The Recently Deceased ***New Interview***

the Recently Deceased are an awesome psychobilly/punk band from Baltimore. They put on an amazing live set and have shared the stage with a diverse list of bands. They have two great releases out. They have also toured the East Coast and several other places. I got the band to tell their story...

Introduce yourself…
We are Matt Mayhem (Upright Bass, Lead Vocals), Robby Whiplash (Guitars, Backup Vocals), Raz Ramone (Drums, Backup Vocals)

How did the band start?
The band started in 2009 with Matt Mayhem and Paul "Ponyboy" Burgio (who were both in another band "The Deadneks" together) wanting to take the band further and do it full time. Unfortunately the band they were in couldn't tour extensively due to family's, work schedules, mortgages (you get the point), so Matt and Paulie started their own project. This lineup consisted of Matt Mayhem (Bass), Paul "Ponyboy" Burgio (Guitar), Nicky Battz (Drums), and Sean "T-Shirt" Toleson (we called him t shirt because every show we played he bought a new tshirt, but nobody ever seen him in a tshirt ever) on Lead Vocals. This is the lineup that wrote, recorded, and toured with for the first 2 years. Due to Sean being a Baltimore City Firefighter, he couldn't tour much, but what little time he did have he made it work. Over the past 2 years the lineup has changed due to peoples work/family/etc.. restrictions, so we had to find people that could tour, that had the talent, and who are into what style of music we play, but over the few years we have been a band, we have still managed to tour the entire eastern USA (from Boston to Miami), as well as a little in the south and north, record, and put ourselves out there and a band you need to see live. We live by the motto of never canceling a gig... EVER!
Paulie stepped down after getting married and moving to Ohio (he is currently playing guitar along side his lovely wife Veronica in Switchblade Syndicate), and we hired Robby Whiplash, and he has been my (Matt) right hand man for everything. Not only has he stepped up to fill in Paulies hard to fill shoes on guitar, but he has also drummed for us when we needed him to (and is so good at it he was awarded a featured artist profile for ahead drumsticks). After Paulie, Sean stepped down as Lead Vocalist when his second child was born. He still helps with writing and recording, and can still be found on stage with us locally. Usually we have problems with our drummer not being able to tour due to his work schedule being a swing shift, so we have had to replace him to keep the shows going a few times. After a year of him not being able to tour as much as we wanted, he stepped down to focus on school and his career.

How did you come up with the name?
I'm not sure who came up with the name, but I remember the first time I (Matt) heard it I was like "Dude, Paulie, thats it!" The name came from the movie Beetlejuice. We are all huge horror movie fans and that is a favorite of all of ours, so it just fit perfectly for our style, sound, and who we are as a band. We even open up our set to our version of the Danny Elfman theme in the beginning of the movie.

Who would you say are your influences?
Our influences have a huge range. My (Matt) influences are everything from Motorhead, Electric Frankenstein, Motley Crue, Nashville Pussy, to Danzig, Testament, Stormtroopers of Death, Metallica, to Depeche Mode, The Cure, Bauhaus, VNV Nation, to Hank III, Johnny Cash, Johnny Burnette, Elvis Presley, to The Misfits, Dead Kennedy's, Minor Threat, Subhumans, and NOFX. I grew up listening to metal on the radio in the 80's, then got into punk rock as a teenager, then Rockabilly, and eventually found Psychobilly. Robby is the BIGGEST Metallica fan on earth, he even has a Metallica tattoo, and can play every song ever recorded by them on guitar and drums (really he can). Robby is also into electronic metal like Ramstein, and Fear Factory, but when its time to unwind and relax, he will throw in some Slayer. Due to many peoples surprise, he is really into anything 90's euro pop (I'm not kidding either), he loves cheesy 90's dance music as much as I (Matt) love cheesy 80s dance music. Raz's influences draw a lot from his residence in southern California. He is really into the Cramps, (Old) Misfits, Samhain, TSOL, and the Adolescents, as well as being into old blues like, Leadbelly, and Screamin J Hawkins. His love for old punk rock definitely shows in his style of playing (with socal punk being his favorite). His 2 favorite bands he draws a lot of his style from are DI, and Fear (one day the world will know Lee Ving was right).
In a nutshell we all pull our influences from rock, pop, punk, glam, country, goth, and metal, but we all have our roots in dirty rock and roll! We have a saying when people ask us what kind of music we play, we go down the list of every style we like, and say "ALL of that, and NONE of that", we play what we like.

What is the punk scene like in Baltimore?
Growing up going to punk shows in Baltimore, the scene used to be huge. Every weekend we would have either the Casualties come down from New York, or Anti-Flag from Pittsburgh, or Aus-Rotten, or any number of great punk bands from the east coast. As time went on, people grew up and got older and stopped coming out as much, but the scene still thrived with a new wave a punk rockers. There are still punk houses and squats, the Sidebar Tavern is still putting on some of the best in punk rock from all over, as well as the Ottobar. The scene may not be a huge as it once was, but the scene is still alive with the new wave of kids coming out to shows, charging their hair, and wrecking in the pit. It always reassuring that whenever you go to a show and a band covers a misfit song, every last person in the bar rushes the stage to sing along. Punk rock is far from dead in Baltimore!

