Kill The Music Unsigned Spotlight: After-Death Plan
For starters, what bands were you guys a part of prior to After Death Plan?
How long has the band been around?
I’ve been in bands since the late 80s. Most notably Our Flesh Party, Salt Horse, and currently Earwig. After-Death Plan is an organic offshoot of Lesley’s music collaborative, Mal VU, from her time in Chicago in the 90s and oughts. We liked each other’s approach to songwriting so much that we made ourselves an official band somewhere around 2012.
What’s the origin of that name and have you changed the band’s name before?
We were at a Thai restaurant discussing where energy goes upon death. Lesley was saying that many people have that planned out within their religion and that belief is a powerful thing. Even though it may be a passive stance in that you are picked up, it is still a plan. She said you wouldn’t be able to use old logic in a bodiless and languageless dimension. She’d written a mythology of archetypes and her eternal justice character has a detailed role in her own afterlife. She’d put a lot of thought into it and I told her she should write afterlife insurance policies for people. One other person had told her that. That is the after-death plan.
Who writes your songs? What are the main themes or topics for most of your songs and do you think these topics will change over time?
Lesley and I are co-writers, though Lesley writes the majority of the lyrics. Our songs are typically on the darker side. Our first album, Literature, was all songs based on classic books and authors. Other themes might be language, power, examination, love, death, books, characters, the psyche, and mysticism. I’m not sure where this is going in the future but she calls self-pity a thing of the past.
What bands are currently inspiring the music that you’re making?
I don’t think there’s a direct line that we can draw to any band or bands that inspire our music. Personally, I listen to kind of a lot of 80s underground and new wave, with a healthy dose of 90s angular math rock (Barkmarket, Jesus Lizard, Jawbox, Melvins), but I’m also a sucker for big pop hooks. I admit that the bassline for Charlie Puth’s “Attention” is pretty fucking good. But, also, fuck Charlie Puth…
Was there a particular band/artist or concert that inspired you to start a band?
...Read More here on Kill The Music.
Kill The Music is a blog about music news, interviews, exclusives, commentary, and more.
It was founded by Jordan Mohler after seeing Almost Famous and The Social Network. It's named after the Every Time I Die song of the same name. He was Time Magazine's Person of the Year in both 2006 and 2011.
Thanks again to Jordan and Kill The Music!