Interview: Dead School
Posted on 17th Oct 11 by Alex Millar | 
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Drop-d’s James Hunter talks to one of Cork’s most talked about up and coming bands, Dead School, on their records, their formation and “Dead School-Gate”…
Ahead of their Crane Lane headliner last Sunday evening, I met with one of Cork’s most talked about up and coming artists, Dead School. Brandishing an energetic mix of Interpol and Black Rebel Motor Cycle Club they seem poised to take the nation by storm.
There has been a lot of discussion about band amongst Cork’s music scene, and a lot of the passion surrounding the band has been expressed through this site. With this in mind, the band were eager to have their say, a side of the story that hasn’t been adequately aired on Drop-D. The band addressed the issue when we spoke to them, but before that, we got an insight into how Cork’s most talked about new band came together.
Singer Donal McDonald tells us, “Well myself and James are brothers, and James met Cathal when they were working in a clothes shop together. James was hanging around our apartment all the time (“All the time!” interjects James), so we started jamming and writing songs acoustically for a few months.” And after that inauspicious start, the bands were ready “to fuckin plug in y’know?”
Shortly after this they met their now ex-bassist Ruairi Dale through a few shows they played in an Oasis cover band, and the Dead School we all know came together. “Ruairi came in and joined us, we practiced for a bit, and had our first gig on November 28th of last year”.
It was just before at this show that the band met the man who has given the band the push they needed, their manager Eddie Kiely. Kiely had managed legendary Cork band Emperor of Ice Cream a good few years ago, and Dead School are his newest endeavor. Donal tells us “we met Eddie through my girlfriend around the time we were forming the band and he came to watch us practice. After that he said ‘Listen lads, I’d like to help ye out and see how things go’.” After that meeting Dead School were locked on course for the success they now have garnered and have put out two singles since then “Standing on the Edge” and “3:17/Exude”, the second of which was produced by Christian Best.
The recording of their last single has been one of the epicenters of what the band have termed ‘Dead School-Gate’. Eager to set the record straight, guitarist Cathal gets fired up and tells us how things went. “We went in to record the drums, and it was taking too long to get them down. We don’t have a home studio; we don’t have these kind of facilities so we asked Christian to help us out with them. We trust him. He did some of the tracks, but not all of them and he did a fantastic job. He didn’t want to be credited on the project, but we never made a secret of it.”
The band also spoke of the rumours that Ruairi Dale’s bass tracks were re-recorded without his knowledge. Dale claims to have heard this through a series of “Chinese Whispers” which questions the validity of the claim and the band say that it just isn’t true. “As far as that rumour goes, it’s a complete fabrication” says Cathal, “and as far as the whispering goes, I couldn’t give a shit. They can whisper away all they want”.
Replacement bassist Nessan O’ Connor chimes in to give his opinion on the situation and it’s an entirely valid one, one that this interviewer completely agrees with. “It’s a bad reflection on the spirit of the music scene when people are bad mouthing bands. It’s a community and it really should be more supportive.” He goes on to say, “We’re nobody. We’re an up and coming band and we work hard.”
So with “How it went down” finally laid upon the table, the band seem to have put the unpleasantness behind them. They went on to play a stormer of a show that night, and have had a dozen others since them. On the horizon, Dead School will be releasing a new single in early 2012, but before that there is the long awaited remix by Zombie Computer of ‘Standing On The Edge’. Having been released at the end of last week, the song has shot to Number 7 on the iTunes download chart. Now there couldn’t have been a better way to move on…
Check out the band’s Facebook page here for updates on their shows, and you can buy the “Standing on the Edge” remix on iTunes.
Tags: 3:17, computer, Dead, eddie, edge, Exude, interview, kiely, on, Remix, School, Standing, The, zombie
I love how we’re accused of facilitating “badmouthing” of Cork bands when we’ve busted our holes on a daily basis for hours on end covering Cork gigs, releases, streams and the like, and assemble compilations of Cork tunes so people have an easy frame of reference for the otherwise massive and diverse pool of talent this town has to offer. To insinuate otherwise is an insult to us as journalists and as music fans.
I don’t think he was accusing Drop-D of badmouthing bands…
I think he was referring to the people who made the original comments, and the people who commented on the original post.
And what are we to do, censor comments? People are always going to have their opinion, and if we are a site that covers Cork music, we have to be able to facilitate debate.
Your earlier comment seemed to indicate that you think he was accusing Drop-D of badmouthing bands. The comment had nothing to do with Drop-D.
And obviously we can’t censor comments.
Not owning a studio doesn’t compensate for poor musicianship.
Dead School’s blurb:
“So, you go and see a band: a fairly unremarkable looking bunch who look reassuringly harmless. Unexpectedly, however, you walk out of the door with you head spinning; because Dead School are a 100 mph experience.”
