Dead Levee Interview
Two new singles and one new tour.
Regina-based band Dead Levee (founded in 2017) is starting to make waves on the music scene, releasing two new singles titled “Tension” and “Eyes on the Road”. On top of the singles, Dead Levee has also announced that they will be going on a Canada-wide tour, calling it their Tension 2020 Tour. The tour will kick off on Jan. 30th in Regina at The Exchange, with following locations including Winnipeg, Halifax, Hamiliton and Thunder Bay, just to name a few.
I had the wonderful opportunity to discuss the new singles and tour with bassist/vocalist Tayler Morgan and Rylan Klapatiuk. That interview can be found just below:
So, with regards to your new singles “Tension” and “Eyes on the Road”, what was the process like putting those singles together?
Ray: “Oh, well, it’s like any song, it’s such a long process, it starts with an idea and it keeps building from there. Write the song, rewrite it, work it out with the boys, rewrite it again and then record, and then finally ask ourselves ‘okay, is this ready?’ [laughter].”
Tayler: “Yeah, exactly. That’s kind of what it was for ‘Tension,’ we kind of went in and out of it. Rewrote it a couple of times, because you can’t put a timeline on a masterpiece [laughter]. And then ‘Eyes on the Road,’ that one comes out on the 22nd, end of January here, that one was an idea that Ray had. He brought it too Dane Von Hagen, the lead singer, and myself, and we just had a couple of pints and just kind of rewrote it a bunch of different ways and it came to exactly what it is today.”
Ray: “That one was a bit of an easier process. You know, having a few drinks and locking the doors. Closing the blinds for a couple of days and coming out three days later with a song.”
Now, because both of those songs are singles, are there plans for an EP or album in the future?
Ray: We definitely have plans for a couple of bigger releases in the foreseeable future. I don’t wanna put a date on anything but definitely have something in the works. Whether it comes about as a another chain of singles or an EP, or even a full length album, it’s gonna be something. We do have material and we’re constantly working on more stuff.
Moving away from the album and onto the tour, how do you guys feel about that coming up?
Tayler: “Oh, that’s gonna be a blast. We never really toured out East. As far as we’ve toured is Winnipeg, so the fact that we’re going to go out an extra 4500km that way is absolutely unbelievable and doing it in February just adds tension to the tour, right?”
Ray: “Everyone I’ve talked to says we’re nuts, but I’m pretty excited.”
How does it feel to be starting out in your home town of Regina?
Tayler: “It’s exactly as any musician would want, you start a tour big at home with all your friends and family, and then move on to cities with bigger markets that you’re not necessarily exposed to as much and you kind of build a reputation out there. But playing in Regina is always a blast.”
Is there any place in particular that you guys are looking forward to playing at?
Tayler: “Well, playing Toronto is going to be wild, playing all the way out in Charlottetown, playing Prince Edward Island, is going to be crazy too. There’s just so many big cities out that way that it’s kind of tough to say, right? You have all these suburbs with 100,000 odd population, so it’s much like Regina being built around Vancouver, you know what I’m saying? There’s just like a lot of population out in the surrounding area out there, which is really going to be nice not having to drive four or five hours to play the next city.”
Ray: “I wanna say, I’m super excited to play everything east of Winnipeg, because we’ve never played out that way before. That being said, we’ve quite the show lined up in Winnipeg, so I’m excited for everything [laughter].”
Tayler: Me being a Manitoba product myself, Winnipeg is going to be awesome. I’ve got a bunch of friends and family that support us out there, everytime we go out there. So that’s always nice.
So, last question for you here, where are you hoping the Dead Levee name goes after the promotion and the tour?
Tayler: “Just continuing to reach for the top, of course. We’d love to be on every radio station across the entire world.”
Ray: “We’re not going to stop until we’re filling out stadiums across the world.”
Tayler: “For sure, we’re that kind of band that’s satisfied for the night, but then you wake up the next day and you wanna do something twice as cool.”
So there you have it, once again, if you’re interested in seeing Dead Levee live before they head off east, you can catch them (as well as Small City Blues and the Hourhand) at the Exchange on January 30. Tickets are available for $10 and can be found on The Exchange website.
