The D.O.O.D. discusses their upcoming album Dissonance, reflecting on their evolving sound, collaborative songwriting, and the themes behind standout tracks like “The Pentecostal” and “Slayer of Gods.”
1. Your
upcoming album Dissonance releases on September 17. How does
this record represent the evolution of The D.O.O.D. since your formation in
2004?
Monkeyboy:
I think that this record encompasses not only the variety of styles we have
encapsulated on albums prior, but it certainly shows a progressive move in our
songwriting, and teamwork within that writing is stronger than ever. We also were able to pay some homage to some
Metal styles we have always loved.
2. The
album features intense riffs, powerful vocals, and relentless energy. Can you
tell us about the songwriting and recording process for Dissonance?
Monkeyboy:
We work as a group when writing, while
one or two of us may come up with the main riffs or lyrics or concept for a
song, each song gets brought to the table and everyone puts in their flavor to
it, things get changed or rearranged, after that we rehearse them until we feel
strongly that the song is as complete, part of that is doing pre production in
our studio so we can learn it and hear it in it’s entirety and see if there are
any additional changes or things to add into the mix so that by the time we are
ready to go to the next level studio we have a solid idea of what we want and
how to play it all correctly. Then we go
into the studio (this time it was Morrisound) and we stay open to suggestions
from whatever engineer or producer might have.
In the end it’s the collaborative effort of it all that gets us the
sound we have.
3. Your
music has been described as a blend of influences from Slayer, Bring Me The
Horizon, Pantera, and Disturbed. How do you balance these influences to create
your unique sound?
Monkeyboy: We
all have similar interests in metal- but each one of us have our own influences
which sometimes overlap a little but it allows us to each bring another
perspective on the songs. Overall, we
try to write songs that we would like to listen to ourselves.
4. “The
Pentecostal” and “Slayer of Gods” are two standout tracks from Dissonance.
Can you give us some insight into the lyrical themes behind these songs?
Monkeyboy:
The Pentecostal is a story driven song, about a person who starts out in a very
confused and lonely place in his life,
he is taken in by a charismatic preacher who practices an extreme form
of the Pentecostal religion and he shows our hero a new way of life where he is
included and it feels like the change he needs in his life at the moment. As the song progresses he begins to see
hypocrisy in the things he hears and sees and begins to question god and his
faith and feels he needs to get away but due to the extreme nature of this
particular Pentecostal church he feels trapped.
This song was inspired by a mixture of some documentaries I had seen
about religious based cults and the documentary Marjoe about the youngest
preacher in the Pentecostal church and how he found it all to be bullshit when
he grew up.
Slayer of
Gods lyrics have to do with a recurring theme of not trusting authority. Putting your faith in these large entities
that exist in this world that do not have the best interest of the people in
mind. It is meant to be an empowering
song about how the will of the people can prevail if we all stand
together.
5. You’re
known for your high-energy stage shows and unpredictable performances. How do
you plan to incorporate elements from Dissonance into your
live sets? Can fans expect any new surprises on stage?
Monkeyboy: Well
first off if we told you it wouldn’t be a surprise would it? Just kidding but
yes we are working on ideas for the new stage show and this time around I would
like to have as much audience interaction as possible- really to embrace the
feeling of unity and togetherness that we speak of a lot as a means to rise
together as a world and be able to combat the oppression. And we will always keep coming up with
surprises and unexpected things to keep things interesting.
6. The
Florida metal scene has seen a surge in recent years, and you’ve been a
significant part of it. How has the local scene influenced your sound and
growth as a band?
Monkeyboy: We
have always been very supportive of everyone in the scene in Florida, and in
turn the scene has been supportive of us.
So many great bands and we would play shows coming up and a band would
go on we would watch them and say to ourselves well I really like this element
of what they did or the feeling they convey overall, and although we never stole
anything from anyone thankfully, we did take a lot of the concepts and include
it into how we did things a lot. Or the
band we heard was so amazing it made us work harder to be able just to keep
up.
7. The
D.O.O.D. has a strong connection with its fans. How do you ensure that your
live performances and music continue to resonate with them?
Monkeyboy:
We love our fans, every week we do a livestream where we tell them what we are
up to and we talk to them and listen to what they have to say and what they
might want out of us. At shows we make
ourselves available to talk to and meet everyone we can, nothing is better than
making a personal connection, and it helps them know who we are and where we
come from so when we write our music I think people feel the same type of
connection that we do to it, whether the song is something deep, or something
fun and story driven.
8. The
album artwork for Dissonance was created by Brian Amoroso. How
does the visual element complement the themes of the album?
Monkeyboy: We discussed the album cover and title
together quite a bit and when we decided to go with Dissonance there were a lot
of concepts that flew around the room, in the end it was Jonzey who came up
with the whole as above so below type theme.
Dissonance which means disharmony between two things brought about the
city above and the ruined city below in the reflection. The buildings, the church, the government
buildings and such all tie into themes in the songs of the album and our hooded
figure which is a theme on most of our album covers, ties them both together as
a figure who is always there no matter the state of the world.
9. You’ve
been working with renowned producers like Jim Morris at Morrisound Studios and
J.P. Braddock for mastering. How have they helped shape the final sound
of Dissonance?
Monkeyboy: Well for us working with a guy like Jim
Morris makes such a positive atmosphere to work in that sets a tone for being
productive and creative, he has done so much music over the years that when you
ask his opinion you want to try and suggestions he has. His expertise in mixing got us the sound we
were looking for and leaving the studio they all sounded great. After mastering the songs that we thought
couldn’t sound better sonically, suddenly took on a new and better life as
well.
10. As a
band that’s been together for 20 years, what advice would you give to younger
metal bands trying to break through in the current music landscape?
Monkeyboy:
Love what you do, never stop pushing, and never stop learning new things.
11. Finally,
what’s next for The D.O.O.D. after the release of Dissonance? Any
plans for tours, collaborations, or future releases?
Monkeyboy: Things are still in the works, but the plan is to get out there and tour the states as often as possible and hit as many places as possible- looking into some Canadian dates as well. Next summer we are looking at doing a few weeks in Europe. A lot of these things are either set in stone but not announced yet, but we are going to listen to the fans in America and figure out where they want to see us and try and go from there. The writing for the next album has already started- I don’t think it ever stops to be honest. We do what we love to do, performing is a huge part of it but writing is the other component. We will probably put out a few singles before anything like an album comes out again, but we are going to take that as it comes. Basically, we just want to spread our proverbial wings, reach new fans, and try to entertain the hell out of them.
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