Q&A: Dylan & Damon From Gravemind

Deathcore outfit Gravemind have just dropped their brand new single The Death of Teyolia with a lyric video to match. Before they head away on tour with I Shall Devour and To The Grave, we had a chat with vocalist Dylan and guitarist Damon to find out more.

Who is Gravemind?

Damon – Six dudes with no money.

How would you personally describe your sound?

Damon – Riffs, a lotta riffs and breakdowns and the occasional ‘ha ha ha ha blegh’.

Who would you say has the most influence when writing new music? Or is it all pretty even?

Dylan – Damon writes the songs by himself, and we collaborate with ideas and Damon basically takes the same song to get recorded. Then he collaborates with Jamie and Lance from Half Moon Studios, then I write the lyrics/narratives to the track.

You are days away from releasing your brand new single The Death of Teyolia, how are you all feeling?

Dylan – Pretty excited, we’ve had some really positive feedback on the YouTube video, and we’re excited to play this one on tour in October.

What is the meaning behind the single?

Dylan – On the surface, it’s the story of a tribeswoman, dedicated to finding her lover’s soul no matter the cost. It’s a hypothetical to when man completely severed the ties to our own spirituality, these days it’s either organised religion, atheism , or total fruit loop ideas on spirituality, it’s about the loss of the very attainable first person ‘spiritual’ experience that I believe anyone can have.

Damon – Shes and old timey person and her boyfriend dies and she thinks geez, I better fix this, then she doesn’t.

Why did you chose to release a lyric video?

Dylan – I think we saw a singular Scott Rudd video this one time, and thought it was a pretty unique idea.

Where did the whole idea for a comic theme come from?, because I also heard that you will be releasing a digital comic book for The Death Of Teyolia as well.

Dylan – We wanted to do something a bit unique and we really wanted to drive home the fact that we’re a concept band. We’re also nerds, and the next release will come with a line of trading cards.

Should we be expecting an album/EP featuring this track?

Dylan – This is just a standalone single, the next release will be something completely unrelated thematically.

Damon – No.

Next month you are heading on tour with I Shall Devour and To The Grave, how did you score this gig?

Dylan – We’d like to think it has something to do with Aden’s ICH PIG wardrobe, but we’re not entirely sure.

You have had a busy 8 months supporting some pretty hefty bands on tour, what is your most memorable live performance?

Dylan – Definitely the last show of The Hateful Tour in Melbourne, any show playing with our friends in Uncle Geezer is going to be a good time. They’re the funniest power violence band in existence, and they spread good vibes, they’re essential for heavy bands to have on their show if you wanna get the crowd going.

Damon – Coffs harbour, because we played like 20 kids, and we decided to get into the crowd at the hall and start moshing with them. Aden ripped out some old guys hair with his guitar pegs by accident.

What was it like working with CJ McMahon (ex-Thy Art is Murder) and Mark Poida (Averson’s Crown) on your previous EP ‘The Hateful One’?

Dylan – Working with Poida was a blast, he’s a very humble dude, has time for anyone. He dug the track, and the concept, and now I hate playing that song live because it means I have to attempt to scream in Poida’s range and that’s like sending your diaphragm straight to hell. Working with CJ was great, another humble dude in the music scene, very professional. We all wanted those dudes from the offset, because it suited the concept for each song so well, we’re very lucky to have them on our record.

Do you think Gravemind is taking a different direction musically with your new single vs the tracks from ‘The Hateful One’?

Damon – I think that we’re still finding our sound with everything we release, but TDOT was more a fun track to play, rather than searching for a certain sound. It’s not where we intend the band to go, expect bigger, more progressive, groovier things.

When you are relaxing, what music do you play in the background?

Dylan – Josh listens to Turnover or Tiny Moving parts, Shorty (Michael) listens to Nujabes, Bonobo, and Tesseract. I listen to Ed Sheeran, Aden doesn’t relax, he only djents and Anthony, we assume he listens to old man music.