Dead Fiction are a new, prospering Scottish group that are undoubtedly creating waves with their music at the moment. Having already caught the attention of Jim Gellatly and various national newspapers and music publishers, Dead Fiction are a perfect example of a band that highlight the power of effective music promotion techniques on social media platforms in the modern day. Why? Well, surprisingly enough the band have yet to play a gig to date. However, the group are clearly showing it is possible to gain reputation and credibility as a band through the promotion of their current released material which, so far, is effectively building an ever-growing following for the Perth based three-piece.
Dead Fiction's latest single 'Crushed by the Weight' was released on October 26th and the music video to the track (a must watch video might I add) has already surpassed 10k views which visibly showcases the new single's evident popularity. I caught up with the band's lead singer/guitarist, Craig Macleod, for a chat about the band, their new single and their plans for the future.
Q: Who came up with the cool, thought-provoking band name?
Craig: "It was me who came up with the name. I wanted a word that both represented the darker and heavier elements of the band’s music (dead seemed appropriate) and also, as you suggested, something overall that was hopefully thought provoking. I really wanted to have the word ‘fiction’ in the title as I really like it as a word in the first instance, and also a lot of songs I write include real thoughts, feelings and people blended with fiction and stories, so I thought it was a good word to use. Also, over the years I’ve written a lot about the loss of loved ones, about existentialism in general, and I think ideas about life and death and religion always seem to creep their way into my lyrics somehow, so it seemed a fitting name overall. Put together, I really liked ‘Dead Fiction’ and luckily when I checked online no one had used this name for a band before so it was also unique, which meant I was able to get all the social media and a domain. It now means the band is the first thing that come up on an online search which is great in a promotional sense too".
Q: What methodologies do the band typically take in approach to creative process?
Craig: "During the writing process I’ve consciously considered the aesthetic I’m aiming for which is basically having a mixture of heavy and lighter moments. A mixture of fuzziness, dirtiness, and grunginess, blended with sections that are lighter, subtler and more melodic is what I’ve been trying to achieve. Overall, I think the music can loosely be considered alternative rock. As a starting point I tend to write the songs at home in my studio or living room with an acoustic guitar oddly enough which is tuned in DADGAD (I think we’ll do an unplugged set at some point soon as quite a few of these tracks work really well acoustically due to this). Once I have the basic idea in terms of chords and a chart I’ll then start developing vocal melodies to attach the lyrics too, or if I have lyrics already written then I’ll take the basic chart and develop the melody to fit with the lyrics. For this band I’ve tried to really visualize what I’m trying to achieve aesthetically before I begin the writing process and sometimes I’ll also just pick a concept and completely develop the song around it from scratch. I guess my creative process is pretty varied at the moment and this helps falling into any writer’s block. From there, once I have the basic structure and most of the lyrics / melodies I take it to the band and we flesh it out together – sometimes I’ll take a full song to them and other times it might just be a riff or a chart and we’ll develop it structurally from there and then I’ll finish off the lyrics and melodies. Once we have them played through and are happy with them, I’ll get into the studio at home and get to work".
Q: As Dead Fiction is predominantly a DIY project (all material written, recorded, produced and released through members of the band), what are the main benefits you have found so far from this approach as a group?
Craig: "Aye, it’s totally D.I.Y. in approach and everything is self-produced which is cool and that way there’s no pressure on any of us, and it means we’re in control of everything. I have a treated mixing studio set up at home so I engineer, record, produce and mix the recordings (I also run Meraki Records so I deal with all the music business type stuff like branding, artwork, distribution, promotion, marketing, press etc.); Ruaridh is our photographer and videographer so overall it’s a pretty self-sufficient band which is nice. The only things we out source is the mastering for the records (Colin Dodds – a close friend who lives in Newcastle now doing a PHD with a young family and his wife does the songs proud every time and really pushes the tracks where they need to go) and the artwork / design (Hannah Dalton – a tattoo artist and designer who lives with her wife and two children who has done all the amazing artwork up-until-now, and another old friend – Gordy Crawford (who’s just had his exhibition in Dundee and Edinburgh and on STV news) has just done the artwork for the EP which will be released on November 30th 2018".
Q: Which artists/songs were the main aesthetic influence behind ‘Crushed by the Weight’?
