Dead Ending is a punk rock supergroup of sorts, featuring bassist Joe Principe, (Rise Against) drummer Derek Grant, (Alkaline Trio) guitarist Jeff Dean, (The Bomb, Noise By Numbers, All Eyes West) and singer Vic Bondi, (Articles of Faith). We spoke with Grant, who kindly agreed to the band’s first-ever interview, and discussed how the group got together, what they sound like and where their name comes from. We also talked about recording at Million Yen Studios, their newly formed partnership with Alternative Tentacles and some of Dead Ending’s future plans.

Bill – How exactly did the band form?

Derek – Jeff Dean was really kind of the pioneer and spearheaded the whole project. One of his bands had done a tour with one of Vic’s bands quite a few years ago and it seems like they hit it off then. They were talking about their love of older, early ‘80s punk and hardcore. I think at the time they had discussed maybe doing something together in the future. Jeff had worked on some Articles of Faith recordings, engineering them, because he engineers at Million Yen Studios. So, again he touched base with Vic and I think that kind of further fueled the project. Then sometime last year, Jeff, who I’ve known for probably 15 or 16 years, asked me to record drums for some songs he had written. He didn’t specify what the songs were for; as far as I was concerned I was just helping a friend out with getting some song ideas down. We recorded five songs, just drums and guitar, and a few days later he called me up and said, “Hey, I think we can actually get a band together kind of based around these songs. Vic is interested in singing and Joe from Rise Against is interested in playing bass.” With the exception of Vic, who I’d never met, it’s all people that I knew had common interests in musical tastes and whatnot. We’d all spent a lot of time playing in bands and traveling around, so it just seemed to make sense. It became something that we all got kind of excited about, but it remained a bit of a disjointed process for a while. Vic, who lives on the West Coast, came in and recorded vocals, and Joe came in and recorded bass on these songs that Jeff and I had already recorded. That became the EP that Alternative Tentacles is going to release. That was recorded in a bit of a backwards fashion, but we immediately jumped into rehearsing and writing songs together. Since then I think we’ve written another 14 songs. It wasn’t the most organic beginning to a band, as far as how everything was pieced together, but it made a lot of sense and since then it’s developed into a really cool working relationship between all four members.

Bill – Describe the sound of Dead Ending.

Derek – It’s definitely a throwback. You’ve got Vic, who was a very integral part of the early ‘80s punk scene, so you’ve got him bringing his experience and his tastes. Then you’ve got Jeff, Joe and me, who were all kind of raised on that era of punk and hardcore. We all appreciate the whole genre, but we each have sort of our favorite bands or our favorite aspects of punk rock. As we’re writing songs, because each member is contributing songs, there are a lot of different influences coming in. The sound overall, it’s not reflected so much on the EP that’s coming out, because those were all songs that Jeff wrote before everybody else was involved. But it’s a lot of different styles being pulled from different places; Circle Jerks, Bad Brains, early New York hardcore influences, it’s kind of like anything goes. The trick now is trying to figure out how to make it cohesive and make it all blend together. It’s hardcore in the sense that I would consider Black Flag to be a hardcore band. It’s hardcore in that sense, as opposed to newer or metal-influenced hardcore. It’s definitely steeped in early punk rock; really fast, short songs with Vic’s sociopolitical lyrics. It’s a lot of fun for me and it’s been a long time since I’ve been involved in a project like this.

Bill – Where does the band’s name come from?

Derek – It was a song that we had written after the initial five songs. It was like the third or fourth song that we wrote after that. The process, because Vic is the only one who lives in a different state, the writing process has primarily been Joe, Jeff and me getting together and working on our song ideas. Then we send rough recordings to Vic who puts lyrics to them. One day a song came back and it was titled “Dead Ending.” We had been throwing around a bunch of different band name ideas, which is a very daunting task. It’s been awhile since I’ve had to name a new project. There’s just so much out there and anybody can come up with a name for a band, make a Facebook page and essentially they have rights to it. It was hard to come up with a name that we really couldn’t find any trace of anybody else online using. Ironically my very first band, which was essentially like a Misfits/Black Flag cover band when I was 12, was called Dead End. That was my only hesitation when we came up with the name, it being too similar, but it’s kind of cool at the same time.

