Catching up with Guitarist David Ludlow of DED…

DED has been getting some great attention as one of rock’s most promising newcomers after their 2017 debut album Mis-An-Thrope racked up 25 million streams and spawned two Top 20 rock hits “Anti-Everything” and “Remember the Enemy” with a ton of playlisting love.

Helmed by powerhouse rock producer Kevin Churko (5FDP, Ozzy Osbourne, Disturbed), the new music takes on the fury of their debut and deepens the emotions with a thought-provoking consciousness to bring hope, relief and self-awareness of the things we consume and the way we act so that we can strive to be the best we can be and better take care of ourselves and others.

You’ll hear histrionic, headbanging elements of rock, alternative, metal and moments of quiet urgency with pop melodies but when you dig beneath the bombastic surface, DED’s music is unexpectedly soulful. Rather than the nihilistic, anarchical hellraisers DED might seem to be upon first glance, they’re actually here to uplift, empower and contribute something positive to the world.

DED has postponed their tour, more info can be found here: https://twitter.com/WeAreDed/status/1239613110748667905

The forthcoming DED album will be the first release under Suretone Records’ renewed, multiple-year deal with ADA Worldwide for exclusive distribution.

Music Madness spent a few minutes with DED’s guitarist David Ludlow to talk new music and touring.

Music Madness: Hey David…Congrats on the new music and upcoming tour.

David: Oh, thank you so much, man. Really, appreciate that.

Music Madness: The band is releasing a two-song mini EP. Was there a reason behind doing just the two songs now?

David: Yeah. Honestly, it’s something for the tour, because we are not ready to release the record just yet, so hell. We just wanted to get some new music in front of our fans. They deserve it. They have waited long enough.

Music Madness: Outstanding! From what I hear, existing and new DED fans loved hearing the new tunes on Shiprocked. Word from the high seas is that you guys absolutely blew Shiprocked up. Everyone was really digging that.

David: It was a lot of fun, man. That, bro, blows my mind how cool that is.

Music Madness: Did the band get a chance to just be fans and check out the other bands joining you on Shiprocked?

David: Absolutely. The way that they stagger the bands, is so cool. Pretty much, they put a set up every 30 minutes so you miss the first song or two, but you get to jump around.

Music Madness: Between Shiprocked, the festivals and Octane it seems like DED has found that winning formula for them. Taking advantage of these opportunities definitely helps a band to be seen and heard by the masses.

David: Yeah. They call and ask, “Do you want to play this show?” I’m like, “Stop asking me that. Just book it.” Of course, we want to play the show. We like playing shows. That is why we do this. I want to play all the shows.

Music Madness: Exactly. I got my first taste of DED last year at Louder Than Life. Great set.

David: Thank you, man. We loved playing that festival for sure.

Music Madness: The new music is officially released today with a new tour kicking off on the 24th in Orlando with In This Moment, Black Veil Brides and Raven Black. What are the plans for the summer? Is the band working on new music or more touring?

David: We just can’t talk about the tour just yet. But, yes we’re going to be touring again… we toured nonstop for practically three years. I think we are going to be touring on this one, hopefully not three years, but we’re going to be touring heavily nonstop. We just can’t announce anything just yet.

Music Madness: Right on. When you work on new music, do you prefer to come up with new material while on tour or is it mostly when you are home and off tour?

David: I would say we work a little bit on tour but it’s kind of hard. The way that I write or the way that Joe and I write is at my studio here in Phoenix. I’ll put together on a song or two, maybe two or three just in batches. He throws in a little demo vocals and we create a demo out of it. I call them demos, but they are fully finished songs. They have drums, base, programming, vocals, background vocals, all the guitars. Then we do the tracks with the producer and then whittle it was down from there. It is more comfortable for me to have all of my tools in front of me, because I don’t want to feel limited when I’m writing.

Music Madness: Right on. If you got it flowing, last thing you want to do is stop a thought until you get home in a day or in a week or a month, then trying to remember what you were feeling.

David: Yeah, you’re telling me. If I am writing on the road, it’s with voice memos on my phone or writing ideas on the laptop and I take that back. We do write on the road. It’s just not the way that I’m used to doing a full-fledged demo.

Music Madness: Makes sense. It’s more like note taking, jotting down ideas and thoughts and then taking it from there when you get home.

David: 100 percent. Yeah. Get the starting point so you don’t lose the idea, because I’ve had times like that, too, where I’m like, “Man, I can’t wait to work on that a bit later.” I’ll sit down later and be like, “What the hell was I playing? Pretty sure it was like this.”

Sometimes, you can write extremely well. Sometimes writing is organized and sometimes writing can be tough. Hopefully, you remember what you were talking about and what you were thinking and that way you can just jump right back into your thought process to be like, “Yeah, that’s what I was doing. Let’s run with that for a minute.”

Music Madness: There you go. Now, the new song, “A Mannequin Idol” was like a journey that took me in different directions. The first couple of seconds of song like, “Oh, that’s kind of futuristic at the beginning.” Then I got this Nine Inch Nail kind of vibe. It literally took me through a sequence of different sounds…it was fucking badass. There are a lot of moving parts in that bad boy.

David: Yeah. Thank you. I appreciate that. Those are all great bands, so I appreciate the compliment. Yeah. We just write until we like it and we don’t necessarily think it’s got to be this or it’s got to be that. As long as the speakers are telling me that it’s good… I always joke, “The speakers are telling me the truth.”

It’s not really about my personal opinion or Joe’s personal opinion. Sometimes you’re working on something, it’s kind of a jigsaw puzzle and then once you fit all the piece in together correctly you’re like, “Whoa. All right, this is cool. We have to stop fucking with this, we got something going here.

Music Madness: Right. I know as an artist it is easy to have the feeling that it’s never a finished product. Is the true test for you with new music when you take it live?

David: Yeah, I think there is multiple steps to it. First, Joe and I have to like it and then secondly, Kevin’s got like it. Then, we have some close groups of friends that I’ll sit them down in the car and be like, “We’ve been mixing a new song. Can you listen to it? Let me know.”

If I get four or five friends telling me the song’s a fucking banger. That’s when we take it live and then, you are right, live is the real test. Because, you can have a couple of people like it and sometimes songs just sound great in a car, but then when you play them live, people maybe don’t move to it, head bang to it.

When you get the audience going, and we had it happen on this last tour that we did in Europe, we threw them a new song, and I was nervous. But the mosh pits were just going ape shit. I’m like, “They’re going fucking crazy for a song they’ve never heard.” That is unheard of usually. Usually, the new song is kind of like… Well we joke, it’s like the pee break. You’re like, “Oh, it’s a new song. I’m going to go piss real quick. I’ll be right back.”

Music Madness: Exactly.

David: The people we’re moshing and going crazy. I don’t know how people do it, but some people can listen to the lyrics attentively in the first chorus and by the end of the song they’re singing along with it. That’s the coolest part to me. When people start singing along with the song they’ve never heard. That’s crazy.

Music Madness: Yeah, that is awesome.

David: It gives us confidence in the song. It’d be like, “You know what? This is going to be a thing.” This isn’t just us feeling confident. The fans are responding and that’s special.

Music Madness: Oh, absolutely. Thanks for chatting with us for a few David! Looking forward to see what else DED has going on the rest of the year and we’ll be seeing you and talking to you real soon, man.

David: Thank you for all the kind words, man. Looking forward to seeing you in Orlando.