Bydeathsdesign
By: Justin Massongill

Walking into an empty Starbucks café late one night, I wasn’t sure what to wait for. I was to meet two members of bydeathsdesign there, singer Sean Delanty and guitarist Matt Amundsen. I sat down and simply waited, with the occasional look over my shoulder.
After a few minutes of blank stares from the coffee-concoctors behind the counter, two men walked in and immediately greeted me. A few introductory words were exchanged, coffee was bought (on Sean’s bill, how nice!), and we sat down to talk (joined by the ever-present Starbucks background music) about the band, the music, and Napster.

Smash: Alright, you guys are from the band bydeathsdesign. How long has the band been together?

Sean Delanty: Oh, about two years.

Matt Amundsen: [holds up three fingers]

Sean: No, we haven’t been together that long. Almost three years? [momentary silence] Two and a half years.

Smash: The bio on your website suggests that you and bydeathsdesign other members are truly musical veterans. How long have you been involved in music?

Sean: Oh God, since I was thirteen probably. Yeah, I played drums originally.

Smash: Did you take any lessons or anything?

Sean: No, no. I got a drum set for Christmas one year and I just started playing it and playing it. I’ve played in a bunch of bands playing drums. Then I just kinda got thrown into singing, tried to play guitar too but it’s pretty hard to do both at the same time. So I just kind of fell into singing. I never really planned on singing for a band. I always thought I’d be playing drums forever.

Smash: [To Matt] How about you? Do you play any other instruments at all?

Matt: Nope.

Smash: Oh really? I’m taking a guitar class at the university right now, we’re just learning which notes are on which strings and what not.

Matt: Oh, I think I took the same class when I was about 19!

Sean: Yeah, and he still doesn’t know how to read music.

Smash: I’ve seen the type of music you guys play labeled lots of different ways… screamo, hardcore, punk… there are literally hundreds of genres that have been created over the years, and screamo seems to be what the kids love these days. What are some of BDD’s musical influences and what do you think of these newly emerging genres?

Sean: God, I don’t know. My single influence is probably The Cure. That’s the first band I ever really became a “mega-fan” of. I listened to the music a lot, and that’s the first concert I ever went to. Then after like a year I started getting into more hardcore music. A little bit of metal, not a lot. I don’t know, I listen to everything, but major influences are probably bands like The Cure.

Smash: BDD’s new album is titled “Don’t Test the Universe.” What’s the meaning behind that title? Is there any special story to it, or is it just a cool-sounding name?

Sean: Well, anything can happen at any given time. Pretty much, that’s what it means. Actually, when we were recording, the producer said it, 'cause we kept trying to change stuff. He just blurted it out, and we thought it sounded kind of cool. Cause we couldn’t’ think of a name for it [the CD] and we were done recording in like a week. We didn’t want to just self-title it, that’s kind of a cop-out. There should be a name for every single CD. If you’re absolutely out of time and you can’t think of anything, then you go with the self-titled.

Smash: How about touring? The band travels between California, Nevada and Arizona a lot, right? How do you guys roll? Do you have a tour bus yet, or are you sporting an Astro Van?

Sean: Nah, we still got the van. ‘96-’97 Dodge Ram. The Vangina Raminator. No tour bus yet, 'cause they’re pretty expensive.

Smash: I’ve been hearing BDD mentioned a lot more around town in the past couple months; do you think this is a result of all the shows you play?

Sean: Yeah, we’ve built up a pretty good fan base in Vegas. We used to play here all the time. We’d play four shows a month in Vegas when we first started out, and now we’re down to like, one a month. We try to keep it out on the road as much as possible. I don’t think we’ve played a show that had less than about 200 people. Back when we started we’d play a show where it would be just like, the fifteen people we’d invited, but we’ve definitely picked up since then.

Smash: Which places have seemed to have a better response to your music?

Sean: Lake Havasu. It’s not far, they’ve got an awesome venue, and the kids are all great. Frank from Voodoo Glow Skulls, he owns it. We go out there and we draw about 200 or more people whenever we play. We’ve even had people from Vegas drive out there to see us play.

Smash: What do you think of the Las Vegas music scene, how it’s been developing and evolving?

Sean: I have no complaints. I mean, there are plenty of bands here for people to taste. It depends, you know? If you like metal there’s a good metal band, if you like hardcore there’s a good hardcore band, if you like bands with “thug” in it, they’re in there too. There are a lot of good bands here.

Smash: There are two Matts in bydeathsdesign. How do you tell them apart?

Matt: I’m Frat. If you quote me on anything, say that I’m Frat.

Smash: How about the whole “Illegal file-sharing” deal? Are you guys against Napster, Kazaa, those kinds of programs?

Matt: What the fuck is the internet? [laughs]

Sean: Yeah, I don’t think Matt can work anything if it doesn’t have a ripcord on it. I don’t have anything against the file-sharing thing though, I think it’s just these record companies that are losing money, trying to throw these copyrights on everybody. It’s not hurting these bands as far as their touring goes. They’re selling out more venues, and 80 percent of those kids probably got that music from the internet. Sometimes a band will even put up like, three songs on their website for free.

Matt: Well, sometimes I buy a CD anyway, because I want to see the cover, and I want to see who the band thanks.

Smash: Do you listen to your own music much?

Sean: No, no. I mean, we’ll listen to it if somebody else puts it on, but I don’t think I’ve listened to it in… a month? Yeah, it’s been about a month. We still hear things that we think we should have done better and stuff, you know?

Matt: The new stuff is way better.

Sean: Yeah, the new stuff we’re writing right now is gonna be a lot different than what’s on the CD now. We’re kinda taking a different direction than what we’ve been playing. We’ve been experimenting a bit, sampling keyboards and stuff.

Matt: It’s like… heavier, but it’s catchier.

Sean: Yeah, we’re writing choruses. I think since we’ve been a band, we’ve never written a song that had any kind of chorus in it. We’re trying to come up with something we can put on the radio, build more of a fan base in the southwest and in Vegas. I’d like to not work any more.

bydeathsdesign’s album, “Don’t Test the Universe,” can be purchased at www.interpunk.com, and they can be seen on tour on a regular basis here in town.