Interview by Rachel Jablonski
In anticipation of the band’s latest album, Gasoline, which will be released March 29th, I spoke with bassist Dean Back of Theory of a Deadman. The relaxed conversation revealed a very friendly guy who is excited and proud of his band’s latest work. Currently on tour with Shinedown, I was to see the band perform January 26th at the Val Air Ballroom in Des Moines, Iowa. Unfortunately, to my regret, I was not able to make drive to Des Moines from Cedar Rapids, Iowa due to significantly icy roads that particular evening. As will be apparent in the conversation to follow, no one should have any trouble catching the band live this year (icy roads aside) and I will no doubt have the opportunity to see the band soon.
Rachel: Where are you at right now?
Dean: Where are we? We are in Tulsa, Okalahoma.
Rachel: What’s the weather like there right now?
Dean: Uh, she’s not too bad yet as soon as the sun goes down though it’s going to be damn cold and windy. We were in Oklahoma City last night and froze our asses off.
Rachel: Yeah, it sucks. I’m in Iowa and I hate it.
Dean: Iowa. Aren’t we coming to Des Moines?
Rachel: Yeah, I’m going to see you next Wednesday I think.
Dean: Cool! Yeah the 26th at the Val Air Ballroom.
Rachel: Yep, pretty cool. I’m hoping there is good weather because I have to drive a little ways to get there from Cedar Rapids, which is where I am. But we’ll see.
Dean: Do you guys have snow up there?
Rachel: Yeah, it snowed a couple of days ago, but it’s not too bad.
Dean: We’re Canadians, we can handle the snow.
Rachel: What do you have planned for the day?
Dean: Today? There’s nothing really. Probably hang out at a mall [laughs], do sound check, make some food… those are all the chores of the day.
Rachel: How is the tour with Shinedown going?
Dean: It’s going really well. The Shinedown guys are awesome guys. We are getting to know each other and everybody’s a pretty big family out here. It’s a lot of fun. So far all the rooms have been sold out and all the kids love making the shows so no complaints here.
Rachel: When I come see you what can I expect from your performance?
Dean: Loud, high energy, we like to have the fun and get the crowd involved. We just put everything out on stage, leave it all out there.
Rachel: Is every show different? Do you have a common set at the moment?
Dean: Well we’ve been on the road for over a year now and this will be our fourth show after a year so we’ve been rehearsing the same set right now, but as we get on the road a little bit more we’ll be switching up the set a bit and having some more fun. Now that we’ve got the second album we have a lot more songs to draw on. With the Shinedown boys, they like to rock it out so we sort of went through our set and pulled out most of our rock tunes. There’s a little slow tempo song in the middle, but we basically put out the rock show.
Rachel: What’s your theory of a deadman?
Dean: Wow that changes with who you ask, but the name of our band was drawn off a song we had off the first album which got changed in the studio. It was called “Theory of a Deadman” and now it’s called “The Last Song.” It is basically about someone who is having a rough go and is contemplating suicide. He’s thinking about the positive aspects of life and what he’s going to miss.
Rachel: The new album’s called Gasoline. Is this going to be released through Chad Kroeger of Nickelback's label again?
Dean: Chad Kroeger’s label is only in Canada. In the rest of the world it’s RoadRunner Records.
Rachel: Oh ok, I didn’t understand the affiliation with RoadRunner. That makes sense. How does this new album compare to your debut?
Dean: This album is a lot rawer. We had complete artistic control over this album. Our producer Howard Benson, who did Hoobastank, POD, the COLD album, and Papa Roach, he just wanted to let us loose and do our thing. The first album we made a lot of compromises and this album is truly Theory of a Deadman.
Rachel: What kind of compromises did you make the first time around?
Dean: We were pretty new and we were trying to make every song radio friendly, which wasn’t really our main focus, but we sort of cut a bridge here, cut a chorus, cut the intro down, stuff like that.
Rachel: There’s a new song called “Hating Hollywood” on the new album. I understand the premise, but are there any specifics behind the reason for writing the song?
Dean: It is just about us hanging out in Hollywood. We’re not big fans of the whole L.A. scene. It was just watching news and seeing what they have on the news and it’s just not our scene.
Rachel: What do they have on the news that was a turn-off?
Dean: You hear about all the crime and the violence and all of this stuff. The news glorifies it. You probably get that anywhere anyway, but the scene is just not for us.
Rachel: So you’re from North Delta, Canada right? What’s it like up there?
Dean: It’s a smaller community. The three of us, we grew up within a few blocks. Everybody knows each other and knows what everybody’s up to. We’re about a half hour drive to downtown Vancouver. I grew up there playing ice hockey and playing music.
Rachel: Do you still play hockey?
Dean: Yeah, me and Dave are still on a team back home.
Rachel: Cool. What was your favorite album of 2004?
Dean: Probably the Velvet Revolver album. That album and another Canadian band I dig called The Prews.
Rachel: What are they like?
Dean: It’s sort of bluesy rock, sort of like a Black Crows sound. Kind of like the new Silvertide stuff.
Rachel: What are your plans for when the new album comes out?
Dean: Well we’re doing this tour from mid to late February. And then I think we’re going to do a couple weeks headlining in Canada. Then beginning in March we’re starting up with Breaking Benjamin which I believe goes through the middle of April. And then from there probably go back to Canada and do a full tour there and hit the states again. We’re just getting started in a long number of shows. I’d imagine we’ll be on the road for the next year, year and a half. Right now we’re just really concentrating on this new album. We’re really proud of this album. We’re happy to support it and we think the people should like it.
Rachel: Is there anything else you’d like to add?
Dean: If we’re gong to your city, come and check us out. We have fun on stage and we hope to see everybody there. Our website is http://www.theoryofadeadman.com
Rachel: Well, thank you very much. I look forward to seeing ya Wednesday.
Dean: All right come by and say hi.
Rachel: I will. Have a good day!
Dean: You too, we’ll see ya Wednesday.