…And You Will Know Us By The Trail of Dead

…And You Will Know Us By the Trail of Dead - it's not so much of a band name as it is an entire sentence. And as one would expect, the band who lays claim to a moniker of such length and complex origin is itself a rather complicated bunch.
Originally formed by childhood friends and multi-instrumentalists Conrad Keeley and Jason Reece, …And You Will Know Us By the Trail of Dead began making waves as a dynamic rock duo whose violently cathartic live shows became the talk of their adopted hometown of Austin, TX. Filling out the requisite full band lineup and touring incessantly, the band released a pair of highly lauded indie releases before jumping to Interscope Records for 2002's Source Tags and Codes, widely praised as the young decade's finest rock record, and, somewhat surprisingly, readily accepted by the band's indier-than-thou fan base. Their latest release, Worlds Apart, is currently garnering even more bombastic critical praise than ST&C, whipping even mainstream magazines (everyone from Playboy and Spin, to Rolling Stone and Billboard) to lavish ample praise on the album's decidedly more melodic, orchestrated rock sound. However, it is yet to be seen if Trail of Dead's newfound neo-prog direction will satisfy those looking for ST&C part deux. Online hipster tastemakers Pitchfork dubbed the record a "sadly pompous, overreaching monstrosity" that "plays like a boring mid-'90s alt-rock radio mixtape."
In between sound checks for the band's recent two-night engagement at the Sundance Film Festival (and haggling with a waitress after getting stuck with everyone's lunch bill), Trail of Dead drummer / vocalist / guitarist Jason Reece was more than willing to admit that Worlds Apart is a change of direction for the band, but that inspiration for the change lies less in mid-'90s alt-rock and more in a healthy diet of The Beatles, Bowie and the Conan the Barbarian soundtrack.

Worlds Apart has been done for quite a while right?
Yeah, five or six months.

Why did you guys wait so long to release it?
The artwork wasn't finished, and neither was the DVD, both of which we thought were pretty important. I guess we make records that make great artwork; they tie in together.

What is the artwork for this album all about?
It's just kind of about what's going on. We're in the midst of a chaotic time. This album, maybe it's just us reflecting on what is happening out in the world. We're taking in what we're seeing and writing about it.

Some might call the album cynical.
There's a bit of cynicism, but there's also the other side of the coin, which is that hopefully there's an optimistic answer to everything. It's not like we made this totally bleak album. We know that there are some heavy subjects that we've written about. But I'd like to feel that there's a light at the end of the tunnel.

Do you read your own press?
I have a couple of times, unfortunately. I mean, I'm glad that some of the mainstream magazines are embracing the album, but you have the online zines; a couple of them slagged us.

I saw Pitchfork didn't give it a very good review.
Yeah, I didn't really read the review, I just saw the number, 4.0, and just started laughing. It was one of things where you can't really take it too seriously. Even NME, they didn't really like the record either. But whatever, I mean we're probably going to alienate the people who like our older stuff. But I think it would be dishonest not to try to push forward and redefine what we sound like. Why should we sound like the same old shit every record? It would be like we're just going through the motions. Plus we were listening to a lot of classic rock like David Bowie's Hunky Dory, Queen, Pink Floyd; just a lot of the music that influenced us as kids. We've always had that punk rock influence, but there's always been the other side, The Beatles, all that shit has always been stuff we've grown up listening to. Kate Bush was also a big influence. And the Conan The Barbarian soundtrack.

So is this sound the band's new direction? Is this going to be a permanent kind of thing?
We've always been trying to make something bigger than us. Even on the first record, we were trying to go for something psychadelic, sort of bizarre, not your typical agro-punk record. We've always wanted to show beauty as much as brutality. We love beautiful melodies as much as we love something that's energetic and visceral. So I guess for us, we've always been into that. I don't know what the next record's gonna sound like. We've been talking about working with horns. Who knows, it might sound completely like a fucking soul record. But whatever it is, it's still gonna sound like us in the end.

Is it a little tougher to pull off live?
Yeah, I mean there's more piano parts and there's a second drummer, but it adds a certain amount of intensity. It's kind of prog rock [laughs].

Prog rock's pretty ill.
We thought that whatever was sort of funny to us, why not take it further? We definitely have a sense of humor about things. I could see some people from the outside probably think we're fucking pretentious. But we just go with what we feel. It just seems natural to us. Maybe that's what it comes down to.

I think you guys have certainly paid your indie dues
We don't really have to cater to indie, record-on-fourtrack bullshit. We've already done that. So why not extend the possibilities, experiment, have some fucking fun with it?

So what happens next for you guys? Tour forever?
I think we're gonna try to start writing as soon as we can. I mean, we're in the midst of touring, but we definitely feel like we should keep active and do as much as we can to do another record and hopefully keep it going.

You guys built your own studio right?
Yeah we did, which gives us the power to work without having to stick with someone else's big studio and pay shitloads of money. I guess it makes us more independent, you know? And that's always been our goal, to maintain a certain amount of independence away from the major label. I mean, the major label has been good to us, but in the end you've got to protect your own ass. So that's why we invested in a studio, just because we thought it was a smart move, and now we can always make records, no matter what.

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