Dead Set on making it
By Naughty Mickie notymickie@earthlink.net 

I first got clued in to Dead Set by one of my co-workers at my day job. "You've got to come down the rehearsal studio and check these guys out," said Destree. "You'll like them." So I took his directions and headed out there one night after my aerobics class.

I was worried about my appearance, but I needn't have been, as the group put me at ease instantly. I sat on a battered couch and listened to their offering of five songs that had a very edgy today sound. The closest genre I can compare Dead Set to is surf/skate rock, but they have some interesting variations which embrace rap, flamenco, funk and more. When done, the guys gathered around me for an upbeat discussion of who they are, where they've been and where they're going.

Dead Set consists of vocalist Collin Mosely, guitarists Danny Malacarne and Manny Molina, bassist Bill Luna and drummer Erik Mouness. The core four of Malacarne, Molina, Luna and Mouness had been playing together for about a month and were seeking a vocalist when Mosely met Mouness at the Guitar Center in Covina, California. Mosely met the rest of the band and was quickly taken into the fold. Of course, it sounds simple, but he had been performing for most of his life.

"I was singing, just walking around the house, I was always singing,'' Mosely tells me, whose father is in another local band, The Answer. "When I was little I had an agent and used to go out on auditions and did commercials and voice-overs for cartoons when I was little. When I got out of high school I knew I wanted to perform.''

The rest of the band members also share a love of music during their formative years.

"My dad played guitar and after watching him play, I started playing. I started playing in sixth grade,'' Malacarne says. "I played other stuff, but that was later on, I started out on guitar. I played it and loved it, it was some thing that I wouldn't get bored of. After high school I played with Erik with other bands.''

"Everybody in my family is musical," picks up Mouness. "Everybody in my family plays something, my brother plays guitar, my dad plays guitar, my mom writes and sings.''

"That's why you took up drums, because they needed a drummer," I tease.

"Pretty much,'' Mouness grins. "I've been playing drums since fifth grade. I didn't do marching band because I played football, I figured I'd balance out the nerd with the cool, I played in jazz band.''

I had to know, "Did parents worry that you'd hurt self in football and have to quit drums or--"

"Actually that's what my mom told me before I started football," Mouness completed my thoughts. "She said, 'Don't break something, you're better at drums than you are at football.' I've been in a band since sixth or seventh grade. I've been playing in clubs since I was 14.''

"I always liked music," Molina turns to me. "Everybody in my family is a deejay or something. I started playing guitar when I was nine. I played classic rock, mostly Aerosmith and stuff like that, but I also played Metallica, and my dad introduced me to the style of flamenco. It's fun.  I did do the band thing in school, Stage Band, in junior high. (Molina played guitar.) Then I got into deejaying, started doing scratching because my dad had turntables. In high school all I really did was the wrestling team and art class. I didn't take band. I was in a band at the time called Litter Clot, a ska punk band kind of thing.''

"The first time I played an instrument, it was a can of lima beans,'' Luna deadpans.

The rest of the band laughs and asks Luna if he's been doing drugs.

"I actually played trumpet at 13, my grandfather had an big band orchestra back then," Luna replies. "I played trumpet for about seven years, I got bored of that, started playing drums.''

He went on to playing bass as a sophomore in high school.

I ask them about their current day jobs and what they do with their downtime.

"I was going to school planning to be a fire fighter, my father is the captain of the Riverside Fire Department, but I didn't want to quit playing guitar," says Malacarne. "I wouldn't have a lot of time to play with school, so I ended up getting a job at Guitar Center, we all work at Guitar Center (except for Mosely). I'm all right, I've kept things going. I want this to go as far as it could possibly go. Of course there are backup options. Now, I'm trying to base everything on this.''

Luna is the "old man" of the bunch, so I ask him about college.

"College? I walked through college once," he quips. "I spent four years in the Air Force.''

The guys tease him that he did his stint during the don't ask, don't tell uproar, but he ignores their ribbing and tells me about his favorite things.

"There's that sleep thing, I kind of like that," says Luna. "I like to eat, breathing's kind of a cool occupation and other than that I like cars. I like drag racing.''

