Blood On The Dancefloor (14/09/2012)
The 59th Sound chats to Dahvie Vanity, of Soundwave 2013 act, Blood On The Dancefloor!
Hello, how are you?
Good evening! It's such a great honour to be part of this, thank you very much for having us.
It's a pleasure to speak with you.
Thank you very much. We're very excited to play Australia, this is going to be our first time out there and we're super stoked about it. It's gonna be an exciting experience.
What are you most looking forward to about Australia?
I think the biggest part of it is going to be meeting the fans and putting on a show for them, especially those who are seeing us live for the first time. We've always wanted to play Australia but we've never really had the opportunity so now all our dreams are coming true. We always try to reply to our fans on Facebook and Twitter and the Aussies fans are always asking when we are going to come to Australia and finally their wishes are coming true, it just really touches my heart and I'm just so grateful to be a part of that because in life it's all about making the memories and not just passing by through time.
Who are most looking forward to playing alongside at the festival?
It's crazy because a lot of my favourite bands are going to be on there like Metallica, Blink 182, Slayer, Of Mice and Men and all those bands. I think it's just a great honour to be part of such a diverse festival. Blink 182 have been a big influence on my life and to know that they are on the same festival as we are is so exciting.
For those who don't know, how did you get started as a band?
Blood On The Dance Floor started back on September 5th 2007 when I was in my best friends living room. My solo project failed so one day I just had this crazy idea to write the most offensive, most obscene music that anyone has ever heard so I wrote a song called “Let's Start A Riot” and put it up on MySpace and within a month it had had thousands of views and I just thought “Wow! It worked” so we just kinda kept writing more and more music and we started getting a lot of positive messages, thinks like “I was going through a really tough time but your music really helped me” and then it all became what it is today where we are trying to encourage people to live righteously and have fun because life is so short. We have a lot of fun doing what we love, music is such a big part of me and I think the fans really made Blood On The Dance Floor what it is today and I give them thanks because they are our biggest inspiration.
It's great to hear how much you love your fans.
Yeah I love them with all of my heart. Without them I would be nothing, those kids keep me going especially when they share their stories because I just wanna help them. I've always been a compassionate human being who just can't stand seeing people suffer so I always want to be there for my fans through life. If I can reach my dreams then anybody else can reach their dreams.
What are your influences when writing music?
A lot of my influences came through Lucifer. I was reading the bible a lot and there are a lot of really cool biblical stuff and the story of Lucifer just really fascinated me because I saw Lucifer as the ultimate outcast and I kinda just starting writing a little bit about his story about how he rebelled against heaven and how he became jealous of Jesus and I just felt like anyone who took it for redemption in a weird way you could relate with the story, anybody could. There are also songs about my past. Things like understanding you have the ability to carry on and never give up no matter how bad things get. Sometimes you do have to go through some hardships to get to an easier life so I wrote a little bit about that. I wrote about that people shouldn't judge others for what they look like, they should take the time out and see what's inside of that person, so yeah, I write all sorts of songs but that is what makes an album so exciting to have all different stories.
What was it like to work with Joel Madden (of Good Charlotte) on the song Incomplete and All Alone?
Joel Madden was a complete honour. Working with him was really fun and exciting. He's a really righteous man, he's also a very generous and giving person. I've actually never come across someone so wonderful. He was so nice. Basically how we came to work with him was a lot of our fans and his fans were saying “hey, you should work with Blood on The Dance Floor” and he actually wrote us a message on Twitter saying did you wanna work on a track and when I saw that I couldn't believe that one of my high school mentors, one of my heroes, wanted to work with us. I can't describe how humbled and happy we were that he would take time out of his insanely busy schedule to work with us. So I showed him this track called Incomplete and All Alone and told him about the story of it and he just said “this is amazing, it's so cold. I love it. Such a powerful meaning.” so he jumped on to help us out with vocals and he changed the melody and we just loved it so we took the song in that direction. He also helped us write the chorus so yeah it was cool to have his input on that song, it's probably the most exciting thing I've done musically. Sometimes I look back and can't believe it really happened.
The (Vans) Warped Tour just wrapped up, how was that?
Warped Tour is great, it's like punk rock summer camp for us. To play back to back because we played it last year and to see us grow was awesome. Last year we were on a different stage but this year we were main stage and there were just so many kids, it was so insane, it was a real dream come true. We really tried to make sure the show production was on top, we added a lot of exciting elements to the show too and we made so many different friends even though there was such a diversity with the bands it was cool because nobody had judgement because everybody just wanted to have fun and that's what we did.
You mentioned judgement there, you guys do cop a lot of criticism for what you do, how do you handle that?
I think a lot of people try to overpower other people, I don't know whether it's because of insecurity or jealously but too many people choose a negative path for their life. The way I see it is like this: you can't let it stop you, if they are hating you then you are obviously doing something right and people are noticing it. If people want to sit there and bash on something that gives people happiness then let them belittle themselves, they are just lowering their own standards I don't write music for my critics I write my music for the people that do love me and support me. I really don't worry about it, I think a lot of people have hate in their hearts and I think they just need guidance so I don't get made at them because they need blessings.
What advice can you give to kids who want to be in a band?
Imagination is a magic carpet. Work hard, you have to make this is big part of your life so always stay positive if anybody says you can't sing just give them the middle finger, I think everybody has the ability to sing you just need to learn properly and don't give up. Confidence is the biggest key to success and have a lot of faith in your dream so make sure you have an extra dose of bravery and always have faith.
Thank you for your time. We look forward to seeing you at Soundwave next year.
Thank you for having us, it's been an honour. Make sure you come hang out with us, I'd love to meet you. Thank you, thank you, thank you for your time.
