Interviews – Theory Of A Deadman’s – Dave Brenner

Hey, this is Dave Brenner, guitar player for

Theory of a Dead Man. You're listening to GeekCast

Radio Network. Man, we're going to have to get

him wasted and get him a hooker. That birthday

gift is always an STD. That's so funny. Oh, man,

you have no idea how awesome it is to talk to

you because I actually, I saw you guys here in

Louisville back in 2003 at an outdoor show at

a place called Jillian's. Oh, that place is closed

down. Yeah, way back when you guys were, I've

been a fan since the very beginning. As soon

as I heard Invisible Man on the Spider -Man soundtrack,

I was hooked. That was our first real song that

got any kind of public play. Before that, that

was on Spider -Man before our record came out.

So that was the first thing, man. That's the

first thing. with Theory of a Deadman guitarist

Dave Brenner. Hey Dave, how are you? I'm doing

great. How are you? I'm doing excellent. This

is like a dream come true. Hey, sweet. For me

too. For me too. You guys are, Theory of a Deadman

is one of my all -time favorite bands. I can

listen to your entire catalog front to back without

missing a beat and just constantly. So this is

just a thrill for me. That was our goal. We always

wanted people to not just like two or three songs

from every record. We always wanted everybody

to like every song from every record. And see,

that's the thing with me. There are certain bands

and certain artists I can listen to, but I only

like maybe four or five songs off of their records.

I think there's maybe only two songs in the entire

Theory of a Dead Man catalog that I just don't

really listen to. It's not that I dislike them,

but... Just songs that I don't even listen to

that much. Two or three, that's not bad. I'll

take that. That's not bad. So, kicking things

off here, I found interviews from Theory over

the years, and I don't think any... I always

try to find the most, you know, out there question.

I don't think anyone's ever asked you guys this

question. Where did the band name come from?

I read online that it came from one of the songs

off the first album. Can you set the record straight?

Yeah, it was one of the songs off the first record.

On the record, it's titled The Last Song. It

was always one of my faves from that record,

but that song was quite an old song and actually

used to be titled Theory of a Dead Man. The whole

song is based around the premise of somebody

who's considering committing suicide. and basically

starts to write sort of the memoirs of things

that he loves and won't miss if he's gone, and

through writing these memoirs kind of talks himself

out of doing it. So that was the whole premise

behind the theory of a dead man. And then when

we started doing pre -production for our first

record, we ended up changing the title of that

song, and I mean, we literally... We literally

had, like, label interest before we had our band

name figured out. And it was Dean that said,

hey, let's call ourselves Theory of a Dead Man.

It was something we all liked. And then we stuck

with it as our band name. That's awesome. So

awesome. Does it amaze you that you guys are

10 years old? You know what? You know, for some

reason it doesn't really amaze me. I know that

I've seen so many awesome bands come and go.

And I know that this industry can like, you know,

it can chew you up and spit you out as quickly

as it brought you in, you know. But I don't know.

I feel like we've always had a good, strong work

ethic. We've always been willing to do whatever

it takes, you know, to make our band a success.

And that means, you know, never saying no to,

you know, any interviews or anything. You know,

if people wanted to talk to us, we wanted to

talk to them. about us. So, you know, we've always

been willing to pound the pavement and play small

shows, big shows, medium shows, you know, and

just meet our fans after the shows. And I think

that the fact that our band has such a good dynamic

within our, you know, the four of us personality

-wise, we never disagree or, you know, get in

fights about anything. In 10 years, I could probably

count our fights on two fingers. You know, it

doesn't totally blow me away, but at the same

time, I'm very happy to be where we are, and

we feel pretty blessed to be able to do this

and make a living doing it. Yeah. As far as tours

go, you guys just finished the Avalanche Tour.

I believe that was last year, or it might have

been earlier this year that you finished it,

and now you guys are starting Carnival of Madness.

What's the best part for you personally on tours?

You know, there's a lot of really fun things.

For me, when you look at a tour like Carnival

of Madness, for me it's sort of about the brotherhood

of the band. We've toured with most of these

bands before, and we get along well with everybody.

And, you know, you get on the road and it's like

a big family. Everybody's excited to see each

other. Everybody's hanging out, throwing baseball,

throwing football, of course playing hockey,

right, for us Canadians. And, you know, we're

just having a good time on the road, and it's

like not having to grow up, man, and just hanging

out with your buddies all day every day. So it's

something that's hard to describe, but something

that you really can't beat. Yeah. How many in

your all's history, like I know from reading

other interviews and from seeing other videos

that you guys have done, You guys always talk

about pranking each other and other bands. Has

any of that really started yet on the new tour?

No. I mean, literally, tonight's the first night

of this tour. And Adelita's wave on stage right

now. And tonight's pretty much the, hey, what's

up, kind of first night. How's everybody doing?

