Interview with Jason Simon of Dead Meadow
Interview with Jason Simon of Dead Meadow
Dead Meadow is a Los Angles psychedelic rock band that began in the late 90s and released its first album in 2000. Almost exactly one year ago today, founding bassist Steve Kille passed away from cancer.after finishing the band’s latest album Voyager to Voyager, which was released on March 28th of this year. Here is the Psychedelic Scene interview with Jason Simon, the guitarist, vocalist, and other founding member.
LeValley: I’m Jason LeValley with Psychedelic Scene, and I’m here today with Jason Simon of Dead Meadow. Thanks for being here.
Jason Simon: Yeah, definitely.
LeValley: This is the 1st time I’ve ever interviewed someone with the same name as me.
Simon: Oh, really?
LeValley: Yeah.
Simon: There’s a lot of Jasons out there, I think.
LeValley: Yeah, quite a few.
LeValley: So, you guys released an album recently called Voyager to Voyager.
LeValley: Dead Meadow has always stood at the crossroads of heavy riffs and psychedelic textures. What were the key influences, musical or otherwise, that shaped your sound early on.
Simon: You know, I think
Simon: Sabbath and Zeppelin, of course, are, you know, are two of the main influences, but you know we really came out of a not a heavy or a metal scene, you know. We came out of a punk scene. We grew up in DC.
LeValley: Right. I heard you had some connection with Fugazi.
Simon: Yeah, that was kind of the world we were in, you know. We were in Discord and grew up listening to all that DC Punk Rock, and my previous bands had been more in line with post-punk type sounds, and I think you know the band before it was called impossible 5. That we did right out of high school. I did with Steve Kille when that ended. You know there was a couple years, and we’re kind of figuring out what to do, and I think at that point it just started to become like that angular post-punk sound and all that just started, I don’t know, sounding kind of stale to us.
Simon: You know, we’ve been listening to all sorts of music. Definitely, you know, smoking a lot of weed. So it kind of led to more a psychedelic–I don’t know, listening to slower stuff. And then a roommate, Corey Shane, who actually joined the band for Feathers. He lived with Steve and I, and he was a huge Hendrix fan, and had all these Hendrix videos and old Zeppelin Sabbath videos and just watching all those bands, you know. It was like we got to get back to something like this, you know, like, you know, doing like 10Â min songs and having guitar solos and wah-wah pedals was kind of almost like the punkest thing that we could do. You know, we were like excited, just freak people out in DC, you know, because it was coming from that era when a guitar solo, like what? Like effects pedals? You know, that was all like seen as like some sort of, you know. You know, it’s very different from what was going on, you know. So there was an element of that. It was almost like let’s freak out everyone around here. We’re going to play these heavy riffs and get back to something more expansive and more imaginative and more fantastical, you know, you know, than the than the angular post-punk of the day.
LeValley: Yeah.
LeValley: Well, my understanding is that you completed Voyager to Voyager prior to Steve Kille’s death, almost exactly one year ago.
Simon: Yeah, it’s pretty crazy as you know. I’ve been like an estate agent helping with like everything with his estate and had to sell his house. But it’s pretty wild that it’s actually closing escrow on the exact date of his death. It’s pretty weird.
LeValley: That is weird.
Simon: Yeah, April 18th. We had the whole record before, you know, over pretty much through 2023, and we had a couple songs up to record at the beginning of 2024, and like a couple days. But he was pretty… He’s starting to get pretty sick, you know, and he’s actually just diagnosed a couple of days before the last session that we did, you know. But he was still playing. Well, but it was that. Yeah, he definitely really finished it. It’s pretty pretty weird, you know, as he did the mixing and everything pretty much, you know, at the at the last, you know, when we could, you know. But that was good that I mean I was playing, and everything and the writing and everything. He was definitely at his, you know, still playing at full capacity, and all his creative input is in there.
