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With rough guitar riffs and a steamy punk attitude Isabella Knight and Sonny Lanegan form the German-Italian alternative rock duo The Dead Good. Together they hit the music scene in early 2013 with their EP Thirteen Polaroids– they haven’t looked back since, GroundSounds recently caught up with duo, check out our exclusive interview below.
For those not familiar with The Dead Good, how did you two come together?
Isabella: We actually started out as a couple before working on music together. We met at a bar in Hollywood and started dating. The music project evolved later out of our relationship…
Where do you draw inspiration?
Sonny: Definitely old icons. People who truly believed in what they did and stuck with their opinions and ideas, no matter if someone criticized them or tried to change them. Pretty much everyone, that your parents usually don’t want you to be associated with or warned you about.
How do you guys create your music? What is the writing process like?
Sonny: Everything goes pretty smooth. It usually starts with me working on some riffs that I have in mind. I let Isabella listen to them and if she can picture the bigger story behind the song, we continue. We start working on the melody and then blend between our vocals. We like things to be fast… It’s like a polaroid. You capture quick a moment of your life. There is no way you are going to modify it digitally, the colors or your face. That’s what you got and you either like it or not. We pretty much have the same approach when we write music.
Can you tell us about the song “Saw, Drills and Glue Guns”?
Isabella: “Saw, Drills and Glue Guns” is a funk-punk, heavy, fast tempo song with a catchy melody. This song is about a crazy, surreal party and you have no clue how the night will end. The lyrics place you in a weird freakshow with the creepy host, Mr. Jack. It’s a very figurative song with lots of irony.
What advice would you give to aspiring musicians?
Sonny: It’s tough… Very tough! The earlier you understand that you will play music only for yourself, the better you will deal with everything that comes with being a musician. In the past I was obsessed with the idea of “making it” and I was trying to please every potential fan of the band I was part of.
Nowadays I stepped away from pleasing others and focus more on doing what makes me happy. I enjoy a lot more to write my own music and to play shows the way I want to. This is the only reason for me to be a musician and it makes me feel satisfied and complete.
It’s easy to get caught up in not being the artist who you really are. Instead you become a puppet and people only like that “fake” image of yours.
It only matters that you are being true to yourself and have pleasure with what you are doing. You have to the first person satisfied with your “product”. Would you buy your own album for 20 bucks? If the answer is genuinely yes, then you got the answer.
You two put on a wild stage show, what do you enjoy most about performing?
Isabella: Since we are a duo the show is mostly based on the chemistry between the two of us mixed with big guitars riffs, rough sounds, screams and blended melodies between female and male vocals.
The Dead Good started out with some private shows, mostly art gallery openings and rehearsals with friends who showed up to have a drink and just a good time with us. So the shows were very raw, spontaneous and unchoreographed. But apparently whatever happened on those events had such impact on people to push and to encourage us to turn The Dead Good into an “official” band and to play on bigger stages.
We are both very energetic so we love to be on stage, to sweat and to go crazy. It’s about love and shared passion – seeing people involved and fascinated by what’s happening on stage, is a priceless feeling.
Is there any one performance that stands out because of a crazy moment?
Sonny: Besides the usual craziness?! It’s hard to answer this question because we haven’t performed enough shows together yet. But I’m sure next year, when we are playing more shows and on tour, we’ll have a few to talk about!
What was it like working on your debut EP “Thirteen Polaroids”?
Sonny: The recording process was great! But to be honest, when we started I didn’t really know what to expect. Isabella and I do a lot of things together, but working on a music project was a complete different thing. Luckily everything went really easy; it was fun and very interesting to share this adventure together. Isabella was amazing and I didn’t really miss the experience that I was used to – recording sessions in the studio surrounded by dudes and all the rest that comes with it…
What bands/musicians have influenced your music the most?
Sonny: Too many. Just to name a few, I grew up listening to bands like N.I.N, Tool, Joy Division or Kyuss. I have a variety of influences, but I didn’t think about a particular band when working on The Dead Good.
Isabella and I keep listening to a lot of music, barely new bands. It’s like doing homework, but it’s a lot more fun.
I think having a big knowledge of music and listening to a lot of bands, is the most important thing for every artist in order to create your own sound and to be original in what you are doing. In regards to being original I don’t necessarily mean something that you’ve never heard of. Especially today it is natural to compare a band to someone else and there is nothing wrong with that. What makes a difference is the way you are going to work on your own creation. You can’t be like: “Now I’m going to write a hit single!” – it doesn’t work like that!
Where do you see yourselves in 5 years?
Isabella: I honestly don’t know… There are so many things that I would like to do or places I would like to travel to. Most importantly, I want to be satisfied and inspired enough to keep doing music and to be creative.
What are you guys currently working on? What’s next?
Isabella: We are still doing a lot of promotion for “Thirteen Polaroids” and are happily harvesting the fruits of our work.
We are working on ideas for our first music video and are rehearsing the songs of our EP and some new ones in a place here in Los Angeles. Besides that we are already in the pre-production of our first full-length album and some live shows for 2014.
As you can see there is a lot to do! You have to keep your brain awake and stay inspired…
