Brightest Young Things

Back in September of last year we were going to run a Death by Sexy interview / listening party / photo shoot extravaganza.  But then 9/11 happened or something and the photos and interview were lost and the world moved on.  Now that DeathBy Sexy has finished the album and are performing at the Black Cat for a CD release show this Friday (3/27/09) we've decided to unearth the interview and continue where we left off... if you want to skip all the jibba jabba and just get to the rock, we've posted streams of a bunch of Death By Sexy tunes near the bottom. 

all photos by M. Marie Scofield

Cale of BYT interviews Lord Jason, also of BYT, but more importantly, the front man for DC metal trio Death By Sex in September of 2008

BYT: Are you guys a joke band?

LJ: No, but we like slipping on banana peels and putting seltzer down each other's pants. So I guess you could say we're more of a Vaudeville band. On a side note, you've seen us play before... does it seem like we're a joke band?

BYT: Yes, I knew the answer, but with your humorous band name and all the banana peel hijinks perhaps our readers might assume you were another heavy metal parody band like Rattler or Metallica.

LJ: Well, we don't wear wigs. So that sets us apart from both of those bands.

BYT: What about nicknames?

LJ: Each of us have many nicknames, much like the members of Wu-Tang clan. Mister Christian, Smooth Chazz, Dr. Brains, Mr. Mumbles, Princess Delicate, Little Cousin Struggles are just a few of our various monikers. You'll just have to guess which one corresponds to which member, 'cause we're mysterious like that.

BYT: You forgot The Guttenburg.

LJ: Oh yeah! How could I forget that time a stripper tried to compliment me by saying I looked like Steve Guttenburg. Smooth talker, that one.

BYT: Rumor has it a new Death By Sexy album is in the works. Please elaborate.

LJ: Well...the new DXS album is turning into our own personal Chinese Democracy. It's been a cursed record, really. Every time we try to work on it, some piece of essential equipment breaks down. First it was the computer we had all the audio tracks on. Next it was a very important piece of studio equipment that happened to blow up while we were recording. Next the files that we recorded managed to get compiled out of sequence, so we had to correct that. We've been working on it since last year, and we've finally managed to finish recording all the parts. All we have to do is schedule a time to mix it, and it will be done. I have a feeling by the time that's done we'll be going straight back into the studio to record the next one.

BYT: If it comes out this year you can give away Dr. Peppers at a show. (http://www.billboard.com/bbcom/news/article_display.jsp?vnu_content_id=1003741826)

LJ: Well, if you notice from the photos of an average DXS TV party we almost exclusively drink Coke Zero. So Dr. Pepper can suck my suck. [apparently there were photos of Death By Sexy drinking Coke Zero at some point but we don't know what happened to them - ed.]

BYT: The Wash Post stated that you channeled the Stooges on your last EP. Besides Guttenberg, are you channeling anyone on the new album?

LJ: I think we're going deeper into our influences, so I don't think "channeling" is the appropriate term. Chunneling might be more accurate. And if I had to pick, I'd have to say we're very influenced by the fact that we have an actual bass player on this one for the first time, which has allowed us to do crazy things. Like guitar solos.

BYT: Have you ever thought about using your filmmaking skills (http://www.brightestyoungthings.com/movies/skeletons-in-my-closet-i-made-a-terrible-student-film/) to produce a Death By Sexy music video?

LJ: Did you see actually see the movie? This is turning into more of an interview of me than my band.

At this point hard drives crashed and black dudes were elected president.  Flash forward to present day.

BYT:: Ok, we are now resuming this interview from Sept 2008. How have you grown spiritually since we last chatted? If you could go back in time what would you tell the Jason of of Sept 2008?

LJ: I'd tell the Jason of Sept. 2008 to sell all of his stock and use it to bet on the Arizona Cardinals making it to the Super Bowl. That way i could realize my dream of becoming the real life Biff Tannen. As as band, though, I think we actually have grown. We've come to realize how we work best: fast and loose, with not a lot of reverence for our feelings. We also actually finished the album, so that's some good growth right there.

BYT: Tell us about the album cover. Looks like Mr. Keeling at work, yes?

LJ: Yeah - Evan did the artwork (http://etkeeling.livejournal.com/). It's basically about curses and warding them off, so he came up with the symbols. It's a totally original idea to have meaningful symbols on album artwork, so original and meaningful in fact, the title of the album was just going to be the symbols. Then we were going to send out the symbols as a font to all media outlets, and start writing galloping metal songs about Lord of the Rings.

