Even though it’s only been a year since Return to Dust released their self-titled debut album, ‘Speak Like the Dead’ catches them in a completely different mindset. Spotlighted by a drastic expansion of sound and symbolism, a shift in themes, and the deepening of lyricism, the new EP feels like a rebirth, with ghosts living inside.
Consisting of Matty Joseph, Graham Stanush, Sebastian Gonzalez, London Hudson, Return to Dust, the Los Angeles-based quartet is carving a new path in the landscape of alternative rock.
“Downfall” feels like a track from Nirvana if the band is formed in the modern days. The sultry, immersive track captures feelings that are rarely expressed through other genres. “Back then the sun would shine, now I follow where the shade is,” the band sung, while the images of decaying, falling apart, haunted by the past, and being submerged come to mind. “Downfall” is specific and not specific at the same time. Highlighted by emotive and melodic storytelling, the track allows those massive and almost traceless feelings take shape and be expressed. It reminds me why rock exists in the first place and why it never truly died despite many claimed otherwise — rock is a vocabulary.
“Bored” is a song about staying in motion and keeping on moving. “You can get too comfortable in your daily life,” Matty says. “Big major life changes does something psychological to your brain.” But it’s more in reaction of becoming immobilized and trapped by invisible walls. “Summer Rain” is heavier and more extreme, melodic but moody, more heavy metal than alternative rock.
‘Speak Like the Dead’ sees a huge departure from their self-titled album that revolves mainly around the theme of becoming. They are no longer in the space of coming of age. Now tackling themes around existence and being, the new EP is almost about un-becoming as the band shed their old skin, panting imagiers related to death/transformation, desaary, decay, and falling apart. It shows Return to Dust’s range as a band, while preserving the haunting melodies and the stadium-filling vastness that are at the core of their sound.
Press Q&A with Return to Dust
Q: What’s the most gratifying part about starting the band?
Matty: Graham and I moved to LA from Texas six year ago. We were best friends growing up. We know each other since we were in middle schools. We never planned to start a band or anything. We just started playing music. I guess the most gratifying part was seeing people resonate with it. Because you never know it’s going to be the case if people are going to like your stuff. Unfortunately, you can’t tell until you’re couple of years into it. I guess it would’ve sucked if people didn’t it. Thankfully, people did, so we could turn it into a career.
Graham: Very early when we started to get DMs from random people. Specifically the ones that are truly heartfelt. That’s one of the most gratifying things.
Q: What can your fans expect your live shows that they don’t get from streaming?
London: New songs.
Graham: We extended our bridges and outros.
Sebastian: Real music.
Q: Can you talk a little bit about the meaning behind “Bored”?
Matty: The song is testament to how today everything you can possibly you can do in the world, you can be whatever you want to be, you can put all your time into doing the thing you needed to decide. But you need to put a lot of time into it to get good at it and make money. The point of the song is do something, to stay in some kind of action, don’t be bored, don’t be paralized by indecision, don’t do nothing. Life is most fulfilling when you do things you love… You can get too comfortable in your daily life. Big major life changes does something psychological to your brain. It makes you want to do something else. Get action. That was a big thing with us moving across country for the first time.
Graham: Sometimes you gotta break up with your girlfriend to find out you need more than that.
Q: What is the creative process look like? Who does the songwriting?
Graham: Me and Matty do the songwriting. The creative process differes really from song by song. Sometimes Matty will write the entire song, and sometimes, I will write the entire song. Sometimes we have a hook idea or a riff idea, and then we bring the hook or riff into the rehearsal…There’s been time where we brought a verse and a chorus into the studio, basically track the whole song and basically wrote the second verse two days into the tracking session and recorded the whole song. That was what happened with “Abyss,” which is one of my favorite bit. We try to keep it exciting and loose. Set no peremeters and no rules. Just let the song take it where it needs to go.
Q: How do you develop your shows to be different from previous shows?
Graham: We’re actually just getting into that. It’s definitely a different piece. We don’t even know how it’s gonna feel like yet. It’s really a challenge to figure out, especially since we’re opening, and sometimes you don’t have the kind of control over the lights and the PA, and you have a short amount of time. You really have to think in that bar. How can we say the most in the shortest amount of time.
Sebastian: First is rehearse and practice, then we get into the specifics.
Q: How do you think the new EP expand on the sounds you established on your debut album?
Matty: I do think it’s going to be huge transition in many ways. Even with “Bored,” we haven’t had a song that’s so alternatively feeling and has cool percussion stuff and weird things in the background. I feel like it’s really left-field for RTD. More songs in the EP do the same thing. On our debut LP were written when Graham and I first moved. We were very young. We had a lot of initial thought about what life was and what our struggles were. It’s interesting to see how those have changed and developed with the new body of work. This EP is a selection of songs that were written over the past three or four years.
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