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by jon bosworth
jaxvillain@yahoo.com
What: Murder by Death, Thursday, Heavy Heavy Low Low, & More
Where: Freebird Live in Jacksonville Beach
When: January 28th
“With a name like Murder by Death you have to be careful about associations, so this way we could put out our record and do our own thing. The biggest difference from the last album to this one is that a lot more people have an idea of what we do. We haven’t had a review in this entire album that compared us to emo and used the names that used to get dropped in every write up, so this gave us our own identity.”
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Singer and guitarist Adam Turla provides melodic, albeit dark, dirges that sound like something between Peter Murphy and Black Heart Procession, but the instrumentation hinges on Sarah Balliet’s evocative cello playing. Their music has a dark and saloon-like quality. Live they used to have a pianist to add even more of a classical music overtone to the standard rock rhythm section.
On their latest release, In Bocca al Lupo, they have shed some of the keys that gave them the sort of saloon feel and embraced songs that sound almost like Irish dirges. On this album you will hear more Johnny Cash and Tom Waits influence than Cursive, and yet their music is definitely their own. EU caught up with Adam while he and Sarah were at their home in Indiana listening to Beethoven records.
EU: Thursday sort of helped break you out of obscurity, are you at the point yet where you are coming free of their shadow?
AT: Well this is the first time that we’ve played with them in three or four years, so in that way, yes. But they helped us get the record deal and took us on tour, which helped us realize what the life is like. We had a great time, but this time we are sort of odd-man-out on this tour because we’re going in such a different direction. We definitely chose our own path. We owe them a lot. We might have not gotten out of town if they hadn’t given us the confidence and jumpstart we needed to get out on the road and be a band.
EU: What struck you about The Divine Comedy?
AT: Well we wanted to write an album about sin and redemption, and that is the definitive work. It seemed like if your gonna’ write an album, then you should do some research. I wanted to have some idea of what other people had written about sin, so before I wrote a concept album about sin, I read The Divine Comedy. It helped set the mood.
EU: Is there a sort of incidental, but somehow meaningful, connection between the macabre nature of “The Divine Comedy” and how un-comedic the story actually is and the film “Murder by Death,” which has a macabre title but is actually a comedy?
AT: The idea of the band is that we cover some dark subject matter, but we’re not overdramatic as people. We tend to enjoy the dark side of life. The name came from the movie. We thought the name was sort of funny. Grammatically the name doesn’t make sense, so that is definitely part of the whole concept. There is a kind of irony. I think there is a relation. The Divine Comedy is not a funny story, but the idea that life is a comedy is something that we can identify with. A comedy of errors.
EU: Does Sarah get a lot of stalkers on the road, being so talented, passionate, and attractive?
AT: Interesting question. A lot of that has to do with how you treat people. If you act like a big star you’ll have more negative interactions with “superfans,” but usually, when you treat people like people, everything works out pretty good. She gets a lot of fans. The people who respond to her are into her cello playing. Sure, they might be motivated by the fact that she’s pretty, but when they talk to her they are learning about classical music, and a lot of people are inspired to play cello because of her, so that’s nice.
EU: If you had to create a genre to define your sound, what would you call it?
AT: We’ve been getting Southern Gothic a lot. Edgar Allen Poe in a rock band. The southern helps out because there is a hint of country and saloon. A lot of people hear the band name and think dark rock, like Marilyn Manson. A lot of people don’t realize that it doesn’t have to be dramatic or heavy to be dark. The hardest part of our band is that there isn’t a generic title you can give us or fit us neatly into a category.
Murder by Death is joined by Thursday, Fear before the March of Flames, and Heavy Heavy Low Low at Freebird Live this Sunday night. The show starts at 8pm, so get there early to be sure you don’t miss the Murder. Call 246-BIRD or visit freebirdlive.com for more details and ticket information.
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