Really though, we just all wanted to look like badasses and that's much easier to do when Evan draws us. Good thing though is that as soon as we got the artwork and title completed the album stopped being cursed.

BYT: Are you gonna wear war paint for the CD release show?

LJ: Well, we decided it was time to do something for the live show other than getting drunk and playing our songs half-assed. We're actually putting thought and time into the visual aspect and are upping the ante as far that goes, but you'll have to come to find out exactly what's gonna go on.

BYT: Awesome, can’t wait to see your leopard print spandex high kicks explode all over the front row!

LJ: Nobody needs to see me in leopard print spandex, although that doesn't mean they won't.

BYT: Is your symbol a flame or teardrop?

LJ: I've been told that my symbol is actually a symbol meant to ward off the evil eye. Either that or it means I killed someone in prison. Evan won't tell me the exact meaning, no matter how much I beg.

BYT: Please pick a couple of your favorite tracks for us to stream and then give us the liner notes commentary as if you were writing it for the Death By Sexy 25th Anniversary Deluxe Edition of Curse the Curse Remastered in 78-bit 9.3 Dolby 4D Sensurround with Bonus Tracks and Collectible Vintage Sweatband (in the future we no longer sweat)

As I am communicating this from the future, there may be something lost in translation, because we no longer use our eyes. Information is beamed directly into our brains through wireless nanobots, so words on a screen and snarkyhipster websites are no longer necessary. Anyways, most of our songs start off with a good title. The original title for this song was "If you're a dream, then wake me up." Originally, I got the idea for the title after watching a coffee commercial and thinking that it would be good to have a song that said "Wake Me Up" over and over again. We're looking for that commercial licensing money. I also like this song because I got to use the word "dissecting" in the lyrics.

This one is about dying in the bottom of a well and having buzzards and flies getting ready to eat your corpse. Either that or something else. I also think I was inspired by(ripped off) part of a riff from a Dance Party song, but they're nice guys(i.e. drunk most of the time), so I'm sure they won't mind. My girlfriend played this for some friends on a road trip one time and they thought it was Fugazi, which is pretty awesome. I guess sometimes we do sound like we're from DC.

BYT: Dysfunctional relationships seem to be the primary theme of Curse the Curse. What are you gonna write about when you stop having lady problems?

LJ: Stop having Lady problems? You mean Female Trouble? That makes it sound like "what are you gonna to write about when you go through menopause?" I'm lady problem free now, so the new songs are about different things that seem cool to us. There's one about Jame Gumb called "I Wanna Wear Your Skin." And another one called "Endless Love" that's about a dude who becomes a zombie and stays alive by his girlfriend letting him eat her brains. So we're writing about real-life issues for down-to-earth people, like modern country music.

BYT: Do you consider Bury Us to be the albums ballad?

LJ: Well it's slow, so sure, why not.

BYT: Pick out a few more please and tell us about them.

This one is the oldest song on here, and if you can't figure out what it's about then you are stupid. I played it for my roommate one night and he said his daughter and her friends would love it because of the na-na-nas part. After that happened, I can't listen to this song without the thought of the Jonas Brothers covering it some day.

We played this one time and someone said they liked it cause it had a "gypsy beat", which means it inspired them to throw a baby at someone in order to steal their purse. I just like it cause Christian has some pretty vocal harmonies. The structure is very much inspired by the Ben Folds Five song "Missing the War", which is one of my favorite songs ever. Although our song has more Whoa-Oh-Ohs, so it's much dearer to my heart.

This had never been one of my favorite songs until we recorded it, and I think it perfectly captures who we are as a band. There's lots of studio grabass going on on this track, which we don't really remember doing. Dex forgets what the backing vocals are in the bridge part and mumbles "I don't know what i'm supposed to say". Immediately after Christian messes up the beginning riff and says "Let's try that...everybody sucks, you guys suck. I still rule." That's our band motto: Whenever you mess up, tell the other guys they suck, and reaffirm how awesome you are. I think its a rule that is universal.

BYT: Thank you honey, love you, bye.

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Fri, Mar 27, 9pm
Death By Sexy
w/ The Blackjacks
and Cobra Collective
Black Cat Mainstage
$10