RockAccess: The new Dark New Day album ‘New Tradition’ is coming out this week. Originally though, from an outsider’s perspective, this all happened all of a sudden starting with ‘Hail Mary’ coming out on iTunes with barely any notice. Can you explain how it all happened?
Corey Lowery: Yeah, actually Clint, Will, and I talked about it. Every night being on tour with Sevendust, Eye Empire, and Evanescence… every night we get asked Dark New Day questions. Those fans were loyal, and after getting asked so many questions and realizing how much love was there with the band, and for us we had this catalog of songs, so it was like ‘you know what man?’, we’ve got to put this thing out. It meant a lot to us, and we were the only ones that heard it. And knowing we had so many fans — you know the fans made this happen — they were the ones asking for the music, so we made the decision to put it out there. It started getting a little attention on iTunes, and that’s where the whole thing started… with people wanting to come in and do some promotion.
RA: Goomba?
CL: Yeah, Goomba.
RA: So this album… how does it vary from ‘Hail Mary’ and the B-Sides album?
CL: There were different recordings, and we pulled from some different catalogs. We knew what the first record was, and it was just a writing — in that band there was so many great writers. Every guy brought such great songs and it was such an honor to be part of that process. Everybody had decent success in past bands, to it was always interesting to pull everybody together and see what would come from that. It was always taken to the next level with those guys. The writing process was awesome, and we just cherry-picked the ones we thought the fans would like [for ‘Hail Mary’]. With this new one coming out, the fans really made the decisions for us by choosing the songs they wanted to hear.
RA: I heard there were upwards of a hundred songs for you to choose from. Is there any chance of something else coming out later with more of those songs?
CL: Absolutely. We were proud of that band. We were always focused on the music side of it and not the business, so there was always writing going on. The thing that DND taught us was how to continue that in the bands we’re in now. I know it’s helped Brett in his producing, and it’s helped Sevendust and Eye Empire as well.
RA: Back when Warner had originally shelved the album but hadn’t said anything and wouldn’t say what was going on, was there any thought back then to take the songs and just release them?
CL: No… at that time, we sat and waited to try and find out what was going on. The industry was changing once again, and we were just in the middle of that kind of hurricane, so at the end of it we had to make some big decisions on what the future was.
RA: Is there any chance in the future of you guys getting together and doing a one-off show or just jamming together?
CL: Absolutely. I think you’ll find in all the interviews from all of us individually, we’re still brothers to this day, and we grew up together playing music. So it’s just another family member. It wasn’t just so much Clint and I being brothers… the whole band was truly brothers. We grew up together and all played the same club circuits together. We’ve known each other since we were teenagers and always talked about playing together.
RA: Since then, you’ve been in a whole bunch of bands, and you’ve been producing as well. You’ve done the Eye Empire album, some stuff with your brother… are you getting into more production full time? Or just when you’re not playing?
CL: I have a passion for writing music and producing, and for touring as well. When I came off the road for a little while to focus on the production side of things, it was my bridge kind of from Dark New Day to Eye Empire. I toured my whole life… 200-250 days out of the year, so for me it was the first break I had. So it was a blessing to be able to do that. Of course the touring side… I missed it really bad. It took a long time to find the right guys to play with, because with Dark New Day it was great, and I wanted that same feeling. That’s how Eye Empire was born. I got B.C. Kochmit from Switched, Donald from Submersed to form the band, and those guys are great.
RA: Speaking of writing and other bands, some people on the message board wanted me to ask you if the nine-song demo you recorded with Violent Plan will ever come out.
CL: No, those songs were just straight-up demos. We were just trying to find ourselves then. With Dark New Day, we released those tracks because we knew they were good and we believed in them. With Violent Plan, the tracks were never “finished.”
RA: So I heard that on this current Eye Empire tour, you guys were going to be playing some songs from everybody’s past bands. Is that going to happen?
CL: Yeah, part of the Dark New Day thing, and with Submersed, Switched, and Stereomud… they were huge parts of our lives. We jammed out some songs and worked on some at sound checks, and we’re going to play some out on the road.
RA: So what else is going on with Eye Empire now? You’ve got some new stuff recorded, right?
CL: Yeah, when we’re off the road we’re writing. We’ve got seven new tracks, and kind of like what we did with Dark New Day, we always want to have a catalog. We want to always be writing whatever we feel. It’s just parts of your life… and I think your writing is more sincere when you’re not trying to ‘do this,’ ‘be this,’ or ‘sound like this.’ Write it all. If you’re only writing 11 songs for a CD, and then you get to the last few songs and you find you “need” this or that, you have to force it. If you have a catalog, it’s easier to just pull stuff that you need that you already have, and that are genuine.
RA: Great advice.