Speak like the dead with return to dust
Many people assume that grunge is a dead sub-genre. It dominated the alternative scenes of the 90s, influencing many bands of our time, but many assumethat no true grunge bands still exist. Return to Dust proves them wrong.
Return to Dust, a 4-piece outfit based out of Los Angeles, embraces the past and brings the sound of grunge to the future. Inspired by bands like Alice in Chains and Queens of the Stone Age, the band has found an audience of a new generation who connects with them and grew up with the same inspirations that they did.
The group’s new EP, Speak Like the Dead, carries themes that continue from their previous work, from life changes to maturation of both the band members and the band itself. One of the EP’s lead singles, “Bored”, runs with the idea of being driven to do what you want to do in life. The band said, “Don’t be paralyzed by indecision, just do something… anything you’re good at.” The song was also inspired by the experiences of two of the band members, Matty Joseph and Graham Stanush, moved from Texas to Los Angeles to pursue music and found that displacement a motivation for their work.
The group believes that the new EP will be a “huge transition” for their fans from their previous work. Return to Dust experimented with song transitions and production flares in the studio, adding in percussive elements and other technical ideas that present a new dynamic into both their recorded songs and their live performances.
As their genre of music would suggest, Return to Dust promises fans an exciting live show every time. They add to their bridges, outros, and solos to make every performance different, and they perform without backing tracks to make their tracks sound alive when in the concert space. The band will soon be supporting Three Days Grace and Breaking Benjamin on their upcoming tour, and the group has been discussing how to expand their live show to a larger audience. “You really have to think in that box, how can we say the most in the shortest amount of time? We really have to build a set of exciting songs that flows and is very special,” said Stanush of the challenges of having a short set time while supporting such heavy-hitting artists.
The live aspect bleeds into the group’s recording and writing process, as a lot of their method of songwriting has to do with collaboration of the whole band. While Joseph and Stanush do much of the songwriting, many times they will bring parts of a song into the rehearsal space and figure out the parts as a whole band. “We try to keep it exciting and loose and set no parameters and no rules and let the song take it where it needs to go,” said Stanush.
Return to Dust is a special kind of group that doesn’t come around often. While they still draw inspiration from the greats, the band isn’t afraid to try new things and talk about their own experiences that may be out of the norm for the genre. They truly are breathing new life into a genre that is surely making a strong comeback and is here to stay.