Dead Letter Circus

18 August 2015 | 2:58 pm | Staff Writer
Originally Appeared In

Killyourstereo.com catches up with Dead Letter Circus following the release of their new album.

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Having just dropped their new full-length, and with a huge national tour now scheduled, Dead Letter Circus are making the most of 2015. Drummer Luke WIlliams took some time out of his busy schedule to discuss new management, touring New Zealand and the perks of being labeled 'Stadium Rock'.

How are you, Luke?

Good man. I’ve been back in the room practising like a motherfucker getting ready for the tour in October. It;s really early but I want to be super prepared for this one. We just got back from New Zealand with I Am Giant, and that was an amazing tour. I got really sick over in New Zealand. I got this fucking super flu man, it’s still with me.

What’s the scene like over in New Zealand?

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It's really healthy, man. I Am Giant were pulling about 400-600 heads at every show, and the first show in Dunedin, which is a small city, we were not expecting much but there was so many people there. They were really receptive the entire way around the country, and to us, so that was great being able to play those shows. It was nice to tour with them because we are pretty similar as bands, so there was a good conversion rate with our fans watching them and their fans watching us. It was really positive for our first time over there. It was all about the shows over there. We had a few days off in between, so it was like three shows one weekend and then three shows the next weekend. So we kind of had some chill time in Auckland, and [we] got this mad sickness that we had to nurse. So we came back and smashed the last weekend of shows and it was great. I can’t wait to go back, we are doing our own shows over there in November. We are going from doing a support slot on our first tour to a headline tour on our next run over there, which is really cool.

Why did it take so long to get over there?

I, to this day, cannot figure out why our old management didn’t have us over there, especially when our record deal with Warner and UNFD [is] over Australian and New Zealand territory. It would have made sense if we were over there sooner. But, for some reason, our previous manager didn’t see it as viable territory. But if you can crack it over there, you will extend your Australian touring heaps. We did six places and the crowd attendance was quite large, so it was kind of like having a whole other state of Australia to tour. We are getting some solid radio play from the rock radio station over there, which is nice.

When did you change management?

That was at the start of this year that we started with Macro Music. The line-up of the band had changed, and we were working on a new record so we figured it was time for a fresh start on all fronts. The new guys have brought us a whole other level of experience within the industry. Like all these contacts that these people have worked with for years and maintained good relationships with. We are seeing the benifits of that. It's nice to just have 100% faith in your management and the things that they do. We don’t really have to second guess our manager and it's nice to have them present ideas and they are sick ideas straight off the bat.

How did you get in touch?

We were in negotiations with a few management companies after word got out that we were no longer in our old contract. There was about four management firms that we were meeting with, and we just decided to go with Macro in the end because they seemed like they had the most passion for the project and the experience within the industry. It seems to have been super fruitful already, which is great.

When 'The Catalyst Fire' came out there was talk about how it was a ‘heavier sound’, and it had been inspired by touring with bands like Animals As Leaders. What were the inspirations for this record?

I guess there is not so much outside influence on this record from bands we have been touring with. When Catalyst Fire was written we had been doing a lot of international touring with some really heavy bands and that came out in the writing. But I guess this time we haven't been doing the international thing as much. It’s kind of an introspective record, drawing on our life influences a bit more, and it’s more up to date.

How do you hope it will translate live?

Great. There are a couple of songs that we have been playing already from the record that have been going down amazingly at the shows, so we are pretty confident it's going to slay live.

With the upcoming tour I noticed you guys are playing some bigger venues. Do you prefer playing those bigger places, and how will the music translate in those bigger settings?

As a band we prefer playing those bigger venues because we like the bigger production that we can get away with and afford it. That last tour, with the smaller venues, was just kind of a little teaser because we didn’t want to blow our load too quickly. Because the album wasn’t out we just did a quick little run of smaller venues to keep the awareness about the band. So this next one is all about the big bombastic production, so we are pretty confidant the songs will translate well. Reviews have been coming in of the record already, describing it as kind of a stadium rock recordm which is nice, because hopefully we can play in bigger venues. We would love to get to the stadium level, but I guess if you label it as Stadium Rock, you can play in any big venue.    

'Aesthesis' is out now via UNFD.

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