Matt Barton
Hello, how are you?
Good evening! It's such a great honour to be part of this, thank you very much for having us.
It's a pleasure to speak with you.
Thank you very much. We're very excited to play Australia, this is going to be our first time out there and we're super stoked about it. It's gonna be an exciting experience.
What are you most looking forward to about Australia?
I think the biggest part of it is going to be meeting the fans and putting on a show for them, especially those who are seeing us live for the first time. We've always wanted to play Australia but we've never really had the opportunity so now all our dreams are coming true. We always try to reply to our fans on Facebook and Twitter and the Aussies fans are always asking when we are going to come to Australia and finally their wishes are coming true, it just really touches my heart and I'm just so grateful to be a part of that because in life it's all about making the memories and not just passing by through time.
Who are most looking forward to playing alongside at the festival?
It's crazy because a lot of my favourite bands are going to be on there like Metallica, Blink 182, Slayer, Of Mice and Men and all those bands. I think it's just a great honour to be part of such a diverse festival. Blink 182 have been a big influence on my life and to know that they are on the same festival as we are is so exciting.
For those who don't know, how did you get started as a band?
Blood On The Dance Floor started back on September 5th 2007 when I was in my best friends living room. My solo project failed so one day I just had this crazy idea to write the most offensive, most obscene music that anyone has ever heard so I wrote a song called “Let's Start A Riot” and put it up on MySpace and within a month it had had thousands of views and I just thought “Wow! It worked” so we just kinda kept writing more and more music and we started getting a lot of positive messages, thinks like “I was going through a really tough time but your music really helped me” and then it all became what it is today where we are trying to encourage people to live righteously and have fun because life is so short. We have a lot of fun doing what we love, music is such a big part of me and I think the fans really made Blood On The Dance Floor what it is today and I give them thanks because they are our biggest inspiration.
It's great to hear how much you love your fans.
Yeah I love them with all of my heart. Without them I would be nothing, those kids keep me going especially when they share their stories because I just wanna help them. I've always been a compassionate human being who just can't stand seeing people suffer so I always want to be there for my fans through life. If I can reach my dreams then anybody else can reach their dreams.
What are your influences when writing music?
A lot of my influences came through Lucifer. I was reading the bible a lot and there are a lot of really cool biblical stuff and the story of Lucifer just really fascinated me because I saw Lucifer as the ultimate outcast and I kinda just starting writing a little bit about his story about how he rebelled against heaven and how he became jealous of Jesus and I just felt like anyone who took it for redemption in a weird way you could relate with the story, anybody could. There are also songs about my past. Things like understanding you have the ability to carry on and never give up no matter how bad things get. Sometimes you do have to go through some hardships to get to an easier life so I wrote a little bit about that. I wrote about that people shouldn't judge others for what they look like, they should take the time out and see what's inside of that person, so yeah, I write all sorts of songs but that is what makes an album so exciting to have all different stories.
What was it like to work with Joel Madden (of Good Charlotte) on the song Incomplete and All Alone?
Joel Madden was a complete honour. Working with him was really fun and exciting. He's a really righteous man, he's also a very generous and giving person. I've actually never come across someone so wonderful. He was so nice. Basically how we came to work with him was a lot of our fans and his fans were saying “hey, you should work with Blood on The Dance Floor” and he actually wrote us a message on Twitter saying did you wanna work on a track and when I saw that I couldn't believe that one of my high school mentors, one of my heroes, wanted to work with us. I can't describe how humbled and happy we were that he would take time out of his insanely busy schedule to work with us. So I showed him this track called Incomplete and All Alone and told him about the story of it and he just said “this is amazing, it's so cold. I love it. Such a powerful meaning.” so he jumped on to help us out with vocals and he changed the melody and we just loved it so we took the song in that direction. He also helped us write the chorus so yeah it was cool to have his input on that song, it's probably the most exciting thing I've done musically. Sometimes I look back and can't believe it really happened.
The (Vans) Warped Tour just wrapped up, how was that?
Warped Tour is great, it's like punk rock summer camp for us. To play back to back because we played it last year and to see us grow was awesome. Last year we were on a different stage but this year we were main stage and there were just so many kids, it was so insane, it was a real dream come true. We really tried to make sure the show production was on top, we added a lot of exciting elements to the show too and we made so many different friends even though there was such a diversity with the bands it was cool because nobody had judgement because everybody just wanted to have fun and that's what we did.
You mentioned judgement there, you guys do cop a lot of criticism for what you do, how do you handle that?
I think a lot of people try to overpower other people, I don't know whether it's because of insecurity or jealously but too many people choose a negative path for their life. The way I see it is like this: you can't let it stop you, if they are hating you then you are obviously doing something right and people are noticing it. If people want to sit there and bash on something that gives people happiness then let them belittle themselves, they are just lowering their own standards I don't write music for my critics I write my music for the people that do love me and support me. I really don't worry about it, I think a lot of people have hate in their hearts and I think they just need guidance so I don't get made at them because they need blessings.
What advice can you give to kids who want to be in a band?
Imagination is a magic carpet. Work hard, you have to make this is big part of your life so always stay positive if anybody says you can't sing just give them the middle finger, I think everybody has the ability to sing you just need to learn properly and don't give up. Confidence is the biggest key to success and have a lot of faith in your dream so make sure you have an extra dose of bravery and always have faith.
Thank you for your time. We look forward to seeing you at Soundwave next year.
Thank you for having us, it's been an honour. Make sure you come hang out with us, I'd love to meet you. Thank you, thank you, thank you for your time.
Matt Barton