Interview With Corey Lowery of Dark new Day
Posted: 9 October 2005
Contributed By: Chris

Dark new Day bassist Corey Lowery was nice enough to answer a few questions before the band's headlining show in Nashville, TN on October 7th.

TuneLab Music: For those who aren't familiar with Dark new Day, can you give us some background on the band?

Corey Lowery: Umm...the album's called 'Twelve Year Silence', umm twelve years ago we talked about doing this band with these people, but it was right around Christmas time and I gave Troy, Clint and Will a call and said lets just get together and jam some music. We got together and wrote six songs and was looking for a singer. Brett was part of the equation also back then. We offered it to him and he accepted it. We all got into the room and the chemistry was there and you know it was easy to write the record because everyone had done stuff in their past and had been signed from other bands. There was a lot of respect and a lot of brotherhood going on and we finished those six songs and did an album outside of that then Warner Brothers picked us up, it all happened really fast, but it was real cool

TL: With everyone having their experiences being signed to different labels, what made Warner Brothers stand apart from the other labels that were interested in signing the band?

CL: They really came to the table pushing the band as far as letting us produce our own record and recording our own record and believing in us without trying to do this this way or that way letting Dark new Day be our own entity and what we want to be and for us that meant a lot. We had been signed to other labels that would say try this out or try that out and if you listen to a label when they believe in you and after your done with your thing if they have suggestions then its cool and your more up to listen to them. Warner Brothers has been nothing but awesome to us.

TL: And really for a new band that's kind of unusual for a label to give that much control over things.

CL: Yeah man, I don't know there's a lot of bands doing somewhat the same thing. That's what we've been trying to tell other bands, just do your own record, do it exactly how you want it and then present it to the label and say this is our album. Do you believe in it or not?

TL: 'Twelve Year Silence' has been out for right at four months now. How have sales been and what kind of response has it gotten from fans?

CL: Awesome, it debuted #1 band coming out, new artist first week. "Brother" has done really well for us and "Pieces" is the next single. We'll be touring for "Pieces" in November and December.

TL: Any idea who you will be going out with?

CL: Really like that band 10 Years man, their awesome man, and a band called Fivespeed. We're trying to lock that down right now but I'd love to do some stuff with those guys

TL: How'd the Seether tour go?

CL: It was our favorite tour we've ever done. Even in our past bands, Seether are our brothers, and the Crossfade guys, nothing but brotherhood on that tour. It was one of those tours where Seether gave us the entire stage, lights, PA, they were there for us from A to Z.

TL: Being a new band that people may not be familiar with, do you think the internet has helped or hurt record sales?

CL: It goes both ways, there's going to be pros and cons with the internet in everything. It promotes your band in a million ways. People are going to get to hear your music, obviously we to continue touring and the more people go and buy records the more we can tour and downloading also gets our music out to the world and over all that's what its all about. You try balance it out and hope enough people buy your records so you can continue touring and hope who also download it so they can hear it and hopefully like and buy it.

TL: Do you think labels are ever going to be able to balance things out with MP3?

CL: It's a work a progress since it started. Especially for the rock side. It's the most downloaded of it all, people don't download rap and country as much they do rock, so it kinda affects the rock side. So you just throw your flag up and who salutes is who salutes.

TL: Which song was your favorite to write and which is your favorite to perform?

CL: Oh man, there's so many different ones. "Bare Bones" is really close to me because it's the first song we all wrote together. There's so many different meanings for each song. "Taking Me Alive&", the whole record was and experience. You get to write with this guy or this guy, or play this guy's riffs, so many great song writers in the band that you can't wait to play that guy's riff. I mean I can't believe I get to get on stage and jam this, so I think we all have a big respect for each other for how hard everybody brought it to the table as far as riff wise and musicianship, it brought everybody to the next level.

TL: When you were recording the album did you want to try and stay away from the sound of everyone's previous bands, or did you try to kind of build on and combine those sounds?

CL: We went into and said lets just be ourselves, we are going to get compared to our bands because everyone was a pretty dominate writer. You can't deny yourself and say I'm not going to be me. I'm going to write songs that sound like Stereo Mud, Clint writes songs that sound like Sevendust, Brett with Virgos, Will with Skrape, Troy with doubleDrive. I think we have a mixture of all those things. We were big fans of each others band and it was encouraged if anything. Be yourself, write exactly what you want to write.

TL: I've read where you have already started working on the next album. How do you think it will compare to 'Twelve Year Silence' ?

CL: It's going to be Dark new Day. We're going to go in and have fun. We're starting to build a following and seeing what the audience likes us to do and what we like to do. We are just going to have fun and continue writing. I want it to be heavier, more melodic, more of everything it already is. A little more in depth, learning each other, what works best live, and those kind of riffs, those kind of melody lines, and lyrically Brett's already wanting to get a lot more deep on the next record. We go in and we have fun, we don't plan anything because if you plan it you kinda fuck it up right then. The best way for us is to just get out of the way and let the songs write themselves.

TL: Where would you like to see Dark new Day 5-6 years from now?

CL: Having three albums out by then just playing it to the world, just playing for everybody. Hopefully have some great music that people can relate to and hit nerves that really affect you instead of just being another band. None of us are doing this to just be another band and I think we've been in just bands. We don't refer to ourselves as a super group, we stay away from that because super groups are like Zeppelin, Kiss. I'd love for us to be together for that long, and Fleetwood Mac, ACDC, all those bands have been together for so long and have gone through all of it. If we go through all of the things that they've gone though, then we'll deserve that.

TL: And really now it seems like every new band is referred to as a super group.

CL: And really none of them are. It takes band that has gone years and years. We're a brand new band. We're starting at the bottom and earning our credits as we go. We definitely want to be a band that puts a big cut in this music business and says hey we are Dark new Day.

TL: Any thing else you would like to add?

CL: Right now after this run we're going into the studio to do a 5-6 song acoustic DVD. It's going to be a DVD with a bunch of backstage stuff, just how Dark new Day ticks and works. We're going to shoot a live video for "Pieces" that'll probably be coming out at the beginning of the year. Looking forward to getting as many people on that as possible.