Hugs all around. But you know what? I think all

the bands know each other pretty well. There's

a good chance there could be some serious debauchery

going on on this tour. You'll have to check back

with me when we see you later in the month. Yeah,

you guys are actually going to be, I believe,

at Freedom Hall here in Louisville, Kentucky

on August 26th, and I would love to go. My problem

is I don't drive, so just getting there is the

issue. But I would love to see you guys again.

It's been too long since I've seen you in concert.

Yeah, man, you got to come. We're playing a bunch

of new tracks. And the new record, the truth

is, we've got a couple of cool songs that we're

playing. And for us, which is for us exciting,

you know, anytime we start throwing new stuff

into the set, it's an exciting time for us. So

we're excited about the upcoming shows. Yeah.

When you guys do your all set lists, how do you

choose the songs that really go into each night's

set list? Or is it different every night? No,

it's not different every night. I mean, we kind

of try to, you know, sort of set a base set and

then maybe throw a few variables in that can

change in and out here and there. But, you know,

the idea for us for a tour like Carnival is to

sort of set up, you know, what works. And the

only way to do that is by playing a few different

songs here and there. It's getting really hard

to make a set list because, you know, if we have

a one -hour set, I mean, we had eight singles

from Scars in seven years. So, you know, an hour

set, we're playing like maybe 12 songs. Yeah.

And so we're cutting singles from the set, you

know, to put album cuts in just because we want

to play some album cuts. And it starts to get

really tough because, you know, you do some festivals

and they're like, you got 40 minutes tonight.

And we're like, 40 minutes, man. Holy cripes.

What are we going to do here? But you know what?

It's just we know the ones that the fans really

want to hear. We really want to play those ones

because, you know, that's what your fans are

your fans because they love certain songs. We

always try to appease the majority and play some

of the big songs like That Girlfriend or Hey

My Life and also play some songs off a new record

that we just want to play and try out and test

out. I think that for us, discovering which songs

are going to be singles, for us, we have to do

some research and play them to the fans and see

how the reaction live is as well. Yeah. You mentioned

Scars and Souvenirs. Do you think that The Truth

Is has the potential to do what Scars did? I

think so. I mean, we look at the history of our

band, and we feel like there's been growth every

record, right? Like we've built a fan base off

of touring, and those people are still our fans,

and we go and see them, and they come and see

us. When we write records, we really focus on

making... you know, every song, a song that could

be single with you. I don't think there's any

reason why you should focus on, you know, picking

a few songs and making those your singles and

then throwing the rest of the record together.

We really want to make it so that if, you know,

the time was permitting, every song could be

a single. But, you know, I think that we're really

proud of the truth is and we think that it's,

in our opinion, you know, we just keep getting

better and that's how we wanted to do it. So,

you know, I think we'll be disappointed in ourselves

if we don't, you know. repeat the success that

we had with Scars. Well, as I heard Tyler say

once to people who gave Scars bad reviews, he

said, keep giving it bad reviews. It'll just

get better and better for us. Yeah. Oh, man,

you know, it's just the truth. I mean, in the

end, you know, we look at like Rolling Stone

magazine dogging on Led Zeppelin back in the

days and stuff. It's like, you know, at some

point you just got to remember that that's one

guy's opinion. And, you know, you just keep.

keep rolling forward. And for every one guy that

doesn't like it, man, you got to hope that there's

a thousand that do. So, uh, you know, that's

how we, that's the attitude we take. And we just,

uh, we focus on the people that do like the record

and, and, uh, party with them. Yup. Uh, musically

on the truth is you guys added horns on a few

tracks to me. Other than that, it seems to be

the same sound that you guys have had over the

years. I guess the saying is if it's broke, don't

fix it. But is there anything different you would

have done with The Truth Is other than what it

actually is now? No, you know what? For us, you

know, when you start messing with stuff like

horns, it's something that we've kind of done

on every record. You know, we're like, hey, you

know, it'd be cool to try working a song out

with something like this. But for some reason

with The Truth Is, it almost sort of presented

itself. We played these songs that just almost

felt like they wanted to have horns in them before

anybody even brought up the idea. And it was

like... Yeah, they would maybe sound really cool.

And, you know, the more records you do, you start

to get a bit of a budget for stuff like that.

And we're like, you know what, let's spend some

money and see how it sounds. Get a group of guys

out here that can play the shit out of some horns

and see how it sounds. And they came out and

they did it, and we were like, you know what,

it's a marriage, man. These things, this is perfect.

And, you know, I don't think horns, a lot of

people say it's not rock and roll, but, man,

go listen to Bad Motor Finger by Soundgarden.

There's horns all over that thing. So, you know,

horns can be rock and roll, you know. Anything

can be rock and roll if you apply it, right?

