Ded is Kick ass Metal band from Phoenix, AZ. Their first single “Anti-Everything” reached the Top 20 at Active Rock radio, and the video has more than 1.2 million views on YouTube. The band has played every major US Rock Festival in 2017. Their 2nd single “Remember The Enemy” is currently #20 and climbing at Rock Radio. They recently released their debut album “Mis An Thrope”.
Touring with bands like Korn, Stone Sour and playing insane festivals such as Rock on the Range and Louder than Life, Ded is most certainly cementing their place in the Metal genre and winning over fans with every show.
Lucky for us, these guys took a few minutes out of their schedule to chat with us at the Louder than Life festival in Louisville, KY.
UG: You guys are fairly new, right? Together at least?
As far as the band Ded for sure. We’ve been together about three years or so. We just released our first single in December though.
Six months ago, we did a lot of stuff under the radar before that.
UG: That’s what it had looked like to me. Your debut album was in July correct?
Yeah, July
A couple of months ago, yeah
We are super stoked to have that out!
UG: That’s great! How did you all come together? What kind of backgrounds do you have?
We have just been friends in music for a long time. The four of us had known each other from a bunch of bands that we played in, and we all just grew up in the same city. Playing in bands and playing shows together. I run a recording studio and we just started writing songs for fun and just kind of morphed into Ded.
UG: Awesome, that makes it easy if you have your own studio right?
Yeah, it makes it a lot easier.
UG: Now do you still operate that while you are on the road?
No, I bring a small version on tour, but I don’t have a team of people running my studio while I’m gone. When I’m gone I close it down and when we are home we use it. It pretty much turned into… I don’t record bands anymore I just work on our stuff all the time.
Which is more fun, it’s like having a toy chest and I just get to go in and play with a bunch of stuff in my own band.
UG: Ha, that’s true. One thing that really surprised me when researching you guys is that you just released your first single and debut album and you’re already on tour with band like Korn, and playing shows like Louder than Life. That’s pretty successful in my opinion.
Yeah it is in our opinion too. It’s pretty crazy!
It’s having a great team around you. A team of people that know how to operate in this kind of world. Since we did everything ourselves we were able to shop around for labels and we didn’t have to take the first deal that came to us. We were able to negotiate a little bit more. We knew what we had we weren’t willing to go after this unless we really came across the right people. Then we were like “this is really going to be good.”
That’s how it kind of happened to get all the tours and stuff. We just made sure that we were building a band we weren’t just jumping at the first opportunity. We were hesitant about things and the process
UG: Very few people get that opportunity to take their time and be choosey really. So many people rush into deals
Yeah, they are so eager to get a record deal and then get screwed over. Take your time, find the right people and it goes well.
Absolutely.
UG: One of your videos I noticed was directed by Fred Durst. Do you guys have a relationship with him?
We do now.
[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=un7QcJHRh58]
Yep
The head of our label started and signed with a label from Limp Bizkit so he’s known Fred for a long time. He told us they were talking to Fred about you guys and we’re sending him the music. If he likes it he’s interested, if he doesn’t like your music he’s not interested. It’s pretty much as simple as that.
UG: No pressure there
I know, right?
It was a challenge. Glad we won!
UG: You operate your own studio, record your music, get signed and go on tour. What kind of experiences have you had with your whole world changing from a business world to this loose Rockstar type of environment.
Honestly, we have been touring for over twelve years. So I’ve always run the studio off and on. I’ve always done both. I don’t think I could do anything else. When we are home I like being in the studio because we can still play music. You can’t go home and do this lifestyle… just kicking around and drinking beer and fucking waiting to play a show. You would literally never get anything done. When we are home it’s printing shirts, like we run all our own business stuff so… We are running around getting our merchandise together, getting the live show together, getting production together. We do all that stuff ourselves. We don’t have a team of people in Arizona so it’s kind of nice. When we get home we still have a lot of stuff to do and it all helps this be the lifestyle on the road. It’s all the preparation to get ready for the next tour.
UG: Do you ever get overwhelmed with some of that?
All the time
Every now and again you open your e-mail and you’re like fuck! It’s been one day and there’s 22 e-mails that I have to go through.
If you don’t hit it up then you’re going to be drowning
It’s only overwhelming if you aren’t on top of it. usually if it’s overwhelming it means you were being lazy and didn’t get something done that you should have. Now that’s why it’s all backed up
That’s absolutely true. We are hard on ourselves
UG: Now you guys operate your own social media, a lot of people have varying degrees of like or dislike with that kind of thing. Do you see it as a positive for being able to connect with your fans or a headache?
It’s more of a pro than I thought it would be
I like that people can reach out and try to tell you things. I sat up in the van all night last night because I was replying to people’s messages on our Facebook. It’s cool that people can reach out and tell you that you did a good job with a show and what this means to me. It’s cool to just be able to write something back to everybody and stay connected with people all over the world. People like from Germany and all over the place ask for us to come there.
That’s the cool part I think is how far the reach goes. You get people from other countries that you normally wouldn’t even knew. With the internet translator it doesn’t even matter if you speak the same language or type it.
Yeah you can see generally what people are saying. It’s pretty fuckin cool. Because you know that didn’t really even ever exist except for with the mail. You know and it would take two weeks for physical mail in the past. I think it’s really cool especially being a newer band and I really like the idea of being in touch with people. That’s what it’s all about. that’s what a lot of our message is being better to each other even though it’s so angry
UG: I think we are out of time, but one quick question before I let you go. We are really looking forward to seeing your set in a little bit, but what’s next for you guys after the festival?
Touring, yeah, we are doing Sonic Boom next, we are doing Rock Allegiance, we are doing some shows like Gemini Syndrome, Beartooth, some shows with Stone Sour, Loud Wire Awards, we are up for the best new artist on Loud Wire. VOTE FOR US OUT THERE!!!! We are playing with Beartooth out in L.A. too. So just doing a bunch of shows, we are heading home and doing a show with Mastodon in Arizona. Just out touring and staying busy!
For more information on Ded visit the official Facebook page.
Also be sure to check out the “Remember The Enemy” video linked below:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hua_-sf9Y8w
Don’t miss out and be sure to grab tickets for an upcoming Ded show near you!
10/10 – Chameleon Club – Lancaster, PA
10/12 – Capones – Johnson City, TN w/Gemini Syndrome
10/14 – Stickyz – Little Rock, AK
10/15 – Revention Music Center W/Stone Sour – Houston, TX
10/20 – Big Red Night Of The Dead – Fear Farm Festival Grounds – Phoenix, AZ
10/21 – Kino’s Veterans Memorial Stadium – Tucson, AZ
10/22 – Aftershock – Sacramento, CA
10/23 – Loudwire Music Awards Pre-party – The Regent Theater – Los Angeles, CA
10/24 – The Loudwire Music Awards
11/5 – Ozzfest Meets Knotfest – San Bernadino, CA
1/18/18 – Shiprocked
