Death Valley High Interview

American Metal/Punk/Dance-Core band Death Valley High started in 2010. The members came from other Sacramento bands, such as Tin Shed. In 2011 they released their debut album “Doom in Full Bloom” and won the Independent Music Award for “Best Rock Song” with “Multiply”. In 2013 they had a “rebirth” with “Pøsitive Euth”, and since then they have been touring all over the world. This interview took place last year when they were playing with Unzucht in Europe. At the moment they are touring around the US and in April they will be supporting Oomph! in Europe. I met up with Reyka Osburn – vocals, and Adam Bannister – drums, in their tour bus before a show. A bit later Huffy Hafera – bass, joined us. Sean Bivins, the guitarist, was absent.

Reyka starts by explaining how DVH started.

• I started the band a bit earlier than 2010. At that point I wanted to finalize my career and be done with it. Then I played live and one thing lead to another. We teamed up with Adam and created a new album. I was in bands called Tin Shed and Ghostride before. It was a bit Hard Core – Stoner Rock.
• I’ve known Reyka for almost ten years now, says Adam. It’s a similar music scene even though I am more from South Bay and he is originally from Sacramento but living in San Francisco.

It all just tied together and through him I met the others.

• The music scene in San Francisco is kind of dying, continues Reyka. Most of it is niched to its own genre, some kind of Indie-Pop, folkey and kind of jokey. They like to be funny and sarcastic, so, as far as the metal scene goes, there is none. Trash Metal was born there but it’s not the staple of San Francisco anymore. That doesn’t necessarily mean that it’s gone to Europe and left the US. It’s probably more a southern California, LA thing. That area is saturated with more of a metal rock vibe. The same goes for the East coast. There are so many bands that are still doing it. There’s still a lot of Rock’n’Roll. It just seems that it’s all about Pop and Hip Hop because that’s the main focus of the recording industry.

I think the trend with reality shows will die out soon, continues Reyka. We can see it change because it will all collapse when there are too many bands that all think they can make money out of it. It will come down to the bands that really work at it rather than just try to be on TV. The cream will eventually rise to the top. Come to think of it, how many artists still exist after coming out of a TV show?

• I can’t think of anyone apart from Adam Lambert, adds Adam. I am sure there are more.
• Well, it’s hard because when you look back at an artist’s work and you can only trace it back to one record and a TV show, you know they won’t stay in your mind, concludes Reyka.

When I ask them what inspired them when they were young, Reyka laughs and claims it was Rick Springfield.

• All kinds of music, he continues more seriously. That’s a heavy staple of my life from a real early age. It was all mine, I could run away with it and that was very important to me.

At this point, Huffy, the bassist, joins us in the bus and tells us how he felt about music when he was younger.

• I don’t know really. From the earliest I can remember I’ve loved Rock’n’Roll and always wanted to do it.
• Absolutely, says Adam. Just bands like Motley Crue.

Huffy adds The Smiths and McHammer, which makes me think of how 80s influenced the band is.

• It belongs to right now, says Reyka, because there is something missing in the Hard Rock scene at the moment. It’s very comforting when fans say; “You know we haven’t listened to heavy music for a while and you are the best thing I have ever heard.”

They haven’t quite reached the status of giving up their day jobs yet but I have a feeling that might have changed since I met them the last time. 2015 saw them touring extensively throughout Europe and the US, something that will continue in April 2016 when they play support to German industrial band Oomph! At the time of the interview they explained that they had flexible enough jobs to give them time off and that they are amazed they haven’t been fired yet.

I was wondering why it says on their website that their latest album “Pøsitive Euth” is a re-birth. Were they thinking about quitting?

• No, not really, answers Reyka. It was more the theme of the record. A re-birth from the past records. To try and move on and find new ground. More like shedding the old skin and growing a new one.

DVH’s management is European, so I wondered how that came about.

