Greetings from Metalheads Forever Magazine, I’m Keith Clement, how are you today?
Good. This is Jack Collins, guitarist.
Your debut -!- is set to be released on March 12, 2021, can you tell me about the production and songwriting behind this album?
That’s tough to sum up. The writing and recording process took course over the past few years. It’s a mix of songs produced by Jack and I, and Alex Newport, who did the first five songs on the record a couple years ago. He’s an insane producer, and he definitely helped bring those songs to a new light. Tom Dalgety mixed all but three songs I believe, two being mine and one other being Mike Troolines. It was kind of insane getting to work with Tom, being as he’s worked with literally some of my favorite bands. We recorded more than half of the drums at Sound Asylum in Santa Ana with Mike Troolines. He ended up mixing our track “.loveyoulikethat.”. Dude is a beast of an engineer and mixer. That place feels like home to us now.
The best way I can put the songwriting is it’s a collection of our stories over our time since moving to California after college. Jack wrote a majority of the lyrics but there was quite extensive collaboration on each song, sometimes to down to every little detail. As a result, the concepts crossed over to each of our own personal lives. The writing really is a journey through the things we’ve been through and things we’ve felt over the past few years.
What is the concept or theme that is set behind the album?
We’re just trying to do something that feels fresh to us. We don’t want to feel like anyone else. Every time we find ourselves in the same corner as another band, we try to dig ourselves out. I think a lot of people won’t get it. We’re just putting out whatever the fuck we think is the best. But it’s not aimless. It’s not random. It’s a feeling that’s hard to explain, what this album means. And the real meaning of it is up to you.
Can you tell me a bit about the album cover and the sign of the name?
Unfortunately no. It’s something you feel, not describe
A 16 track album fantastically put through, why did you choose to put it as a single album rather than a double album?
A few of the tracks are voice recordings, so they aren’t all full songs. It’s a journey. You’ll be able to tell by listening front to back.
I have seen at places you are asking about the feedback of the song, and how they feel about the song, any particular reason for putting those as part of the album?
It’s a journey into our world. The album isn’t us trying to tell you something. It’s just us, inside our own heads, inside our own dimension. Some people will understand and live in the same world, others won’t.
Can you tell me a brief introduction about the band and how it all started for you guys?
We formed at Berklee College of Music in Boston. It started with me trying to form a band for years. Eventually found these guys, and we hopped into the studio almost immediately with some ideas we’d been jamming for a couple months. That sort of marked the first chapter of us. Been at it for eight years I think now, still feels like the same crazy struggle it was then.
What do you call your genre?
Rock
What would be the next plan for Dead Poet Society?
Already demo’ing out songs for the next album. I’ve got a vision in my head for it and I’m beginning to obsess over it. Of course we have insane tour plans for this year too. Nothing we can announce other than download fest, which hopefully stays on.
What would be some of the great moments for the band?
Touring with Sputnik in Mexico for the first time was life changing. Every subsequent Mexico tour has been pretty amazing since. The tour we did with Andrés in 2019 was pretty magical being our first full US tour, then our US tour with Badflower that followed. That was yet again life changing. I mean man, there are a lot of great moments. Being in a band and actually touring was always like, my dream.
What would you like to say to your fans around the world?
-!-
