Cove Reber has been doing odd jobs for the past eight years, washing dishes and delivering pizzas on the weekend. He worked his final shift as a dishwasher Thursday night.

Now, Reber and his band Dead American are getting ready for their upcoming tour with Of Mice & Men and Hands Like Houses, featuring a stop at Syracuse’s The Lost Horizon on April 13 at 6 p.m.

Reber, the former vocalist for the post-hardcore band Saosin, hasn’t been on the road since leaving the band in 2010. After fronting Saosin and being the “resident younger brother” of the group, Reber is excited to share his experiences with Dead American.

Even following the success of Saosin, the senior band member has no intention of having his name recognition from that group determine the success for this new chapter.

“Screw my name,” Reber said. “I don’t treat this band like I’m already some rock star. I don’t have that mentality.”

Reber added he keeps his ego in check by focusing on the appreciation he has for his fans. He said he’s grateful for anybody who listens to his music and the opportunity to play live for people “means everything.”

Dead American released their debut EP “The Shape of Punk Is Dumb” in 2018, and released their newest single, “False Intentions,” in January. The band will open for Of Mice & Men on Saturday night.

Dead American released their debut EP, “The Shape of Punk is Dumb,” in 2018. The band will perform some of their new music while opening for Of Mice & Men on Saturday. Courtesy of Joey Bradford

Of Mice & Men, the show’s headliner, share a similar point of view to Dead American. Band members said the focus of their tour is bringing fans in on the journey with them. After ten years, the band and its music seems to have become greater than themselves, said band member Valentino Arteaga. To the group, he said it almost seems to have become a community.

“We’re a big community,” Arteaga said, “and we all feed off each other and it’s all an important part of our lives to be able to make sure that the music we create is honest to us so that we can have honest engagement and honest conversations with our fans.”

This engagement includes having audience members’ input on what the group will perform during their shows. The band makes sure to reach out to fans on social media to see what songs they want to see performed live.

One of the songs they said they’ll likely perform is the band’s newest track, “How To Survive” released in February. The song, like most of the group’s music, is written from their perspective of things they have gone through. Arteaga said he is excited to perform it live on this tour.

“For us, it’s very therapeutic,” Arteaga said, “and it’s cathartic for our fans to hear the music and have us play it. And really see some good come from what could potentially be in the moment such a negative thing.”

Arteaga said the band finished most of the musical projects that they have been working on in March, but do not want to rush the release and production just yet. After nearly ten years, the group still enjoys creating music — not only for the fans, but for themselves.

“The music helps our souls adapt to life and adapt to everything,” Arteaga said. “When we get inspired and we get the ball rolling, we don’t want to be held back. We want to be able to utilize that creativity in order to make something amazing.”

Not only will Of Mice & Men be performing their new music as part of an upcoming tour, but Australian band Hands Like Houses will also be premiering some new music in America this year.

Hands Like Houses just dropped their fourth album, “Anon.,” in October 2018. “Sick,” their most recent single from the record, has a sound that pulls from their long catalog of music compiled over several records, while also trying something a bit different with a more modern rock sound.

“We never want to be that band that tries to outdo itself with the same thing,” said lead singer Trenton Woodley.

“Sick,” Woodley added, actually had the band take a step sideways when producing “Anon.” The single turned out to be the centerpiece, Woodley said, for how the album would take shape. The group ended up writing four new songs to replace other tracks that did not seem to fit in with the direction the album was heading.

“When ‘Sick’ came out, it felt like this is a song we can build an album around,” Woodley said, adding they had to weed out other ones that didn’t work with the record. “Finding an equilibrium between what we’ve written and using that as a foundation to essentially almost start over in a way.”

 

Published on April 7, 2019 at 10:27 pm

Contact Kerri: kmcanene@syr.edu