DREDG’S GAVIN HAYES; THE METALSUCKS INTERVIEW

Dredg are one of those bands who completely defy categorization but who are unconditionally beloved by a whole army of devoted fans. Myself included; I can honestly say they’re one of my favorite bands to emerge over the past 10 or so years. They’re also a band that continually evolves from release to release, and though their sound has steadily moved away from metal since 1998’s heavier but overall less consistent Leitmotif they still maintain enough “heavy” elements in their sound to keep fans of that kind of music interested in their modern, more experimental fare.

Dredg are currently on tour with Circa Survive, Codeseven and Animals as Leaders (!). Having recently announced a new label in Superball Music they’ve got a new album on the way too, which singer Gavin Hayes thinks will come out around March of 2011. The album was produced by hip-hop guru Dan the Automator, certainly not an obvious choice for a rock band but one that makes perfect sense for a genre-pushing band like Dredg. With the tour currently out on the road, said album nearing completion and a new record label putting it out, now seemed like the perfect opportunity to catch up with frontman Gavin Hayes.

Our chat, post jump.

You guys are just getting started on this tour you’re on right now?

Yeah, we’re about a week in, I guess.

How have the dates been so far?

It’s been great actually. All the shows have been cool, and I think all of them have been sold out. The crowds have been receptive. Haven’t heard of any complaints.

That’s awesome. How did this tour come together? It’s a really interesting mix of bands I would say. I don’t know if you would agree with that, but I certainly think it’s a cool mix. How did it all come together?

Circa Survive, we’ve toured with them in the past as well as Codeseven. Circa Survive pretty much put the tour together. I think they did it based on us touring and having history with them in the past as well as Codeseven. It’s kind of like a reunion tour for all three of us. Animals as Leaders found out about it through a friend or someone showed it to [Circa Survive], and they just thought it was instrumental and thought it would make a great opener. They’re a pretty interesting band. Based on what they were stylistically and how talented they were and stuff.

Yeah, I definitely wanted to ask you about Animals as Leaders because I’m a big fan of those guys. Us coming from the sort of metal side of the spectrum which is what we do, and you guys being sort of a band that we cover but that definitely some metalheads would object to. How’re Animals as Leaders going over on this tour?

They’re going over really well I think. I haven’t seen them have a bad night. I think just the technical aspects of what they do are enough to make it really interesting live. I think they’ve had some fans out as well, which always helps. We’re sharing a bus with them, so we got to know them pretty quickly. They’re good people, amazing musicians. I think it’s very fitting for the tour actually.

So if you guys go out on a tour like this, are you hoping to pick up new fans or just kind of play to your existing fans? What really is the goal?

The goal is to have people hear you that have never heard you. We haven’t done a tour like this since 2006. We’ve been headlining or co-headlining since then. That’s why when the opportunity arose, it was actually perfect timing because we’re putting a record out in March, or sometime around then. It’s kind of a good starting point for that and to hopefully gain some new listeners.

You guys have been touring quite a lot over the past 2 years it seems like. It seems every couple of months I look into the paper and see that Dredg are coming through New York again – which is awesome. Is it taking its toll on you or do you love it?

I like it. Obviously I’m getting a little older and we’ve been doing it for a long time. We know what to expect. There’s really no surprises out here. We actually haven’t been touring for about a year because we were writing and recording our record. We did about a 10 show run in California. I think that was in May or something. The 2 years prior to that we were . . . we almost did too many tours [Laughs] to be honest. We were pretty burnt out after that. It was pretty much nonstop touring and just hopping from tour to tour and going back and forth between the U.S. and Europe. We wrote this record a lot faster and recorded a lot quicker than we ever have turned over a record cycle. Basically I think we’re going to have the same approach with our touring. We did this tour, probably do a headliner or maybe a co-headlining slot or supporting slot that comes our way soon. Around the time we release the record, we’ll do a tour then and probably one overseas, maybe one more in New York and then probably just start working on a new record again.

I think it’s just the way things are now. It’s to the band’s advantage to turn over more product. We kind of made that mistake in the past where we’ve taken too long between records. You’re keeping your name out.

I definitely agree with you that it seems like bands are turning over album cycles faster and faster these days. Do you think that is a good thing for music in general or do you think it’s a detriment to the art?

I think it’s a good thing. It’s already a business. It’s oversaturated and it’s harder and harder to separate yourself from the amount of bands that are out. Anything you can do to present more opportunities, which would be writing more material. It worked for the Beatles, I guess. As long as the band’s happy with what they’re putting out, I think it’s fine. I don’t think we’d ever throw something out just because of the time period or whatever. We wrote this record, I was living in Seattle at the time, the rest of the band were in California. A lot of it was written remotely by E-mailing stuff back and forth. It was a little different approach. I think we’re just a lot more spontaneous with the songwriting and even the recording as well (which I’m pretty stoked on). It’s got a rawness to it that some of our other records haven’t had — at least in a while. I’m pretty happy with the approach, at least as of now.

So you wrote the entire thing remotely?

Pretty much. There was about a 2 week period where I think I went back down to California twice – each for about a week. We recorded as a band and wrote as a band. The rest was literally just E-mailing files back and forth and working on ProTools and Garage Band and stuff.

That’s amazing. I know it’s not just you guys, a lot of bands do it that way these days with members all over the world. Do you think that in anyway affects the way that the music comes out for better or for worse?

