Exclusive Interview: Dry Kill Logic talk new material!

After the better part of a decade in the wilderness, Westchester New York residents Dry Kill Logic have returned with a pair of new singles in “Vices” and “Don’t See Ghosts” released almost a year apart. Formed in 1995 as Hinge, after a couple of EPs they were signed to Roadrunner Records for “The Darker Side of Nonsense” in 2001 which shifted 100,000 copies Worldwide and opened the doors to Global touring. 2004 saw the band switch to German label SPV and unleashed the follow up “The Dead And Dreaming” with huge single “Paper Tiger” before 2006 and “Of Vengeance and Violence” lead to tours of Japan and Europe before a period of dormancy. Granted an audience with guitarist Jason Bozzi, we asked a few questions about the bands road return and here is what he had to say…

How have you found the response to the pair of new singles? Were fans and friends as pleased to see you back with new music as you were to get those songs out there? The response has been great for both songs. People close to us know that we’ve always kept getting together and writing and I think they’re glad that we finally started tracking some of it and releasing it.

If memory serves, the band started getting back together in something like 2016, getting into the rehearsal space. How did it feel to get back together after so long? Truthfully, we’ve always gotten together over the years, whether it was just to hang out or to jam. It wasn’t always with the intention of working on new material, but we never stopped hanging and remained close all these years. When we started going into a rehearsal room with the intention of recording some new songs, for me it felt very comfortable. Working with each other has always had a very organic feel and I think that’s one of the main reasons that we keep creating music together.

With three years between getting back together and the first single, was part of that time spend building bridges and getting to a point where you felt new material was of a certain quality? We made a conscious decision early on that any new material had to be something that we felt 100% about. There is no reason for us keep doing this if we’re not enjoying it and believe in the music we’re writing. Of course, since we’re not under the time constraints that a full-time band on a label would be under, the calendar can definitely get away from you when trying to navigate the logistics involved with tracking, mixing and releasing music. That being said, we’re happy with how the songs have turned out, so we wouldn’t change the way we did it so far.

With two singles being out in the world, how has the current Global Pandemic situation put the breaks on your plans? Are you looking forward to hitting the road and playing some shows as soon as that becomes an option? The pandemic has definitely made it harder for us to move forward, but more in the sense that our entire lives have had to slow down in certain ways, and as a result, everything is taking longer to complete at this time. As far as live shows are concerned, we haven’t talked about getting back on the road, but we do look forward to being able to play shows again, when it becomes safe for everyone involved, especially the fans.

Going back down the yellow brick road of memory lane, we always felt that from album to album Dry Kill Logic went from strength to strength, steadily getting more impressive without abandoning that core sound. So what was it that made you take a break and did you think about coming back earlier than you did? I’m gonna focus on the term you used, “take a break.” That’s really what it felt like for us, especially since we never stopped being friends and staying in each others’ lives. Basically, being in a full-time band past a certain point only works when every element succeeds. If the infrastructure isn’t there, or financially you can’t support yourself doing it anymore, it’s impossible to continue at that level. When we stopped being a working band we just continued on with the rest of our lives, which had definitely taken a back seat for all those years that we were working on the road. Our decision to release music now was a result of us just feeling like this was the right time and our lives allowing us to do it at this point.

Going real old school, “Pork Chop Sandwich” from the Hinge days remains a classic for us, the band not taking themselves too seriously and having fun. Have you ever thought about re-recording any of those older songs using modern production techniques? We haven’t discussed bringing back any of the “Hinge”-era material, but we’ve always talked about going back and redoing. “The Dead and Dreaming”. We always felt rushed through the recording process on that one, just as we were getting used to the new lineup and learning how to write and record with each other.

Spotify launched in the US in the summer of 2011 while as a band you were taking a break. How does it feel to look at the streaming platform now and see that songs like “Rot” have accumulated nearly 4.5 million streams and “Paper Tiger” over 2 million? It feels great! We are always humbled by the fact that there are people out there, and it doesn’tmatter whether it’s 2 million or 2 hundred people, but that anyone, outside of us, would use their time to listen to these musical ideas that start out in our heads.

Looking back at your career as a whole, what were your proudest moments? Do you include getting “Riot At The Bat Rack” on the MLB SlugFest 2003 video game soundtrack?
I can only speak for myself, but seeing our “Paper Tiger” video on Headbangers Ball was a
lifetime highlight for me. I decided to play guitar while watching that show as a kid (thank you Tracii Guns) and to see myself on it, years later, was a dream come true.

What does the future hold for Dry Kill Logic?
Hopefully just more of the same. We’re gonna keep hanging out with each other and sharing
our ideas, and when something clicks with all of us, we’re gonna record it and share it with
anyone who wants to listen.