Dead Sara. An American rock band with strong L.A. roots are about creating a genuine musical legacy based on the foundation of hard working, moment to moment album rock, and prioritizing the priorities. Recently I got the chance to talk to front woman Emily Armstrong. What I got back from her was a contagious passion for music, fun loving energy and a notion that she was born to live a rock life. Check the convo:
The Soul Dynamic | I think a lot of people get a lot of influence from where they grew up, can you tell me how where you’re from influenced your art and music?
Dead Sara’s Emily Armstrong | I don’t really know what it’s like to live somewhere else and get inspired by that, but I’m from L.A. born and raised. Three of us are born and raised in L.A., so I think there’s unity you can’t really put your finger on, we all kind of have the same experiences with our surroundings, but I don’t think you can really put your finger on it cause we haven’t lived elsewhere. I think if we did live elsewhere than you could see it objectively, you would know what other people might be saying about a vibe. Stuff like that, L.A. is kind of known for everything right? It’s kind of the hub of everything, people come here to live out their dreams, whatever that may be. You meet all sorts of interesting people and it’s all over the place, and I love that.
The Soul Dynamic | Totally, and we’re based out of New York just so you know…
EA | New York is kind of the same.
The Soul Dynamic | Exactly, I can relate to you on that (we share a laugh). Ok cool, so what has been your biggest impact or influence that pushed you to actually become artist and make music?
Emily Armstrong — Listening to great artists. I was a 90’s child, like late 90’s, when I got into music. That was something I listened to a lot. But once I started listening to 60’s and 70’s music — it was over. I was like, ‘This is it, this is magic, the music.’ And I’ve always tried to accomplish that and strive for that — making it something memorable for the most part, with so much aesthetic and so much passion you know — THAT. There’s something that just drives it and it’s like a life source for me, it’s literally what gets me going, it’s always inspiring. I would say that.
The Soul Dynamic | When did you know that though, how old were you, was there like a specific moment when you were younger when you were like, you saw some band, or you heard Nirvana for the first time, was there a moment where it just fucking clicked — and it was like ‘that’s it?!’
EA | You know there was, yeah. It was when I was eleven and I picked up the guitar for the first time. I can tell you right now the thoughts that went through my head right in that moment, cause there was a guitar at school and everybody was like, ‘oh I’m trying out this new thing called the “guitar”(we laugh).’ It was like a hobby that people kind of jumped on, what’s hot you know? I picked up the guitar and I was like, ‘Holy shit, this is it, I found what I need to do in my life!’ And just from that, the guitar had like four strings on it and I called my Mom and was like, ‘Mom this is what I want for my birthday.’ And she got me a guitar and I’ve literally been in a band since. Since I was 12 I put a band together and that was it. And I just practiced on my own. Practice, practice, practice and I listened to a lot of those records (70’s/80’s/90’s) and I practiced and I practiced. I didn’t take lessons, I didn’t do any of that. I listened to records and just practiced the shit out of the guitar. And I was very demanding with my band, the ones that weren’t necessarily as passionate as I was, but I didn’t care. I had to still be a pain in the ass to make things happen.
Emily Armstrong
The Soul Dynamic | Are you still like that — would you say the way that you work is very — I mean you’re the leader, is it like, ‘we’re here let’s get to fucking work, let’s do it?’ Or is there more of a relaxed vibe, like, ‘all right we’re here let’s chill for a bit and then let’s get into it?’
EA | We know how important it is. We all have that in our minds, we need to rehearse. So the fact that we all kind of know that allows us to be relaxed about it because we’re all on the same page. No one has to be like, ‘Hey guys let’s go rehearse, let’s go blah, blah, blah, what are we gonna do this week?’ At the same time it is demanding, but if you’re on the same page it’s just — priorities.
The Soul Dynamic | Priorities, no I dig it. All right so we do this thing, it’s called Versus.
EA| Ok.
The Soul Dynamic | I’ll name one thing (topics) and another, like, Kanye vs. Jay-Z or sometimes I name movies, so you spit out whatever you prefer between the two. It’s fun stuff!
Nirvana vs. Pearl Jam | Nirvana
The Rolling Stones vs. The Beatles | The Rolling Stones
L.A. vs. New York | L.A.
The Soul Dynamic | Yeah that was kind of an easy one.
EA | Yeah, but I actually paused on that one.
SXSW vs. Coachella | Coachella, ahmmm (she says proudly).
Scotch vs. Beer | Beer
The Soul Dynamic | I touched on this a little bit earlier, but the creative process isn’t easy for anyone, there’s a code we go through, there’s a process in making work and producing stuff. What’s Dead Sara’s process and what makes it successful? Part two of that question is, how do you guys push through challenges when shit’s just not going your way?
