Can you give a brief introduction to the band?
David Frost - “Die With Me Tonight” started out as a way to keep doing music in spite of the fact that I couldn’t find what I was looking for as an electric guitarist for punk and metal bands as well as a classical guitar teacher and recitalist over the years. I wanted to do something a bit more substantial on the artistic side but I couldn’t persuade band mates to take or allow me to take as many creative liberties as I wanted. I kept hearing “sub cultural shock” on WNRN and remembering the ideas that went into the band Laura was trying to start when I met her, and was like, “I want to do something with the whole industrial electronics going.” I remembered working as a studio musician for a brief stint until the studio closed due to financial issues, and I remember after that that I was like “I don’t want to be in a band or go on stage, I just want to tinker around in a studio all day,” because it was my favorite experience as far as music. I saved up my money and bought my own home studio, and started writing. I found out my voice sounded horrible, so I asked Laura if she wanted to do it, she said “yes.” So that’s how the band started
The band has 2 members, you and Laura, how did the two of you meet and how do you work on songs together?
DF - I met Laura in 2004. I was a student at Virginia Western Community College and she worked in the theater department there. I had this “shred soloing” song up on MySpace. So she saw it and I was asked did I want to try out for this band she was getting together. So anyways I didn’t learn the covers so it didn’t work out, but Laura ended up being a friend of mine after that. So anyways, as far as how we work on things, I record some new songs to send her, she listens to them, and on the EP she came over and wrote and recorded them on my studio and then Jsun re-did them. On the next one I’m going to D.C. and handing the tracks to Jsun and Laura. So anyways that’s the basic instruments before vocals approach.
What is the strongest point of Laura? (I will ask Laura the same about you :P)
DF – As a musician she has all this depth and emotion to her voice and songwriting that I love. As a friend she is really cool to talk to and easy to get along with. As a label President she is very fair and definitely knows what’s going on in the scene.
What makes songs a typical Die with me tonight song?
DF – I would say a lot of layered percussion, slow tempos, and droning ambience are all things that I like and also do fairly well. Laura definitely gives the songs the emotion that I’m after. I’m also a stickler for accessibility which I tend to think of as highly decadent thing instead of a “pop-ish” thing. I think I try to play up the overall mood and atmosphere more than anything else, so I guess that makes the usual approach. My mood shifts a lot so a lot of things can vary a lot, so it’s subject to change a little as well.
You are a classical trained guitarist and composer; in what way does it influence your industrial music you write for Die with me tonight?
DF – I think being a classical guitarist and composer has helped me a lot as far as knowing theory and how to compose things. Classical music has a fairly wide and sometimes exotic use of motifs. So as far as doing anything artistic with melodies it is the most incredible style to pull ideas from. Tasteful use of repetition is another factor; repetition drives a song hard but too much can ruin a person’s attention. On a harmonic level everything revolves around arrangements and counterpoint to signify the mood at each point, so it’s awesome as far as critical listening to see when things are enough or not enough, which is also crucial in dance music. I think I’ve heard classical described as theatrical, imaginative, otherworldly, ethereal, atmospheric, beautiful, etc. Those are the same adjectives I like in my music. Classical guitar in particular has a sound that is very brooding, fiercely passionate, seductive, and heavily romantic. I desperately want that kind of sound, but I think I could definitely improve along those lines. Plus classical guitar was to classical music prior to the 1900’s what computers are to electronic music today, which is; they aren’t very popular among musicians for making music accessible to people that are not able to be be involved with music because of financial reasons, they allow a lot of things to be done on a solo level as opposed to a group setting, and they change the context as far as how to let others listen to your stuff.
What are personal sources of influence for you?
DF - As far as bands go for the EP I was listening to a lot of Velvet Acid Christ, Front 242, and Depeche Mode when I was working on it. I also loved WNRN’s “Subculture Shock” program. Other than that I love horror movies and indie films and am into a lot of film scoring for the two genres. I also like to read a lot about the concepts and ideas that the early industrial bands like Throbbing Gristle, Cabaret Voltaire, and Non. Other than that I love the instrumental sound in black metal a lot, which is mainly what I do when I do the metal thing. I also really like documentary films on the early punk movement. Actually I pull so many views for how to signify emotions with sound from punk rock and black metal both, it is a little ridiculous at times. I’m really into art as well, especially surrealism. I love using surrealist devices to come up with a lot of the ideas I like to use. I studied the social sciences a lot growing up, which are things like psychology, sociology, philosophy, and things like that. So that goes in there as well. I’m a Christian so that tends to give me a lot of ideas for certain emotions in my compositions, namely sanctity, serenity and an appreciation for the human experience. Other than that a lot of ideas that are more prominent in among classical and studio musicians hold a lot of guidance for me. Ethnic European music in general I absolutely love, it’s very different from the music indigenous here in the American south, I guess from my point of view I can’t get enough of things like Flamenco, Celtic, and Slavic music and stuff like that. The stuff here doesn’t grab my attention quite the same.
