On the day that The Dead And Living release their new EP, Damage, here’s some info about the band and what they’re planning to do with this music!
How have the response been to your new singles, “Damage” and “Demons Till I’m Dead” been so far?
Coroner: Hi. Thanks for having me. It’s been pretty good so far. In our measures, there was a pretty big peak in connection to the release of “Damage”, the band’s first new single in five years. Although we’re not talking astronomical numbers, we’ve seen things double, triple, and quadruple since then. Although what we’re going for is of course an octuple increase in everything.
We’ll see what the reviews say. It’s quite a bold follow-up to the last full-length album and anything we’ve done before. Especially since the last album was generally quite well recieved. Both with the press and the fanbase. But we have to do it that way. We always want to try new things, so it’s okay if people react to the musical and thematic differences from the previous releases. I think our one constant throughout the years has been not to stagnate.
What are the core lyrical themes behind Damage?
Coroner: As a whole, the Damage EP puts the band’s essence in a more cosmic and universal perspective, while the previous work has been more 19th-century nostalgic. I could wallow in that 19th-century London vibe forever, but somewhere along the way we started to think, what would The Dead and Living be like in space? How does the band’s universe correlate with the vastness of space?
While our own world might actually be falling apart quite severely, Damage takes you on a cosmic journey with lyrics that you’ll hopefully need to dig a bit deeper into to fully interpret or understand.
In the title track, “Damage”, for example, it’s not obvious where ground control is actually situated. What’s beyond the black holes? What’s the ultimate fate of our planet? It also touches concepts like faith, creation vs evolution in light of new scientific discoveries like dark matter.
While “Damage” seems to be set way beyond our galaxy or supercluster, the EP’s second track “Magma Heart” is naturally a hymn to our home planet, its light and dark, its wonders and disasters, but how it’s also just a lump that’s spinning in the dark, with tons of space junk blindly circling around it.
“Demons Till I’m Dead” is more about worldly relations, struggles, and human conditions—earthly stuff.
The EP’s ending song “Army of Mankind” could symbolize surrender to something like dark matter in space—an ever-expanding darkness that eventually devours everything. A war that can’t be won. It’s important to mention that the song was written in 2020, and that it isn’t referring to any specific army, war or conflict. The song is set in a far more cosmic or universal perspective.
How would you say your tastes and approach to songwriting have changed over the years since The Author’s Curse?
Coroner: I have a strong, almost profound feeling that we took our previous musical vibe and its elements as far as we could with The Author’s Curse. We would have stagnated if we did something similar again. That album stands as a mark of the end of an era, and the launching pad for new beginnings.
I don’t know if our taste or approach really changed between the album and the new EP, but we were very keen not to repeat ourselves too much, rather challenge ourselves and the band’s identity while still keeping the foundation, both the makeup and the artistic essence. Haha. But, yeah, we wanted to evolve. Hopefully, some new people will find us, and hopefully, some older fans will enjoy the band as it ranges from the 19th-century decadence to the very end of time, where the Damage EP partly takes you for a while.
You’ve said that “A Journey to the End of Time” by Melodysheep was a big influence on the record. What about this resonated so deeply?
Coroner: I just thought that video and its visualization of the universe for an unfathomable time ahead shows not only how small we humans are, but also how our entire existence es by in a matter of minutes, maybe even seconds, in the bigger picture. The video describes, as much as it can, how the universe probably will end. Though it may sound very depressing, and to a degree panic-inducing, the film’s ending quote was like a full stop for me.
“At the end of the universe, nothing happens, and it keeps not happening, forever.”
Although it’s, of course, very existentially disturbing, it somehow also makes me feel some kind of relief. You can’t think or overthink any longer than that. It’s where all thoughts and concerns end. As a constant seeker and very knowledge-hungry human being, it was like I found the holy grail.
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Your visual aesthetic is quite unique. Have you thought about how you could translate that to the live stage?
Coroner: Definitely. I worked as guitar tech for Deathstars when they ed Rammstein during the Made in tour back in 2012. After being there for 30 or 40 something Rammstein shows, you almost felt like that was some kind of a commonplace.
However, we rarely have the opportunity to put on a proper show with all the visualizations and effects that we want. There’s a video on our YouTube channel, the full show from Scalateatern in Karlstad, where we played The Author’s Curse in its entirety for the first time. There’s a lot of visual stuff there, but I think we could definitely evolve all our live shows with a bigger budget. We use some screens and pyrotechnics when we play in Sweden or in places where we have a bigger audience. But on tour, we usually travel in a minivan, compared to Rammstein’s, I think, 20-25 trucks and 100-150 crew . But you never know. We might expand the stage and show as we go.
What’s the wildest thing you’ve seen or done at a live show?
Coroner: When I was guitar tech for Deathstars, there was a very large middle-aged man, who looked a lot like Woody Harrelson, sitting on the shoulders of a very short woman, flashing the band with the camera light of his phone. He also looked like he was about to jump on stage at one point. I’m glad he didn’t, because the band had their backs turned to him, so I probably would have had to act security guard if he did. And as I mentioned, he was a large man. He was huge.
And Deathstars’ guitarist Cat Casino came running to me at another show screaming something, and I couldn’t hear.
“What are you saying, man? The guitar and amp is fine!”
“I know. But my pants are falling off!! I need them gaffer taped!!”
With The Dead and Living, it’s been pretty civilized on stage and in the audience. There’s probably some wild stuff I don’t . I’ve, of course, tripped, bumped my head and face into stuff. I fell asleep in a nightliner and flew out of the sofa when there was a big bump in the road. I must have cracked a rib or something, but I performed several shows the following days on painkillers, though I realized that I wasn’t really singing halfway through the sets. It was more some kind of animal sounds coming out in the PA.
I also got sick during our 2014 Euro tour with Deathstars in England, throwing up until I was called on stage. I accidentally set off an alarm in the bathroom, in front of a huge queue to the bathroom I had been occupying. When I finally got on stage, a heckler instantly flipped me off and yelled, “F YOU, YOU F-ING C…” A rough day at work.
What are the plans for The Dead And Living going into 2025?
Coroner: It might sound ironic, but it’s really not. Playing on Iceland is truly our number one priority. So, if anyone there is reading this, please get in touch! Personally, Japan is also way up there on my list, but before that, we’ll likely do some shows in Sweden and Norway, and hopefully the UK as well. After that, we’ll see what comes next—maybe a European tour of some sort. As for North and South America, Asia, and beyond, it all depends on the opportunities that come our way.
If the opportunity to become the first band in space comes, maybe we would consider that. That said, we’re probably a bit too grounded to fully commit to that dea. But who knows? Maybe Mars isn’t as far away as it used to be. Over and out. Beep.
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Header image by Erik Hansen
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