Grab your s’mores, your bug spray, a shot of Malort and pack your bags as Riot Squad Media is returning to Northeast Pennsylvania to take over the West End Fairgrounds in Gilbert, PA with Camp Punksylvania! The 3-day festival with multiple stages and amazing national and local acts like 7 Seconds, The Bronx, Less Than Jake, will take place from 5 July until 7 July tickets are available here. Dead, Dead Swans has joined TGEFM to discuss this year’s festival for the latest installment of our Camp-centric interview series: Happy Campers. Check it out below and I’ll see you at the campfire!
Thank you so much for agreeing to this interview! What should our readers know about Dead Dead Swans; your mission, your sound?
I don’t know that I have a particular mission in this project. As a kid, I grew up with a lot of country music around. In an attempt to kind of find my own identity, I fell into punk rock and emo music, but maintained a love for the cornfields of the Midwest that I grew up in. At some point I began to fall in love with country and folk music without outside influence, and to some degree I think I am to communicate my love for both communities and genres while bridging the gaps between them. I aim to express myself as clearly and concisely while putting several different walks of life in a room together to hear and hear witness to those expressions.
What album or band or significant singles made you go “Yeah, this is what I want to do” Not just an influence but who or what was the catalyst? On the flipside to that one… Who are some non-Camp bands on your radar that TGEFM readers may not know about, but you think they should?
I can credit my desire to be a musician to later era Beatles records that I listened to with my father. My desire to be a performer can be credited to Destroyer by Kiss. I have the words, “Through Being Cool,” tattooed on my arm because I heard the Saves the Day record as a 14 year old and decided I wanted to drive around the country in a van and play songs in basements. I spent years playing in punk and emo and indie rock bands before I heard the early Avett Brothers records that introduced me to more of an indie folk sound, but I think the first two Benjamin Tod LPs probably had the largest influence on my approach to songwriting.
In terms of artists to look out for? Shining Nothing and Old Wolves will eventually take over the world. There’s at least a hundred others, but those are the guys that taught me how to do it.
You are gearing up for Camp Punksylvania in the coming months, what does the festival circuit mean to artists like yourselves?
More than anything it’s a place to reconnect with the friends you’ve made on the road or a place to meet the friends of friends or even catch the names you also pass like two ships in the night. It’s a place for us to all meet, stop, and slow down for a bit.
What does Dead, Dead Swans have planned for us beyond Camp Punksylvania?
Plenty more touring through the fall and then a long break. I’m in the embryonic stages of writing a new record and that process has been greatly hindered by a fairly aggressive tour schedule. To say nothing of lost time with my partner and dog. I have a home that I’d like to enjoy during the fall and winter months if at all possible.
What have been some of the most memorable moments or experiences with the band so far? What’s been the most unexpected? The weirdest?
Really, I’ve lumped the entire project together as one experience. I’ve been very fortunate for these songs and live shows to have been very well received and I’ve met a lot of very dear friends all over the country. One day when I’m old and gray I’ll have incredibly fond memories to look back on. In the same way, I’d say that what’s been most unexpected has been how well the project has been received. It’s done exactly what I wanted by connecting with folks in the punk scene as well as Tom T Hall fans who are in their 80s. That’s aways a pleasant surprise for me.
Regarding live shows, what are you most excited to bring to the Camp Punk audience? What do you want the campers to say about your set when they write home from camp this year?
I’m just hoping to bring them the best version dead swans that I can offer. That’s the idea at every show. Well I can hope for campers to say is that the songs touched them or connected with them in some way. I hope they feel something by the time I leave the stage.
We’ve all got a few, what is your biggest regret? A gig you turned down, advice you didn’t take, what one thing do you wish you handled differently as a musician?
Honestly, probably my biggest regret with dead swans is that I didn’t start it sooner. I’ve always kept the project and myself very separated in my head, so very little of its success seems to be my doing. I’m simply following where it takes me, and it’s taken me to several very beautiful and interesting places. I have no regrets in following it.
The punk and ska scenes have almost always been at the forefront of inclusion and diversity within the music scenes. The flipside of course is that the gatekeeping in the scene is also very prevalent? Why do you think the genre brings in such a welcoming community and is so happy to let everyone in and also seems to shut the doors so quickly behind themselves?
The scene is largely accepting of weirdos and outcasts. We close those doors to ensure that only the weirdos and outcasts come in. Otherwise we’re dealing with the same negative communities that sought to outcast us in the beginning.
Your new record Even Still We Were Together has been getting some RAVE reviews! Let’s talk a little bit about how the record came into existence. What was going on at the time that helped kickstart the writing or recording process?
Even Still wasn’t the consequence of any particular catalyst, but several catalyst. The previous record had been a response to a traumatic breakup and as that record was being mixed and mastered, several songs started to show themselves as smaller responses to several outside influences. A traumatic experience would a arise, a song would take shape, and the experience felt resolved. I don’t think any one topic is touched on twice on that record. It was this inconsistency that worried would be the downfall of the record, but in hindsight, what I refer to as inconsistency I think may be being perceived as variety. I think the record has a little bit of something for everyone on it by being less focused on any one event.
If Punksylvania were a real camp, what activities are each of you leading?
Skate camp and keg stands my dude Let’s pretend there’s some post show jam sessions… what song are you playing at the Campfire sing-a-long?
Probably some Against Me! songs. Who doesn’t wanna sing “Reinventing Axl Rose” on a 2am drunk?
Camp Punksylvania is a smorgasbord of fantastic acts. Which bands are you most excited to see?
Well it seems like a real bucket list moment to catch 7 Seconds. Big D and the Kids Table were a huge part of my growing up and I’d like to give my 16 year old self the experience of playing a festival on the same day as them. Codefendants are a great live band and real nice guys, but it’s an extra special treat that they’re being backed by Zeta. I think it’d be hard to run into a bad act.
Was there anything I missed that you’d like to share or dive deeper into with our readers?
Be kind to one another or get out of the way.
Bad Dad (occasionally called Ed) has been on the periphery of the punk and punk-adjacent scene for over twenty years. While many contributors to this site have musical experience and talent, Ed’s musical claim to fame comes from his time in arguably the most punk rock Blockbuster Video district in NJ where he worked alongside members of Blanks 77, Best Hit TV and Brian Fallon. He is more than just an awful father to his 2 daughters, he is also a dreadful husband, a subpar writer, a terrible dresser and has a severe deficiency in all things talent… but hey, at least he’s self-aware, amirite?
Check out the pathetic attempts at photography on his insta at https://www.instagram.com/bad_dad_photography/
