By COURTNEY GUTTENBERG
Staff Writer
For the residents of Saint Rose dorm Golub Hall, the camaraderie and closeness happens almost as soon as they move in. It is no coincidence that this closeness and friendship helped form DeadLight Poets, as all three members lived in that same house their freshman year and two of them were friends prior to that from meeting at freshman orientation.
Vocalist and bassist Sam Gleason, guitarist Matt DeLaus and drummer Will Hahn are roommates and best friends who were able to combine their musical backgrounds into a compelling sound that they call “circus punk.” DeadLight formed in 2014 and has since released their debut single, “Mr. Immune,” on iTunes, Spotify, Google Play and multiple other streaming platforms.
I was lucky enough to be able to sit down with all three members to discuss their debut single, their future plans and their experiences with the Albany scene.
Q: What made you guys want to start a band?
HAHN: All of us played in bands in the past and liked the experience of playing in a band. When we came to campus, it’s rare to have people who all have somewhat similar tastes in music or can all agree on wanting to get together to make something happen, so it’s more of an organic thing that happens when people who agree on that stuff get together. It just felt right for us to be a band.
Q: What made you want to play your specific genre?
GLEASON: We started the band largely influenced by the Arctic Monkeys and Screaming Females. We initially tried to base it off of those two. Matt had a lot of hip-hop influence that also affected it as well.
HAHN: It comes from what Sam said, Screaming Females and Arctic Monkeys —
DELAUS: — who we’ve seen both of as a band, live —
HAHN: Yeah. We’ve seen them together and going to those shows makes us appreciate their music more and then we look up to them more. But then, one of our most defining features I’d say is Matt tries to use a lot of interesting chromatisms and a lot of unique scales and just tones that makes us have a little bit of a different sound.
DELAUS: It’s spooky.
HAHN: I just like to be loud and theatrical, so I tried to bring that energy. Sam brings the golden voice.
Q: What made you guys want to start playing music in general?
HAHN: Honestly, for me, it started when I was four. It’s probably like the thing everyone says, like, “The Beatles were a big influence,” but for me, I just liked Ringo Starr. Maybe because a four year old drummer can relate to Ringo Starr’s drumming style [laughs]. The first thing I ever did was watch “A Hard Day’s Night” with a plastic practice pad and it was pretty easy to follow along. But I love Ringo. No disrespect.
DELAUS: Playing music for me comes from listening to music my whole life and growing up with it. Just in general, throughout my life I was able to connect with family members and different people through music and I’ve always held that near to me. Playing with another group of people and making music together – it’s awesome to have people come together and form one cohesive work. Then, when you’re with a group for as long as we’ve been together, to get to form a body of cohesive works that fit together is really rewarding in the long term to have.
GLEASON: I always liked to sing. I always liked music and listening to it. I was drawn to it around the age of three, that’s when I started to sing and stuff like that. I didn’t get into songwriting until I saw a local band play called The Fragile Tomorrow. One of the guys from that band taught me how to play guitar and introduced me to the blues scene and the folk scene and the courtesy that musicians have towards other musicians, and all the mannerisms there. I got really sucked into it that way.
Q: What’s your current focus as of right now?
DELAUS: Recording.
HAHN: I’d say finishing this album that’s coming out. We’re going to be playing some shows, but people should just really be looking forward to us putting out our first full length, nice produced album that’s gonna be available on all those nice places you can get them, like Spotify, etc. Once that’s out, we’re going to be doing a lot more shows. We want to have something the fans can go home with.
Q: What is your writing process like?
GLEASON: Usually, the template is Will will bring some lyrics to the table and me and Mort [Matt] will kind of jam around with it. I’ll just start singing some kind of melody that goes over the jam. We kind of build it that way. Occasionally, Mort write lyrics, occasionally I write lyrics. There was once one song where we each wrote a line.
HAHN: I think a lot of our writing style comes from Matt and Sam defining a lot of the instrumental sound. We come up with a lot of weird transitions, weird riffs and scales that kind of throw the listener off a little bit – not in a bad way, it’s unique. It surprises the listener. It’s kind of like that theatrical sound – that’s why we call ourselves circus punk. There’s a level of theatrics to it. If I write lyrics or we write lyrics together as a whole, a lot of our lyrics stem from us wanting the listener to interpret them any way they want. We don’t try to be too straightforward with them. There’s a lot of metaphor involved. We can write songs about really serious subject matters, like personal loss and stuff like that that I think apply to anyone going through tough times, or we can write a song about cartoons that people will think is just as serious as the other song because we want people to interpret it as they can.
