Bleed The Dream

Nearing the end of their Canadian tour dates, Bleed The Dream graced Edmonton with a performance. Brandon, Dave and Keith were nice to enough to spend a few minutes with me answering a few questions about the tour, their new album, Built By Blood, and their drumming situation among other things. 

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Bobby: Starting with the basics, you guys have been touring Canada for a while now, how has that been going?

Keith: It’s been going good, this is like towards the end of it, but it’s been really awesome. I mean, kids have been coming out to all of the shows and knowing the words and everyone’s been treating us really well.

Dave: Saskatoon sold out.

Keith: Yeah, like we’ve sold out some shows, it’s been really awesome. We’re stoked to be here. I think we are going to be doing another Canadian tour after the Warped Tour possibly.

Bobby: Has there been any really memorable moments from it so far?

Dave: For me, Saskatoon. Because that was the first show we’ve ever played that was sold out that we were headlining. So that was pretty amazing just to see kids outside, freaking out because they couldn’t get in, you know? That’s something we’re not used to.

Bobby: You guys also just recently released your debut CD, “Built By Blood”. How does it feel to finally have the full length out?

Brandon: It’s just good to be able to tell someone that they can go to any store and pick the record up. So that’s like the best thing about it. Especially since the first two records we did were only five, six songs each. So it’s good to finally have a well rounded record.

Bobby: “Built By Blood” – where did you guys get the name from?

Dave: It’s a lyric from “Broken Wings.”

Bobby: What would you say is your favourite song from the album?

Keith: I like the song called “Emotion Regression” – track five. Oh, no, track seven.

Brandon: I think it’s seven.

Keith: Yeah, it’s track seven. It’s like one of the slower, creepier, moodier songs. What’s your favourite song?

Brandon: “Destroying Something Beautiful.” No, it’s not my favourite; it’s just got a special place in my heart just because it’s the heaviest song. It’s my favourite, yeah, I’m gonna go with that one.

Dave: “Emotion Regression”, just because it’s just a regular old rock song, and you can’t really categorize it. It’s just a good song in my eyes.

Bobby: It was released on Warcon Enterprises, which is a new label started up by Kevin Lyman and not a lot of people know about it yet. Can you tell us a bit about what it is?

Dave: It’s a new label that he just started with this guy, Bob Chiappardi, who owns Concrete Management. That’s where they got the name from. Warped and Concrete together, Warcon. It’s really good because it’s more like a family then it is a label. Even though we’re signed, we don’t really think of it has been signed, it’s just not that corporate. And everyone that works at the label is just like the coolest people and they help out so much. So it’s pretty cool.

Bobby: Kevin also got you guys on the Taste Of Chaos tour, which is where I finally got to see you guys live. How was that?

Keith: It was awesome because we played in front of a huge crowd every night.

Dave: We played in Los Angeles in front of like 14000 people.

Keith: Yeah, the Taste Of Chaos broke the record at Long Beach Arena with like 16000 people. And we played between My Chemical Romance and The Used, so we played in front of like all 16000 people. So it was pretty amazing, just to step onstage and know that all those people are watching you, it’s pretty intense.

Bobby: What was it like playing acoustically? Were you guys used to that?

Dave: As far as the songs go, most of the songs we write, we write on acoustic guitars, so to transform most of the songs – it wasn’t that hard to play them acoustic. The challenge was to not come out and sound like a coffee shop band. I’d say probably about the first five or six shows on Taste Of Chaos, we were still trying to figure out how we could still throw down with the same kind of energy we do electrically. I think we found that about half way through the tour.

Bobby: Do you guys ever play any acoustic songs normally live?

Keith: No. We don’t. It could be something that we could throw in there later down the road if we were like huge, like we could break it down for a song or two, you know. Chances are we probably won’t ever do it. The people that saw the acoustic thing will probably be the only people to ever see it.

Bobby: Talking about acoustic songs, you guys also released an acoustic EP before “Built By Blood”. Why did you decide to release an entire acoustic album?

Keith: That was right when Scott got sick and we got back home and we were like “alright, what do we do?” We had these songs lying around and we wrote a song for him called “Broken Wings”. So we just went in a busted out in a couple of days.

Brandon: Three days.

Keith: Yeah, it was like three days. It was a bang, bang, bang kind of thing and it was just done.

Brandon: *starts singing* I don’t want to know your name…

Keith and Brandon: *still singing* all I want is bang, bang, bang!

*everyone laughs*

Bobby: That’s such a great song; I’ve seen that video so many times now. Why did you guys decide to re-record two of the songs from the EP, “Broken Wings” and “Should Have Known”?

