...And You Will Know Us by the Trail of Dead

Punk and progressive rock collide within the extensive catalogue of …And You Will Know Us By The Trail of Dead. After being introduced to their music, I began to delve into the nuances of the band’s craft and their style. Their albums are littered with the sentiments of a punk artist but fashioned in a way that would make the members of Rush proud. There is a relatability in their music, songs such as “Don’t Look Down” off of their most recent release discuss topics such as loss, heartbreak, and very human issues. But the mythology of lyricism within these songs gives them a cinematic appeal. Songs feel grand, diving into a mythological realm. Just by looking at the covers of their albums, a listener is able to grasp what is yet to come. Album art like a metal band, punk relatability steeped in a mythos of prog rock notoriety. …And You Will Know Us By The Trail of Dead is experimental, yet a band that continually delivers with each new release. I thoroughly enjoyed delving into their catalogue.

I reached out to the band for an interview before their show at the Chapel in San Francisco. I was asked to meet outside, an hour before doors. I entered into the venue and a Chapel employee ushered into a bar that was connected to the venue where I waited. Jason Reece, a guitarist, drummer, and vocalist as well as a founding member of the band entered, and we had a drink as we talked. I barely looked at my notes as we discussed everything from punk culture, prog rock influence, the role of destruction in their live performances and more.

Jason began to talk about his early years living in Hawaii and how the import of mainland music had a profound impact on his music taste as well as Conrad Keely,another founding member who grew up on a separate island. Jason mentioned that in Hawaii, rock music was hard to find, and that top 40 as well as reggae dominated the public music sphere. “I think it’s when my friend got a cassette deck from his older brother and gave me a mixtape of black flag, sex pistols, the clash, it changed everything.” Instead of sitting on the beach and enjoying the smooth sounds of reggae, Jason opted for skateboarding, absorbing the pages of Thrasher magazine, and exploring mainland rock music. This coincided with punk culture, a genre that Jason expressed spoke to the youth of the time and had a sense of relatability. Punk music was ingrained into youth skating culture and Jason eventually traveled to LA to experience the throughs of punk culture firsthand. “When you are younger you are looking for something that speaks to you and you become obsessed with it, and for me it was punk at the time. I had to dig deeper and find more, and eventually I discovered all the legendary ones. When I was 17, I got a chance to go to Los Angeles and I went record store shopping and saw Flipper play, it was crazy and scary.”

Trail of Dead performing at The Chapel in SF

            I transitioned the conversation from discussing punk to focus on progressive rock, a genre that Trail of Dead leans heavily into. “When I met Conrad, we were both going to high school together and he turned me onto prog, and after that I started thinking about music in more of a broad sense instead of having this ‘life fast die young’ punk mentality.” Complex music made by bands such as Yes gave Jason and Conrad a new perspective on the various ways stories could be told through music, and this is heavily reflected in the progressive rock sound that Trail of Dead maintains. A major aspect of progressive rock is storytelling, prog lyrics tend to feel an epic poem brought to life. I found myself listening to Trail of Dead and diving into the lyrics, which were inspired from prog songwriting. Relatable topics were conveyed through otherworldly lyrics, drawing the listener into a new realm, but not devoid of human emotion. “I feel like the lyrics should transport you to that song and where it is” Jason explained, however not all Trail of the Dead lyrics are all so abstract. I was interested in finding out the band’s songwriting practice, which Jason mentioned had altered throughout the years, especially on their upcoming album that they made over quarantine. “We don’t have a strict way of creating songs, but we’ve been working on a new album for the last year so we would just jam for hours and record everything and it was done in more a progressive rock manner. We would take pieces and build off of them and then somehow have it make sense where we reconnect the dots and not have it be cut and paste but connect and be a cohesive song.” Jason said that this songwriting technique was not always utilized. He said as they got better at playing their instruments their songwriting structure and abilities altered with their playing style. “I’m not a music theory person but you start thinking about how songs are made and you an deconstruct it. And that happens through experience. I think we’ve evolved quite a bit. Our first record is so loose, raw, and ambitious. And you can tell we have all these ideas in our head of what we want it to be, but the execution is a little shaky. But that’s the beauty of how that helped us get to the next spot.” Their first album, Source Tags and Codes, changed everything for them. Jason explained that it was getting attention in Britain and suddenly he but getting calls from journalists asking about their music while he was working his regular job. After being thrust into a career in music post their first release, the band continually kept releasing music, taking a break between 2006’s So Divided and 2012’s Tao of the Dead. Their most recent release, X: The Godless Void and other Storieswas put out in the first quarter of 2020, a few months before the global pandemic.

            If you google …And You Will Know Us By The Trail of Dead, you are bound to encounter an article or video detailing the destruction that the band has been known to cause during their live shows. A video of the band in Cologne, which I found out was a SXSW showcase, displays the band breaking their instruments and toppling amps during their final song. It is a slow, methodical destruction. Some members of the band continue playing as others dissect their guitars and test the integrity of cymbals. Destruction played a role in their shows, and it was expected in most cases. “When we were younger the show was over when we threw everything down, that’s it. If it was a good show, it was even more destructive. It started when we had no money in the early days, and I would just kick everything over. And then Conrad would throw a guitar. It felt normal, we weren’t thinking about it.” Jason didn’t offer an explanation why there was destruction, but that it felt natural to do so at the end of the show. Their notoriety grew in the public sphere during their early days as the crescendo of their performances was a cacophony of shattering instruments. Jason explained that those days are mostly over, and that total destruction is not economical, but sometimes a little bit of their old habits tend to slip out. “Last night we were in Reno at this all-ages venue, and it was packed. I just kind of toppled the drums a little bit and I was like ‘woah, haven’t done that in a while.’”

            To end our interview, I asked Jason who he has been listening to recently. He says that he listens to BBC 6 radio on the BBC app. As the numbers ascend for each BBC radio station, the songs get more eclectic, and the artists can become more obscure. The station is a supporter of the Trail of Dead as well. he named artists such as Dry Cleaning, Brockhampton, Black Midi and Idles. He even named John Coltrane; an artist he says helps him get away from the guitar. “I’ve been putting vinyl on every day at the house, it has been like Miles Davis and John Coltrane. It’s so refreshing to get away from the guitar for a little bit.” I love to hear how diverse people’s music tastes are, and Jason is no exception, he absorbs a variety of genres and musicians, forever exploring the deep throughs of experimental music and what is popular now.

            Our interview concluded, and an hour later Jason was on the stage with the rest of the band. Conrad was shredding his guitar so hard he broke two strings of less than halfway through the performance, and another guitarist broke two more strings before the show ended. It was epic, an experience I won’t soon forget. It combined the mystical energy of a prog rock concert as well as the ferocious fervor of a punk show. Band members frequently changed instruments, and Jason traded his guitar for a drum set multiple times. At the end of the performance, a few drums were toppled, and guitars were swung but not broken, echoing the destructive tendencies the band was known for in their earlier years. As I exited the theater, I was greeted by the soft mist of rain, ears ringing. It was not until 3 days later when my eardrums fully recovered.

Special thanks to Jason Reece from …And You Will Know Us By The Trail of Dead for the interview.