EA | First off, when we write music it’s very spontaneous, we don’t walk in with the song or some idea of a song and say,’Hey guys I wrote this song, let’s all learn it.’ That’s a little bit contriving for us, so what we do is don’t really think about it. We get in a room together and we’re all going through what we go through individually and as a band, and it’s kind of like, ‘we’re here right now,’ and we start jamming. One thing leads to another, we start riffing off of each other and it’s great, it turns into something and we’re pressing record at the same time. We’re just capturing a live jam. And then we sort of go back after we’ve gotten it to a place where we’re like ‘ok that’s cool,’ we’ve pushed certain boundaries within that jam and at the same time seeing where it can go in that moment. And you listen to it later after rehearsal, in your car, at home and then you see it in a different light and you get to listen to different parts of the song and end up talking about it in the next rehearsal. And you’re like ‘I love this part. Or I love when you do this. Oh yeah!’ And then you start to tweak it a bit with the good parts and the parts that we all agree on and really like, and it just falls into place. We have a lot of those moments, so we’re constantly listening, constantly writing, it’s very fun, especially when you’ve forgotten about songs and you go back and say,’Yo guys! Remember this one! Let’s finish this one, let’s crack it back open!’ And then of course there’s those songs that you literally cannot for the life of you figure out. We have this one that we finally broke through on. There was something to it and we all believed in it, even though we tried 50 different ways on this song, but once it clicks and there’s that one thing that makes everything make sense about it — you feel great. Everyone loves the song and you feel like that much better of a song writer because you didn’t give up. You were willing to try all sorts of things, all that you could do, and we did that as a group, together, so you have that support as well. The more we do that, the more we go ‘whoa,’ the more we actually see how much it takes for a song to be where it is you know?
The Soul Dynamic | No, no definitely, that’s life you know, you have to grind through shit sometimes.
EA | Exactly!
The Soul Dynamic | It’s cool that you have your people, cause that’s not really easy to find you know? You’re going to have struggles and shit, but it’s really hard to find people that will actually go through that with you and let you be honest with them and then…
EA | It’s a balance. You have to have a balance. If one out weighs the other, then it’s not going to be fun. You want a challenge and if the challenge isn’t fun at the end, then you’re doing the wrong thing.
The Soul Dynamic | Hell yeah, I agree with you on that. Tell me about the new album (Pleasure to Meet You), what does it mean to you, what do you think it’s going to bring you guys and what should we expect when that guy drops? (Emily starts to answer and then pauses/laughs thinking about how to attack the question, so then I continue my train of thought.) You can answer that however you want, you’re like, ‘Dude what the fuck? It’s gonna be amazing, what do you expect?!’
EA | Well you know it’s just a place holder for the third record (we laugh), I’m totally kidding. I think it’s something that’s just another chapter of Dead Sara. I think that our fans know us as an album band, you have to hear the record and it’s more of a journey than it is single driven type of music. I think it might actually be a little bit more diverse on this record. But I think it’s just another chapter. I can’t say it’s better or worse than the first record, it is what it is you know and that’s kind of how we look at it.
The Soul Dynamic | Awesome. And it’s really refreshing to hear artists talk about their album as one solid piece of work, like you referred to it as versus, ‘I’m just going to drop these singles and see what sticks.’ Or drop a single just for the sake of being a part of the conversation right now. Actually, how do you feel about the landscape of music right now, in the sense that the landscape is very scattered? You alluded to it earlier when you talked about “single driven,” a lot of hip-hop artist do that and it that may be something that works better in that genre, but how hard is it today to get your name out and become a reputable band and produce work that isn’t necessarily going to become something that’s huge with the masses, but something that you’re proud of?
EA | It’s gonna take more time, that’s the thing. You know these singles that come out are huge for a year — good for them. But us being a band, the other bands that we look up to are career bands, like Peal Jam, like Foo Fighters, they’ve been a band for decades. But you know it’s going to take time to get there. Those are all bands that are “record” bands, you listen to their records. That’s what we have in mind when we do anything as a band, it’s not necessarily right now. It’s more about career. And it’s not something that people necessarily think about these days, or think about a lot less than they use too. We just think about this like our home, it’s what we’re going to be doing for many, many more years to come. So you might as well make it a good run and make it music you can go back and listen to and just be happy about. Cause that’s going to be the main thing I believe. We’re not quite there yet, but looking back and asking ‘would I have done it any differently’ and I don’t want to say ‘yes’ — but instead I want to say this is exactly what we had in mind when we were writing that record, when we were writing that song it was because of us, and it wasn’t because of the times, and it wasn’t because of somebody else wanting us to do it or because of a single. It was because we’re a band and I’m going to be so proud of this when I die.
The Soul Dynamic | Hell yeah. Last question before you go. This is something we ask everyone because we’re a website that was started on inspiration, what inspires you Emily?
EA | Everything. I mean, I say that in this situation. Life, its one of those things that hits you randomly. It could be a friend, it could be a movie, it could be a guy you see walking across the street. It’s something that’s unexpected. It hits you in such a way you didn’t quite see before. It’s makes you think, it makes you want to communicate what you see. And it could be friends, my friends inspire me a lot. It’s just kind of random, which is what I really like, you can’t necessarily think ‘inspiration’ you can’t go looking for it, it kind of comes naturally. You have to keep open, keep a good heart and more will come.
Dead Sara’s new album Pleasure to Meet You came out at the end of March and is solid work. It’s legit rock music without the bullshit. Currently you can catch them on tour HERE.