Dave: Well, the acoustic EP really just came about by chance. We weren’t going to put out an acoustic EP. We had been playing these songs on Awake for so long and we had all these songs that we were basically saving for our full length. Unfortunately, all that went down with Scott. So instead of just sitting around and having nothing to do and no new material for the kids to enjoy, we just said “screw it, we’ll just go out and put out the songs we’ve been working on. We’ll just do it acoustic style.” Those two songs were always originally slated to be on our full length, but we just figured we’ll just put them out acoustic instead.

Bobby: You guys just said you wrote the acoustic EP because Scott was diagnosed, and as we all know he passed away just recently. What are you guys going to do now for your drumming situation now?

Dave: As far drumming goes right now, we have our buddy Aaron filling in for Scott right now. We don’t really know. That’s a tough question because finding a new drummer… you know what I mean. Whoever we do pick to be our drummer, there’s the whole issue of the chemistry, the writing chemistry. This band was always formed around the writing first. The four of us sitting in a room and writing songs. I think whoever we pick; it will be based on who we write with the best. And we won’t know that until we start writing our next record.

Bobby: While Scott was sick, he was able to get out of the hospital and record the album. Do you think he would be proud looking back and seeing the album released?

Dave: Yeah, I mean, he knew that the record was coming out. We finished the whole entire record before he got so sick that we couldn’t even see him anymore. He actually signed our record deal with us, his name is on the record deal. He heard the whole record after it was mastered, the whole thing. Up until the last couple of weeks, well actually up until the last month, we were talking to him and he was still on board with everything that was going on. Every time we had any band decisions, we would always call Scott. Like we’d be on the road for months and we’d call him and say “hey, we want to do this, we’re thinking about doing this with the band,” and we’d get his input in it. He was 100% member of this band up until he passed away.

Bobby: According to your bio, Bleed The Dream started off as a side project. Is that right?

Keith: Yep, it did. Dave and I were in a band that fizzled out. And Dave and I and Scott were writing songs, like we’d be showing up early for rehearsal and staying late just writing our own music as a side project kind of thing. After that band fizzled out, we decided to make it a real thing, and then Brandon came along and kind of sealed the whole thing.

Bobby: Now onto some more unusual questions that I just like to ask at all interviews. First off all, if you guys were stranded on a desert island, with no food and nothing to eat, which one of the band members would you eat to survive and why?

*everyone laughs*

Brandon: That’s a good question, I would probably have to go with Keith first.

Dave: I’d eat myself.

Brandon: Even though Keith is probably my best friend in the band, he looks the tastiest. *Keith laughs* So we’d have to cook his ass first.

Dave: I wouldn’t fucking eat these guys, are you kidding me?

Brandon: Oh, I would. I’d eat all you mother fuckers.

Keith: I would have to say, if we brought our merch boy with us, we’d eat him. *the band laughs and agrees* Because he’s like that little deer, and we’re like the alligators.

Dave: He’s a fawn. A little fawn in life.

Brandon: *laughing* A little fawn?! Oh man *laughs*

Bobby: How about this one, if you guys were the member of the opposite sex for a day, or a week or however long you want, what would you do and why?

*everyone laughs*

Keith: I would be gang banged by like five black dudes! *laughs*

Aaron: Now we know.

Dave: I wouldn’t leave the house; I would just play with myself all day.

Brandon: I would go manipulate dudes for money, that’s what I would do.

Keith: That’s a good one.

Brandon: I’d be all seductive and “hey dude, let’s go buy me something.”

Keith: So basically the same thing.

Brandon: Right, the same thing I do anyway. *laughs*

Bobby: Can you guys tell us something about the band or one of it’s members that not many people know about? Like something you do on the road or something like that?

Dave: We all work out before every show because we’re all fat asses. I don’t know, what else…?

Keith: Something no one knows about the band. I don’t know man. Whoever I sleep with, in bed…

Dave: Gets spooned.

Keith: Yeah, gets spooned. I can’t control it, its just the way I am.

Dave: When he falls asleep, he’ll put a leg up.

Bobby: If you guys could have one thing at this moment, anything at all, what would you have and why? Materialistic or anything else.

Dave: I would find a cure for cancer.

Bobby: I guess that’s about it, do you have any final thoughts you would like to add?

Dave: Thanks to everyone in Canada for being so good to us. It’s been unreal.

Keith: Yeah man, it’s been amazing.

Dave: It’s probably been one of the coolest tours we’ve done.