Simon: You know, we’ve been listening to all sorts of music. Definitely, you know, smoking a lot of weed. So it kind of led to more a psychedelic–I don’t know, listening to slower stuff. And then a roommate, Corey Shane, who actually joined the band for Feathers. He lived with Steve and I, and he was a huge Hendrix fan, and had all these Hendrix videos and old Zeppelin Sabbath videos and just watching all those bands, you know. It was like we got to get back to something like this, you know, like, you know, doing like 10Â min songs and having guitar solos and wah-wah pedals was kind of almost like the punkest thing that we could do. You know, we were like excited, just freak people out in DC, you know, because it was coming from that era when a guitar solo, like what? Like effects pedals? You know, that was all like seen as like some sort of, you know. You know, it’s very different from what was going on, you know. So there was an element of that. It was almost like let’s freak out everyone around here. We’re going to play these heavy riffs and get back to something more expansive and more imaginative and more fantastical, you know, you know, than the than the angular post-punk of the day.
LeValley: Yeah.
LeValley: Well, my understanding is that you completed Voyager to Voyager prior to Steve Kille’s death, almost exactly one year ago.
Simon: Yeah, it’s pretty crazy as you know. I’ve been like an estate agent helping with like everything with his estate and had to sell his house. But it’s pretty wild that it’s actually closing escrow on the exact date of his death. It’s pretty weird.
LeValley: That is weird.
Simon: Yeah, April 18th. We had the whole record before, you know, over pretty much through 2023, and we had a couple songs up to record at the beginning of 2024, and like a couple days. But he was pretty… He’s starting to get pretty sick, you know, and he’s actually just diagnosed a couple of days before the last session that we did, you know. But he was still playing. Well, but it was that. Yeah, he definitely really finished it. It’s pretty pretty weird, you know, as he did the mixing and everything pretty much, you know, at the at the last, you know, when we could, you know. But that was good that I mean I was playing, and everything and the writing and everything. He was definitely at his, you know, still playing at full capacity, and all his creative input is in there.
LeValley: Was there much post-production done on the album?
Simon: I mean, we record everything live, and I try to do as much guitar as I can live, whatever guitar solos I can do. But yeah, then, after I definitely do add things where I feel they’re needed. You know, other sounds, other guitar sounds, and, I mean, then mixing, you know. It took a little while little while mixing it, but nothing too extreme.
LeValley: Okay, I know you co-wrote songs with Steve.
LeValley: Can you walk us through what your songwriting process was like?
Simon: Yeah, you vary from song to song.
Simon: I think you know, in the early days songs were a lot more riff-based, you know, like, okay, we’re gonna play this part and then this part, and then we’ll go to this part, and some songs are still like that. But I think. As time progressed it became more–a little bit more song-based where you know I would have like. ‘Oh, I have this song, and it’s kind of has these chords, and it goes here and it goes there and then we just would play together’, and Mark and Steve would kind of develop their own parts based on us, just jamming and playing together.
Simon: So a lot of the song–most of the songs would start with an idea or something of mine in some form, either being a full song or just parts of songs, and just really organic, you know, as we all play together, it becomes something that we liked, and we thought was something to continue working on or not.
LeValley: Yeah. Well, looking back at your earliest records compared to your more recent work, what do you think has changed the most?
Simon: I don’t know. I think as we become better players, you know, there’s like…we write quicker, you know, like we don’t…I feel like some songs come together so fast because we’re just like, ‘Oh, that’s cool. Okay, I’ll play this. I’ll play that.’ And no one’s second guessing it. You know we can kind of tell if it’s something we want we like, and we want to go with or not, you know, where certain earlier records, you know, we worked it so many ways like, Oh, let’s try it like this. Maybe it’d be better like that. Oh, is that cool? What if we tried this, you know, and I think now we kind of just know, you know. And I never have to say anything to Steve and Mark. You know it’s never like ‘Oh, that seems weird. Try something else,’ you know, whatever they figure out to play or whatever they decide to play on is usually exactly what I think the song should have.
LeValley: There’s a mystical, even literary quality to your lyrics. Are there authors or philosophies that you draw from?
Simon: Certainly. I think the early lyrics are a little more, a little more of a fantastic element to it, and that was kind of intentional just to try to bring that kind of inner imagination sort of escapism into like, you know, of music that could, I don’t know, maybe paint some pictures in your head while you’re listening to it.
Simon: Instead of the very political or like angular sounds that were around us in DC. I mean authors that I’ve always loved in the early days that were influential were, you know, HP. Lovecraft and Clark Ashton Smith. And now I like Thomas Fugade a lot. He’s a really cool horror writer. And then also I studied religion in school and college. So different philosophies from that from like Buddhism or some of the Islamic stuff, and Sufism, and different things, you know, work their way in cause always, I don’t know. Infinitely inspiring.