Yeah, for us, definitely. We have written songs like that in the past on old records. To me they added a much different feel because you lose a little bit of that band in the room, 4 guys jamming together. It is more just a layering. We wanted to approach this record differently. We did it with Dan the Automator. He’s more from the hip-hop world. This record is pretty different for us. Even when we started writing it, we had a different approach to the writing. I feel like the songs that we wrote together as a band are pretty… to me at least… they tend to be more of the rockier songs and have that feeling of 4 people in the room. Obviously we’re a rock band and we want to retain some of those aspects.

What was it like working with Dan? I can only think of a small handful of rock records that he’s done and they’ve all definitely been interesting ones.

Yeah. He did a remix of one of our songs in ’05 or ’06. I actually became pretty good friends with him after that. We talked for years about working together on something. It just seemed like the timing was right for him to work with Dredg and we wanted to do something different. We’re fans of a lot of his records. As I said, it was spontaneous. The recording process was way different than what we’re used to. We did all the drums in 2 days.

Wow.

Bass and drums, a lot of the guitar in 2 or 3 days. We only spent 3 days in an actual studio and the rest . . . he owns a home in San Francisco that he’s converted into his home studio. The majority of it was done there. Even a lot of the tracks we’re using like the stuff that we did on our own on the computer and everything, he was like “dude, these sound great. Why are you trying to redo them? They’re probably not going to beat it anyhow. It works with the song.” It’s cool. It’s really different. It was comfortable. We knew each other already and knew what to expect.

From a sonic standpoint, how is this record? Let me change that – from any perspective, how is this record different from the last record or any record before it?

I think it’s a lot different honestly than anything we’ve done. There are certain elements of older records that kind of sound like this record, but I think where Dan comes in, he’s like a hip-hop producer so there is some of those loopy undertones to things. We did live drums to everything, but there are loops under the drums. I’d say rhythmically, it’s a very rhythmic focused record. We’re mixing it right now, so it’s not totally done but from the mixes I’ve gotten so far, it’s very bass heavy and drum heavy. There’s a lot of interesting stuff going on. There’s a lot of ear candy things. [Laughs] We’re kind of laughing. “Now we need to know how to put this together in a live sense.”

You guys have always had certain elements of some of those [electronic] things in your sound.

Yeah. I don’t think it’s way out of left field, but I don’t know how to explain it exactly. It’s got a different feeling and there’s a certain rawness to it. Dan’s very into performance over perfection, so if something feels good to him he’s like “just leave it”. I was tripping like “ah it’s a little…” or the phrasing was wrong. He was like “no, it feels so much better than the take before where it was actually sung better”. It’s cool. It’s a way different approach. He comes from the old school that way which now I dig after listening to it more. I think it’s definitely a feeling record. We’ll see. We just wanted to do something different, so I’m curious to how people are going to react to it.

Yeah. You guys have never been a band that did the same thing twice. All your records have been a gradual evolution from the prior ones. I feel like at this point, anybody who is still with you is in it for the long haul, so to speak.

[Laughs] Yeah, I agree.

You guys also have a new record label this time around. Did that happen before, during or after the record was completed?

We actually just finalized the deal recently. It was happening during the whole process. It wasn’t something where they had to hear the record. They hadn’t even heard it yet. It was more like us getting the deal together. We actually just signed it a week or two ago. We’re still with the same label overseas – we’re on Universal Germany over there. Now we’re with Superball [in the U.S.]. They’re going to cover all the markets that Universal Germany doesn’t – [they only cover] Austria, Switzerland and Germany. It’s kind of cool. We’re going to have our record on shelves in the U.K. which we’ve never had and a lot of the other surrounding markets. I think even some presence in Asia and Australia as well. We’re pretty excited about that.

You guys had some sort of weird deal with ILG here in the States on the last one?

Yeah. We just signed a one record deal. We were almost running our own label through them, and they were the distributor. They were our label, but it was kind of more of partnership. That was only a one record deal. We changed it up, mixing it up this time.

Was that not working out for you or you just wanted to try something new?

It was fine, but I think we just wanted to try something new. That’s been the whole approach to this record in general.  [Superball] actually came to us and seemed pretty passionate about the band. They knew a lot about the band. Our friends Trail of Dead are on the label and they had a lot of good things to say about them. We trust their opinion. They’re pretty picky about the direction they take. I feel like we’ve taken similar paths. We were on Interscope together and toured with them overseas. We just trust what they have to say. They seem really happy there, and I felt that spoke volumes.

We know some of those guys at that label as well. I know for a fact that they were fans of you guys before the idea of doing a record with you was ever even on the table. I think that it’ll probably work out for you well. I certainly think the machinery of a label like that is a lot better suited to work with a band like you guys than a major label.

Yeah, I agree. That’s all we’re looking for was for people who cared about the band and knew what we’re about and wanted to work hard — even if it’s from a smaller perspective. I feel that kind of passion will be more beneficial to your career than a monster label who doesn’t work for you as much as acts that are much bigger and more lucrative to them. I’m pretty happy. I’m excited to see what happens.

Awesome. Congratulations. I’m certainly looking forward to catching you guys on tour when you come through. I can’t wait to hear the new record.

Cool, man. We’re wrapping up the mixes right now. We’re still kind of tweaking away on that. It looks like we’re on schedule to release it late winter or early spring. You might hear it well before then, but that’s fine. It’s expected.

[Laughter]

I suppose. Thanks for taking the time. I really appreciate it.

Yeah, no problem.

-VN