The Dead South return home to share stories of new melodies

Dead South return home with new melodies Friday’s show marks the return of one of the province’s biggest success stories over the last several years.

SASKATOON – Friday’s show marks the return of one of the province’s biggest success stories over the last several years. The upbeat lyrical melodies of the folk and bluegrass sound provided by The Dead South will be on display at TCU Place. The Dead South spoke with CTV Saskatoon’s Joseph Bernacki about their success and influence in Saskatchewan recording their first three albums, songwriting and clothing inspiration and funny memories putting music videos and traveling together along the way. This interview has been edited for length and clarity.

When looking back on the band’s first album release in 2014, Good Company, did you see the group become a massive success story for the province that it has today?

Nate Hills: Absolutely not, when we first released that album we had no idea what to expect. We were playing in Regina mostly and a little bit of Alberta. To be now playing around the world, even coming home playing Saskatoon and Regina in the nice theatre settings it’s amazing.

Growing up in Saskatchewan, who were some of your influences both Canadian and American in the folk and bluegrass genre?

Scott Pringle: I had honestly never listened to bluegrass before joining this band so I didn’t have any.

Danny Kenyon: I’d have to say I’d be the same response as Scott.

Colton Crawford: I didn’t listen to a ton of bluegrass either. When I met Nate we started getting in to Trampled By Turtles and Old Crow Medicine Show which are kind of like that new contemporary newgrass, sometimes they’re called. Before that I was a big punk and metal guy, I think Nate probably had the most country and bluegrass influence.

It seems like you guys have had a lot of fun making music videos over the past couple of years. Share a couple of thoughts on songs like In Hell I’ll Be In Good Company and your new single Diamond Ring?

Nate: In Hell I’ll Be In Good Company, the way that one started actually was kind of funny. We had a jam with just Colton, Danny and myself. Scott either couldn’t make it or forgot about it (chuckles). We had the idea to start a song with just banjo and cello and Danny started whistling the melody to it and all of a sudden he just popped out the words and everything fit so perfectly.

Colton: Diamond Ring was one of the earliest ones that we kind of started working on in the new batch of songs we just released. Both the videos were done with Two Brothers Films, they’re friends of ours from Regina and they’re awesome to work with. Obviously you can tell they make awesome videos.

What was it like In Hell I’ll Be In Good Company traveling across Canada to film that music video?

Danny: That was fun. We were just on the way to Europe but we stopped in Toronto for a few days and we decided it would be a good idea to film a couple of music videos. We actually did Banjo Odyssey and In Hell at the same time. We only did half of In Hell, so we got back from Europe and then we filmed the rest of it in Regina.

For fans of your music, talk a little bit about songwriting inspiration. I know you guys write a lot of your own material, some of your songs have a bit of a darker tone to them, where do you get your inspiration from?

Nate: I’d say some of the inspiration comes from old bluegrass, even old novels and movies, Tarantino films. For some reason we’re quite attracted to the tragedies but also the humour side of everything. In terms of songwriting in general, we sit down together or someone comes up with a little riff or maybe even a whole song and everyone puts their hands on it. Then we mould what we have.

I’ve noticed you’ve taken a lot of inspiration from a classic western film in many a song. How does your group look to the film industry for writing songs?

Colton: I think film is a huge inspiration on us. We’ve been saying since the start it would be awesome to do a soundtrack at some point. I think it would be a lot of fun. We love horror films, spaghetti western films, not only the films and the stories themselves but the soundtracks as well.

Off Illusion & Doubt, I’ve found as a listener, Deadman’s Isle stands out as one of the most lyrically creative songs your group has recorded, what was the inspiration behind this track?

Scott: That was just a goofy story that I wrote about a guy who got too drunk and couldn’t drive himself home so he got his dog to it for him and it didn’t turn out as well for him as originally planned.

To this day traveling from city to city, what has been your favourite song to perform in concert?

Colton: Lately I’ve been really enjoying Snake Man and Boots would be my two favourites. I love playing those two.

Your new album Sugar & Joy, what made your group decide to bookend the album with instrumental tracks?

Colton: We kind of had this idea originally to have the album sort of loop around so it started where it ended. If you had the album on Spotify or on a CD, it would just repeat so the album would be in a cycle. It turns out it’s a lot harder to make it just loop like that, so we just decided to have two similar sounding kind of a fade in and fade out instrumental track related to one another but aren’t connected.

Tell me about the recording process behind new songs like Broken Cowboy and Spaghetti?

Scott: Broken Cowboy was recorded a little bit differently than most of the other songs on the album. It was a song that Nate had originally written and it was his own song. We were trying to get him to want to share it with us and use it on the album. He ended up recording that whole thing just acoustic and vocals by himself. We all added our own bits over top of it afterwards to kind of maintain the quality of Nate’s story.

The rainfall ambiance you can hear in the backing track of Spaghetti, what was that like to add in to the recording?

Scott: That was pretty neat. We were in the middle of a session and Jimmy our producer just stopped all of a sudden and said “hey guys hold on,” and we stopped and listened and you could hear the thunder outside and the rain pouring. We brought the microphones out on to the street and recorded the sound, came back in, finished recording the song and kept the rain over top of it.

I noticed in the inner lining notes on the new release, you recorded the entire album in Alabama. What was it like recording in the deep south?

Nate: It was great, it was awesome. To go somewhere where there’s just a ton of legends that have played there and still live there. There’s something in the air there we like couldn’t stop writing or jamming the whole time. It was just the perfect environment for where we needed to be to get it done.

What did it mean to the band to win Group of the Year at this year’s Canadian Independent Music Awards?

Colton: I wasn’t there so … (Colton and Nate laugh) it was pretty cool.

Nate: It was great. Actually every time we’ve won an award, I haven’t been present for it. That was the first time that I actually got to go and accept one. We got this trophy and a record, and my record actually fell out and smashed. But it smashed in the coolest way that it became the best wall piece I had.

What can fans expect at tonight’s show?

Danny: We have a pretty cohesive show, lots of nice visuals.

Scott: Lots of new lights and some dust cannons, it’ll be fun.

Nate: Oh, it’s going to be a time!

Colton: New lights, new songs and lots of energy!

Have any of you guys seen the 1993 western Tombstone, I find your western attire is very resembling of the film’s cast? Talk about your western attire that you guys have been wearing since the beginning?

Colton: Oh yeah, we actually haven’t been using since day one. We started off whenever we’d play a show we’d have a theme so we’d all wear either a plaid shirt or the same toque or something like that. One night we just went with the buttoned down white shirts and suspenders and then from there we kind of liked that, so that one stuck. We kept wearing the shirt and suspenders and each person kind of added their own flare of the hats and ties and that kind of thing.