LeValley: There’s a mystical, even literary quality to your lyrics. Are there authors or philosophies that you draw from?
Simon: Certainly. I think the early lyrics are a little more, a little more of a fantastic element to it, and that was kind of intentional just to try to bring that kind of inner imagination sort of escapism into like, you know, of music that could, I don’t know, maybe paint some pictures in your head while you’re listening to it.
Simon: Instead of the very political or like angular sounds that were around us in DC. I mean authors that I’ve always loved in the early days that were influential were, you know, HP. Lovecraft and Clark Ashton Smith. And now I like Thomas Ligotti a lot. He’s a really cool horror writer. And then also I studied
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religion in school and college. So different philosophies from that from like Buddhism or some of the Islamic stuff, and Sufism, and different things, you know, work their way in cause always, I don’t know. Infinitely inspiring.
LeValley: Okay, you recently signed with Heavy Psych Records. I believe.
Simon: It’s Psych Sounds. I guess they’re called.
LeValley: Oh, Heavy Psych Sounds, okay. It seems like a good fit for you guys. But I was wondering if you ever feel confined by the heavy psych genre.
Simon: A bit, you know, but I really have been very thankful that our fans seem to come from all different genres to show it’s not just stoner rock fans there. There’ll be people coming from all sorts of worlds, you know, and I’m really thankful for that. And I think that’s a reflection of our own tastes, you know, I don’t think no one in the band really listens to that much of what you can consider heavy Stoner Rock. I think Sleep’s great and but other than that, we don’t go much further than that, you know. Heavy stoner music to me would be dub and reggae, you know. So yeah, I guess with Heavy Psych Sounds it’ll be interesting, because this is the 1st record that we’ve really done on a label that is in that world. Actually, we did. The last record Force Form Free was also on Blues Funeral was also kind of more and a label from that world. And it actually did really well, you know. So we’ll see. I think we’ve been around long enough that our fans are just Dead Meadow fans. That doesn’t really matter where the record comes out.
LeValley: There’s a mystical, even literary quality to your lyrics. Are there authors or philosophies that you draw from?
Simon: Certainly. I think the early lyrics are a little more, a little more of a fantastic element to it, and that was kind of intentional just to try to bring that kind of inner imagination sort of escapism into like, you know, of music that could, I don’t know, maybe paint some pictures in your head while you’re listening to it.
Simon: Instead of the very political or like angular sounds that were around us in DC. I mean authors that I’ve always loved in the early days that were influential were, you know, HP. Lovecraft and Clark Ashton Smith. And now I like Thomas Fugade a lot. He’s a really cool horror writer. And then also I studied religion in school and college. So different philosophies from that from like Buddhism or some of the Islamic stuff, and Sufism, and different things, you know, work their way in cause always, I don’t know. Infinitely inspiring.
LeValley: Okay, you recently signed with Heavy Psych Records. I believe.
Simon: It’s Psych Sounds. I guess they’re called.
LeValley: Oh, Heavy Psych Sounds, okay. It seems like a good fit for you guys. But I was wondering if you ever feel confined by the heavy psych genre.
Simon: A bit, you know, but I really have been very thankful that our fans seem to come from all different genres to show it’s not just stoner rock fans there. There’ll be people coming from all sorts of worlds, you know, and I’m really thankful for that. And I think that’s a reflection of our own tastes, you know, I don’t think no one in the band really listens to that much of what you can consider heavy Stoner Rock. I think Sleep’s great and but other than that, we don’t go much further than that, you know. Heavy stoner music to me would be dub and reggae, you know. So yeah, I guess with Heavy Psych Sounds it’ll be interesting, because this is the 1st record that we’ve really done on a label that is in that world. Actually, we did. The last record Force Form Free was also on Blues Funeral was also kind of more and a label from that world. And it actually did really well, you know. So we’ll see. I think we’ve been around long enough that our fans are just Dead Meadow fans. That doesn’t really matter where the record comes out.
LeValley: Alright, well, your band is known for an immersive, almost hypnotic quality. How do you approach translating the studio sound into a live setting.
Simon: I guess you do it the best you can. You know. I’m not a fan of, you know, having all sorts of backing tracks or anything like that. I want it to be free to kind of, go different ways and develop into something different. And I’m not overly concerned that the live version matches the studio version, you know. I want the live version to be really cool, you know, and play it and be great on its own. But if it has to be different only with three people, then that’s the way it’ll be.