…They can’t be serious? In my opinion; cocky, fame-hungry, Topman clones with a hell of a lot of energy, but seriously lacking in the music department. Sure, they’re hard-working, they play a lot of gigs and they’re from Cork, that’s all great. But, there are so many better bands working their asses off in Cork and around the country that don’t blow their own trumpets, beg for fans online and are actually good enough musicians to record on their own songs. There’s a massive difference between being ambitious and cocky. The bass player was right to do a runner, he seems like the only one with his head screwed on.
What’s the big deal? If you don’t like them don’t listen to them.
Plus one for Aoife.
@Aoife B:
Marry me????
I’d say being able to badmouth (or at least criticise) a local band is actually an indication of a healthy local scene: being censured for not being enthusiastic about a local band simply because they’re local is pretty parochial.
There’s constructive criticism (which is positively necessary for any sort of progress) and then there’s undue badmouthing. Maybe, it’s this whole Internet-bro mindset of “haters gonna hate”, but some bands these days, and not naming any one band in particular, not just Cork or Irish bands, either, but acts from the UK and the States we’ve crossed paths with over the years, seem to have great difficulty differentiating the two.
I’m grumbling about the “no hurt feelings” attitude: as a music fan I could say “I think [local heroes] are heavy-duty pish” and that’d be alright. Say it as a Cork-based musician and I’m a dick for not supporting the scene. I’ve said before (in real-life conversations) I don’t think some bands are up to scratch in a beyond-Cork sense: “Oh, but they’re friends of mine”. So fuck. A bit of enmity might add a bit of spark to the usual back-patting and patter about the local bands all helping each other out.
I agree with Ross, far too much back patting in the scene. Specially towards new bands. I remember when myself and other lads my age were starting out in bands people used to tell us when we played a bad gig or wrote a song they didn’t like. Back patting and bottom rubbing is getting out of control in Cork these days and all it’s going to do is convince young bands that what they’re doing is good enough and they don’t need to improve on it. Which they do. Not talking about any band in particular either before ye all shit a brick at the idea me bad mouthing someone.
There shouldn’t be anything wrong with saying you (as a band or individual) think a band’s shite. No-one bats an eyelid if you say it about a non-Cork band. Cork audiences depend on how many people you know personally: the scene in practice is actually mates recommending or talking about how amazing such-and-such a band is, just because they’re pals. Look at the Echo’s “Who the hell goes to…” bit: 5/6 folk are there because they know someone playing.
Alright, it’s a small place, but do you think in a city like Glasgow or London or Manchester or Berlin the bands treat each other with kid gloves like they do here? Do they fuck. Isn’t it better to hear someone saying they hate your band than a non-commital “Oh yeah, them, never saw them live, heard the name…”
For the sake of standing by my convictions, I can’t see the appeal in Slow Motion Heroes or Hope Is Noise, and I fucking loathe Agitate the Gravel.
There is that element of incest to the scene that needs cleaning up, very few will tell you otherwise. To this end, Drop-d kind of makes a point of just reporting on gigs in the news section, but if a band is good, when I have my review hat on, I’ll say so and do my best to convey that.
Personally, it IS my genuine belief that Cork has the best music scene in the country. I say that not as someone who’s been in on it all along or has friends to put over, but as a Mallow man who started going to gigs a few years back and liked it enough to move up and start college here. I am genuinely in awe with the variety and talent we have here. Maybe that has resulted in me (and my writing) looking like a fanboy, but there is more than enough there to seriously care about.
But if we get self-congratulatory about something that’s expected of any city that lays claim to being a leading music city, we can kiss it goodbye.
I don’t level the charge against Drop-D; I think the site’s got a good balance (of local and non-) and doesn’t go into extravagant hype. It’s just the fact that from playing and attending gigs, talking to folk and seeing stuff on Facebook or whatever, the Cork scene’s nowhere near as hearty as folk like to believe: it’s a big group of mates playing to each other.
Having said this, I don’t claim to know what the solution is; there probably isn’t one. There are some outstanding bands in Cork (I’d agree it’s the best in the country), but recently these tend to be the ones with fuck-all audience.
I think that many of the comments made about dead school recently are very personal, not objective or about their music and quite frankly, reek of bitterness and jealousy.
I’ve never heard anyone come out and publicly say some of the crap that has been said online because people know it’s petty and tacky and it makes you look like you can’t compete on your own merits so you are instead trying to tear someone else down.
So what if they are ambitious? Any musician knows it’s bloody hard to make a living making music you have to go for it and grab every opportunity you can. I think fair play to them a lot of people wouldn’t have the balls to get as far as they have in the past year.
If you don’t like them nobody’s forcing you to listen to them. I agree that constructive criticism is so important for progress and I love a good debate about music but it sounds like people like aoife have a personal problem with them as people and not their music, why have a jibe about their style, that’s just sad.
At the end of the day they’re just a group of young lads trying to make some music give them a break .
