I have been joined by Christian from 'Dead Star Talk' who has answered some questions about so you can find out about them!
Welcome to Totally Music would you like to introduce yourself?
Christian speaking, one of the band's two singers and guitarists... and songwriter. DEAD STAR TALK is a big sounding rock band, driven by shameless melodies and hooks, polyphonic vocals, huge guitar sounds and a charismatic rhythm section (check out those melody lines on the bass).
We often get labelled as a surprisingly Britpop-sounding band (coupled with the oasis and The Beatles comparisons) taking that we're Danish. I totally get the reference seeing that I grew up in Brussels and went to an international school with a ton of British kids, with whom I also had my formative band years during the glory days of indie rock, britpop and grunge. So there's a lot of that in our DNA and I love those references.
We are however not just another band wanting to relive the glory days of guitar music, dress in the same casual clothing as the rest of the Brit-loving ratpack and try to be another unit of Liam Gallagher 2.0 clones. We are just ourselves and have no rules when it comes to the creative process, and we certainly have a lot of other influences from other parts of the world such as Jimmy Eat World, Vampire Weekend, Single Mothers, Elliott Smith, etc.
Another important thing about this band is that we've known each other since our early 20's and have played together in various bands in the past. This real friendship and mutual history is the driver behind the way we work as a band. There's blind trust, no need to discuss things and real human chemistry. We're no fuzz, we just play and it works.
How did you come up with the name Dead Star Talk?
The band name was taken from one of the first demos I wrote for the band back in early 2020. We were trying to find a name for the new project, and while that song wasn't very good we kept coming back to the title, which eventually became the band name.
The meaning behind the name is my fascination with the way we talk up and celebrate our idols once they're gone. A phenomenon amplified by social media timelines. Just think about what happened to your facebook timeline when David Bowie, Prince, Tyler from Foo Fighter or Lemmy from Motörhead left the building during the last years... It's also a fitting name for an indie band that, somewhat uncommonly, embraces an almost stadion rocking sound, as we do. How did you first get into music? Speaking for myself: I fell in love with music at an early age, and had a huge The Beatles phase during early childhood. I was then lucky to hit puberty at the same time as bands like Nirvana and oasis blew up, followed by the whole wave of American hard hitting bands such as Deftones and Rage Against The Machine. A great time for guitar music. It made me buy a shit old electric guitar for 50 Euro at the age of 15 and start practising every day. I had no real lessons, so I was just figuring it out on my own, by getting hold of guitar tabs to my favourite tracks.... within 6 months I started writing songs and started a band.
Not sure where that drive came from... I never had any family members encourage me to play, nor did anyone apart from me play any instruments, or care that much for music, haha. But the music certainly never left me, and I also work in the music industry in my professional life now. Once bitten by that bug it never leaves you.
You released your first EP ‘Tides and Waves’ on November would you like to tell us about it?
"Tides and Waves" follows the February 2022 release of our debut album "Too Many Too Much". It marks a clear development for the band. The debut album was fuelled by personal crisis, massive excitement about being in a band again and the bleak state of a locked down world hit by a pandemic. It fuelled a very punk energy in us.
We recorded the album with our big supporter and legendary producer Flemming Rasmussen (has won a grammy for his work with Metallica) in the middle of the 2020 winter lockdown. Which simply added fuel to that spiteful punk fire.
The EP on the other hand was recorded in January 2022 in a phase where we all felt much more laid back and in balance, and had undergone a clear development too as a band, that was now much more tried and tested having played shows at huge festivals such as Reeperbahn Festival and Rolling Stone Beach in Germany. This gives the EP a much more zen vibe than the album.
The EP deals with the simple belief that we ultimately remain the same in spite of the passing of time, and life's many highs and lows, and that we have to live life while staying true to that, and not get caught up trying to be something we're not. "We are what we are, let's give life our best shot" so to speak.
How did you come up with the name for the EP?
It's the title of the closing track of the EP. Our drummer Claus is actually the reason why we recorded it in the first place as I wasn't sure whether it was any good haha.... Considering the EP's underlying theme "Tides and Waves" felt like a fitting title, and was a natural metaphor for the EP's theme as Danes hailing from a nation made up of hundreds of islands and endless ocean. I also like the simple phonetic sound of it...
What was the inspiration behind the art work?
Again we wanted to work with the EP's theme by capturing ourselves approaching midlife floating in a kind of timeless space and I think our photographer Giovanni Mafrici did a great job of that by centering the shot of the band around a simple street light (timeless urban architecture) in combination with the open skies above us.
You recorded the live concert for the EP what was that experience like?
It was a big night: The band was on fire and the audience was sublime. We actually recorded it on the release day of the EP (11.11.2022) in the main recording room of Sweet Silence Studios, Copenhagen, which is also where we recorded our EP (and album), which was a great feeling after all those months of lockdown.
The room was packed with the band's biggest supporters (some of them even came all the way from Germany) and we had it filmed too. The 10 track setlist was a mixture of songs from the album and EP a perfect way to document and wrap up a very productive 2022.
We will actually release the entire live album this year ( not just the videos, but also on Apple Music, Spotify, etc.) F
or a rock band like DEAD STAR TALK it makes so much sense to do something like this because our music truly comes alive when played live. It shows who we are as a band. We can actually play and sing quite effortlessly, and our songs work live, which is something I often miss nowadays with over-produced music often failing in the live format.
If you could perform anywhere in the world where would it be and why?
Headline Glastonbury of course hahaha. I can think of no better major and iconic place for the kind of music we do than this festival and their main stage. Where do you see your musical career in the next 10 years?
I don't think band's like us can blow up. The times of huge bands are over. But there's still a strong international scene for proper guitar music. One thing is for sure we are in it for the long haul and will keep on working hard (we start the recordings of our 2nd album this year). I believe we can get to the stage where we can sell out 300-500 caps shows in the major European music cities such as Berlin or London and tour regularly. But we are far from there yet, and it'll be a long process to get there. But we will within the next 10 years.
What’s next for you?
We are currently working on 2023 live dates and aim to play a ton of festivals this summer. More importantly I am in the process of finishing the writing for the 2nd album (doing demos, etc.). We will start recording with Flemming in February-March 2023. Buzzing for that. There's of course also the release of our live album, and hopefully the first singles from the upcoming 2nd album towards the end of 2023. So yeah a lot of good stuff incoming.
If you would like to check out 'Dead Star Talk' Music you can find all their social media here:
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