Written by Brie Dunphy
VANCOUVER STONER ROCKERS EXPLORE A THEATRICAL NARRATIVE ON THEIR NEWEST RECORD
Vancouver based stoner rock band Dead Quiet are here to melt our faces off with their third studio release Truth and Ruin, released via Artoffact Records. Mixing bong-ripping riffs with elements of doom metal and rock n’ roll Dead Quiet creates the perfect recipe for storytelling with a theatrical edge.
“[Truth and Ruin] revolves around the idea of when you try to be as honest as you can and tell the truth,” explains vocalist and guitarist Kevin Keegan. "Often it’s more catastrophic than when you were to not be honest about things. Just this idea about trying to be as honest as possible and then shooting yourself in the foot because of it. So it's this paradox of honesty. [That’s] the notion behind it.”
The record’s title track “Truth and Ruin” takes us through a narrative of just that. “Atoned Deaf”, the record’s final single, faces the pushing and pulling of oneself when having to come clean and face problems head-on.
“It's kind of the perfect storm of some sort of turmoil in my life and needing enough time to sit down and deal with it,” Keegan reveals. “So if I'm really busy and I don't have enough time to make a pot of coffee and have four hours in the morning to sit down with a guitar, that's kind of when the magic happens I find, but if I have the time to relax and do it and there's some shit going on in my life it's really the perfect storm for me in writing.”
When it comes to writing in a band, the breakthrough doesn’t tend to happen overnight. Time and energy go into figuring out how one another ticks when it comes to working together as a creative unit. With album number three, Dead Quiet has cracked the code.
“It's evolving constantly. The first record I wrote everything, I had all the songs ready. I kind of showed the guys and there was very little arranging together. And then Grand Rites (2017) was a bit more of me bringing stuff to the table and then you know, arranging some of it together. This third one, Truth and Ruin, was a lot more teamwork.” The singer adds: “I would still bring the initial blueprint in but we did a lot of the arranging together and sort of ended up turning songs upside down and really getting everybody got their hands dirty on this one.”
For Dead Quiet, Truth and Ruin speaks volumes on the band's growth and musicianship. Each being the piece to one ambitious, rock n’ roll puzzle.
“We got more comfortable together as a band. It just sort of happened organically. It was easy for me to take advantage of the talents of these guys and just step back and let them fill in the gaps with some really great ideas,” Keegan concludes. “Just realizing that the songs are much better with their input. Basically letting go [of] any sort of egotistical attachments to ideas that I had. Just letting them really flourish.”