New songs up myspace

I've uploaded some new songs onto my myspace page. You can hear them here
http://www.myspace.com/bobbydennismusic

Drop Dead Interview

1) How did Dropdead come together?

Bob: Around the end of 1990 I put up some flyer's around town looking for musicians that wanted to form a hardcore punk band. Brian,our drummer, answered and we immediately became friends. Ben got in touch with us shortly afterwards and we began jamming together. We added Brian's brother Lee, after playing on and off with my brother Jim from "Ritual Sacrifice" filling in. The initial lineup was with Ben on vocals and me playing guitar but one day we decided to trade places and it just came together like a chemistry experiment. We did replace Lee in 1996 with our current bass player from Monster X, Devon Cahill.

2) History of the band?

Bob: We consider our actual band "beginning" to be 1991 when we began writing the first songs that would be released on our first self titled 7" record. We did our first U.S. tour in July of 93 which was about 6 weeks, in a beat up station wagon with a full back line/distro and 5 people. It was a very intense and eye opening experience to what DIY touring in a punk band was all about. We began touring and recording actively after that releasing several records/cds. We've been touring as many places in the world as we can for almost 20 years since.

3) What are DROPDEADs influences both musically and politically?

Bob: I'd say musically we were all very influenced by the bands of the early 80s that were playing hardcore punk. I was really moved by the Anarcho-punk movement and bands like Crass, Icons of filth, and the Wretched. Brian was into alot of scandinavian and japanese bands like Gauze, AntiCimex, BGK and Larm. Ben was into alot of American thrash/early power violence like Infest, Seige and PTL Klub. We all have similar beliefs politically and we all lean for the most part to "the left" and are actively into vegetarianism. We write about alot of subjects from animal rights, war, racism,sexism, homophobia, and destruction of the planet. We have been labeled as anarchists many times but honestly, we never considered ourselves that. I personally take bits and pieces of many political and moral philosophies and use what works for me...I know the other guys have similar thinking. None of us likes being labeled.

4)What are some of the place you have toured? your favorite?

Bob: We have been touring for close to 20 years now. We have done several tours of both the U.S. and Europe...also Canada, Mexico,Scandinavia,Japan, and Australia. We have been offered tours in Israel, Indonesia, South America and Iceland. I have a good time mostly everywhere we go but I'd say Australia was one of my favorite tours for just intensity and fun factor. Spiral Objective records gave us a great time and were fantastic people.

5)Can you give us any good/funny/interesting road stories?

Bob: Man...I could write volumes of how much crazy shit has happened through the years from good to bad to insane. Some shows that stood out were us playing in a castle on Halloween night on the Serbian border, playing on the alter of a squatted church in Holland with a giant crucified jesus behind us, playing in a barn on a mountainside in Italy, playing a Czeck army base with half the crowd being soldiers who were slam dancing and pogoing in their uniforms. As much as the years have blended alot of things together...I'll never forget that.

6) What projects/ other bands are you involved in?

Bob: I currently play guitar for a dark rock/ punk band from Providence called "Lolita Black". Very influenced by bands like Killing Joke, Sabbath, Siouxsie, and the Swans. I also sing for a local thrash/metal band called "I Destroyer" and we are into stuff like Slayer,Bathory, Impaled Nazarene,Motorhead etc Lolita has a full length CD out and Destroyer is working on one as we speak. I also played in a band called "The Fuzz" for a few years that was fueled by weed,booze and Stooges worship.... I have done vocal duties for hometown heroes Olneyville Sound System on occasion also.

7) Have you had any opposition to your lyrics/political stance?

Bob: We have had run ins with people who are against our vegetarian beliefs at our shows and we feel happy to debate them. We have had more violent opposition on a few occasions in the past with Nazi Skinheads or ignorant people who didn't agree with our anti racist stance. But luckily, these have been few and far between and the majority of people who follow us are actively involved in the same politics that we believe.

8) Outside of hardcore punk...what do you listen too?

