Canada’s multi-platinum rock band, Theory of a Deadman, returned to their harder rock roots with the release of their eighth studio album Dinosaur. The 10-track album was released on March 17th via Roadrunner Records and the title-track “Dinosaur” recently broke into the Top 10 at U.S. Active Rock Radio. The single has already amassed over 4 million streams since its release in October 2022. The album is filled with gritty rock tracks like “Medusa (Stone)” and awesome catchy tracks like “Ambulance” and “Two of Us (Stuck)”. I had the opportunity to catch up with vocalist and guitarist Tyler Connolly to discuss the new album, current tour plans, and some recent accomplishments.
Tyler explained they started writing the tracks for Dinosaur back in 2021 and after writing headed over to Stockholm, Sweden to record over at Atlantis Studios (made famous by Sweden’s own ABBA). Tyler mentioned Ghost also recorded their last album there. The album was produced by Martin Terefe who also produced their last two albums of Wake Up Call (2017) and Say Nothing (2020). We started discussing some of the singles and “Ambulance” was one that definitely had my attention from the party rock vibe it held.
“Yeah, they’re kind of like brother songs,” referring to “Dinosaur” and “Ambulance”, “where they’re kind of written the same where I had titles and kind of riffs, and that was about it. Which is kind of an old school way of writing songs for me where I have titles and riffs, but no lyrics. And “Ambulance” I was like ‘Well what am I talking about here?’ So I had an original idea that was too dark, and I switched it up and I had this idea where you had a night so crazy you ended up in the back of an ambulance. And I’m like this is such a great idea for a party song. So we then had to produce it up to make it sound like a really fun heavy banger of a rock song having too much a good time.” And Theory of a Deadman nailed it perfectly. I called out in the interview “Ambulance” is the perfect vibe for a live audience with the lyrics and music behind it. I hope fans get the opportunity to hear it live.
The one track that threw me for a loop on the album was “Two of Us (Stuck)”. The piano-driven song uses the refrain of the Grover Washington, Jr. and Bill Withers classic “Just The Two Of Us.” And when I asked Tyler why he chose this particular classic romantic song he said, “Wait….there’s an original?!”, which had both of us laughing. He went on to explain their take on the song.
“I think I just heard the song somewhere, [Tyler starts singing] ‘Just the two of us’ [ends singing], and I in my mind, because I do it all the time with songs, I just change the lyrics. I was like ‘we couldn’t make it if we tried’ ooo this is actually kind of good. This is a good idea. And just turned it into more of a dismal, your cynical look at a relationship.” And to note, this is not a cover of the original. “Because it is not a cover, it just uses some elements of the song, we couldn’t use the original title.” But, this song does have a great concept behind it. The story is about two people during lockdown from the pandemic who begin to realize when being forced to spend so much time together that they can’t live with each other. “I was hearing…the divorce rate went through the roof because, I guess, people were working from home and we had to spend a lot of time with one another.” We both laughed at how crazy that sounded. “It’s crazy right?! Now I can spend more time with you, I can see you every day,” and I added “I can’t stand you! Why am I here?!”, to which Tyler responded “Yeah!” And as ludicrous as that sounded, it happened. Tyler continued on, “I mean it’s kind of true, it’s crazy Bernard you need time apart from people. And that’s what ‘[Two of Us] (Stuck)’ is all about. Imagine being stuck with someone 24 hours a day like a prison and eventually things just turn from good to bad.”
If you’ve been following Theory of a Deadman since their start, you know they have an extensive catalog of singles that focus on relationships. From “Nothing Could Come Between Us” to “Bad Girlfriend” to the recent “Two of Us (Stuck)”, there is a plethora of singles the band produced on relationships. I asked Tyler the reason behind the trends of songs.
“I think that’s probably a majority of songwriting. What connects us the most is relationships. I think people listen to stuff that brings nostalgia. I think it’s because its a connection the fans immediately understand because everyone’s gone through the relationships including the bad ones. Yeah, so it’s just one of those things that connect us all.”
One of the other singles fans will dig on Dinosaur is “Medusa (Stone)”. It has a hard and heavy vibe and Tyler gave us the story behind it.
