DWELL – The Highwire Daze Legacy Interviews

Photo by Josh Huff

DWELL – The Highwire Daze Legacy Interviews

Originally Posted: 08/25/16

Chaos, Confusion and the Rake! For fans of Norma Jean and The Chariot

Dwell released their album Innate via Blood & Ink Records on September 9, 2016.

Introduce yourself, tell me what you do in DWELL, and how long the band has been together.
My name is Jacob Lilly and I do vocals. The band has been together since October of 2014. We originally released our self titled EP in December of 2014 than later re-released it via Blood and Ink Records in March of 2015.

Where is the band based out of and what is your local music scene like there? Any local bands you could recommend?
The band is based out of triad area which is Kernersville, Winston Salem, and Greensboro. The local scene here is lovely and super supporting. Also, a lot of sick local bands come out of North Carolina. Invoke, Joy, Future Primitive, Refocus, Down In It, Funeral Chic, Society Sucker, Self Destruct, and the list goes on.

How did you wind up on Blood & Ink Records?
We originally released our self-titled EP ourselves in 2014. A few weeks after we released it Daniel over at Blood and Ink hit us up saying he enjoyed our music and asked if he could re-release our EP and it’s been game-on ever since then.

Is there any overall story or concept behind Innate title?
We wanted to portray a theme of life and death. The painting shows two people of the same one holding the other – portraying life and death and how we can be dead inside.

Select two songs from Innate and what inspired the lyrics.
Our drummer Isaac writes most of the lyrics, so I let him answer this question.

A Lie In Futility: A Lie In Futility is essentially about people who believe in philosophies that the world is meaningless, and if you really do believe that, then you’ll start to believe the lies that were first taught to you. These people will live a life of pessimism and dullness. It’s really no way to live.

Innate: Innate is a song that reflects the way I feel about certain words that we use when talking about Christianity, especially the words “eternal” or “forever. No one has been, been apart of, or seen anything that lasts forever. This making it hard to believe there is something forever beyond this world.

Who did the cover art for Innate and how much input did you have on it?
The artwork was painted by Dave Rankin. We gave him the idea and let him roll with it. We trusted him enough and didn’t want to push the artist hand too much.

Who produced Innate and what was their overall contribution to the recording?
Our guitarist Jeremy White mixed and recorded our album. Working with Jeremy allowed us to work at our own pace and not feel rushed. Recording at our own pace and not having a time limit really helped us shape these songs into what we wanted them to sound like.

What could one expect from a live DWELL show?
One thing I want one to expect from a live Dwell show would be just complete chaos and confusion. I would like to think most of our shows are controlled chaos but it might just be chaos to some.

Any strange or scary happening either on the road or at a show?
We have a friend named Michael that we have stayed with a few times while on the road. He lives in Ohio and the first time we stayed there he was telling us a story about how he experienced the Rake monster. If you don’t know what the rake monster is, it is a demon that shows itself when you fear or overthink things too much. That same night he told us that story our drummer Isaac said he heard the same noises Michael had heard the night he saw the Rake. The second time we stayed there we drove on the same road that Michael saw the Rake on. No signs of the Rake but still a very strange feeling.

If Dwell could open for any band either now or from the past, who would it be and why?
If we could open for any band I think it would have to be Turmoil or Converge. Those band are probably two of our biggest influences. We all love both of those bands.

What’s up next for DWELL?
We don’t have any tours planned at the moment, but we do have a few local shows coming up here in North Carolina. Our album “Innate” comes out September 9th so we’re working on planning an album release show/tour but nothing has been set in stone.

Any final words of wisdom?
Watch out for the verybigcrunch 2016.
Thank you so much for the awesome questions and time. xD

(Interview by Ken Morton)

Dwell on Bandcamp