Blog
I’m not there. I will be meeting up with the band tomorrow morning. Oh boy. See you at one of these? I’m excited to hate the world with Daylight
The World Is a Beautiful Place & I Am No Longer Afraid to Die interview
THE WORLD IS A BEAUTIFUL PLACE & I AM NO LONGER AFRAID TO DIE INTERVIEW - 1/9/11
Questions by
-Mike Ward
Answers by
-Greg Horbal
Alright. First let me say how much I love everything that you have done. The subtleness to your songs is really amazing. Almost an Explosions in the Sky esque to them. When you write songs, do you ever compare your works to other groups that you are influenced by as if to say ” does this sound enough like…” ? (If so, who are some of those groups?)
I don’t think we ever approach anything from the standpoint of “does this sound ENOUGH like…”. There have definitely been moments while writing where we finish a part and are like: “Oh man, this sounds like ‘Band X’” or “this sounds like ‘Band Y’.” If it feels too close to ripping off another band we tend to try and change the part. We’re more interested in developing our own sound than trying to follow in the footsteps of anyone in particular.
On the cover of your latest record, there are about ten guys laid face down on the ground. Was this some sort of metaphoric shot saying that you all died doing something that you truly loved (playing music) or was this just a cover you guys thought would be clever?
Honestly, we all just kind of thought it looked good! We had been discussing that image for months before we took the picture. We wanted to take a photo of everyone in our band and everyone in Deer Leap together and had originally been intending to include all of our gear out on the lawn. We kept running into issues, though. For one, Deer Leap live in New Hampshire and we’re all in Connecticut so we don’t get together too often. And then when we were finally all together and got ready to take the photo, the skies turned black and it looked like it was going to rain at any minute. We grabbed our less precious gear, threw it on the lawn and took the shot moments before it started to downpour.
So on the record Mixed Signals Comp, there is a song that is a bit different from most of your other works. Is there a reason behind why you guys chose the song ” To the Janitor, To the King” as your single as opposed to some more of your abrasive tracks?
We had intended to use a song called ‘Getting Sodas’ for the comp, but as the recording date approached we just didn’t have the song done. Parts kept changing, vocals and lyrics were not completed and it started to get really stressful. We had sat in Derrick’s room a few nights before we were supposed to go record and Tom showed us the first verse of “To the Janitor, To the King.” I remember all of us getting excited. We worked through a very rough version of what the song would end up being in the following hour, and made the call to place that song on the comp instead. We were all really stoked how it came out. I think we’re going to be using a very similar styled song for a single we’re going to be doing for Run For Cover next year as well.
Listening to your albums from the beginning of your discography, is there any one song that you are most proud of writing?
Honestly what I’m most proud of right now are all of the new songs we’ve been writing for our LP next year. I feel like we’ve finally started to reach our potential as a group. I have to have something like 15 demos on my iPod and they are all I’ve been listening to. I cannot wait to show this record to everyone.
The song ” Blank #6” sounds like a deep song that simply did not require anything more done to it to make it better. Was there an event in any of your lives that brought about the abyss that lies within the guitar riffs?
I don’t think there was an exact event that inspired the song, but that song and all the songs we write reflect what’s going on in all of our lives at the time.
The repress of the deer leap split came in in time for tour!
Split repress now available from the Topshelf store. As you can see they are almost as pretty as Greg. (http://www.topshelfrecords.bigcartel.com/product/deer-leap-the-world-is-a-beautiful-place-i-am-no-longer-afraid-split-12-inch)
Our shirts are also available at www.deerleap.bigcartel.com
Re-presses!
Grown Ups - Cat shirt (FINAL RUN, EVER)
Grown Ups - More Songs (FINAL RE-PRESS, EVER). Burnt Sienna /300.
Deer Leap / The World Is A Beautiful Place & I Am No Longer Afraid to Die - Are Here to Help split LP. Clear Gold /500.
Code Orange Kids / Full Of Hell - Split 7 Inch. Clear w/ white haze /500.
let’s get rowdy.
Tonight at whacky castle with us, dowsing and brave bird. Message this page for the addy.
The World Is a Beautiful Place & I Am No Longer Afraid to Die playing a new song “Gig Life” in Cambridge two weeks ago: http://tpshlf.co/JvoLfA
The World is a Beautiful Place & Daylight northeast tour dates!
- May 18th - Allston MA @ Wacky Kastle w/ Dowsing, Brave Bird
- May 24th - Altoona, PA @ Fort Apache VFW w/ Daylight
- May 25th - Columbus, OH @ The Legion of Doom w/ Daylight
- May 26th - Howell, MI @ Bled Fest w/ Early November, Wonder Years, Daylight
- May 27th - Ashtabula, OH @ The West End Art Space, Daylight, Citizen, Such Gold
- May 28th - Pittsburgh PA @ tba w/ Laura Stevenson & The Cans, Daylight, Adventures
- May 29th - Philadelphia PA @ IHOP House w/ Wicca Phase
- July 6th - Long Island, NY @ Today’s Mixtape Fest w/ Iron Chic, Such Gold, Front Bottoms