(Disclaimer: no that’s not a dig at drop d I think you’re a great magazine and of course you can’t censor negative comments! )
Eilis, if the comments seem personal it’s because this is an issue people take personally.
Some objective points: 1) neither drummer can hold down a beat; 2) they have a lot of energy onstage; 3) their songs are lazy and derivative; 4) they are taking this seriously; 5) the gigs are not tight; 6) the recordings are tight.
Some subjective points: 1) they are worryingly pretentious; 2) they are worryingly pretentious; 3) they are worryingly pretentious.
Who here does not find their blurb upsetting? How offensive is the sentence “What if Ian Curtis had been on speed instead of caning downers?”
Another thing is we’ve put ourselves into the public domain by playing gigs and putting out records etc – you can’t cry yourself to sleep at night if someone says they don’t like it. This is especially true if you’re playing commercial-rock-pop and going for the broadest audience possible.
pack of lizards if you ask me
i apologise for that last comment…
Saying that the people here who criticise these lads can’t compete on their own merits is just as personal a remark as anything made here, Eilis.
The Ian Curtis thing is hugely disrespectful not only of Ian Curtis and his memory but of the music of Joy Division too. Was this coined by the band or the goons at Blue Monkey?
Ambition is one thing, going out under the pretense that you perform as well live as you do in the studio is another. I’d imagine people like Cormac Battle and Paul MacLoone would be a bit less enthused by this band if he knew exactly who was playing on their records and what they really did sound like live.
I’m gonna have to agree with Meadhbh’s point about bringing up Ian Curtis for a cheap few pairs of eyeballs.
Joy Division are a band many have taken to their bosom and have been burned indelibly on people’s memories, that built the table their many impersonators gorge themselves at today, to disrespect the memory of Ian Curtis in the fashion they have would be like claiming they are Kurt Cobain on caffeine instead of heroin, or similar. Offensive and unimaginative at best, downright exploitative at the very worst.
mi name is cccccathal
Weak, bro. Regardless of whatever situation is being discussed, there’s no call for personal cockshots. Plus the fake email sucks.
What a strange way to “bump” this discussion…
Agreed. No call for it, lads. No call.
I know very little about this band apart from they’re supporting Whipping Boy, I think it is, in the near future. Based on all this talk about them I will definitely check them out but personally, I don’t like bands that are able to spring up in Nov 10 e.g and are in a position to be getting great support slots within a year. I don’t believe “new” bands deserve it, for the want of a better word. Going by previous posts, they’ve obviously garnered some media attention. Great and fair play. However the concensus seems to be that they can’t carry it off live. I like to think this isn’t the case. Surely this can’t be so. I like to think any self-respecting band would represent themselves AT LEAST as well live as on record. I’d be embarrassed if this was not the case from my own point of view anyway. I am very curious to hear what they sound like, recording-wise initially. Good that a band can brew up a bit of a storm and discussion though.
Dead School’s blurb:
“So, you go and see a band: a fairly unremarkable looking bunch who look reassuringly harmless. Unexpectedly, however, you walk out of the door with you head spinning; because Dead School are a 100 mph experience.”
This is the most horrendous, arrogant thing I’ve ever read. Unless they’re a classic thrash band. Even still it’s borderline retarded.
I hate when people associate/misconstrue “ambition” with fuckin arrogance.
I’m actually really curious to hear them now. Can’t give a listen til I finish work. Will respond then.
http://soundcloud.com/dead-school
‘Ave it.
In my opinion, at this level the quality of the body of work (whether that be a single, E.P. or album) should be representative of the talent in the band.
If you are getting someone else in to play such a fundamental part of the music, this is simply NOT the case whether a secret is “made of it” or not.
The music industry has been changed forever and writing AND playing our own music and songs is all we have left to separate us from products of X-Factor.
Simple as.
Hear, hear.
Why don’t ye just go and see them, then judge them, the people that made the previous comments, how long has it been since you’ve seen them if ever, I was at the gig last night in Galway with Whipping Boy and they were really really good, all the gigging they have been doing has really paid off. If it was your 1st time seeing them I don’t think you’d believe they were just over year together, that’s not just my opinion they got a fantastic reception from the crowd.
It is just your opinion at this stage, John – a non-hostile reception does not an amazing live band make. However, I shall see them tomorrow with an open mind
If only they had held on long enough they might have been able to play on their own records. Good call, John.
ok, listened there. Being a big fan of Interpol/Editors I actually had high enough hopes. That and getting to support Whipping Boy. But I have to say I thought it extremely bland. Like boring Glasvegas or The Flaws. The production is superb though. Sadly production does not make a dull song better. It’s the style of music that, as a rule, doesn’t really improve in a live setting either. My opinion only but there you go
Saw ‘em there with Whipping Boy, they were grand – a few silly drumming mistakes and backing vocals which I can only call “bizarrely ill-fitting” (they were metallic yelps) but generally grand. Much more competent than a few months ago but nothing to write home about, really. There ya go.
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