

BW: Only one of your past releases has dropped via your HCNL label? Why has the band chosen to team with other labels for its releases?

C: Well, when we started out, I think personally it was a combination of wanting to prove that the band could stand on its own terms and wanting to avoiding any potential inter-band conflicts that could arise from putting out my own band. You know, say the Dream is Dead exploded, I wouldn't want the other bands on HCNL to ever feel like I promoted my band over theirs or if the tables were reversed and every band on HCNL just took off except TDID, I didn't want anyone in my own band to feel like I was somehow deprioritizing my own project for some reason. It just complicated things too much. We knew the guys from What Else? and Escape Artist and they both wanted to do records and we wanted to do records with them so it all just kind of worked out and fell into place. Plus, I didn't have to spend any money, haha.

BW: The first TDID full-length release going to drop on Escape Artist later this year, right? Is that album all written and recorded?

C: I can only dream. We have half the album written. Nothing has been recorded yet, we don't even know where we are recording or with whom. I'll leave that up to the other guys, they care about such things a lot more than I do. My only thing is that I have to feel comfortable with whoever is recording us and they have to know where we are coming from in terms of our sound and our politics. As far as I know, the album is still coming out on Escape Artist. Ideally, this fall but that could be some wishful thinking on my part looking at our upcoming touring schedule.

BW: Two founding members of The Dream Is Dead have had to leave the band (Alex and Jason)? What were the circumstances behind those splits and how are the new guys working out?

C: I think the band is in our prime right now. McCash (Jason) had to leave after the last tour due to family obligations. It was a real blow to the band to see him go, especially since he has been my best friend for many years. We completely understood his reasoning though and looking back, it was probably best for the band because we aren't restricted now touring wise like we used to be. I'll chalk up our original drummer leaving to "creative/personal" differences. We are still great friends and his new band Project Bottlecap are awesome. I try to catch every show that they play here in Indianapolis. Some friends just work well in bands together, others don't. The original lineup just wasn't the best mix personality-wise over long periods of time in the van. Everything is golden now though.

BW: This is going to be a big year for TDID with US and European Tours planned for the Summer and Fall? Who are you going out with and where are you going?

C: Early March, we are going out with Phoenix Bodies for a few days. Then the next month, we are going out for three weeks by our lonesome. We tried to find an appropriate band to tour with us but the two bands we asked never bothered to even get back to us with a "fuck you" so whatever. Luckily, we are hooking up with the Plot to Blow Up the Eiffel Tower halfway through the tour for a string of dates so that should rule. Not sure what is up with this summer, but we'll be around and playing some shows. We are playing a number of fests I know like Not Much More Than Music in Ohio and Dude Fest here in the Circle City. Then in September, we are headed off to Europe with our bros in the Plot again. I can't wait for this tour. Hopefully, we don't end up in a Turkish prison.

BW: How many times has TDID toured already? To date, who have been your best tour mates?

C: We've toured three times for more than a couple of weeks at a time (I'm not counting limitless "weekend excursions"), it would be hard to pick our best tour mates. I'd say we had a non-stop blast with Guyana Punchline last year but I'd hate to declare them "best tour mates" because we've toured with so many awesome bands: Premontions of War, Find Him and Kill Him, Downpour, Phoenix Bodies, Anodyne, Suicide Note, etc. They all rule...we have never toured with a bad band actually. We have been really lucky in that regard.

BW: Do you think that music can still affect some social change or at least be a positive catalyst?

C: Definitely, I mean, I'm living proof. Most of my political awareness today comes from my initial interest being sparked by punk rock in my teenage years. In regards to today, I really see things coming back around with the kids here in Indianapolis. I'm seeing tabling at shows regularly (which I haven't seen for years!) and I get really awesome emails from kids all of the time thanking me and the band for things that we say between songs and benefit shows that we play. It is just really inspiring for me to see punk rock standing up and being about something again instead of just being the realm of badly-written metal lyrics and Hot Topic-core about some failed teenage relationship. Look at sites like Punkvoter.com that Fat Mike from NOFX started up. One of the newest HCNL bands Tamora did a tour recently that PETA2 helped promote. I went to one of their shows in Florida where they were showing "Meet Your Meat" at their merch table and a group of young kids were standing around genuinely interested in what the film had to say. We just put together a benefit show here in Indianapolis with a little over a week's notice and got 146 kids out for all local bands. That's amazing to me, especially after seeing hardcore and punk become increasingly more soul-less and watered-down for so long.

BW: Do you see music as a “peaceful protest” or as a more aggressive means of dissent?

C: I guess music itself is peaceful in that no "direct action" is being taken at a concert but if it can act as a catalyst for more aggressive means of dissent (not necessarily violent of course, something that I'm against in general) then I think protest music has done its part.

BW: Are you finding hardcore ethos more or less relevant the older you get?

