We chatted to our good friends Dead Writers at Call of the Wild a couple of months back. Check out as we chat about their recent line-up change and their plans for the future!

First of all, how was the set?

Yeah it went well! We had a bit of a rough time rushing up on stage and everything, we didn’t have enough time to sound check properly. It was a bit more chaotic for us than the final result. 

What’s it like to be invited back from last year, especially to be on a bigger stage and higher spot on the line up?

Very lovely Joe. Lots of space, we could get used to that! It’s probably the biggest stage we’ve played in terms of size. Usually in London stages are more small.  Compared to what we do in London.  Good gigs, but it’s always smaller stages.  It’s funny, sometimes you need to get used to all that space, we just don’t know what to do with it. 

Obviously we chatted last year; how has this last year treated you?

Last year we put out a single, shoot a video, it was very well received. We got on the Classic Rock Magazine, we got track of the week. We beat Steel Panther and Alice Cooper’s guitarists band.  And the latest lineup addition (Bassist – Näo). It’s been one of those periods where a lot more happens behind the scenes than out there in public. We were really missing the shows, so it’s great to be back. 

Do you have a rough timetable for the EP?

We don’t really have, we did have a bit of timetable in place, but then things get delayed. But hopefully by the end of the summer everything will be out. We also wanted to start recording new songs for an album. 

Have you got plans for the end of the year?

We got booked for three festivals this year including this one. We wanted to put a bit of a tour around them. But again, it sort of caught up with us and we didn’t have the time just yet to do that. But, I think towards the end of the summer we can do a bit more of an organised one to promote the EP, and, all these people who are coming up to us and saying “oh, we’re in Manchester” or wherever it is, we could come and play there. Like you guys in Nottingham saying “you’d go down so well.” You have to take that as a token of promise, and that we could go to these places and have a bit of fun. Spread the good word. 

The band name is so perfect and fitting to what you play, how did you come up with it? Is there a story behind it?

Yeah there is a bit. I remember when we didn’t have an and name when we started the band. I’d had a bit of a personal crisis about the name, when songs are starting to shape up and we haven’t got a band name yet. I was actually finishing reading a book, ‘Notes from the Underground’ by Dostoevsky, which then inspired ‘Lisa’. I’m a bit of a reader, I have a discreet collection at home. I just put down the book, and was thinking, what’s the next thing that I’m going to pick up and read.

I like classic books a lot, I had this thought to myself, everything I read is by dead people. It was like oh, Dead Writers. That’s really good. You know, the songs take influence from poetry and other books as well lyrically. Everyone we mention are names to are like “Dead Writers, that really cool”. It stuck. 

Have you got a 5 year plan?

Do you have a five year plan? It would be nice to play some festivals around and branch out a little bit. I think that’s what personally I would like. Branch out release terms, have an album, with more solid work, just travel around and let us be known in other parts of the UK, and possibly anywhere else. That’s more like a two years plan. Just the natural growth of a band. We’re in for the long haul, we want to spread out, and reach as many people as possible. So, in five years, maybe some really amazing things could happen. But, just carrying on writing and recording music and performing it, and just getting better.