• Because you are always hunting, says Reyka. We had Stateside help and then we luckily landed in the right hands.
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They have been playing so much in Europe that they could consider moving here. In a way they think the music scene seems a bit more alive here. Well, the rock one anyway. The DJ culture, on the other hand, is huge in the US.

• Both me and Huffy do a bit of DJ-ing on the side, says Reyka. Not quite on the top level but on the periphery.
• Some day we hope to be as good as Paris Hilton, jokes Huffy, while tossing his hair like her. And we could feed her dogs with some MDMA.

Their music is quite difficult to define. I would call it Death Metal, Punk, Dance-Core. They themselves call it Death Disco or Doom Disco. They also have a horror theme in their videos and artwork. Do they think horror films and computer games could make kids violent?

• It is a cop out to blame an art form of some sort, that is just a reflection of how violent this world is, says Reyka. Society really needs to look at itself because of its response to a violent movie.
• You can get a release from it, continues Huffy. See it and be visually comforted, that’s enough.
• Our only message is that we like to portray the horror in every day life. It’s all a horror show, or it can be, concludes Reyka.

Reyka is so dedicated to horror movies that he has tattooed classical monsters like The Creature from the Black Lagoon on his knuckles. His personal favourite at the moment of writing was “Babadook”.

• “Nightmare on Elm Street”, adds Sean. Jaws is also a work of genius. People would run out of the cinema when they first saw it. That human reaction to something is pretty amazing. The most magical part of that movie was that – number one, you hear that cello! Dam, dam, dam, dam and then you never see the shark until the end. When you do it’s still scary because the people are frightened of what they couldn’t see. It’s the mystery of it. That’s the best portrayal of a horror!
• A lot of people don’t consider “Jaws” a horror film, adds Adam. Personally I do, it’s great. Also “A Nightmare on Elm Street” because you are messing with someone in their dreams.
• It would be fun to do a horror movie ourselves, like a Kiss movie, says Huffy.
• Yes, agrees Reyka, ironically. Phantom of the Park is up there as one of the worst films ever made. Actually, I would love to direct a film and do some acting too.
• A 15-20 minute film would be rad, adds Huffy.

Their videos are basically short horror films with impressive production values. Reyka directed most of their last video “How to Kill”.

• Yeah, that was fun to make, says Reyka. I co-directed that one. In school I took Film and my goal was to do music and then get in to film but so far it’s just music and that one video.

He also came up with the name: Death Valley High.

• Yes, it’s a twist on the teenage books, Sweet Valley High. We are not very sweet so I changed it to Death.

They also received an “Independent Music Award” in “The Best Rock Song” category for their song “Multiply” How did that come about?

• It was a panel with about 20-30 famous industry people, like Ozzy Osbourne and Keith Richards, that chose it, says Reyka. Which was pretty wild. The cliché is that it’s just cool to be nominated but it’s even better to win and a total honour.

Did they get something for it?

• We got an email, says Huffy defeatedly.
• Maybe our record label got a plaque or something? I don’t know, adds Reyka.
• Nothing on my mantelpiece, says Adam. We didn’t get a plastic record or anything.
• I think it helped a bit, continues Huffy. It got us some attention. You heard about it so that’s good and my mum isn’t ashamed of me anymore.
• Otherwise we don’t have a problem with our families not approving of our career choices, says Reyka. After being at it for so long they finally just caved in. It’s something they would have liked to have done when they were young. At the beginning though they were saying, you better be a lawyer, a doctor or something like that.

Do they miss their families when they are out touring?

• Yeah, I have a life back there, says Reyka. The other day I actually had a nightmare about my cat. That his teeth were falling out. I woke up in a panic not knowing where I was.
• My cat almost died the last tour, adds Adam.
• Have you sent any videos to your cat? Huffy asks Reyka.
• No, I haven’t this time!
• On the last tour he was sending videos to his cat, adds Huffy.

