Hiya The Dead Canyon Family Reunion thanks for joining us in the virtual RGM lounge today. Grab a brew and take a seat.
What made you decide that music is a thing for you? (Olivia Rains, co-founder, lead vocals)
“I was born deaf, so music was a connection to the world. All of my family and friends were hearing and heard things differently than I did so music helped me feel connected to them”.
Introduce us to you all and your musical history.
(Billy Slater, co-founder, multi-instrumentalist, drums) “The band was formed February 13th 2024, when Olivia Rains (lead vocals) called me for a second time telling me about a band she heard in her head. At that time, she was thinking of more of western psych thing, Mazzy Star meets Patsy Cline meets Brian Jonestown Massacre. It struck me and it so happened that my scheduled had opened up considerably.
I jumped at the chance to work with her. In getting the rest of the band together, my first call was to my friend and singer Rosalinda. I told her about the project and she jumped on the keyboards. We decided to skip out on finding a string bassist and Rosalinda went out and bought a Korg-MS-20 for bass, which, along with Olivia’s haunting lilting vocals, is an essential signature to our sound. We spent the next few months writing songs, making food, watching movies, and auditioning guitarists. After some false starts with several guitarists I ran into Austen Burkett at Strait Music north Austin.
He happened to be feeding my guitar pedal addiction and we often got into some conversations regarding our mutual love for bands like Spacemen 3, My Bloody Valentine, Ride, amongst many others. I mentioned the band to him and asked if he would be interested in an audition. When he came in, it was like he played all the parts I had heard when I wrote the music for these songs, but light years better.
We forced him at gunpoint to join the group. We had the need for a second guitarist and the first person he mentioned was fellow Chimes guitarist Rodrigo Cortez (guitars). Because they already play so well together in Chimes, it was a natural perfect fit”.
What’s the live music scene like in Austin, Texas right now?
Anyone we should be looking out for? (Austen) “It is alive and well. I of course must mention Chimes (with fellow DCFR guitarist Rodrigo Cortez), Quiet Company just returned from a long hiatus and killing it in the city again. (Rodrigo) “I would say Annabelle Chairlegs and Daiistar”. (Billy) “Always Daiistar and forever”.
I’ve seen a lot of people struggling for support recently online. What’s your view on the industry? (Billy)
“The industry that used to be, the days of big deals, of worrying about charts, of big budgets, of 1% of the bands making millions of dollars while the other 99% of bands fail is dead. The executives helped destroy the “industry” because they are corporate lackeys. The charts mean nothing. All charting can be bought.
All award shows can be bought. It’s not real. Artists are smarter than they used to be. We know that we don’t need the labels like we used to. There are some labels that are doing the right thing, promoting music for art’s sake and making an effort to develop artists, but they aren’t Sony, Warner Brothers, or Universal.
The fact is music isn’t made for them. The people in those buildings contribute to the decline of art, by attempting to define what is cool, mass produce it, and spoon-feed it. The best thing artists can do is come together and support one another. We will always name and support bands we love because its about uplifting the scene and community we live in. We buy records and merch from the bands we love because that’s how more great music gets made. When you buy from the big companies like Sony, you are supporting a broken system. That system needs to die. So support local music, venues, and independent labels”.
Where do you feel you currently sit within the music industry?
(Billy) “Industry implies being concerned with making money, and to be honest, I’m more concerned with ensuring we can pay our bills so we can make records, tour the world, and write more songs. I want to be our own industry, and lift our community up with us. That’s what it’s about”.
Tell us two truths and a lie about you.
“Someone two-stepped to our song “Holy Water” at our live debut, a song about genocide. We have less than 10 shows as of printing of this article under our belt. One of our members is the largest importer of olive oil in the state of Texas”.
Do you ever worry about people taking things the wrong way or cancel culture? Discuss….
(Olivia) “Always. When I wrote the lyrics to Five Killer, I wanted to represent women and I wanted to represent the indigenous people of this country. I had just learned from our family lineage that I was related to this amazing Cherokee woman who was a bad ass. I wanted people to realize that the United States was not our original land. The indigenous people were pushed out.
Yet, we are still connected that had settled here and who were here before us. It was scary to incorporate that into the lyrics because I didn’t want to offend anyone, even if I am related, but it was important to me to get that message out. (Rosalinda) When we put together the song “Voodoo” I felt kind of weird about the perception of disrespecting voodoo. I don’t do voodoo but I respect it at the highest measure, you know, and I just wanted to make sure we were paying our highest respect to it.
The band talk me off the ledge with that one hahaha. Same with Five Killer too. My blood is in South Mexico and the Texas border and I just want to make sure it’s getting respected. I love the message of the powerful woman taking over the tribe, and it still resonates today”.
Do you sign up to any conspiracy theories? If not, why not?
(Billy) “Everyone has their beliefs. I’d rather focus on the realities. Any conspiracy theories one subscribes to are deeply personal. I like to keep things open to interpretation because that leads to new discoveries. Being open minded is crucial to the progress of our universe. I am passionate about things, but I try my best to not stand on my soapbox, even though I’m not always able to. I do enough of that in my lyrics though so I’ll let our songs speak to that”.