Q: While we’re on the topic of songs and song-writing, what is your favorite song to play live and why?
GLEASON: I think my favorite one to play is probably “Ends Meet” just because that’s the one song we had that’s got a super happy kind of vibe to it, so it’s like kind of upbeat. I really like how the bass riff that I’m playing interweaves with the guitar riff that Mort’s playing. It’s just a fun song to play.
DELAUS: I like playing “Closed Cages” the best because I get to do whistle guys and I also really enjoy that riff.
HAHN: You get to make all that noise at the end.
DELAUS: Yeah.
HAHN: I like “Closed Cages” a lot. I like songs that you get to yell a lot in. But Matt said “Closed Cages” so I’m gonna say “Treason.” I’d say “Treason” is probably like my favorite song to play but my least favorite song to practice, ‘cause we’ve been playing it forever, but that’s why I love to play it live, because the audience always knows it. There’s no better feeling than having people chant lyrics back at you or with you, and get on stage with you.
Q: What’s your favorite song you’ve written and why?
HAHN: I’m gonna say “Mr. Immune” right now. I’m proud of it. I’m proud that we got a good sound for it. I like it a lot because we got a great sound for it, and I wrote it for personal reasons, having lost a best friend recently and it was a good way for me to cope with my emotions and kind of, like, my way of processing feelings and remembering a great kid. It’s also our first song that we’ve released professionally on iTunes and Spotify, which was important to me. It eternalizes him and keeps that spirit alive, which means a lot to me.
GLEASON: I’m gonna say “Mr. Immune” too. I really like that one.
Q: What is the biggest goal you hope to accomplish as a band?
GLEASON: World domination.
DELAUS: That’s the biggest goal.
Q: And what’s the biggest goal you’ve already accomplished as a band?
DELAUS: To release stuff professionally.
Q: What is your favorite thing about the Albany scene?
HAHN: I’d say there’s a lot of places to play in one area. It brings people together, like us if it wasn’t for the Albany scene and St. Rose.
GLEASON: I’d say there’s a kind of a community there. Everybody knows everybody, in a way.
Q: What is your venue you’ve ever played at?
HAHN: The Fuze Box. They treat us well, they’re always really fair and easygoing and nice people. It’s a nice room. It works really well for our sound. The guy who runs monitors does a good job. It’s simple and fun.
GLEASON: I’d also say The Fuze Box.
HAHN: We’ve had multiple successful shows there, and they’ve always been nice.
Q: Would you say that’s your favorite local venue to play at, too?
HAHN: Yeah. Our favorite far-away venue to play at would be The Space in Connecticut.
Q: If you could sum up your band or band experience in one word, what would it be?
HAHN: “It.”
GLEASON: I was gonna say “Spoopy.”
DELAUS: “It” is a good one.
Q: If the apocalypse happened tomorrow or the next day and your band had to be remembered for one thing, what would it be?
DELAUS: Following our previous goal of world domination, us ending the world.
Q: What part of Saint Rose has helped you the most as a band?
DELAUS: Definitely the facilities.
HAHN: Yeah, the resources and friends who offer us a lot of resources. We obviously have the studios and everything, but we also have The Chronicle, we have the opportunity to talk to friends and get the word spread out there, get shows set up because we have a support group of friends. We would have an empty bill without them to play. Having that community is important.
Q: Generally speaking, what part of the Albany scene has helped you the most as a band?
DELAUS: People and the venues.
GLEASON: Yeah, the venues.
HAHN: I’d say people being willing to interact with us on stage and let loose and have fun with us. When we go crazy on stage, the fact that there’s people in the audience that will dance around and yell back at us – that’s probably what helps us the most.
Q: Do you guys have anything you want to add?
DELAUS: Numbers, mostly.
GLEASON: There’s a single available on Spotify and iTunes and Google Play, and there’s an album coming out in early 2016.
Be sure to check out DeadLight Poets’ new single on iTunes, Spotify, Google Plus and multiple other music streaming platforms.
Like them on Facebook at facebook.com/deadlightpoets, stream their music on Bandcamp at deadlightpoets.bandcamp.com and follow them on Twitter at @DeadLightPoets so you can keep updated on all of their releases and shows. I would like to thank Matt, Will and Sam for taking the time to sit down with me!