Die with me tonight just released the debut album, how do you look back on the making of it?
DF - I think that when I did it, I did the best I could with my time and financial issues. Which is why most of the songs are very sampling intensive. I was definitely going hungry and going driving on empty a lot to afford what I could. I think that is what makes it amazing too, in the Bible it says that “the last shall be first, and the first shall be last” so I think that it coming out as well as it did and a lot of people having a lot of great comments were a really cool thing. I think it is definitely something I’ll always remember, but I’m not very fond of looking back, only forward.
Are there things you will do differently for a next release?
DF - Absolutely. I am going to take off a great deal of time from work to work on it and develop it as much as possible. The rest of what I’m about to say really depends on if it comes out sounding good enough or not. But, I am also going to use a lot more synths in this one. I have a Godin classical guitar with a MIDI pickup so I’m rigging that to my vg-99 and using that to drive some soft synths. I saw this one I really liked that is geared for horror movie soundtracks, so I have a feeling that it is going to come across really awesome. I mean it is a cool concept anyway; play classical guitar and hard horror flick soundtrack sounding synths come out in place of the finger style nylon string tone. I’m also using more “old school noise” industrial sounds in the mix. I also plan on making much more use of bass lines, because that is something that is usually lacking on the EP. I was going to make much more prominent use of synth pads as backing elements as well. A couple of songs are going to be collaberations as well. Well anyways I know I like to write like it’s this very concrete thing but keep in mind it really isn’t, that’s just me doing the artist thingy I guess, everything is still in concept at this point. Also I’m trying to do the “straight edge” and “vegan” lifestyle so that definitly changes my mindset a lot right there.
How are the comments so far?
DF - Actually really good, so far a lot of people that are into more mainstream styles are offended with the name I picked out for my band but, other than that, a great deal of positive things, some negative every once in a while, but not a whole lot.
In the period of composing for the debut album, you were going through a rough period, did this have an influence on the songwriting and inspiration? Some people say musicians need to go through pain to have inspiration, does this go for you as well?
DF – Well yes, and no. It depends and the type of pain. When I get angry, I get extremely innovative. It’s a shock and offense through competition thing I guess. If someone says something negative to me, my way of fighting back is to show them up. But as for what I was going though then, I think it made things much worse. My best friend, James, commented suicide right as I was writing some of the first songs I gave Laura. I felt pretty numb, I think that is the opposite for the emotions required to write great music, which is alive and invigorated. I was broke, I couldn’t afford food or really go out and be exposed to new things. This is like “kryptonite” to the creative mind, especially someone trying to play up the “prettiest” aspects of their genre. I was getting a lot of grief before I moved too, usually over me being a pretty “weird guy.” I come from a very small town where if you are unique or think for yourself they believe something must be pretty wrong with you. I got to this point where I hated everyone and just wanted to be left alone. I think to this day, I want everything I do to be a smack in the face to the kind of environment that I came from. So I guess in that way I’m inspired too. I think that feeling “down” does nothing for me, but anger almost always does, to sum all that up.
Did you do some live shows for Die with me tonight already or are you planning on doing some?
DF - Well, no. There are a lot of things counting against it. Laura and I live four hours away from each other. My work almost invariably refuses to allow me to do anything I want to do. The only reason I am going to be able to work on the full length like I’m planning is that they owe me a bunch of vacation and personal time. I’m more in my element in the studio than live. I live paycheck to paycheck and my family isn’t at all supportive of me. So I have no idea of how to keep my head above water financially during any sort of tour. I’m also not fond of being on a stage because I’m very self conscious especially about being perceived as someone trying to be a “rock star” when I’m really just trying to make an artistic contribution. That and like I said I’m into the “straight edge” lifestyle so I don’t want to spend a lot of time around alcohol, tobacco smoke clouds, or anything else like that. There is part of me that would like fans of the music to see us play live, but with the album they get the experience of what I focused on most anyways.
What are your goals for Die with me Tonight?
DF - I think I’m planning to make every C.D. better than the one before. If I can use this band to back causes I believe in that is always awesome. One day I would like to be a composer for a living, so since I’m into horror film scoring maybe one day something great like that will happen to me. But I think the main things I care about are basically expressing myself and possibly being an inspiration to others. I think that this band is going to stay my main project, and I’m with it for the long haul.
Any last words for the readers?
DF – Thanks for reading!!! It’s a long interview I know, (smiles). But anyways I guess I just want to express gratitude for everything everyone has done for me and this band, and I wish everyone the best. If you haven’t heard us feel free to stop by our MySpace and do so. If your in a band send me a link I love hearing new stuff. Well I can’t think of much else, so I guess that’s about it.
www.myspace.com/subtleembrace
www.myspace.com/radioactivemusic