C: I'm finding the ethos as relevant as ever. The scene and the people who make it up waxes and wanes of course in my estimation as does the meaning of the label "hardcore" as a genre especially as it becomes increasingly commercialized. The core ethos of hardcore, however, remains: take pride in yourself, stand on your own two feet, question everything, don't let others dictate to you what you can do for yourself, etc. No matter how saturated the hardcore scene becomes with boy bands and rockstar wanna-bes, there will always be bands out there staying true to the roots of the genre. As Find Him and Kill Him say in their new CD, "If it is in your heart, Punk is Forever". I believe that too.

BW: Is it awkward for a band like The Dream Is Dead, that operates by a certain set of ethics, to receive exposure in magazine’s like Revolver, or other magazine’s that have “centerfolds?”

C: No, if those magazines want to cover us and give me space to talk about sexism in hardcore and how complacent our scene has become in challenging our attitudes towards gender, race, and sexuality in this country then more power to them. I'm not going to pull any punches though in the interview. We aren't giving them any money to cover us and I've never bought a TDID ad in a magazine to get coverage like some labels so if they want to do a piece on us, I can at least give them some respect for talking to someone that might have a different viewpoint about the state of modern heavy music and how women/gays are portrayed by some magazines, labels, and bands. In really makes me more disgusted when "hardcore" labels and bands resort to "sex sells" tactics to push their records more than when some corporate magazine that is probably a subsidiary of some larger media conglomerate does so...I mean, I at least expect such bullshit from them.

BW: What was your reaction to Express using the cover art for your Letter of Resignation EP as the graphic art for price tags on their “Rodeo Punk” line of jeans?

C: It sucks but we don't have money to fight them over it so basically we just have to chalk it up to a learning experience about how big business works. As long as kids know that our record came out first, then that is enough for me. If we had known when we talked with Shepard Fairey about doing the artwork for us that there would have been any chance that Express Jeans (or any multinational corporation) would end up with our cover art for one of their product lines, we would have walked right then. I'm not pissed at Shepard, I'm not sure if he even has control over the licensing of his artwork anymore (nor is it my business or concern) but I just wish I had known that such an event was a possibility before we ever agreed to use that image as our debut EP's cover art. He charged us next to nothing for the artwork so I don't want to seem ungrateful or like I'm upset with him at all because I am really not. I just wish that I had understood that the possibility of re-licensing the image was part of the deal. That has never been the case with any record I have put out on HCNL and the artists involved with those releases so I guess the mistake lies with the band and the label for being naive as to how the "corporate world" works. In summary, it sucks but that EP is long out of print now so we can sit around and whine about something we can't change or work on writing a new slab of politically-charged aural destruction. We choose the latter.

BW: As an aside, would you mind telling us about the metal label you’re putting together?

C: Sure, it is called Blood of Tyrants. It will be an sub-imprint of HCNL that I am doing with my old TDID band mate Jason McCash. Basically, McCash has always wanted to do a label and being best friends, I wanted us to still be involved in projects together even after he had to quit the band. Well, currently in Indianapolis, there is a lot of overlap between the metal/hardcore/punk scenes and there was one band here in particular that I really wanted their record to be heard but just didn't think that they would be a good fit for the typical fan base of HCNL. I try to mix things up a bit in general with HCNL releases but I just thought this was a situation where marketing the band to my traditional audience wouldn't help the band one bit but there are currently no metal labels in Indianapolis (or at least none that can step up and do for the metal scene in Indianapolis what labels like Witching Hour, Catalyst, and HCNL have done for the hardcore/punk scenes). Well, Jason has always been a metalhead at heart so we started kicking around the idea of an imprint label and that's how Blood of Tyrants came about. I won't list every release that we have planned here but I'll just mention some of the ones coming out in the next few months. We are super stoked to be releasing a Hidden Hand split with Wooly Mammoth as a split label release with McCarthyism records. The Hidden Hand features the legendary Wino from St. Vitus/the Obsessed who also recently appeared on Dave Grohl's Probot project. We are also doing a Place of Skulls EP called Love Through Blood with four exclusive tracks. Place of Skulls is Victor Griffin formerly of Pentagram's new band and they just smoke. They just released a full length last year on Southern Lord records and have been touring like madmen ever since. Then like HCNL, we have to give a nod to our hometown artists with releases by The Gates of Slumber and Demiricous so look for all of those this summer. Also, the label will be sponsoring what I would call arguably the largest exclusively Doom Metal fest in the United States this June here in Indianapolis. The fest will be called Templars of Doom and you can see a couple of the artists on Blood of Tyrants records at the fest. It is a metal fest with punk ethics and prices so come on out if you like the music. We have some truly legendary performers this year. For more info: http://www.templarsofdoom.com/

And on a completely unrelated topic but just because it is on my mind and a subject near and dear to my heart: President Bush today declared his support of a Constitutional Amendment to define marriage as a "union between a man and a women.” I wrote a long piece and posted it on the HCNL.com site as to why I think this is utter bullshit. If anyone is interested in reading it, you can find it there on the NEWS page.

Thanks for the interview Tim. Rock on and everyone should check out a new band from Indy called Harper's Ferry Arsenal, they are doing and saying some really great things during and between their songs right now.