LeValley: Yeah.
Bridget
Simon: And the songs always change over time. I feel like a lot of old songs, you know, you know, just slowly. Okay, we played it very different than we used to, you know. Kind of just happens organically, but that kind of keeps it interesting.
LeValley: That kind of covers my next question, which is, do you prefer the freedom of improvisation on stage over the precision of a structured performance?
Simon: And you know, I think you gotta balance it, you know, because I definitely like songs. You know. I’m a fan of songs and seeing a band just free-form improvised, can get kind of tiring to me. But I do like that. The songs are open enough. At least a lot of them are open enough that there is freedom to push things further or do things different from night to night, and I don’t think we could play these songs for as long as we have. If there wasn’t that space in there to try different things, and to develop them as the years pass.
LeValley: Yeah, okay.
LeValley: You’ve worked with a few different producers and collaborators over the years, and I’m aware that Steve produced some of your albums. Is there anyone now that you’d like to work with that you haven’t worked with yet?
Simon: I don’t know, really. I mean, I’m definitely open to working with producers, and I think you know the last few records. Yes, Steve definitely was the first to kind of dive into recording us, you know, and then really learned how to do that. And then, I learned a lot of what I know now from him.
Simon: And we would have people mix it. But it was always kind of frustrating to me sometimes that I feel like it couldn’t. Certain aspects wouldn’t come through the way, I thought, or you get it close, but it’s like, Oh, we can’t ask for another remix. It’s pretty good, you know, so. It drives me crazy mixing ourselves. But
I think we’re able to get closer to what we envisioned by doing it that way, and how good studio gear has gotten, and how prices have come down, and a lot of things that you can set up a studio and do it. Mix a record at a home studio now in a way that you couldn’t maybe 15 years ago. So, since (The)Nothing They Need, I guess that record we did up at Steve’s. Force Form Free is mixed at mine, and then this last one is mixed at mine.
LeValley: What’s your ideal recording environment studio home setup, or like a remote cabin in the woods.
Simon: Oh, I kind of think a remote cabin in the woods, you know, because you get the band up there and then everyone’s just focused, you know, on that. And there’s no…
I don’t know. Life’s not in shooting in all different ways. So you can just focus on the project, but that’s not always possible in a…
Simon: I think a balance. You know this record was definitely a balance between home studio, and we went to a friend’s studio who had a big room, you know. I think tracking in a nice big room is really beneficial for us.
Simon: So going to a studio and getting the drums and the live stuff down, and then, maybe having the time at home, we’re not worried about how much money to spend a studio to really just sit with it and try different things and see what you can add here and there. And
that’s been the best way for us.
LeValley: Yeah, you mentioned something about smoking weed in the early days, and I was wondering…
Simon: That was myself and Mark. Steve, actually, never, never did.
LeValley: Oh, he didn’t? Okay.
Simon: Yeah.
Courtesy of Blues Funeral Recordings
LeValley: Well do psychedelics play a role in your creative process, either historically or more recently.
Simon: I mean, I think, definitely like the experience and the knowledge gained through psychedelics. For sure. You know, I think that
it’s a healthy thing, you know. I don’t take psychedelics that frequently, but you know, I think a good trip reset. You know. Sometimes it’s really necessary and usually from those experiences definitely insight that I’ve gained
comes through in your creative process, for sure. But it’s not like, ‘Oh, we have to take acid to get into some zone to write it.’ But I think just of who I am and like learning life. That’s definitely been a part, you know.
LeValley: Okay. Did you conscientiously start off as a psych band?
LeValley: I mean, you kind of touched on this, like you developed out of a punk scene, but you know, was making psychedelic music on your mind at the time?
