Riotous rock duo Dead Posey come to Thekla this October – with a hearty dose of angst-ridden guitars and vocal howls that combine hallmarks of goth spirit and punk rebellion with ‘80s synth pop and ‘90s alt rock. Tickets on sale now via Alt Tickets.
From cults and monsters to nightmares and devils, no topic is ever too taboo for the riotous rock duo Dead Posey. Since forming from the underbelly of Los Angeles in the twenty-tens, Danyell Souza and Tony Nova have confronted it all in their music – sexism, oppression and religious dogma – with a hearty dose of angst-ridden guitars and vocal howls that combine hallmarks of goth spirit and punk rebellion with ‘80s synth pop and ‘90s alt rock.
“We bonded over a shared love of rock music and the darker side of life,” says Souza who was pursuing acting, modeling and gogo dancing on the weekends to pay bills when she linked up with Nova (formerly of Eve 6). After spending a night in Nova’s studio and singing on a mic for the first time to Nirvana’s “Come As You Are,” a newfound passion was unlocked. As she says, “I knew from that moment in my bones that this is what I was meant to do in life.” That mission has been largely accomplished as electrifying originals like recent apocalyptic single “Welcome To The Nightmare” and punchy covers of classics like New Order’s “Blue Monday” and Depeche Mode’s “Never Let Me Down Again” have echoed across the industry spectrum.
In less than 10 years and with just three EPs to their name, Dead Posey’s big hooks and powerful sound have found love from rock bibles like Loudwire and Kerrang!, a collective 42 million streams, billing on topline festivals like Download in the U.K. and Mad Cool and Rockland in Spain (where Dead Posey played to their largest crowd ever at 1:30 a.m.) and placements in a range of TV and movies, such as the WWE’s Elimination Chamber event, Fox’s Lucifer, MTV’s Teen Wolf, Marvel’s Cloak & Dagger, and CBS’ Fire Country.
In spite of the various wins along the way, Dead Posey has endured a series of challenging obstacles and setbacks that would make many bands throw in the towel — shifting managers and agents, pandemic-era dropped album deals, canceled tours. But the band wears its underdog badge with pride, and accepts that all of the challenges over the years only makes Dead Posey stronger. Says Souza, “The music industry can be a very dark place to call home, and we’ve taken our share of licks. But through that is why we focus on the music and the connection with our growing fanbase that we’ve been building steadily over the past almost-decade. Every little win is one bite closer to knocking down the doors that don’t let us in.”
Dead Posey song material always comes from a pandora’s box of inspiration, whether it’s fellow dark artists like Depeche Mode, Garbage, Nine Inch Nails, Hole, and Type O Negative, or true crime docuseries, the surrealist worlds of Salvador Dali and the macabre poetry of Edgar Allen Poe. But a large reservoir is the world around them. “There’s always something dark and mysterious lurking under the sunny surface of Los Angeles,” says Souza, who knows from first-hand experience. Her grandfather was a notable LAPD homicide detective with torrid tales that have been an ongoing influence.
As Dead Posey get set to release their long-awaited debut LP this fall (recorded in their home studio with Souza writing the lyrics and providing creative direction and Nova playing all the instruments and producing the tracks with co-production from Souza), a fascination with another sordid part of society has precluded their recording sessions and material, leading the band to ask: Are You In A Cult?
“We are seeing what look like mini-cults forming everywhere. Regular people get tempted and manipulated to follow one charismatic leader, idea or worldview, often to their own harm,” says Souza of the album’s focal point and title track “C.U.L.T.”, inspired by political figures, social media influencers, authors, self-help gurus, and celebrities. Adds Nova, “We’re all guilty of it at some point, but we hope asking the question can give people some power back.”
The world of cults also dovetails with other themes on the record, including anti-conformity, rebellion, self-empowerment, and questioning the status quo. It plays out with a shifting sound that has been evolving and mutating since the beginning of Dead Posey. “We weren’t afraid to let both a harder rock edge and propulsive electronics come through on the album more than anything we’ve released previously,” says Nova.
With the anthemic chug of their single “Welcome To The Nightmare,” Dead Posey takes on “one nation under a false god.” The song was first written in 2020 with glam rock flair but became more aggressive as the state of the world became more dismal. “In the wake of 2020 and the pandemic, we wrote this to address what we were seeing every day on the ‘news,’ which to us was becoming a gross form of sadistic entertainment,” says Souza. “Everyone is pitted against each other in a desperate hunt for clicks, likes, votes and ratings,” adds Nova. “The fact that it’s equally relevant now in 2024 as it was back then is even more disturbing.”
On another single, the crushing comeuppance and hard-drive swings of “She Went Bad” took a more personal tone for Souza. “This is my personal Black Swan moment. I wanted to capture the feeling of finally letting go of everyone else’s expectations of me, and becoming my true self with no apologies,” she says. “I’ve always walked to the beat of my own drum, which can bring a lot of judgment and skepticism that can be very conformist and suffocating. This song tries to reckon with that. We basically wrote it for the Cruellas and the Vampiras out there in us all,” she says, referencing one of her biggest influences, the cult ‘50s-horror icon Vampira. The song has already found its flock, featured on Sirius XM’s Octane Test Drive and Kerrang! Radio’s A-List, while the music video features a number of Dead Posey fans in the congregation of a dark sermon.
“Darkside” is another standout on Are You In A Cult?, swapping the amplified fury for swooning synths and amorous lyrics that draw listeners into its romantic spell. “The image of a misfit couple like Bonnie & Clyde or a coven of outcasts driving at night to get away from a world that doesn’t understand them was always so palpable for us, and we wanted the song to really paint that picture, while also hinting at something supernatural or otherworldly,” says Souza, alluding to the aesthetic of Jim Jarmusch’s classic flick, Only Lovers Left Alive. Adds Nova, “We’ve always felt a bit outside the conventional – this song came from the place of feeling like outsiders but making up our own world as we go, and finding strength in our own existence.”
No matter what listeners take from Dead Posey, the band hopes for one thing: “We want people to feel something deep in their soul when they listen to our music,” says Souza. “All the human emotions — power, sadness, rage, euphoria, seduction, fear and with bites of dark humor that leave a lasting mark.”
