Be sure to check out Dead Feather Moon on Friday, October 28th at the Music Box!
You recently put out a new record, “The Finder“. How was the writing process like recording this new album? What/who were your influences? How does this album compare with your debut “Dark Sun”?
The writing process for us is always the same. We lock ourselves in our practice space three nights a week and bang our heads against the wall until something sounds good. It always starts with a riff, rhythm, or vocal melody, then a lot of trial and error. Once we are confident, we take the song to the stage and see how it feels live. The studio polishes, simplifies, or elaborates the track and then, in some instances, must be relearned. We are determined to recreate our recorded track for our audience.
As far as influences, we find it important to either listen to everything or nothing, feast or famine. It’s either a ton of different bands from a ton of different genres, or just NPR and podcasts. When we find ourselves obsessing over a few or even just one band, it inevitably results in imitation. Identifying that is key.
I think bands always say the same thing when asked this. “The new album is more mature”, or “It defines and focuses our sound.” Both are true, but the real difference is in the recording quality, patience, and uncompromising attention to detail. We definitely took our time with this record, as anyone who contributed to our crowd funding campaign will tell you, but it was worth it. We spent two years writing the songs, recorded to tape, had full influence on mixing and mastering, worked with amazing engineers, artists, and videographers, and pressed the whole thing on vinyl.
How’s it like playing in the San Diego music scene? Do you love it?
Bands, clubs, family, friends and fans are the San Diego music scene for us. It’s not location, but people that make it our home.
Any plans for a tour soon?
We are working on a tour for early 2017. We know this is a long ways off, but we are self managed and independent, as well as full time working men, which makes booking and touring tedious to plan. Our independence allows us freedom though, and our focus is on creating music, and when it’s time for full on touring, we will be ready.
What’s next on the agenda for Dead Feather Moon?
We never know. Opportunities arise and we take them or we don’t. Most likely you will find us in our practice studio working on new material and rehearsing for the next show.