INTERVIEW: SUNFLOWER DEAD

Sunflower Dead is a collection of the best skills a group of five powerhouse musicians can muster (Jamie Teissere of Droid, Michael Del Pizzo, Leighton ‘Lats’ Kearns of Memento, In This Moment touring percussionist Jimmy Schultz and Jaboo of Two Hit Creepe). Their sound is a bit dark flowing between heavy riffs, melodic stings and well thought out lyrics. Always meant to be a “larger than life” band they have met and exceeded that persona since before their self-titled debut album in 2012. You might recall a well done hard rock version of “Every Breath You Take” or their single “Wasted” but that is small potatoes compared to what else they can offer.

After three years of intense touring all over the world they’ve become a force to be reckoned with. Now, they get to be a touring band with Korn as they round the globe for a 20th anniversary tour and things are looking golden for SFD. Now, they are about to unleash their next album, It’s Time to Get Weird with evolved talents, personas, and a firm realization of exactly who they are. I’m going to get into the corpse of what makes Sunflower Dead’s next offering really rock. Plus, we’ll find out what role Korn’s Jonathan Davis plays in their future!

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Wow! It’s been three years since your debut which I really enjoyed.  It looks that you had so much success that you’re just now able to have the time to complete your next one.  What have you learned between the last album and this one? 

Thanks Daniel, that is so rad!  Yes, SFD worked very hard on the first album cycle and used every opportunity we received to our advantage.  What didn’t we learn…?   It really was incredible how all the touring helped everyone in the band get such a firm grip on whom we are, what we do and what we wanted our second album to be.  The thing is, there had to be a huge jump in between records and that wasn’t going to happen by being stagnant.  This will all be clear when you can delve into the new album It’s Time To Get Weird completely.  This is one of the main reasons we brought in Dave Fortman and Mikey Doling to produce the album.  Their input pushed us exactly to where we wanted to be.

On a separate note, as people, I believe we learned to accept things about each other that cause the little problems.  Being in such close quarters constantly is a stress on anyone and for us, the adversity worked in our favor.

Which songs on this album would be the truest testament to this new discovery about yourselves?

For me it would be all of them simply because we made sure to make each song get across Sunflower Dead and what we mean by saying “weird” all the time.  I do believe that on this record, people will notice more of a sense of fun, balanced out with my constant thematic journey of discovery within the lyrics.  You have to understand that SFD is a band.  We sit in a room facing each other and write our songs TOGETHER, not over email.  It is all about the chemistry we have and the balance we find when everyone is satisfied with the songs.

I understand that you had to do more than just be bad ass musicians such as learning the art of being entertainers.  Did you find this to be quite easy based on your own personas or was it more of a challenge than you thought?

That was the goal from day one, to be entertainers.  The look of the band put us in that realm right off the bat but it took us about three U.S. tours to realize what really made us special as a band.  Something happens when the 5 of us walk on stage and just let go.  We seem to feed off confidence that comes when everyone drops their boundaries.  That’s where the whole “it’s time to get weird” thing came from.  Jamie started saying that to everyone before we walked on the stage and it means  get ready to be yourself.  I think it is also important for people to understand that we are coming from the idea of artists like Alice Cooper and Kiss.

What was your inspiration for stepping into the roles of “larger than life” musicians? 

It is something that is missing from today’s musical climate.  There are artists that delve into it in ways but everyone is still so very afraid to be “rockstars” and have fun.   Everything with SFD must be larger than life to the degree we can make it at the time.  The bigger we get, the grander the scale we can accomplish that.  On the flipside, I think we walk the line really well with having a sense of being grounded, especially lyrically.  There is great depth and meaning to what I am singing.  I am not slinging crap about strippers and getting drunk (not that there is anything wrong with that).

It’s no small feat to open for Korn for their 20^th anniversary tour.  How excited were you about this?  To make it unique explain your excitement as if you found out your favorite mythological creature actually existed.

I tore out of my skin when the Kracken jumped out of the sea to be my guide into the vast ocean of insanity!  How’s that?  It was amazing and humbling and we took it very seriously.  More so than that, it paid off in every way possible!  I mean, Jonathan Davis is sharing the vocal duties with me on the title track to our new album, singing my words and melodies with me.  How exciting it was to stand next to such an icon in the studio and work on the track together.  How many people get to do that with one of their idols.  Plus, It was very sick when Korn was standing around the stage rocking out watching us do our thing in London!

What is your schedule looking like for the rest of the year?

Busy, busy and more busy.  Touring is being booked now.  We have the release date coming up.  Videos are being shot.  Interviews, radio stuff, etc.  And, I am working on the Sunflower Dead graphic novel with a very esteemed horror author.  We are looking to debut it at next year’s Comic Con.  I would expect two years of A LOT of work coming up.

Your group is sharp, fun and just all around cool.  I’d like to ask something I, nor anyone else, has ever asked you to do.  Make up a short story in a paragraph or two using the titles of the songs on your upcoming album. 

I will use three and they all have death in them:

I will “Dance With Death” every day until I broken  through the walls of what has been holding me back.  Not even an entire life’s worth of anxiety “My Mother Mortis” can throw at me will stand in my way.  “You’re Dead To Me” is what I scream to the opposition.

Dance With Death – Lyric Video

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I think your “Evil Seeds” will thoroughly enjoy that!  Since you are loyal to your underground fans what types of things can new fans of your music expect if they become one of these “Evil Seeds”?

To this point, we have been very open with the Evil Seeds.  Because of us being new, it has given us the ability to spend a lot of time with and really get to know them.  I would assume, as things grow this might be harder to accomplish but to our end, everything we can do to keep communication with them open, we will always do.   It’s just a very natural thing for the type of people we are.  Evil Seeds are our lifeblood.  I don’t see us having a lame “paid” meet and greets unless it is some extravagant package a fan gets.

“Dance with Death” is your current single on YouTube.  Exploding with thought provoking lyrics and a Disturbed type sound, is death something that any of you have a great fear for or have you come to terms with it?

I am not afraid of death at all.  Death is used as a metaphor for any great obstacle that is standing in your way.  My point in the song is that we will let nothing stand in our way, not even death, to achieving our goals.  This might be kind of weird, but I have always had a strange fascination with the word death and dead.  There is something eerily romantic about the end of life which for some is the end of pain and maybe moving on to peace.

Of the following circumstances which would you think would be the least sucky way to go out?

Drowning in spaghetti sauce: I love food, so this might happen (laughs)

Strangled with taffy: Again, I would eat the taffy before this could happen

Violent intercourse: Winner Winner!

Before we wrap this up is there anything else you’d like to add?

Daniel, I would like to thank you for the time and knowledgeable questions on SFD.  It sucks talking to people who have no idea what they are asking you.  Lots of business coming for SFD, stay updated on www.sunflowerdead.com, our fb, twitter, Instagram, Spotify, etc!

As usual, it’s always a blast to speak to you guys.  I am very excited to see how your success evolves on your latest offering.  Rest assured, I’ll put the album through its due course when it’s ready.  Now go enjoy an epic tour!

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Daniel C. Morrison for Rock Revolt Magazine