Track By Track: Dead Dog Summer – A Place Of Someday

Photo by Ivan Pleh

Croatian post-hardcore trio Dead Dog Summer has released a debut full-length via Geenger Records. Igor Bistrović, lead vocalist and guitar player of the band, was kind to break down the meaning of the songs exclusively for Thoughts Words Action. You can listen to the album HERE

A Place of Someday is our Chinese Democracy because we recorded it twice, finished it twice and this what you can hear is the second version of the album. We didn’t have any time limits because we made it during a pandemic, there were no shows or anything so we had all the time in the world. It is not that we were not happy with the first version, but when we started to record an album for the first time we didn’t have finished songs, the lyrics were not written, and we didn’t have vocal parts so we decided to do it once again. That was the easy part because we always record in our own studio in our rehearsal room. A Place of Someday is something that was brewing in our heads for the last couple of years, our feelings, emotions, anger, our friendship, our passion. Hope you will enjoy it the same way we enjoyed making it. – Igor Bistrović, Dead Dog Summer

Today is a song about procrastination and changing the world cause if you want to change something start with yourself. The whole idea about this band was boiling in my head for some time, ideas for some songs were written and recorded maybe 10 years ago and I was always thinking, OK, I just need to finish this and finish that, and then we’ll start playing, who will play in a band, don’t have a rehearsal space, maybe songs are not good enough, etc. And when the pandemic hits we had some extra time, we start to hang out more and decided, let’s start the band and play as much as possible. I think that Today was the first song that we played as a band together. 

Time was, on the other hand, the last song that we wrote for the album, we had 10 songs and then decided that the 2 we recorded will not go to this album and made 2 more songs. I think that Time was finished in the recording process, as I remember we changed some parts when drums were already recorded. The song is about living in a moment, seizing your day cause memories can’t be bought and that is all that is left at the end. You can have all the things in the world but if you don’t live your life and create moments to remember you don t have anything.

Diamonds and Thorns are about relationships and life… Staying in the comfort zone is the easiest thing to do and when you realize you have a problem with yourself it is probably too late. We all live in a loop, moving in circles, every day is the same and we expect the change to happen by itself only by wishing. But if we don’t make a change and change ourselves, everything will stay the same and it will fall apart. That was also the first single and video from the album.

Lost is Gone was supposed to be a happy song. I was fed up with negative lyrics and then it hit me again. This is a song for Emil. I remember the exact moment, it was Sunday and we had a family lunch I checked Facebook and saw that he was gone. I think that was the first time I cried in a long time. This is not a sad song, it is a song that celebrates his life, those moments he had, and true friendship. Everybody who is and was part of the scene in Croatia knows who Emil Marcijuš is causing what he did for the scene here left an indelible mark. I still keep the messages in my inbox where he is asking me are you making a new band, are you playing something, what are you waiting… And now we are playing, making music. I know it was not your time and I know you would be proud. Miss you every day, every moment, every concert, still waiting for you to show up somewhere.

Not my game is a song about fitting in. We all sometimes feel like we don’t belong somewhere in this world, we don’t understand what is going on. This is also a song about personal changes in life. One more about waiting for things to change by themselves, waiting and doing nothing and expecting the unexpected. 

A Wish is a song about building walls in our head, pretending that everything is OK and that if we bury our problems then everything will be fine but those problems are bigger and bigger every day until they explode. It is easier to live in this state cause, hey everything is fine, but on the other hand, everything is falling apart. That is the beauty of the comfort zone where we all like to stay, where everything is safe and no one can hurt us but on the other hand we miss life and all the beautiful things that come with it.

No Regrets was written maybe 12 years ago at least in music and a few lines of the lyrics. I had the whole lyrics but I lost it so I needed to rewrite it once again. It is about living in the moment, not looking at the past, thinking about what could have happened if I made that step, how would our lives change and what path would it take. It is about living with no regrets, expressing your emotions, and living life to the fullest cause this life is just a game, and living in the past is just a trap for your future.

A Place of Someday is the title track of the album and it describes best the whole story of the whole album. If you are just waiting for the change to happen, it will not happen, there will be no magic savior that will come and save you so start living today, don’t postpone things, and be grateful for all the little things in life you have, all the moments, stop complaining cause all of those problems you think you have are not so important like you think, it is nobody’s fault, it is all about you. Coward dies a thousand times, tell me do you feel alive. If you are dreaming about something, do it now, don’t think too much, you can’t lose something you don’t have, right? A place of Someday is nowhere.

Sometimes was the second last song we wrote for the album if I remember correctly. It is about living other people’s dreams and other people s life and their expectations. It is about postponing our own happiness to fill their needs, to please them just not to disappoint them. It is about a moment when you realize that this life is not yours and this is not what you want in life. Hardcore and punk are my answer to this world, it is my passion, my why, and my life.

The last song of the album is Neverending Story and it is a song about fear and how it is the easiest way to control people and leave them in herds. If you watch the news, first you will hear bad news about pandemics, inflation, recession, prices going up, cold winter, war… This is not a conspiracy theory song but just our view on things. The most important thing is to avoid this “reality” and live our life to the fullest cause if we don’t feed them with our fear, they will not have the power. 

Hope you will have a nice time listening to this record and hope to see you at the shows somewhere near you. Now when I look at the album as a concept and the lyrics, I can say that music is my therapy and window to the outside world, a step forward out of my comfort zone and the life I had and the life that I lived.

Thank you all for reading this and everybody who was involved in making and releasing it. If you want to get in touch by EMAIL or you can always drop as a line through social networks: FACEBOOK / INSTAGRAM

Source: thoughtswordsaction.com