Craig: "I can’t really pin point one artist or song that has influenced ‘Crushed By The Weight’ but bands that I have listened to for years and that I’d say influence the aesthetic of Dead Fiction on the whole, are artists like Biffy Clyro, Frightened Rabbit, Foo Fighters, Admiral Fallow, The Manchester Orchestra, Nirvana, Propagandhi, Postal Service, Owl John, Rancid, NOFX, Counting Crows, etc. In terms of inspiration lyrically, I would say my wife, family (here and passed), my lifestyle, politics, current events, religion (not that I am personally religious), self-reflection as well as other bands and their songs too".
Q: What’s the lyrical message behind ‘Crushed by the Weight’?
Craig: "This is actually one of the newest songs I’ve written and it purposely has a different rhythm and feel to it, as we have been conscious about trying to make sure all of our songs have their own character. I’d written a few more embellished tracks prior to this one for the EP, so for this song I wanted to have a powerful track that was simple, short, anthemic, catchy melodically and super fun to play live in terms of being able to just go for it. The concept for this song as a starting point was money and I was thinking about how our lives are so tied into that system. Also, two close friends this year have been made bankrupt so I guess that fed its way into the thought process for the lyrics. I’m not a fan of literal songwriting (personally) so I like to mask the obvious with metaphors and alliteration, as a way to make the words more ambiguous. For me this makes it more of a creative challenge to write, which I enjoy and I think it allows for more interpretation for listeners too. I wrote down words, ideas and phrases associated with money and money making as my anchor point for this song, and that allowed me develop ideas from there. I wanted to have a lot of double meanings here too, so the idea about trees and money could also be about social class and status. There is also some religious ideology in there too which has come through a lot of my writing recently but I think it ties in well with this concept due to our relationship with both of these phenomenon".
Q: The response to the music video for ‘Crushed by the Weight’ has been very positive so far. Did you enjoy creating the frenetic, Keith Moon-esque scene that takes place in the video? It must have been a true rock ‘n roll experience for you all.
Craig: "(laughs) Aye, it sure was! Easily the best fun I’ve ever had making a music video. I think the video turned out really good considering it was shot and edited for free by the band (well Ru mostly and my wife really) and getting to trash some old rubbish gear and torch it was like completing a life goal for me (laughs). The reaction to the music video has been incredible. Within a week the video had like 190 likes, 55 comments and 90 odd shares and overall the video has been watched almost 10,000 times. I’ve also had lots of messages from fans asking about touring and shows. It’s really nice that folk have been in touch and the support for the music is really encouraging at such an early stage. The idea for the new music video was really just about having a new location in the first instance though that was bright and open, as a contrast to our first two videos, which were intentionally quite dark. We also wanted to break from having complete continuity to the video and incorporate more of a story line or some scenes that didn’t have us just playing the song. Also, and perhaps more importantly we were super keen to trash gear and set it on fire so we needed an open space that wouldn’t be too busy (laughs)" (to watch the video, click here).
Q: What’s next for Dead Fiction?
Craig: "The self-titled debut EP has just been finished and will be released on 30th November 2018. As soon as this is out we’re going to start writing again and either work towards putting out a new EP around the start of April (the band has went though a few different line-ups and so I’m keen to work more collaboratively with the new band (Ruaridh Kidd on Drums and Stuart Hosking on bass) during the writing process. I have three tracks that I’m in the middle of working on in the studio, which won’t be on the EP, so I’ll put them out over a few months in 2019 while we’re working on writing the new EP. The plan is to start gigging regularly too. We all love writing and playing music together (as well as just hanging out) and it’s good to keep seeing a progression, so we’ll continue to make new music and get tighter as a new band. Also, everything is self-produced and it’s super self-contained and DIY in approach so this keeps us very busy which is great. In terms of output though, our debut EP and new EP (with a new line-up), as well as some new singles too, are what’s next for us, as well as starting to gig regularly and book some wee tours to get us out and about".
Dead Fiction's debut EP which will be released on 30th November can pre-ordered here.
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Social Media/Links
https://www.facebook.com/deadfictionmusic
https://open.spotify.com/track/3ndCYlwJlTWYsT2ghFj53H?si=lTFU7xrSSqajj87cbNMF1A
https://www.thescottishsun.co.uk/tvandshowbiz/3346996/dead-fiction-new-music-jim-gellatly-perthshire
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