Describe the song writing process...
Usually the writing process involves someone coming up with a riff, or an idea. We bring the riff to practice and jam on it a little bit, passing it around so everyone gets to play with it and pick at it, adding licks to it, changing it up slightly, making it better then what 1 person could have come up with. After everyone molds and shapes it into something special, we come up with other parts that fit well with it, and arrange it in a song format. After we have our melody, we begin working on how to fit lyrics to it. What kind of style the song has, what kind of story could the song tell. Once we have an idea, we write (or should I say Sean writes) some killer lyrics. After we have out melody, and our story, we work on extras to fill it out and really bring it together. All the background vocals are added, and the leads. Then we record it and listen to it over and over picking at what we like and dislike. Once we have everything critiqued, we record the final version.

You released '545', tell us about the EP...
The E.P. (545) stands for 5 songs for 5 bucks. Its taking us a lot longer to release the full length album due to us not wanting to change up any of the original recordings or throw in new recordings with different members, so we released 5 songs until we can get all the original members back in the studio to finish the last bit of recording on the last song. We have already started recording our 2nd album with the current lineup, but want to preserve the integrity of the original lineup with the first album. Both will be out as soon as we get our shit together.

What else have you released?
We have a song "Deadly Friend" on the Hillbilly Wreckhouse Volume 1 compilation, as well as some upcoming releases. We will have a track on an upcoming Zodiac Killer (Skinhead Retirement Plan) compilation, as well as a track featured in an upcoming short film "Bed Bugs From Outer Space". We will also be releasing both full length albums (1 independent, and another through a label) as soon as they are finished.

Who are some of the bands you have done shows with?
We kind of pride ourselves on not riding other bands waves. I hate seeing bands fall all over themselves trying to get an opening slot for a national or well known act. We always felt that if we just put on a great show, with great songs, and keep touring all over, that one day we could be the national act that all the local bands fall all over to play with. With that said, we have had the chance to be tour support and share the stage with a lot of great bands, and a lot of us became great friends over the years of running into each other all over the country. The Koffin Kats, The Rocketz, the Nekromantix, The Chop Tops, The Howlers, The Hillbilly Hellcats, and Al and the Blackcats just to name a few. But these are friends, and we don't play with them because we think we might be able to scam some of their fans, we play with them because we like their music and we like hanging out with them.

Do you prefer to do shows at large venues or small clubs?
Honestly, it all depends, big or small, if the sound is good, it a little easier on us, if the sound is bad, it could hurt us. Both have advantages and disadvantages. We put on the same show no matter where we play. Another rule we live by is playing our hearts out for 1000 people or 2 people. As long as there is 1 person in that audience that digs what we are doing, we are going to bend over backwards to make that person fall in love with us. Because the next time we come back to that city, that one person is going to bring a friend. Keep that up, and in no time, you have just built up a fanbase in that city.

Have you toured?
We have been touring the eastern USA for a few years now, everywhere and anywhere we can play. Over the few years we have managed to hit a lot of cities and meet a lot of cool people. 2012 we are doing our biggest tour to date and hitting the entire USA all at once. We usually only tour a 15 -20 consecutive days at a time, but this tour is a little under 2 months. We are all road dogs, I (Matt) personally do nothing but tour for a living between The Recently Deceased and with other bands, but in the next year I hope to be touring only with The Recently Deceased, we should be ready to live on the road full time by then.

Is there a favorite band you like to do shows with?
There are so many! We always have a blast with whoever we take on a tour with us! This past fall we took our good friends the Silverhounds on a eastern USA tour as our support act. We had a blast! There were some nights where we combined the 2 bands on stage and made up a 3rd act called "My Stupid Dead Dog" (think about the names of our bands) and did an hour set of old thrash metal covers!

Is there a favorite place you like to do shows at?
Another tough question. We have certain cities we favor over others, but as for one venue? We would have to say the Sidebar Tavern in Baltimore. That is like our 2nd home filled with family and friends. We have had amazing nights there, and we have had horrible nights there (I blame the booze), but its always a good time.

What do you see is the future of The Recently Deceased?
The future is unknown. We could lie to you and say "we're going to be huge rockstars and make a million dollars and be super famous" and all that bullshit, but we know we wont, we are way too punk rock at heart for that to ever happen. The only future we can guarantee is that we will be coming to a city or town near you, rocking as hard as we can, giving you the best show we can, and partying with you as long as we can stand up!

How can people contact the band?
We are on facebook, myspace (like anyone uses that anymore), reverbnation, and a few others that we hardly ever update, so the best way to see where we are playing, listen to tunes, find out all the important shit, go to our website at www.therecentlydeceased.com.