Matt Mingus of Dance Gavin Dance Interview - New Album, Tour and Swanfest

If you’ve ever even dabbled in the post-hardcore scene you’ll immediately recognize the name Dance Gavin Dance. The melancholic thrashes and guttural growls have proven to be a siren call toward the non-contemporary ever-growing audience that flock towards DGD’s distinctive sound album after album. To attest to this devotion fans sold out the bands first ever self-curated festival, Swanfest, last year in Sacramento.

It truly takes a unique group of talent to stay on the forefront of an ever-changing scene, and that’s why they’re ever-changing in themselves. The most prevalent display of their idiosyncrasy is contained within Afterburner, the bands ninth full length studio album. We had to know more about what to expect from the unpredictable ensemble’s latest and most highly anticipated release as well as plans for the future, tours and creative changes. Matt Mingus, the groups drummer and an original founding member gave us the rundown:

You’ve been with the band since 2005, how has your creative process changed through the years?

Mostly drawing inspiration from bands that we’ve toured with over the last 15 years, practicing and getting better. Creatively I really think its safe to say just drawing inspiration from other artists in different genres of music.

What can listeners expect from Afterburner that differs from previous releases?

Well man, I feel like every album we always try to do a few songs that stick out a little bit more and are a little bit different with things we’ve never tried before. On Afterburner, songs like Calimente, that song being this weird latin style and Tillian’s vocals are all in Spanish. Or like the last track on the album, Into The Sunset, where there’s parts of electronic drums which we’ve never really done before. I feel like we always try some new stuff while at the same time still executing the same Dance Gavin Dance style with a good batch of songs that are still similar to fan favorites. I’m really excited, we did some collaborations that we haven’t done before, like on lyrics Lie we had Marc Okubo from Veil of Maya play guitar on it. I think one big thing with GDG that really helps us keep the sound fresh is the different collaborations we do with people.

You guys have become a cult favorite in the hardcore scene over the years and new music is highly anticipated. Is there still an element of nervousness surrounding new releases?

Oh yeah all the time, even today I put out a drum play through video for our song prisoner and when I first posted it up I could feel my nerves like “oh shit I hope people like this”. So yeah, that never changes its more like an anxious “yeah lets do this!” than a being self conscious thing. One thing that I don’t do is I barely read the comments, there’s a lot of mean people out there in this world and its not like I don’t grasp reality or value other peoples opinions but there’s just some things I don’t need to read.

You're getting back on the road in 2020, what are you looking forward to the most about your headlining tour?

Man! Playing live! Playing these new songs, we had a few songs that we were doing before the tour got cancelled that we haven’t played live before that we’ve been rehearsing so i’m just excited to do it live. If there was one positive thing that came out of this is that the album will have been out so we can play a couple more new songs than we were originally going to. Who knows what the future holds but we are hopeful that the tour will happen. There might be changes, you guys might have to wear masks, but we will roll with the punches and do what needs to be done.

How would you personally describe Dance Gavin Dance's sound to a new listener?

God, its so hard. it really depends, and this sounds prejudice, but it depends on the age group. If im talking to an older person and they’re like “what’s your band sound like” I just say “oh its hard rock”. I’m not gonna be like “oh its post-hardcore screamo” they’re not gonna get any of that! I would never ever put us up on a pedestal like Led Zeppelin, but I would say we are like the Led Zeppelin of our scene. We push the boundaries a little bit, I feel like there’s something for everyone in our songs. I think one thing that deters a lot of people is the screaming, but I love that shit so what can you do?

Can you tell me a bit about your headlining festival in Sacramento, SwanFest?

Originally when we did it we wanted to have bands on the bill that have a harder time getting spots on all these other festivals. Here in Sacramento we have ‘Aftershock’ which we are really fortunate enough to get to play, but we barely fit on that bill its mostly radio-rock bands and stuff like that. So we wanted to have a festival for bands in our scene. These bands aren’t all the same, but it makes sense for us to be playing together. We wanted all of our fans to get together in Sacramento, our hometown. It’s gonna be fun, I think the new date is September 12th if I remember correctly. 2 stages, Cal Expo, Papa Murphys park. Good food, good beer, good company, good music.

What is your favorite song to play live?

Right now, its funny because some other people hate playing it live but I love it, it’s ‘Blood Wold’. I’ve been practicing it, its hella fun to play on drums. Other people, it’s not their favorite but I love it. If I were to say an all time favorite it would have to be ‘Chucky vs. The Giant Tortoise’. it’s fun, I like how the song flows and I can play it well consistently.

Afterburner is out right now on all streaming platforms. You can check out the visuals for the bands single Prisoner down below.

by Lukas Skye in Collaboration with Nikki Wright