“That’s about a girl. That’s about somebody you know, it’s never going to work out, you’re never going to marry this person. They’re so bad for you. It’s such a bad idea. And for some reason you’re so attracted to that person, you don’t know why, they’re just so bad for you. Once again, it was the title. I just loved the word ‘Medusa’ and had to be very careful to know what I was talking about, making sure it wasn’t about all women…I love the idea of, remember the old movie ‘Clash of the Titans’? How I think it was Perseus had to go and cut the head off Medusa and use it to turn the Kraken to stone? It was a real awesome story! And so I kind of like that and kind of brought my childhood to life with that song. What happens when this woman that could turn you stone, but you just didn’t care because you couldn’t not look away. And that’s kind of where it all came from.”
The week after Dinosaur was released, Theory of a Deadman received some fantastic news via Music Canada. Their single “Rx (Medicate)” was certified quadruple-Platinum, “Bad Girlfriend” was certified double-Platinum, “Santa Monica” was certified double-Platinum, and their 2017 album Wake Up Call was certified Gold.
“Those are always awesome to get. Those are really, really cool. Those are the awards that matter the most to us because those are the fans listening to music and buying records and stuff. The ‘Wake Up Call’ Gold thing blows me away in this day and age as it’s so difficult to get status on any album. That’s a big feat for any band to have a Gold album.”
Theory of a Deadman had just wrapped up the Rock Resurrection Tour with Skillet and Saint Asonia. So I asked Tyler what was next for the band on the tour front.
“We have a little bit of time off here, maybe a little less than a month, then we go up to Canada to do some shows with Disturbed, which is going to be awesome. Some big arenas with big arena rock. Which is great, because honestly we haven’t opened in Canada like I don’t even know when, to be honest. It’s something we wanted to do, it just came out of nowhere. We just got an email saying ‘Hey, they [Disturbed] reached out and asked if you want to go open’and we’re like ‘YES!’ Yes please! What time do we have to show up?!” Tyler and I both laughed as you could hear the excitement in his voice over getting the opportunity to open for Disturbed. “It’s going to be great. Just so great! And then we have a bunch of Summer festival/fair stuff. England, Europe, Japan in September. And then we’re going to do the Rock Resurrection Tour Part 2 with Skillet and Saint Asonia again in the Fall…keeping busy.”
To wrap up the interview, I asked Tyler some tougher questions. First, what was his favorite Theory of a Deadman song?
“Favorite Theory of a Deadman song? It’s like having kids. There’s no way I can even answer it without insulting the other songs. I mean, I don’t know. I guess “Santa Monica” is one of those interesting ones that like it’s got a really cool kind of harmonic kind of intro that I don’t even know where I came up with. I think I came up with it before the band existed. That’s kind of a cool one “Santa Monica”. I think somehow it just lasted a long time. I’ll go with “Santa Monica”.
Second, from anyone living or dead, who are you vacationing with and what are you doing?
“You know what? You would think you would pick some hot chick or something, but honestly like, I’m going to pick…it’s probably weird but I’m going to pick someone like…someone I grew up watching probably like Arnold Schwarzenegger as The Terminator…spending a day with The Terminator. It would be like ‘Weekend at Bernie’s’ I dunno. We’d go to the beach…or waterskiing…just sounds awesome.”
And the last question for Tyler, what is the one thing most people don’t know about you?
“That’s probably that I’m very quite shy. Very introverted. I just kind of play a role when sometimes you have to go up there [on stage] and be like, ‘Hey! Alright!’ and be loud. It’s a bit of a ruse. People that know me would be like ‘Yeah, Tyler keeps to himself.’
Tyler provided these last words for us.
“The cool thing about having a new album is that hopefully we’ll pick up some new listeners and go ‘Woah, these guys have been around a long time.’ The first time I listened to Led Zeppelin, I listened to ‘Led Zeppelin II’. And then I realized there was a bunch of Led Zeppelin and I was like ‘Woah’. You know that was like the greatest day of my life…so yeah go check out all our other albums as well.”
Go check out Dinosaur and all the rest of Theory of a Deadman’s music and over at https://www.theoryofficial.com/ You can also connect and follow the band at the social media links below.
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