Bob: I'm a music junky and I'm into many genres. I listen to alot of Martial Industrial and Dark Ambient bands like In Slaughter Natives, Lustmord, Melek Tha, Raison D'etre,Kammerheit,etc. I dig good Metal, classic hard rock, gabba techno, psytrance, gangsta rap, IDM, world music, experimental, old blues,trip hop...on and on. I'm really into the "Providence sound" also with great bands like The White Mice, Landed, Arab on Radar/Chinese Stars, Fourhorse, xSBx, Tinselteeth, High Plains Thunder,...Providence has an abundance of truly great bands.


9) What are you involved in outside of music?

Bob: Music takes up the majority of my free time...but I also work in human services helping people with developmental disabilities at the Resources for Human Development program(RHD). I've been involved in this work for about 15 years and find it to be very emotionally rewarding. I also dabble in writing fiction and doing "sound" projects under the name "Opium and Mantra". I like to do volunteer/charity work when I am able and have done work with Crossroads, the YMCA, a local Aids foundation and have done many benefit shows for people in need.

In conclusion, what do you see the band doing in the future?

Bob: I am hoping to continue and maybe get it together enough to record some songs that we have had on the burner for a couple of years now. Currently our bass player Devon is finishing up his PHD in Japanese language so I'm crossing my fingers that he'll want to play music again after that and we can get back on the horse. We have discussed going back to Japan also...so that is another goal.

Thanks alot for the interview and your interest Bobby...!!!


Contact/info:
http://www.facebook.com/pages/Dropdead/42169923260
http://www.myspace.com/dropdead
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/dropdead
http://www.last.fm/music/dropdead

Suicide Silence "Unanswered" Video

These are lyrics that I've written and some have already been put to music.

You can hear some songs here

Doom Upon Us

My blood, it drains

Slowly from my veins

Bringing death ever so close

With every beat of my heart

I suppose the time has come

The moment where life is taken from us

Our souls torn from our bodies

To finally be sorted

To the fiery depths of hell

Where the flames never die

Scorching our flesh

Or the heavens

Soaring free

Now my soul is torn

From my chest

As I decay

My grave is dug

They lie me down

Six feet down, beneath the ground

The final image seen

Before death took me from this life

Was that of a skull

Cloaked in Black

Insanity

Going insane

Slowly by the second

Why won't it stop?

Can it be controlled?

Insanity!

Eating away

Just eating away

At what you really are

Wishing it would stop

Wanting it to end

But you know

You know everything will be okay

Yea, in the end

It will be alright

If it's not okay, it's not the end

Tears of Blood

I can't live my life

I am the living dead

Strive to survive

I'll go insane if I don't feel

I have no choice but to live in misery

(Chorus)

Overwhelmed by sadness

The sky pours down upon us

Raining tears of blood

I lost everything

The life I once had

is gone forever

I want to have it all back

But I know I never will

I never sleep

The hunger eats away at my sanity

I hear human sounds

I can smell their blood

And I need their blood to survive

Plane of Lunacy

Over and over again

It's the same damn thing

You gotta wait

Wait for everything

Time just keeps flying by

Like a star falling from the sky

As we wait

The uncertainty of the future

Will we get what we want

Before it's too late?

Or will it all fall apart

Leaving us with nothing?

Countless moons go by

Rising and falling, again and again

As our minds cross into the plane of lunacy

Slowly Dying

Why did you do this?

What pushed you to

To turn to dust

You kill me slow

Every second that passes

Dying seems so near, let me flee

Down to the very depths

It all turns black, I can't see

I'm losing focus

On all that I know

There isn't much

Here for me, but you

If I shatter to pieces

Will you be there to rescue me?

Do I matter anyways?

Or are you gonna break me?

I'm fading

My will to live is eroding

I'm dying

And this life I live is eroding

Surrounded by Darkness

What is going on?

Why would you do this?

These psychotic tendencies,

They flow right through me

Surrounded by darkness

Can't see the light

The walls are closing in

Something is out to get me

(Chorus)

How can I escape this

Is there any way out?

Nothing can stop this

I won't get out

Nothing to be seen

Will I ever see again

The light I once knew

Now lost forever