Poems For Dead People and Intertitle Turn Repetition Into an Intrusive Thought
Punk Head: The song never really lets the listener escape its momentum. Was that rhythm meant to feel liberating, obsessive, or both?
Poems For Dead People / Intertitle: There are a few things at work here. Ryan and I collaborated on a song last year, It Is Howling Here, and it gained some traction, so we decided to work together again. The initial idea was to create something more electronic, maybe even danceable. That approach naturally lends itself to repetition, and you can still hear traces of that original concept in the song's outro. At the time we started talking about this track, I had been listening to a lot of Neu! and Faust. When Ryan sent me the lyrics, I knew we were not making a dance track. The direction shifted toward something more pulsating and driving, almost mimicking the rhythm of the way he speaks. To answer the question directly, it was meant to feel somewhat obsessive, like lying awake at night while a tape in your head refuses to stop playing.
Punk Head: What can repetition communicate that a conventional verse-chorus structure can't?
Poems For Dead People / Intertitle: There's something hypnotic, steady, and almost syncopated about repetition that helps carry the spoken words forward. There's also something liberating about not striving for a traditional verse-chorus-verse structure. The music becomes less predictable, and you're free to introduce subtle changes that gradually pull the listener toward the finish line.
Punk Head: When does a groove become psychological rather than merely rhythmic?
Poems For Dead People / Intertitle: I think it happens when the groove begins to generate tension and anticipation rather than simply providing momentum. This song is only about three minutes long, but it contains three distinct passages, each building on what came before. The repetition draws you into a particular headspace, and the small shifts along the way start to feel psychological as much as musical.
Punk Head: Kent's vocal sits somewhere between confession and observation. Which side feels more revealing to you?
Poems For Dead People / Intertitle: Given that Ryan spent many years as the lead vocalist in metal bands, I'm just pleased he has any voice left at all! I'd say it's a bit of both. He lays down a lot of words and can tell a story like no one else, but there's always some element of truth underneath what he's writing. Nothing is purely observational. I think everyone has both a dark and a light side, and Ryan has a unique ability to articulate both.
Punk Head: Is There Are Spiders In My Dreams a song about fear, or about living with fear long enough that it becomes familiar?
Poems For Dead People / Intertitle: Spiders in dreams can certainly symbolize fear, stress, anxiety, or complicated situations and relationships. When I read the lyrics, though, I connect more with the idea of the "shadow self" and confronting the repressed aspects of your own personality. In that sense, it's less about fear itself and more about what happens when you're forced to acknowledge parts of yourself you'd rather avoid.
Punk Head: What did you learn about each other's creative instincts through making this song that you couldn't have learned simply by listening to each other's work?
Poems For Dead People / Intertitle: I think we come from very different creative backgrounds. Ryan is a poet and vocalist, but not really a musician in the traditional sense. I'm almost the opposite, so we tend to speak about the creative process in different ways. We also worked backwards on this track. The vocal was recorded first, which meant I had a completely blank canvas to build around. We always had the option of revisiting the vocal later, but ultimately chose not to. That approach challenged both of us. I was creating music that was probably very different from what Ryan initially imagined, and I know that's true. But when you're trying to create something genuinely new, you have to be willing to put ideas out there and see where they lead. I try not to become too attached to any one idea because flexibility is important. On this track, for example, I thought the song was finished, but Ryan heard a guitar solo. I didn't hear one at all, but I decided to add something before the outro, and it turned out to be exactly the right instinct.
Ultimately, I think we captured the mood we were after. We created an environment for Ryan's words to live in, and together we made something compelling and immersive.
