INDY'S WEEKLY ALTERNATIVE NEWSPAPER HIGHLIGHTING ARTS, ENTERTAINMENT AND SOCIAL JUSTICE

TDID finish disc in L.A.

Producer Alex Newport had simple instructions for The Dream Is Dead: Hit harder, more attitude, more fury, more blasphemy.

Blasphemy?

“That was the general theme,” says The Dream Is Dead vocalist Clark Giles. He and his bandmates traveled to Los Angeles this past February to record their debut album with Newport at Hothead Recordings. Newport is an alumnus of the cult metal bands Fudge Tunnel and Nailbomb and is an accomplished producer and engineer who has manned the board for At the Drive In, System of a Down, The Melvins, The Locust, Mars Volta and Muncie’s own Brazil.

Giles says Newport’s open and organic sound was key when picking a studio to record Hail the New Pawn. “Too many aggressive records are compressed beyond belief and everyone in the band agreed that we didn’t want our record to sound robotic, triggered and squashed … growing up listening to his bands didn’t hurt either.”

With a few notable exceptions, antiquated “blue laws” and a Midwestern inferiority complex have hindered the Indianapolis hardcore punk scene. Only lately have things started to take a turn for the better. This may be flyover country, but bands like The Dream Is Dead are littering the sky with anti-aircraft fire.

Newport was a taskmaster in the studio, Giles says. “He definitely put us all through the ringer and pushed us to do our best.” Giles adds that “Everything was really high stress because it was pretty apparent that mediocrity would not be tolerated.” In case Newport’s demands for “more blasphemy” go unheeded by bands he records, he posted Church of Satan founder Anton Szandor Levay’s “Eleven Rules of the Earth” by the door to the control room.

“I can’t recite the rules by name or number,” Giles says, “but I remember that we found one to be particularly amusing: ‘When walking in open territory, bother no one. If someone bothers you, ask him to stop. If he does not ... destroy him.’ I’d say that pretty much sums up our band’s philosophy.”

Escape Artist Records will release Hail the New Pawn nationally on July 12.