What was your best experience on stage?
(Rosalinda) “Our first Far Out Lounge show. It was the Capricorn market put on by our lovely friend Michele Mas and Howdy Girls. It had a great crowd, we sounded amazing. It was so tight. It was perfectdom. Great energy”. (Rodrigo) My first show playing with DCFR at Hotel Vegas. I had just come off from not being on stage for a while. I had seen so many great shows at Hotel Vegas from so many great bands. Being able to play there was great.
What was your worst experience on stage?
(Olivia) “We’re still sort of new, so even when we’ve had our mistakes, we’ve been able to fix them”. (Billy) “and being onstage playing our music to the people is the coolest thing ever, so it’s hard to identify that for us, at least at this juncture”. (Rosalinda) “During our debut on the first song, I played a wrong note. Nobody noticed but me, but I still carry that a bit”.
Tell us something about you that you think people would be surprised about.
(Olivia) “I was born deaf”. (Billy) “I do graphic design, including most of the art for the DCFR”. (Rosalinda) “I was in choir since middle school with Gary Clark Jr. and Eve Monsees”. (Austen) I made gourmet edibles. I would make a slightly overcooked snickerdoodle simulating a graham cracker, mixing chopped mini marshmallows with the weed in the batter, then dipping the bottom in chocolate so when you take a bite it tastes like a smore and you get really high haha”. (Rodrigo) In addition to being virtually self-taught on guitar, I was also in the choir, and I played violin in the orchestra as well”.
What are the next steps you plan to take as a band to reach the next level?
(Olivia) “we connect with artists we have some commonalities with. Bands need community. Bands need people to believe in them as much as the artist believes in themselves. They need people as passionate about music as we are”. (Billy) That is really important to us. We want to lift up the other artists with us and vice-versa so that everyone benefits from having good music. In terms of what we are doing for ourselves, we just continue to write, record our debut record, which is almost finished, and play more dates as far and wide as possible.
I hear you have new music. What can you tell us about it?
(Olivia) The record is almost done. Its really about the human experience, be it metaphysical, political, or what we want here as humans living on this planet, and as souls trying to connect and navigate our world.
What was the recording process like?
(Billy) “We recorded the band live at Signal Hill in South Austin, recording 12 songs, about 27 individual takes, in about seven hours. It was a whirlwind but we got it done. This record will have minimal overdubs and will be very close to how we sound live which is nice”. I’m hoping to have it completed by the end of March and released somewhere around May or June”.
What was the biggest learning curve in getting the songs together?
(Austen) “It’s been a smooth transition for me. I just came in, we played the songs and it was just like “GO!” and we had them down. (Olivia) “Billy writes all of the music, and he and I both write lyrics for these songs. I feel like I know what works in my vocal style and range, but when Billy writes, he doesn’t always write with that in mind, he’s writing more for the mood of the song.
So, I have learned how to adjust my vocals which I have never done before. I didn’t get to do that with other bands and it’s been a great challenge”. (Rosalinda) “I didn’t have any formal training on my keys. I have learned totally by ear. I’m surrounded by a completely different caliber of musicians and that has really helped to push me further”. (Billy) “For me, it’s simply letting go of my expectations of what I hear and giving a little more room for input from the others in the creative process.
When I write, I hear the songs already completed in my head, so my demos tend to reflect that. More recently, I’ve been trying to leave a little room for creativity from the band. Having these “brushes in the cup” when we’re creating sound paintings is why I believe our record will be so great. Everyone has really contributed to the evolution of the sound, and I love this sound”. (Rodrigo) “Coming in from listening to the demos and then listening to what was happening live, my biggest challenge was trying to see where I sat to honor the songs but also bring a freshness to them”.
Would you change anything now it’s finished?
(Billy) “Not at this time. It’s too new. It needs to age a bit before I can really make that call”.
Is there anything else you would like to share with the world?
(Rosalinda) “A few years ago I was just doing nothing. Now I am in the sea of it all, with a spotlight, able to do cool things, make good music and messages. Songs are spells. I’d like to hone in on that and cast some really good spells out there, you know?
I’m really into healing and music is healing which is why I love it”. (Olivia) “If you think you cannot do it you are wrong. I think back to the doctors, audiologists, teachers, and ENTs who told me I would never do things “normal,” hear normal or speak normal…fuck that. You can. It is possible.
I’m proof. (Rodrigo) Be kind to each other and support your local artists”. (Billy) Don’t participate in a world that doesn’t care for you. Surround yourself with good people who contribute positively to the world. Support local artists. They are the reflection of your culture.
Don’t feed the machine that is looking to control you. There is only one side, it’s the universe. As John Lennon said “Power to the People”.
Recognize the connection you have to everything around you. When you recognize that you are connected to everything around you, everything has more value. When we have that, the divides will fade and then that’s when real progress will happen”.
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