10 Questions With A Band: Dead Leaf Echo (Musformation)

1. What is the biggest mistake your band ever made?
Working with flaky musicians.  It hurts you in the long run.  Cutting corners to get the gig done may help you temporarily, but if your looking for longevity and growth in your band, keeping bad company around is gonna cut you short in the end.
2. What is the smartest thing your band has ever did?
Opening up for Radiohead, oh wait that was Grizzly Bear.  Let’s see I might have to get back to you on that one until we get really lucky and then maybe we can pawn it off as something intelligent.
3. What advice can you give for a band looking to improve their live show?

Rehearse, know your parts and be flexible enough to break them……. or run backing tracks with a killer light show and show some leg.
4. What advice can you give for a band to build up a buzz?
Pay for it.  Marketing and Advertising, two very evil things, are something that you’re gonna have to familiarize yourself with and unfortunately learn in the current music world.  You’re also gonna have to learn how to do everything that encompasses every aspect of your career.  Now is it gonna be a job?  or is it gonna be a career?  If it’s just a job and your fine with that, then hack it out on the weekends, and be prepared to get up early on Monday.  If it’s a career you’re after, then you’re gonna have to go ahead and print up the business cards that say.  Joe Blow (Musician, Producer, Composer, Arranger, Accountant, Manager, Roadie, Sound Tech, Actor, Driver, Etc, Etc.)
5. What is the coolest piece of gear you have come across recently?
T.C. Electronic’s Modulator is kinda cool.  Now their up to the Tri-Chorus- 3 choruses, simultaneously, oh yeah.
6. What is something you should bring on tour that most people may not think of?
Backups….of anything and everything you can think of.  Your somewhere between Alabama and Austin…your power supply to your 1985 Alesis rack unit just went under…chances of you finding a 4 pin din circa that era are slim in that part of the country…you can take your chances but stock up on that stuff while your in the city.   And I always recommend War and Peace for those really long tours to kill time.
7. Tell us a cool story from the recording studio?
First time we tried to record, the studio got robbed the day before, we showed up the next morning and there was no mixing board, no amps, the place was trashed and the guy actually goes- “I’ve got this 4-Track, wanna go for it?”
8. I know on your recent record you guys decided on recording on analog tape.  How much more difficult was that and will you do it that way again?
It’s a whole another process you have to go through to get to where your going, laborious but worth it.  It’s damn expensive and a pain to lug around, but I don’t see recording on anything else in the near future.
9. What is the dumbest thing you see other bands do?
Depends on the band, with most it’s a question of existence- why do you? Exist. Most bands are follow trends and again that hurts you in the long run.
10. NYC is an environment saturated with music, making it difficult for people to get excited about shows.  Any tips on getting heads out to see you play?
Well it’s all about promotions kids, and it depends on who is doing that for the band.  If your gonna take on the brunt of it, you gonna have to be a man on the scene, and that’s not cut out for everybody.  ……Start your own fan club, don’t tell anyone your actually in the band and then wear disguises on stage.

DLE plays an electronic/ambient set Friday August 14th at Monkeytown in Willliamsburg Brooklyn  opening up for Mark Van Hoen.  The single “Half Truth” from the new album mixed by John Fryer (4AD, NIN) comes out in September accompanied with a new music video, US tour and 7 inch to follow in October.
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