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Hi guys, welcome to VENTS! How have you been?
Considering where we’re all at in this thing, surprisingly good, thanks so much for the continued love! We really appreciate the support.
Can you talk to us more about your latest single “Pull My Strings”?
Grant and I were working with this very cool, “spiritual warrior” friend of ours in an effort to work through our respective heartbreak after we’d both ended significant relationships. We kept running into the idea “letting go” as applied to this modern illusion of how life “is supposed to work” and how things are “supposed to be.” We’re told over and over again to fit into the mold of what our predecessors have been forced into. But what do you do when you don’t or DON’T WANT to fit? Clearly, the old ways are not working. As a society, we’re more divided than we’ve ever been. We are a super, super successful species, but we are annihilating everything around us. We have to let go of what was, and move towards drastic change. That’s what the song is about: Change or die, and to change, we must let go of what we know and move forward. Shed our skin so to speak.
Did any event in particular inspire you to write this song?
Grant and I were going through similar break ups at the same time: Grant had moved into my place and took over the master bedroom I had shared with my ex because I simply couldn’t bear to sleep there without her. Over the years, we’ve been very close friends and in a couple of ways, the song winds up being a celebration of getting through things and forging new relationships. Letting go of the toxic people in your life and moving on to greener pastures with positive people.
Any plans to release any sort of video for the track?
Yes, we’ve shot it and are editing it for a release towards the end of this month. Directed and photographed by the young, up and coming director, Jason Tate and his brilliant director of photography, David Dinwiddie, it is a parable of sorts that features an interdimensional alien who’s come to visit us in Malibu. It manifests its VERY ugly self on the beach and has three, key encounters with individuals from our planet. One who’s broken, one who wants to break, and one who wants to fix. We got to work with the special FX makeup team made up of Sven Granlund and Yazmin Vinueza, and I got to live out a childhood fantasy of dreaming up a movie monster of my very own and playing it!
How was the recording and writing process?
Whereas most of our songs emanate from cool drum parts we pre-record, this one actually started with that Rhodes keyboard riff. I then added the drums that were pre-recorded after I had done a rough sketch of the song. If I remember correctly, I had been assembling some of Grant’s drum performances and stumbled upon the riff. After that, I added that really cool broken beat that Grant had written and then it became a fully formed song idea. I sent it as a rough assembly over to Grant, he worked on the arrangement and the mix. Then we went to this really cool studio, Twin Pines in the mountains outside of LA, to record final drum parts. This really was one of the first songs that we finished and thought, “Wow, this is really special music. We have something really interesting and important here.”
What role does California play in your music?
I would say a huge role as we’re both California natives and sons/grandsons of entertainment industry people. Growing up, I believe it was not dissuaded at all for us to be in the arts, which I think is a strictly California (maybe a NYC) thing. Whereas I went to Europe to study art and paint and wound up accidentally falling into a record deal, Grant’s father is a very successful music publisher so for him, being in the music business was almost expected. My grandfather was a successful ham and eggs movie actor and my parents met in Jane Hawkins acting class at LA City College.
How has Tame Impala and Beck influenced your writing?
I’d say they illustrate the level of success one can have these days actually making cool music. Those two artists, specifically, make it so a band like Dark Side Of Light doesn’t feel insane when we release our records. There is a market for what we do and we see it in their respective careers and success.
Does the new single mean we can expect a new material – how’s that coming along?
Absolutely, Grant and I are always writing and producing. We probably have one full LP worth of material, mixed and ready to go, and another EP after that, which we are currently writing and producing. If I’m not painting, I am writing music. It comes to me in my dreams, it comes to me in the shower, it is almost like an infection of the mind. I’ve always felt “blessed with a curse” so to speak. Grant would be a lunatic if he couldn’t make music of his own. I know this because I’ve known him when he was on hiatus from writing and producing, and he was not a happy camper.
Any tentative release date or title in mind?
I guess I am announcing it here LOL, we are releasing an EP on vinyl, of five or six songs in mid to late June! You heard it here first!
What else is happening next in Dark Side of Light’s world?
We have a music video coming out for “Bloody Robots and Bone Machines” which is a single we soft-released to TikTok in an effort to showcase different people of all shapes and sizes, all ages, all creeds and colors, DANCING, the theme being: “Let your freak flag fly.” It will be a vertical, TikTok style format, featuring humans as well as animals and robots doing their thing. We’d like them to actually do some dance moves to celebrate the fact that we’re going to be able to get out and move around, if we so choose, after being locked down for almost a year. Let’s celebrate the new and IMPROVED Roaring 20’s!