That's right. I've tried to come up with questions

that no other interview that you guys have done

recently has asked you. I read another one where

you said that Drag Me to Hell is the hardest

sounding song you guys have ever done. Were there

any other hard songs you guys worked on but didn't

make the new album? No. We're pretty focused

when it comes to working on songs. and anything

that we kind of work on, we usually end up, uh,

recording because, uh, or otherwise we scrap

it early. But you know what? I think, uh, there's

some, some heavy songs on this record. I think

we were men kind of have this heavy, dark undertones,

but that as far as just straight up heavy riff

here to share, I think drag me to hell is probably

the heaviest song that we've ever written. Yeah.

Um, so the bitch came back is, a Canadian nursery

rhyme? Well, not exactly. No, I know, I know.

I don't know if it's a nursery rhyme either.

It was some kind of thing, and it was called

The Cat Came Back, and I remember growing up,

and it was, you know, a little song that, you

know, you would sing along to Fred Penner or

whoever, and, yeah, it was The Cat Came Back.

The very next day, the cat came back. Thought

he was a goner, but the cat came back. He couldn't

stay away, and then one day, I was just on a

tire flight through Hammond. He's like, you remember

that cat came back? I'm like, yep. And he goes,

I want to do that. But the bitch came back. And

I was like, all right, let's do it. So we literally

just jammed it right in front of me. And I was

like, that sounds awesome. For me, we didn't

realize that this was only something that people

really knew in Canada. You know, it was just

something that we just thought was, you know,

from back when we were kids, you know, growing

up, maybe just lost in that generation. But then

we started. sort of asking around, and the Americans

that we talked to just didn't really know what

we were talking about. We're like, oh, because

we were thinking, hey, perfect. It's a melody

everybody already knows. Perfect. But, yeah,

it's mostly Canadian, I think. I saw today before

we did this interview on the band's website that

you guys are asking for extras on a new music

video. Can you tell us what song is getting the

new video? It's actually a bitch came back, and

we already filmed it. Yeah. Right. Yeah. If you

had to pick your three favorite songs off The

Truth Is, what would they be and why? I think

I would pick We Were Men, just because, I don't

know, I think it's, for me, Tyler being a guy

that writes a lot about relationships and his

relationships and stuff like that, it's cool

for me to see him really write something that's

way outside of his realm of comfort, but also

nail it so rad, like it just sounds so awesome.

And we always have so many military people come

to our show. It's cool to kind of, you know,

give a song that's a bit of a shout -out to these

people. Another song called Gentlemen, which

is a song that we'll be playing live for the

first time tonight, just because I just think

it rocks, man. Like, it's upbeat, it's fun to

play. And another song, I think Hurricane is

one of my favorites, too. And I think it's just

an emotional rollercoaster, that song. So I've

always been a guy that's a fan of emotional music

and singers pouring their hearts out. So those

are my three picks. Yeah. For me, because I actually

got the special edition off of iTunes that had

a bunch of bonus tracks on it. Oh, yeah, yeah,

yeah. For me, my favorite... Out of the bonus

tracks is Villain. Oh, yeah. We recorded that

just after the Scars and Juveniles session. So,

yeah, we did that one quite a while ago. But,

yeah, that's a cool track. Yeah. If you guys

ever did a video for that, it has to be based

off of, like, superheroes and supervillains or

something like that. Yeah, well, you know, we

keep saying, like, how come this song can't get

into some kind of a superhero movie or something?

It's perfect. I know, I know. You were talking

about We Were Men earlier, and in another interview,

I think it was with you, it was some other website,

I don't know, I believe it was either you or

Tyler that said it was originally supposed to

be on Scars and Souvenirs. Yeah, we started jamming

that song kind of before we did the Scars record.

And, you know, it was such early stages of that

song, and we were sort of close to getting to

the point where we were going to start recording.

And so we'd fiddled with it just briefly, and

then kind of we're just like, you know what,

we don't need another song right now. We've got

enough songs to record. You know, this is just

not far long enough, and let's focus on what

we have. And then when we started jamming for

this record, I just sort of said to Tyler, I'm

like, hey, you remember when we were jamming

a song, We Were Men? He's like, yeah. I'm like,

let's jam that again, man. That song's ready

to come together here. Let's put it out. And

so we just started working on it, and it just

came together so well, man. I couldn't have been

happier. Yeah, it's a really, really awesome

song. How can people, besides like the website,

and I know you guys, I know the band is on Twitter.

It's at T -O -A -D -M. Are you on Twitter or

Facebook or anything for people to interact with

you? Or are you the one that actually runs the

band Twitter? No, Tyler does the band Twitter.

Dean is also, our bass player Dean is also on

Twitter. But I am the one guy that is not into

Twitter or Facebook or MySpace or any of those

social networks. I call them anti -social networks

because it just keeps people from actually socializing

in person. So you know what? I'm trying to hold

out as long as I can. If you want to interact

with me, just come to the show and let's hang

out and have a drink. That's what I do. Old school.

So I'd like to thank Dave Brenner from Theory

of a Dead Man.