interview with Dear Darla
Have any of you played in other bands? Yes. We all are in other bands right now. Tuesday Atlas and Kill Le Kill.
How is it that you started playing music? Dakota and I had met through a mutual friend, and we decided to meet up. Wrote our first song the first night we got together.
What are your names? / Who plays what? / How old are you? Kirk Keener/Bass and Vocals/26 Dakota Boggs/Guitar and Vocals/22, and Tyler Sisco/22.
Have you had other previous members? Yes. We’ve had 3 previous drummers before we found Sisco.
Did you make music even when you were young? I started writing songs on guitar when I was around 14 years old. But I remember making up song lyrics at a very young age.
Where are you from? We’re all from small towns near Fort Wayne, Indiana.
What year did the band form? November of 2014
What's your style of genre? Some may say Hardcore-punk, or melodic post punk. Basically, we’re just a punk band.
What inspires you? Lots of things. Other musicians, bands we look up to. Friends who also play music.
How often and where do you reherse? Not often enough. We try at least once a week when we’re more active. Not so much now that we’re getting ready to release our EP.
How have you developed since you started with the music? When Dakota and I first started playing, it was really grungy/heavy punk sounding music. Now its a lot more melodic, but still pretty heavy in most parts.
Do you have other interests of work outside the band? I put out a podcast called Midwest Music Mondays, where I interview DIY/Independent bands.
Are you looking for a booking agency, and what are your thoughts around that? Not really. I like the idea of being a DIY band, and we’re done pretty well with booking our own shows and tours. Some days it would be nice to not have to worry about it.
Are you looking for a label, and what are your thoughts around that? We were wanting to find label support on our upcoming EP. We haven’t really officially announced it yet, but we just signed with a small label called Stay Punk Records
What made you decide to make this music? I’ve always been into heavier music, and I’m not much of a singer but I really enjoy yelling.
What are your songs about? Anything from relationships to stuff you see in the news that really pisses you off. We have a song called “Holiday Cup” and its my reaction to a youtube video where a pastor was angry about the red Starbucks cup for the holiday season.
Another song we have is called “Coloring Books & Crayons.” I wrote the lyrics after there was a shooting at an elementary school.
Who does the composing and writes the lyrics? I write the lyrics, and we usually base the song around a riff that Dakota has, or something we’ve been jamming.
Do you start with the music or the lyrics? I’m constantly writing lyrics. So if we have music we’ve been working on, I’ll just trying to fit something in that I think will work.
Do you compose in a certain inviroment? It’s usually just our practice space. But, recently we set up in a living room. And wrote a couple new songs. And that felt nice.
Have you done any covers live? Not really anymore. But we’ve done “Rape Me” by Nirvana, “Great Balls of Fire” by Jerry Lee Lewis, and the intro song from SLC Punk, “Sex and Violence” by The Exploited.
What language do you sing in? We yell in english.
What are the least and most people to attend one of your gigs? We’re played to 5 people and we’ve played to 300 people.
What ages are most of your concert attendants? Usually we play a lot of 21+ venues. Anywhere from ages 21-40.
Do you always play the same songs live, or do you vary? Usually the same set list with a couple songs we rotate in and out.
Do you have a regular place you play live often? Skeletunes Lounge in Fort Wayne, IN.
What was your first gig like? Exciting. We had a decent crowd, and good feedback.
What was your latest gig? We played a strip down set as a 2 piece in a basement.
Have you had to cancel a gig? Unfortunately yes, we’ve had to cancel quite a few recently due to health issues.
Where have you played live this year? Mostly local shows, with a few regional shows.
Where do you plan to gig the comming year? We have a festival coming up in August called BARNFEST in Missouri. Possible East Coast or south tour for 2018.
When did you start to sell merchandise, and what do you have for sale? We started selling merch after a playing a few shows out of town. We have T-shirts, patches, buttons, stickers, koozies, and cassettes.
Where can people buy your merchandise? We have a Big Cartel website that needs updated. LOL.
What do you think about people downloading music instead of buying records now a days? Personally, I love physical copies of records. But I also stream and download. Its fast and easy, I just hope people enjoy our music.
How do you think the music industry have changed because of this? It’s made it easier for people to acquire music.
What do you think of my work? You ask great, fun questions.
How do you think and know that this interview will help you in the music business? I guess I hope that others will see and it and check us out!
Do you have any role models or idols? Josh Scogin. I love anything he puts out. I also look up to a lot of my friends.
Is it easier to find inspiration from older bands, or bands that are more active today? I’d say bands that are more active today. Especially bands that we’re friends with.
What have been your biggest obstacles? Time. We all have families and significant others and work. We have lives outside of music, but we still find time to make music and tour because it makes us happy.
What advice would you give other bands or artists? Tour as much as you can while you’re young.
Do you have any new material? We have a couple new songs in the works. We have a new EP coming out soon, that has songs that only people who have seen us live has heard.
What are your web sites? www.deardarlapunk.bandcamp.com
How can people reach you? [email protected] or Facebook.
What are your plans for the future? Releasing this EP, touring, festivals, and writing a new album.
Do you have something to add? Stay alert for our EP coming out on Stay Punk Records! (release date TBD)
