Dryline Interview

The Gauntlet: What has the band been up to?

Greg: Nothing much, just trying to get a tour put together because our album drops next week. Just trying to get on the road to support our cd 'Reach for the Surface' so people can buy it.

The Gauntlet: How did the band form?

Greg: It sounds kind of bad, us being together for so long. Basically we all went to high school together. We had different little garage bands going on. We finally put something together right before we graduated. We played a few shows. Once the guitarist graduated, he went off to college so we didn't really practice or play shows then. Once he came back to town we decided "let's do this". We started to play shows and bust our asses writing. And now here we are. That's the short version.

The Gauntlet: One thing I notice you didn't mention was lineup changes in those 6 years.

Greg: Yeah, it's the same five dudes. Frickin six years man! That's a good thing that has come out of us. Tons of bands have only one original member. We are all in it together. We are ready to take off. We are practically brothers now. We can yell at each other and punch each other in the face and be cool 5 minutes later.

The Gauntlet: So far I only see Texas tour dates for the band?

Greg: Actually we are only going to play about half of them. I have been talking to a band called Apiary. They are on Iron Clad Recordings. It's Trevor from Unearths' label. We are going to be going on tour with them end of March and into April. I don't have any dates yet so I haven't put them up.

The Gauntlet: Will this tour get Dryline out of Texas and into some new venues around the country?

Greg: It looks like we are going to meet them in Denver, CO and come down to Texas, then go East and then we might meet up with the Hand Shake Murders in Arkansas. None of that is confirmed yet though. It's kinda complicated right now.

The Gauntlet: Have you done any extensive touring yet?

Greg: We haven't made it out of the Midwest yet. Since we have been signed, we went into the studio to write and record the album. Afterwards, we went on a mini-tour with Jacknife.

The Gauntlet: A lot of Texan bands have a distinct sound. It seems like everyone tries to play like Pantera.

Greg: A lot of people hear about the Texas scene. But if you are from Texas, you do see a lot of bands that want to be like Pantera. That's cool for them. We aren't trying to be like Pantera. We love them to death, but have our own style.

The Gauntlet: 'Reach for the Surface' comes out March 7, 2006 on Zero-Sum Recordings. Is the material all new, or stuff you have been working on over 6 years?

Greg: When we got signed, we were playing older stuff. Only three of the tracks on the album were written before we got signed. Once we got signed we busted our asses for a month and practiced everyday and drank plenty of 40's. Then we busted out another 8 songs in the studio. We had a little writers block, but was nothing a little Natural Light couldn't take care of.

The Gauntlet: D Braxton Henry was used to produce the album?

Greg: He's a great dude. He was the coolest dude ever. He listened to our ideas and gave us great input. It was great. I don't know if you have listened to any of his previous bands, but they were both pretty heavy. He is a great guitarist. He really helped out our sound and brought out our sound. He really helped bring the hell out of us.

The Gauntlet: That was something I noticed, your new album is much heavier in the guitar areas than previous songs Dryline has released.

Greg: He really helped us out with that. He is a guitar guru. We put together all these amps and stereo amps together and playing with different guitars and he really helped bring out the guitar sound. On our EP, the guitars sounded so weak.

The Gauntlet: He has also produced albums for other Texan bands like your label mates Jacknife and A Dozen Furies. Was there ever any concern having that same sound coming out of him?

Greg: That was one thing we liked. His albums come out really heavy. Everyone is their own critic. I think our album came our pretty heavy, even heavier than I thought. You are always going to see some similarities using the same producer though and same studio along with other like qualities.

The Gauntlet: What was the writing process like?

Greg: Basically we wrote the album while A Dozen Furies was in the studio writing their album. So we wrote our album out of the studio as we didn't have a big budget. We wrote most of the songs out of the studio. A couple songs we had kind of raw and took them to the studio and had him help put them together.

The Gauntlet: My only complaint about the album was it was a little on the short side. Some of the tracks left me wanting more. I guess that's a good thing.

Greg: That's exactly what we wanted [laughs].

The Gauntlet: What led you to sign with a small indie label like Zero Sum?

Greg: The deal sounded pretty good. I don't know if you know Paul Bassman, but he manages some pretty big bands. With him having a new label, we feel he is going to work as hard as us to get his label out their. If we were with Metal Blade, we'd be lumped in with 50 other bands. We'd be at the bottom of the totem pole. It's great having a name behind you, but they have other bands that are a priority. Paul is a workhorse and calls us daily to tell us what we need to do.

The Gauntlet: What guitarists have influenced you?

Greg: I grew up on Metallica, Pantera, and Nirvana. I know Kurt Cobain wasn't the best guitarist, but he was different. Guys like Kirk Hamett and Dimebag can really shred. I'd like to shred like them.

The Gauntlet: Any plans for a video?

Greg: Yeah. We finally decided on a production company. Now we need to make plans on when and where. With our album coming out right now, we want to do a video. But we want to get a tour or two done before we get a video done. Then we'll head back out again.

The Gauntlet: Anything else?

Greg: Go buy the frickin record, March 7, next week!!!