It might be hard to be separated from their pets but the band has no intentions to pack it in. They find the touring balances itself out with home time and the recording sessions.

• We just recorded five songs recently, says Reyka. We will probably continue with a few more for a new covers EP. To prolong the length of the “Pøsitive Euth” record. After that we will be back with a new album.

They have already done quite a few covers, like one of Talking Heads “Psycho Killer”

• More like a bastardized version of it, says Reyka. Actually it’s really hard not to do covers, because we happen to be good at it. There are so many bands out there that can’t. We like to get it together and do our own things with the material.
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When they record their albums they usually watch tons of horror movies for inspiration before they turn up at the rehearsal space and start to hash out ideas. They have vetos about what’s going on it and are pretty at ease with each other even though they have egos to contend with.

• Sean, who is not here, is a total dick, jokes Huffy.
• That’s why he is not here, adds Reyka.

The last album title “Pøsitive Euth” has a strange spelling. Is there a special meaning behind that?

• It’s a twist on Euthanasia but the thought is also about shedding your skin and killing the things that drag you down, answers Reyka. So it is a positive Euthanasia and a play on the word youth.

They will return to Germany in April to support Oomph. What do they think of it?

• I love Germany, especially the mustard, scharf Senf, says Reyka.
• The history here is also very interesting, continues Adam. We were actually living in Berlin, in between two tours, on the 25^th anniversary of the fall of the Wall. So we got to see the light installation with the balloons. I remember seeing the Wall come down on TV as a kid, so it was really cool to be able to come here and mark the anniversary. We went to Checkpoint Charlie and everything, but we missed Gorbachev.
• We tried to get him for the last album, jokes Huffy. His manager is pretty hard to deal with. Apart from Gorbachev we would love to work with Gary Numan.
• I would love to collaborate with Clint Mansell from Pop Will Eat Itself, says Reyka. He was also the composer of the music for “Requiem For A Dream”. He has done a number of different soundtracks. It would be interesting to work with some one like that or just to pick his brain.

I ask if they think politics has a role in music.

• I think it’s very important that it stays in music but not in ours, says Reyka. It would be a bit rough to try and portray something political or some kind of social commentary in the context of a horror film. There is so much responsibility that goes with political statements. You really have to be sure of your stance and keep on following topics and question a lot of what you hear. I probably wouldn’t have cared about anything political if it wasn’t for some bands that I listened to. When it comes to religion I don’t think there should be any of it in music. There are enough hymns and stuff about it. On the other hand, I hope that we have upset some religious people with ours. The only problems we have had with censorship and political correctness was when Live Nation told us we shouldn’t go to Russia. We went anyway with Hollywood Undead and finished the tour. We didn’t have any problems but apparently they have a list with bands they are worried might upset the Russians. It’s all because Bloodhound Gang were banned when they burned the Russian flag on stage.
• Burned their paychecks goodbye, adds Huffy.
• We’re not trying to push a message or an agenda on to anyone, people can do that for themselves. It’s all about our music and the community of our fans, says Adam.

They have some hardcore fans that are following them around, especially in Germany. The other night some one tried to kiss Sean. Reyka adds that they want super fans but maybe they will have to start wearing Kevlar shirts and boxers.

Life on the road can be tough. They live in the tour bus all the time and the only exercise they get is carrying equipment and rocking out for 40 minutes on stage.

• It would probably kill you after awhile, says Reyka. Even though we thought we had a night off with no partying the other night, we ended up staying up until 5:30 in the morning.
• Thank God we won’t be with these guys (Unzucht) all the time, because their definition of a day off is that you start drinking earlier, continues Huffy. Actually they are good to us and a very sweet band.

In the future they would love to meet up with Unzucht again and play Europe and the world. They want to conquer all the continents even Antarctica and play for some penguins. Of course they also want to do that in Sweden. To start with they will do Central Europe together with Oomph! this spring.

Written by: Maria Bergmann

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