Dead Label drummer Claire Percival recently sat down with Metal Wani’s Carl Rourke for an in-depth conversation across a wide variety of topics. The two discussed how Dead Label have used the time not being able to tour for over a year, the band’s upcoming EP entitled ‘Anthology’ set for released on April 9th with leaded single ‘Deadweight’ being dropped April 2nd, as well as Claire’s thoughts on heavy metal culture and the future of the genre, to name but a few talking points.
Discussing the bands upcoming ‘Anthology’ EP, Claire talked about the journey that took place for it to be released,
“So, after we wrote [Throne of Bones] when we came back from the states, we had a lot more experience as a band. We had kind of survived in the states on a randomly Facebook-booked tour, and that’ll harden you and kind of let you know your strengths and your weaknesses. So, we went straight back into writing after that and we kept kind of writing songs and just, wanted to gig them, and if you wanted to play them live you kind of have to put them out. Really, you can’t sit on them too much. So we put out [Pure Chaos] shortly after [Throne of Bones] and then after that we, I think we put out [False Messiah] when [Mick Hynes, Guitar] joined the band, and we just kind of were putting music videos out for different reasons to songs that didn’t fully belong on, say, the next album.”
Claire concluded by sharing,
“When when we were getting everything we had written together so far for the next album, we realized there were one or two songs that we were playing live, and that we really enjoyed playing live, but we’d actually played to quite a lot of people! We were like, these don’t really belong on the album. The album should be brand new. So we decided to put [Deadweight] and [Flux] on to the EP and then give the previous songs we released a home. Just somewhere they can almost be, kind of document.”
Asked if ‘Anthology’ would have still been released if Dead Label had spent the last year touring, Claire said,
“I think we probably would have definitely wanted to do it and wanted to – we had actually [Pre-Covid] talked about putting kind of, loose singles together in what Dan was calling ‘Anthology’, just to put them somewhere. But we weren’t originally going to put two new songs with it. It was the fact that we’ve been home and we had time to kind of say okay, we have a lot of material here that we want for the new album, that we decided we could kind of give those songs to the EP, that they belonged more so on the EP than the next album.”
Claire will also feature on an upcoming RTE documentary entitled ‘My Tribe’, a series that delves into different subcultures to find out what makes them endure.
“Originally when I spoke to them on the phone, I was just talking about Metallica [Laughs] and my love for Metallica and it wasn’t much to do with my own band. More of just being a metal fan and what the scene was like. But then as we were talking and as we were filming, of course, they asked more, when they realized I was in a band they asked a lot of questions about my experience in the scene that way, and how the Fibbers crowd and rockers look so scary but are the nicest people in the world and yeah, it was great to be able to get that on TV! [Laughs] Hopefully I didn’t say anything too offensive that might get cut out or something. [Laughs]”
Asked if she feels whether heavy metal should always be evolving or if it should be rooted strictly in tradition, Claire generously shared her thoughts, saying,
“Oh god, that is a really good question. I am definitely more leaning toward the evolvement of metal and let it grow and let it change and let people in. I actually – there’s a controversial subject that I’ve seen a lot of hate for on Facebook that I personally agree with it, so I’m just gonna come out and say it! [Laughs] I saw, just to give you an idea of where my thoughts on what you asked are, Miley Cyrus, apparently, is doing a Metallica covers album. And I think this is great! She’s a very talented singer, she is a massive star. Obviously, Metallica don’t necessarily need the exposure, but if a Miley Cyrus fan gets, you know, the wind of Harvester of Sorrow, I doubt she’s probably going to cover that, but you know what I mean. And they like the song, and they root out the real one, and they find Metallica and they change their life and two years later they’re at Download, or they’re at Bloodstock and they’re watching Cannibal Corpse, I mean, that can only be a good thing.”