INTERVIEW: Kurt Blackshard – The Dead XIII
With their latest release Dark Days, THE DEAD XIII are hoping to continue their momentous success across the UK. Previous release Catacombs was an unexpected success and highly rated by both fans and critics for its fresh sound and highly polished production. After a successful crowdfunding campaign THE DEAD XIII have aimed to raise the bar even higher with a new level of maturity while maintaining their sound. Ushering in this new wave of chaos is frontman Kurt Blackshard who took the time back in January to let us in on their latest album, Dark Days, creation and what we can expect from them this year.
Hello Kurt and thank you for talking with Distorted Sound Magazine, how are you today?
Kurt: I’m doing well, can’t complain!
With Dark Days being released in February we imagine you’re excited to see it released now?
Kurt: Yeah literally we can’t wait to finally release this album we’ve been working on it for a while, put a lot into and are looking forward to the response that it’s gonna get!
Its been three years since the release of Catacombs, with that becoming such a success have you felt pressured to raise the level this time round?
Kurt: Well to be honest when it came to this album from Catacombs the only thing I can tell is now that its all recorded and ready for it ready to come out on the 9th; it’s a lot more of our sort of inspirations individually. You can hear that in the music, you can hear that we’ve grown up. It’s more with the mental side of things; the demon that are in the thoughts so to speak. It’s a little less theatrical but it’s something that means more to us personally.
I completely agree with you, after listening to it you get a sense of maturity this time round that’s come through you can hear on certain tracks, for me the one that stood out was Angels. There’s a level of song writing that’s improved since last time that’s impressive for a second album
Kurt: To be fair I can’t complain, I’ve got the best band doing this with me!
Being your second release, how did the writing process compare to last time?
Kurt: It actually went really similarly, we’ve been writing it since the last release. Its been more of a gathered motion, it was one of those where we did as much as we could before taking the songs into the studio, then we got to hellfire studios and the guys there are just so great. We couldn’t help but add a couple things here or there, but we couldn’t complain with the way we’ve made it, stress free it was great!
With this album being crowdfunded you took a risk; how did it feel to have free reign over every part of the album
Kurt: We’ve never used anything like Indiegogo before, so we didn’t know what to make of that kind of stuff. We saw a couple of our friends in other bands doing it, then given we’re a DIY band! Also, being able to bring in people who’ve supported us from the start, there’s another level of everything with this album knowing that we had that ongoing support from our fans. It means loads to us really and it helped us through the process. There’s no other way of showing how much we appreciate it other than at shows than by putting all our effort into it. There’s a ton of stuff on there that’s exclusive and we won’t be selling it after this point, I mean some of the stuff even I don’t have!
You’ve released bloodlines as the first single, what’s the reaction been so far?
Kurt: I think so far, it’s been overwhelmingly positive! Which is always a good thing, we’ve been playing it for longer; we’ve had this song ready for a while now but whenever we’ve played it lives it always been good responses in the fans and audience. We’re eager to get the video out for that and see it carried through, I’m excited to see more reactions myself!
I can understand that! I saw on the video and realised it was all created by yourself! That’s pretty weird for most bands but obviously it shows how DIY you all are. Do you like to have a direct input with stuff like videos?
Kurt: Definitely I think it’s good to be always be hands on as much as you can get, we always like to be involved wherever we can whether it be designs for shirts or music videos. We’re thoroughly involved at every stage and it’s what we want. It’s our music and we can’t help but be perfectionists being involved so much. It makes sure things get out the way we want them to.
You recorded the album at Hellfire studios which has had some big names there such as SLAYER, MOTORHEAD and ANTHRAX, are you happy with the production ?
Kurt: We couldn’t ask for anything better to be fair! The first time we went there it went so well we couldn’t help but go back for this album, Ajeet (Hellfire Gill) is so easy to talk to if you want anything, I might not know personally how to describe it to him but he’s on the same wavelength and it just made the end product, well you can kinda hear it! There’s no uncomfortable feelings at all its just completely positive!
Your tour starts again in February, what can fans expect this time round?
Kurt: Given the new album we’ll be playing lots of new stuff; we’ll be putting as much energy into it as we can do concerning our live performances. There’s a couple gigs in February then we’re going on tour at the end of March which we can’t wait for! It’s amazing to get a second chance especially after the first time we thought it’d be something we could just put into the scrapbook and say we’ve done that! The way we describe ourselves on stage is sort of as much energy as possible, energetic and sweaty!
What are the plans for the rest of the year, will we be seeing THE DEAD XIII at any festivals?
Kurt: At the moment we’re in the process of booking for next year, obviously there’s some stuff that I can’t really mention now although it’ll be coming out fairly soon! But when it comes to gigs we’re booking the rest of the year, so we can’t definitely confirm or not confirm. We’ll definitely be around!
It is a little early to be fair but I’m sure we’ll see much more of you, as for THE DEAD XIII is there anything coming up outside of the UK, maybe Europe?
Kurt: Europe is definitely a goal, we definitely want to get out there but coming from the UK we’re from here and after touring up and down there’s a few familiar faces. As a band we’d love to push towards Europe and beyond if we get the opportunity and everything’s right we will be taking it. It’s just one of those things, we’ll spread our wings when we can!
We hope to see you in the pit soon, finally do you have anything you want to tell the readers of distorted sound?
Kurt: We really appreciate everyone supporting us through our campaign and any support is appreciated, as usual we wouldn’t be here without you guys! By the time you hear this you can go and buy our new album Dark Days, we will see you guys throughout the year!
Dark Days is out now via self-release.
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