This part of the story can really be titled "Interlude." It serves as a bridge between the initial interview with Dallas Coyle and what would follow next.
Off and on, from 2004 to 2010, I wrote a music column for 411Music in addition to doing various interviews and, for a time there, serving as 411's Music Editor. The column basically covered music newa with a heaping helkping of my opinion. It's the kind of thing you don't see oft5en now; most folks prefer to get that kind of content from YouTube.
It was in the "various interviews and, for a time there, serving as 411's Music Editor" period that I did that initial interview. Three years after that interview, news came that Dallas Coyle had left the band. (It would be three years and one album after that when God Forbid would break up altogether.) It happened during the later stages of my time at 411 Music, when I was no longer editor but had returned to writing a weekly column.
I wrote my reaction to the news, having followed the band. I wasn't concerned with who was to blame or sensationalizing anything; I just gave my honest feeling on why I thought it may have heppened.
Two weeks after that (as you'll see below), I received a very surprising piece of feedback to my reaction that blew my mind. Read below to see how things kicked into a higher gear.
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Double M’s Saturday Music News Report
Posted By Michael Melchor on 01.16.10
Some news now on…well, a little on God Forbid’s stepping in for Throwdown in support of Five Finger Death Punch, but more on the new album – and the obvious difference that’ll be easily noticed.
Doc Coyle recently commented (in part):
This past fall and winter has been a refocusing period on a personal and business level for GOD FORBID figuring what the next phase of this band will be.
Another announcement is that Matt Wicklund (WARREL DANE, ex-HIMSA) is our new guitar player. He relocated to New Jersey and immediately started contributing new material. Along with being a great guy, he fit in with all of us really well, and it seemed like a no-brainer.
It’s hard to say what the new material will be like, but so far I can say it’s going to be very hook-oriented, and obviously without Dallas, it will have a different vibe. Matt and I have very similar musical tastes, but he comes from a more trained background in theory which should create an interesting dynamic. He is also a very good lead guitar player, so there will probably be more solos.
As soon as we do a new photo shoot, we will update all of our websites with Matt.
Yes, I already knew Dallas was gone. Exactly why, I still don’t. I don’t think anyone quite does save for Dallas, Doc, and the rest of God Forbid. Dallas – and the rest of the band – have been very tight-lipped about the whole thing. From what I’ve read and clues I’ve picked up, I don’t think Dallas felt like touring and being the record company monkey anymore.
As far back as almost three years ago when I talked to him, Dallas had already been giving clues as such:
[Michael Melchor:] …So was it a matter of hit it heavy when it first came out and then scale back to take some personal time as well?
[Dallas Coyle:] Well, a lot of it is pressure from other people. When you listen to a lot of people about what you should be doing with your band, you forget to listen to yourself about what you should be doing with your band. Hopefully the band knows what they should do, but the label says you should do this and your manager says you should do that and it happens that way…at this point, our band is like, “Fuck everybody.” If you don’t listen to what we say, then fuck you. We don’t need to write another album; we’ve already written a great album. Most bands don’t do that in a career. We don’t need to go back to them to write another album right now. Everything – and this is what I tell most bands – everyone wants to blame the label for everything but it’s just as much our fault as it is the label’s as far as the process and how things can go. That’s why, right now, we tour when we want to tour and when the demand is there, we’re gonna supply the music. It’s pretty much that simple.
MM: That leads me ahead a little bit, then – has there been any writing of new material or are you not worried about that right now?
DC: No, we’re not writing anything for a new album right now because music is in such a state of disarray that, for us to put out an album right now being on an independent label, it just wouldn’t do anything for the band. Our last one opened at #119 on the Billboard Charts and, the way things are going now, Best Buy is filtering out a lot of their heavy music out of their stores. It costs more money for us to put a record in stores and we wouldn’t have as many records in the stores for our next one. For me, I don’t want to put out an album and have it do less that [IV: A Constitution Of Treason] when our next album’s gonna be a lot better just because of money. It doesn’t make sense to me. I’m just gonna wait and see how things go and see how to sell a record the way we need to in order for it to do better.
Right there, that reads to me that Dallas was already getting burned out on the system and how the business was playing out in so far as his ideas versus the label’s (in this case – and still – Century Media). Of course, I didn’t quite see it at the time – it just sounded then like, “Yeah, right on! Down with the Man!” Later on after that, however, they did write, record, and release another album, Earthsblood. And they kept on touring despite Dallas’ assertions (not printed here, but in the original) that touring cost them $30,000 a month.
Looking back, it seems Dallas was already acquiring a strong distaste for the lifestyle. It happens to people, sometimes. The “rock and roll” lifestyle – one that involves a lot of time on the road away from family putting money in someone else’s pockets – isn’t for everybody. As many people claim to want that life or look down their nose at those who don’t, it’s a whole different game once you’re there.
I get the impression that’s what happened to Dallas. There’s no bad blood between he and Doc (brothers, remember) nor the rest of the crew; maybe they understood he didn’t want this anymore, but the rest of them did. To that end, they now have Matt Wicklund – a player with more training, it sounds like, as far as the music theory end of it goes – who can’t help but change their sound somewhat. As far as the music itself, it may be an improvement, it may not. Doc and Dallas were always so in-tune it was scary. That was one of my favorite things about the band. They sure won’t harmonize like Doc and Dallas did vocally, I tell you that.
Either way, I’m going to be very curious what the new record sounds like with Dallas out of the fold, enjoying life away from the road. No reason to abandon them now that I’ve been a fan this long when things are about to turn upside-down.
“Better Days” was the first time I saw or heard them. Byron Davis scared the shit out of me in the best way I could imagine at about :38. The Coyle Brothers flipped that about 2 minutes in. The rest is history.
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Double M’s Saturday Music News Report
Posted By Michael Melchor on 01.30.10
from: [Dallas Coyle]
to: [Michael Melchor]
date: Sat, Jan 16, 2010 at 2:18 PM
subject: I liked your article
I’ll do an interview about why I quit if you want.
Best,
Dallas Coyle
“I’ve been writing new music… check it out at the Coyle Media ning site below… You won’t be disappointed.”
Coyle Media: http://coylemedia.ning.com/
...oh, hell. It’s ON, now.
Yes, the above was an actual e-mail. Yes,
I realize that no one else has been told that story by Dallas himself, making
this an exclusive story. And yes, the interview is already done.
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