I ask him if he likes to watch drag racing or actually participating and Luna asks me if I've seen his van-- it's dubbed the Mystery Machine. Well, I guess he told me.

Mosely plans to work as a production assistant for movies and learn film editing. He is hoping that his uncle at 20th Century Fox will offer him some tips to getting into that side of the industry.

"I like to write, I like to draw," Mosely says. "I do pretty much every thing. I get into something for a month and then I go on to something else. I've played every sport, football, basketball, soccer, golf and I tried bowling. I like talking to people, people say I should be a psychologist.''

"I used to skateboard a lot, but now I'm very heavy into snowboarding," Malacarne, who looks the part, tells me. "Other than work, I would have tried to get sponsored this season, but that didn't work, I didn't have enough time. I thinking of getting into shooting, I love shooting, every kind of shooting.''

We discuss guns and Malacarne confides in me that he has a passion for shotguns.

Mouness taps his drum set, "You can ask every one of these guys, I'm here every day (in the rehearsal studio). I teach the drums, I sell them. Pretty much everything music, I play guitar.''

Molina starts to open his mouth, but before he can say anything, the guys tease him about being a Jedi from "Star Wars.''

"I'm a Jedi,'' Molina agrees, but he proves to be more of a renaissance man. "I draw, I do oil paintings, sketch art. Surreal art, my main influence is Salvador Dali. My sculpture is surreal too, like it's supposed to be there, but it couldn't possibly be. I skate, I used to be sponsored by Out House.''

I want Dead Set's input on the influences I noted in their music and they answer with a wide range of bands and genres.

"There's Deftones, a lot of Tool," says Malacarne. "There's a lot of flamenco influence, Incubus.''

"Funk. I like technical stuff, odd timing," offers Mouness.

When they tone down, I ask them to clarify how they manage to work in all their influences into their writing. The members seem in accord that they work together, really together, including offering each other advice on their main instrument, to create their signature sound. Mosely has contributed most of the lyrics, as vocalists often do, but he willingly accepts suggestions and even vocal lines from the rest of the band.

With all this positivity, I am surprised at their reaction to the local music scene.

"It sucks,'' states Mosely.

"A lot of bands have gone to punk,'' Malacarne offers.

"I think bands think, 'If I play this shit I'll get signed,' that's what they're concerned about, not the music. I don't really care, I want to write shit that I like. If I don't like it, then I'm not going to play it,'' Mouness crosses his arms.

They don't think much of the national scene either.

"I think it all sounds the same," says Mosely.

"I think the music scene right now is kind of weird." Mouness explains, "Because you have the pop scene, which is all N'Sync, Backstreet, Britney Spears, and then you have the hard rock scene, which I think we're a part of, then you've got Blink-182 which is, in my opinion, the N'Sync of rock. They're so pretty boy, come on. It's kind of sissy.''

Dead Set members all say that there's very little good music on the radio right now. They agree that it's not due to the lack of bands, it's just that many of them don't make it on the radio.

"I just want to play music," affirms Malacarne. "I think that's what screws everybody up when they're trying to get a band going, worrying about all that shit. They start thinking, 'What if people don't like what we're playing, why don't we sound more like this person.' Of course you're going to have influences, but if people like it, then they like it.''

Dead Set doesn't currently have a Web site, but they recognize the benefits of the Internet for bands, particularly local groups and plan to get a site soon. In the meantime, they are shopping their demo and gigging as much as possible. So what is Dead Set's plans for the future?

"Get rich,'' grins Mosely.

"Basically all I want to do is not ever have to work," Mouness says solidly. "Not work in the sense of I don't want to work for what I'm doing, but in the sense of when I work at the Guitar Center and I have to be there at nine o'clock every morning and clock in and clock out.''

"What I want in the future?" Luna laughs, "A Double-Double and a big Coke and some fries. I don't care whether I play in a stadium or on a friggin' dock.''

Dead Set obviously is in it for the music... need I say more? Oh, yes, one last thing-- Destree, you were right-- I liked their music, and I liked them too.

For more information about Dead Set, contact DaBelly.com and we'll get you in touch.

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