Jun
26
Maylene and the Sons of Disaster Interview – June 21, 2008
It was June 21, 2008 the second day of Vans Warped Tour and Andrew and I had a chance to chat with one of my favorite bands, Maylene and the Sons of Disaster. The band had recently gone through a few member changes, but the southern rock band was still going strong with their amazing riffs and heavy sound. Dallas Taylor (vocals) and Matt Clark (drums) were the two members I was lucky enough to meet and talk to, both were very chill and just normal guys with great talent. For making interview possible special thanks goes to Tim Hrycyshyn of WMG, Ryan Johnson, Dallas Taylor, and Matt Clark. Thank you guys so much.
Tamlyn: What’s the biggest difference between I and II, your two albums?
Dallas: Just that I had a lot more time to write. The first album was just us just getting together it was the first stuff we’ve ever done together, the second album we had more time to sit down and actually learn out and feel out each musicians and kind of learn each others positives and the negatives to make a better record I think.
Tamlyn: Now going back to your past I know you were the singer of Underoath? So what made you change your style of vocals?
Dallas: I always wanted to kind of be in a band I guess like Maylene, but I never really had a chance to do it in Underoath and when I was younger, I didn’t appreciate my roots and the music my parents kept me into, I wanted to get away as far as I could when I was younger and then the older you get you end up coming back to it.
Andrew: With the recent band mate changes, how do you think that will change the sound of your next album?
Dallas: It’ll just be a lot more grown out. I’ve been playing with these guys like Matt for I don’t know, I’ve know Matt for 8 years probably he used to play in Underoath back in the days he played bass. So like he’s playing drums in Maylene now and it’s a bunch of old guys. So it’s going to be a lot more well rounded because we know each other really well. I’ve know these guys before Maylene so I’ve had a longer history of writing and these guys all have the same mindset of writing as I do so we’re all on the same page on what we’re going to write so it’s going to be awesome. It’s going to be the same stuff, but a lot more grown up.
Andrew: How soon do you think your third record will come out?
Dallas: December we start recording a new record.
Tamlyn: Do you know what direction you’re going to go into?
Dallas: I think just like a lot more classic feel to it with like anything from older country to old classic rock to even like classic as the first hardcore kind of styles of music like the sludge stuff. Just everything we grew up on more than like trying to do something new trying to do something that nowadays that just kind of took glimpses from the past. That’s been Maylene’s mind set since we started, it is trying to do what everybody else is doing now, doing things that a lot of people forget about you know like what they grew up on and even like the stories in your life just the mindset of going back when you were young at heart and maybe more innocence thinking. People try to complicate things, complicate music, complicate their lives just be innocent remember when you were a kid I guess, I don’t know what did you listen to then, what did you then I don’t know.
Tamlyn: How did you two meet?
Matt: Let’s see. What happened was that I had met their guitar player Octavio and we were kind of milling around and hanging out a little bit and I was in another band Sleeping By The Riverside at the time playing drums and Underoath and Riverside was kind of like a brother/sister or brother/brother kind of bands and we always ended playing with each other at local shows and they decided to expand and Riverside was done, so I incorporated bass playing and we were off.
Tamlyn: So Matt, why did you change from bass to drums?
Matt: I started out with drums and bass was sort of something different to do and I thought it was a cool experience to get in with these guys kind of been friends with a little bit and I like the concept of what they were going with but I’m a drummer at heart I’ve always played drums even when I left Underoath 6 or 7 years ago its been all about drums the rest of the time I haven’t pick up a bass since that time. So that’s where my heart is and I’m happy to be doing what I’m doing now.
Tamlyn: So tell me about your Christian roots?
Dallas: Yeah it’s major like that’s the reason we do it not to ram stuff down peoples throats but its changed our lives and made us the individuals who we are and if some people can see that in us or see something deeper in us that’s why we do this. I write the lyrics even the music more well rounded, where anyone can get anything out of it, but it’s all positive. I’ve been there you know I have OCD so I have to take medication everyday, I struggle with depression like everyone else or whatever we go through the worst relationship problems or anything that most normal people go through, but we just get by with the love of Jesus taking care of us and we portray that in our music, but we don’t ram it because a lot of people I know don’t believe the same as me but they respect me for what I’m about and I’m not going to back down just because it might offend someone because I think if you’re really strong about what you’re about and you’re a hundred percent with what you believe people respect that because they see you’re not trying to be weak minded, but if you’re trying to and your not sure what you’re about then people start picking on you, but yeah that’s our lifestyles and we try to portray that most through our actions rather than anything else. We don’t really want to ram people. I think with anything like that anything you do in life, people are going to look at you personally how you walk and portray yourself and how you treat others rather than the words you may say on stage.
Tamlyn: How has your stage presence changed, since the switch of members?
Dallas: It’s good. It’s a lot more musicianship has taken noticed not that there wasn’t before that what we focus more on now than we did before. Before it was about going crazy now it’s more on the music side of things, we’re trying grow up some. I don’t, I’m still a goofball I don’t know if I can ever grow up I have two year old at home that keeps me in shape.
Andrew: (to Dallas) how does a grown man come across a Blues Clues tattoo?
Dallas: My nephew was a big inspiration in my life he was handicapped and had a metabolic disorder so he couldn’t hold his head up, walk, or talk or anything, he passed away back in November and his favorite cartoon was Blues Clues. So I got his name in a paw print it was kind of like he changed my life and I got a calling to being friends with him a lot of people look at him as oh something wrong with him but I always saw him as normal. So I think I have a super big calling to reach out to those people just from my nephew and how much he changed my life.
Tamlyn: Do all your tattoos have a meaning?
Dallas: No. Oh my gosh. I got my butt cheeks tattooed camo for a dare. I’ll probably be getting another bad one. So I just get some that mean stuff and others, well I’m from Florida, most Florida kids have the stupidest tattoos, if they come from a certain area. Me and Keith of Every Time I Die might go in and have a competition to get the stupidest tattoo, he has some pretty bad ones too.
Tamlyn: What are you trying to get out to your fans?
Dallas: On a tour like this the biggest thing is don’t get wrapped up in whatever you think you should be doing some people that listen to certain types of music or act a certain way because that’s how they’re supposed to act in their mind set. Just be yourself, who cares if you’re not accepted. So many people end up fitting in to whatever’s around them then actually exploring new music. The norm is good for some people but a lot of people just do it cause there to lazy to do something on their own. So do that and be happy to be alive. I don’t know. It seems like nowadays a lot of people are depressed and negative and just be happy to be where you are at.
Tamlyn: Stay positive.
Dallas: Exactly. It could be worse. You could have anything happen, so just be happy that you’re breathing. Just be happy. Rather than sitting there and whining about your own self go out and help somebody else out and be useful rather than sitting and complaining about your own life.
Tamlyn: So are there any organizations that you support?
Dallas: This company called Blood Water Mission, they build wells over in Africa and I help out by raising money for them and stuff like that.
Want to read this interview in it’s entirety to hear about the “purple porpoise” and a story about Dallas, Ryan Russell, and his neighbors, feel free to click here :]
