Theory (Theory Of A Deadman) On Tour With Halestorm

Award-winning multiplatinum Los Angeles-based Canadian band Theory of a Deadman (abbreviated as Theory) consistently deliver undeniable anthems rooted in scorching song craft, experimental vision, rock ‘n’ roll attitude, and clever pop ambition. After nearly two decades, the musicians landed their biggest career hit in the form of Rx (Medicate) from 2017’s Wake Up Call. Not only did it receive a platinum plaque, generate 100 million plus streams, and become their third number one on the Billboard Hot Mainstream Rock Tracks chart, but it also received a nomination in the category of ‘Rock Song of the Year’ at the iHeartRadio Music Awards. Theory’s seventh full-length offering, Say Nothing marks the start of a bold new chapter introduced by the 2019 single History of Violence. Dean Back talks to Hi Fi Way about touring with their friends from Halestorm and their new album Dinosaur which comes out in March.

Touring Australia with Halestorm doesn’t get any better than that?
Yeah, absolutely. I’m super excited about it too. It’s been a while since we’ve been over to Australia and I can’t wait to get there. It’s good to go over with Halestorm, good friends of ours, and we haven’t been able to share our shows with them for a while, so it’s going to be a whole lot of fun.

Have you known those guys for a long time?
Oh, yeah, probably fifteen years. Yeah. We knew them right at the first record when they were just starting. We took them out on the road early on in their careers and early on in ours as well, and formed great friendships and over the last few years we haven’t been able to cross paths very often, so it’s exciting to get back together with them.

Has it been exciting just in general just being back on the road touring with things getting back to the way they once were?
Yeah, a hundred percent. With the pandemic and everything’s shutting down we really were getting cabin fever. You wanted to be out there and playing shows. I knew that I loved touring and loved playing, but once it’s taken away from you, it’s cemented in you that’s what you love to do and we missed it so much and now it’s so exciting that the world is opening up again and we’re getting back to doing what we love to do.

Do you find the energy and vibe in your live shows is a lot different now?
Everybody I think has been waiting for this to finally happen again. We’ve got a handful of shows under our belt since returning and this past summer we got to do a lot of the outdoor rock festivals. The energy is incredible, you can tell the anticipation and the relief of everybody that live music is back

Do you have a lot of great tour memories from your last Australian tour?
We’ve only done it once before in Australia. It’s a whirlwind of activities with cities being so far away. You have to fly to every city and it’s expensive to have days off, so we try to cram as many shows in as possible and not enough time off. So in all the cities we only got a few hours to go out and explore. I think unfortunately this tour is built the same way. It’s kind of a tease getting all that way over to Australia not really having the time to spend in the cities and explore. That’s the most frustrating part.

Will this whirlwind tour with Halestorm set the scene to return to Australia maybe later this year or next year?
We sure would hope so. That would be awesome to come back and do some headlining shows. The new record coming out will open a lot of doors for us to get back out there tour wise.

Was the record put together during the pandemic?
A lot was written over the pandemic. It was cool to be stuck at, well, it wasn’t cool to be stuck at home, but at least there was music being sent back and forth. We could feel like things were happening. Obviously we had to wait until most of the pandemic was over to actually get a get together and record it. When the time finally came, it was so awesome and we were able to do it in Sweden this time. We went over and spent three weeks with our producer in Stockholm in the old studio where ABBA started. There there’s a lot of cool history in that place and going to explore Stockholm, we had never really been there much. I think we might have played one show there before, but to go and live in Stockholm for three weeks was great. Then we went to London to finish it, the remaining taking three weeks.

Do you think the history of the studio and being away from home helped shape the album?
I think a little bit, yeah. There was some really cool vibes in there and like the old piano, the Dancing Queen piano was in there and even Benny from ABBA came in one day, so we got to see him. We didn’t really get to talk much, but he was there. I think knowing some of the history that has happened in there and at the time recently, the Swedish Band Ghost I think had just finished recording in there as well. There was a lot of inspiration there. It’s nice to record away from home where there’s no out outside distractions. We can just a hundred percent put all our effort into recording the record.

Absolutely loved the album, Say Nothing was fantastic. Do you think your sound has changed much on this new album?
The new record is actually going to be like the old Theory Of Deadman album like Scars & Souvenirs and The Truth Is… . Fans are going to be pleasantly surprised and happy that we’re returning to a little bit more of our roots and it’s a little bit more aggressive, more rock and roll, guitar driven songs. Again, the last two records, Wake Up Call and The Truth Is, was this great exploratory explorative time in our lives where we grew as songwriters and as lyricists. Tyler’s lyrics had so much impact that the new record is like a great melting pot of our old aggressive sound with thought provoking lyrics. I’m excited for all our fans to hear it.

Does anything in particular influence that subtle shift or is that the way that it evolves?
I think it was a natural shift. I know the last two records Say Nothing and Wake Up Call, a lot of those songs Tyler wrote on piano. The song started on piano where Tyler went back to writing guitar riffs and the songs coming together on guitar. I think that was a thematic chip for this record where it’s more guitar driven again.

Are there any particular Australian experiences you are looking forward to when you are here?
I think it’s going to be great because it’s going to be the Australian summer, right? [Yeah!] So, it’s going to be a real nice break from the Canadian winter, going from Canadian winter to Australian summer. I think that’s probably what I’m looking for forward to the most. I love being able to talk to the Australian fans, the locals and just soaking it all in really.

Interview By Rob Lyon

Catch Theory (Theory Of A Deadman) on tour with Halestorm on the following dates, tickets from Live Nation…