The Dead South, bluegrass and folk from Canada
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Guitars, banjo, terrific lyrics performed by vocals that can give you goosebumps: we’re talking about the folk-bluegrass group The Dead South. The ensemble, formed in 2012 in Regina, Saskatchewan, Canada, features Nathaniel Hilts (vocals, guitar and mandolin), Scott Pringle (vocals, guitar and mandolin), Danny Kenyon (cello and vocals) and Colton Crawford (banjo). They published their first studio album Good Company in 2014. At the moment, their discography counts three EPs – The Ocean Went Mad and We Were To Blame, published in 2013, Easy Listening for Jerks Pt. 1 and Easy Listening for Jerks Pt. 2, both published in 2022 – and three studio albums: Illusion and Doubt, published 2016 and Sugar & Joy, published in 2019, on top of their debut from 2014. They will play at Alcatraz in Milan on April 18th and we had the pleasure to interview them.
On a personal level, how did you cope with the past two years of pandemic? Did you notice any effect on the dynamics of the band, for example emotional distance or small frictions due to the frustration of being idle?
“I think we coped with the pandemic quite well. We all had some time to do our own thing for a little bit, which was a nice thing, at least for the first few months. We all had time to work on other personal projects, Scott had a baby. We spent lots of the down time practicing and recording our two new EP’s, so it wasn’t 18 months of being totally idle. Once we got back on the road, it felt like we had never stopped. We fell right back in to the groove pretty easily.”
Soon you will come and play in Italy: how do you feel about touring again? Do you like Italy? Do you think your music genre is more or less appreciated here rather than in other Countries?
“We’ve never been to Italy, so we’re super excited to finally play there! It’s always tough to say which countries appreciate our music more. People are people, and every country in the world is going to have people who enjoy our music and people who don’t. It will be very interesting to see how the Italian crowds compare to other crowds.”
One of your most famous songs is “In Hell I’ll Be in Good Company”: who do you see yourself with there, if you believe in Hell? How do you relate to religion and spirituality?
“None of us are religious guys, most of our lyrics are just stories, usually about villains instead of heroes. If there is a hell, I’m sure the four of us will be spending lots of time together there.”
Who are the artists that influenced you the most, both on a personal and musical level?
“When we started the band we listened to a lot of Trampled By Turtles, The Devil Makes Three, and Old Crow Medicine Show. Personally, I grew up listening to lots of metal, and that’s still what I listen to the most. Lamb of God, Trivium, The Black Dahlia Murder are probably my favourites. We all grew up on punk and classic rock as well, and I think those genes influence a lot of our songwriting.”
Which are the origins of the name “The Dead South”?
“We used to have a drummer in the band, and he came up with the name The Dead Souths. We didn’t like the plural Souths, so we dropped the “s” and became The Dead South. We had our first show booked and needed a name, so we went with that and it stuck. It seemed to fit the genre of music well, but if we had anticipated 10 years of “The Dead South?? But you’re from CANADA!!” jokes we might have reconsidered.”
Has success changed in any way your perception and vision of music? Have you experienced any change in the way you write and compose your music? If so, is it a good or a bad change?
“I don’t think it has, if anything it’s maybe a bit harder to come up with original ideas than when we first started playing, because we were all just learning our instruments and learning how to write songs. We never want to write two songs that sound the same, and we don’t want to change our instrumentation, so it’s more of a challenge to come up with unique songs than it used to be. Other than that, everything is exactly the same. We still just jam acoustic in someone’s basement, we have no fancy jam space or anything like that, and our “success” doesn’t really change anything. We still feel like we’re the same four dudes from Regina trying to write fun songs.”
Riccardo Rinaldini