Bill – Would you say there’s a common lyrical theme with the songs that Dead Ending has written so far?

Derek – I would hate to speak for Vic, especially because I haven’t had a lot of time to spend with him. I would say at least a handful of the lyrics are pretty pissed. There’s a lot of fight in the lyrics, which is cool. It gets you fired up, it’s motivational. I’ve been playing with Alkaline Trio for a long time and Alkaline Trio is not a political band at all. Not to say that Vic only writes about politics or this or that, but it’s definitely cool to be involved in something where the message is a little bit more politically-charged.

Bill – Once everyone got together, was there anything that surprised you as far as how you guys interacted as musicians?

Derek – Not really. Jeff and I had played music together, just doing cover songs and stuff like that, so I knew what to expect playing with him. Joe, as long as I’ve known Joe and our bands have toured together in the past, we’ve never actually jammed or whatever. There was a bit of an adjustment, I’m so used to playing with Dan from Alkaline Trio and being locked in with his style, that there was a slight, maybe one or two rehearsals where we were trying to find a groove. Once you kind of figure it out, Jeff’s a great guitar player and Joe’s a great bass player, so it’s not difficult. It makes my job easy and everything just kind of fell in place.

Bill – What do you enjoy most about playing with the other members in this band?

Derek – First off, playing fast, short songs is fun. Secondly, the writing process has been really enjoyable, because there’s zero pressure in terms of what we’re trying to achieve. We’re basically just writing songs and trying to write cool parts, fun parts to play and not really over-think it. It’s not uncommon for us to get together to rehearse and at the end of rehearsal have three new songs. It’s been very refreshing and totally different than what I’ve been used to for the past 11 or 12 years.

Bill – Tell me about Dead Ending’s recording sessions at Million Yen Studios.

Derek – Well, the initial one like I said was a little disjointed because it was just Jeff and I tracking five songs. Then Joe and Vic came in and overdubbed their stuff. It lacked that kind of live vibe that I always strive for in the studio. The second recording session was basically just demoing the 14 or 15 songs that we’ve written since. The idea was just to get the stuff down and get a feel for how it sounded in the studio, and to give Vic a little bit better material to work from when it comes to writing his lyrics. We’re hoping to get back in the studio sometime this summer to actually do a full-length.

Bill – So just to confirm, the first five songs that you recorded are going to be the EP that comes out in May, and then you’re going to record an album later this year?

Derek – Yeah, the second session that we did at Million Yen will just serve as demos.

Bill – Cool. How’d you guys end up partnering with Alternative Tentacles?

Derek – Vic had a good relationship with them. They had rereleased the Articles of Faith catalog and had worked with him with his other band. We kind of shopped it around a little bit to get a feel from some of our friends that have labels, just kind of seeing where they stood on it. But it just felt right to do this first project with Alternative Tentacles. They were great to work with and I’d be lying if I didn’t say that putting something out on Alternative Tentacles, at least for Joe, Jeff and myself, is a pretty big deal and a pretty big honor. To be able to have something released on this label that housed all these bands that we grew up listening to is awesome.

Bill – Does Dead Ending have any shows booked in the near future?

Derek – Right now the only show that’s booked is Punk Rock Bowling in May in Vegas. We’re trying to arrange to do a Chicago show prior to that, maybe sometime in April, but we haven’t booked anything yet. We’re kind of right on the verge of figuring that stuff out.

Bill – What else does the band have planned for this year?

Derek – Well, like I said, we’d like to do a full-length this summer. Our schedules are pretty busy as individuals, but if we could make it happen I think we’d all love to do at least some short tours, maybe just some regional tours. We’re still trying to figure things out. Honestly, at this point we haven’t all four been in a room playing music together, so there’s a few things that need to happen before we get to the point of touring. But everybody’s really excited about the project and the songwriting has been a lot of fun. We’re just going to keep writing and rehearsing and doing what we’re doing until something happens.