Simon: Definitely, we wanted to be a psychedelic band. There wasn’t really anything that you could call a modern psych scene. And
it was strange, you know, in the early 2000s, and even late nineties, when we first started, because it wasn’t really a playing shows. We were either playing in the middle of these punk shows, you know, post punk shows while we were playing with these stoner rock kind of metal shows, and either one we kind of were an outlier a bit, you know. We didn’t really fit exactly and slowly over the years, and all these bands started to come up, and pretty early on we got a call from these people out in California that were digging it to come out and play some shows, and it was a band I’d heard of, and I was like, Oh, yeah, I remember the name. It’s Brian Jonestown Massacre, you know. And so we went out and played with them, and it was a funny era for them. It was great music, and the band was really great, but there’d be nobody at the shows it was kind of pre-Dig, you know, post their major label, but coming out to LA, you know I mean them and the bands like The Warlocks and Spindrift. It was like, ‘Okay, there’s a lot of people that are playing something different than us, but psychedelic music of a sort, you know. And then basically, the Black Angels started years later. And all of a sudden, there was this psych scene. I think we’re more in line with them than a stoner rock or punk scene, of course.
LeValley: I think the band now consists of just you and Mark Laughlin.
Simon: Yeah, yeah, I mean, I’m trying to figure out. I do want to continue, you know. And because, you know, I don’t know what I need to play music, you know, and I play solo, do lots of projects. But you know it’s been 25 years building up Dead Meadow to something that can allow me to spend my time playing music. So I’d like to continue but really feeling it out, you know, because Mark, over lockdown ended up starting back up as a lawyer. So he’s pretty busy, and we’ve done some jamming with Steve McCarty recently, who played on the Matador records, who’s great and a friend of mine. You got Caleb. He’s kind of just randomly, I was like, ‘Oh, yeah, you do play bass,’ and but then he’s end up. He’s been great, you know, so that fits in. But honestly, for playing out of town, I’m still kind of sorting out what to do with drummers, and I don’t want the band to be
like a solo, like me, like a solo thing, you know. Corey Shane, from the Feathers record, I think, is gonna come back first and write some songs and do another record with two guitars, and we will have Steve (McCarty) and Mark play. So yeah.
LeValley: Did Steve (Kille) ever give you any indication about how he would feel if you continued with Dead Meadow?
Simon: Steve, you know, there’s things that Steve didn’t want to deal with. Steve would not deal with them, you know, like he was definitely like a I don’t know. And then one of those things was the fact that he maybe he might not make it through this, you know, and he was just something he couldn’t deal with, and even trying to talk, bring anything up remotely like that was something that was like, yeah, he couldn’t really talk about.
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Simon: So I don’t really know. You know, I know. I can think back of a…there’s only one tour that I that at one point that I had to like bail out in the middle of it. It was a long time ago, and I, you know, I assume they just wouldn’t do it. But remember, Steven, like KP from Spindrift, jump up and play the shows, you know. So I think back to that. So I was like, ‘Oh, yeah. Well, they were on tour.’ They needed to make the money. This music, it went on. You know it seemed a little crazy, but I don’t really know, you know. AT first I thought I would not do it, but then, there’s still more music, and I’m talking to Corey and playing with Steve McCarty and having everyone involved, I think there’s still more good music that we can make. You know. I don’t want to try to recreate what we had with Steve, because that would be impossible, you know. And then, like Steve and I, you know we were 30 something years. We made music together, and he was such a cool bass player. He was like, he’s really unique. And the way he played and the way his creative processes, you know. But I want to still feel like Dead Meadow, and I know it can’t be the same. But we’ll see, you know. I’ll see if it feels good and we’ll keep going. It feels right.
LeValley: Right. So you’re gonna bring back the second guitar that you had in the band for a while?
Simon: That’s the idea. We’ve been talking and writing. We’ve been talking about doing something like that, you know. I think that would be cool, because, you know, he was integral in forming the band too. Like I said, he lived with Steve and I, and really the whole ideas for the band came together when Steve, Corey, and I were all living together, you know, watching these Hendrix videos and talking about, you know, how we wanted to get back to something closer to that.
Simon: So it does feel like it’s tied to everything. And with historically, as well, you know.
LeValley: Did you put much thought into a bass replacement?
Simon: That’s the strange thing is that that kind of fell into place like really easy, like, really, amazingly easy, where I’ve already made. I make music with a friend of mine who has a label called Jungle Gym. It’s kind of an ambient, instrumental cassette label, really cool stuff, but we have a project called Spectral Fields and he puts some bass on it every now and then, but I guess he was playing upside down because he was left-handed. But I was like, oh, you want to try jamming and see how it is?
Simon: And he kind of.. A lot of times, he knows the song better than I. He’s like, ‘Oh, no, actually, this is how it goes.’ You know, it’s pretty funny. And so playing with him has been really cool. And it’s actually been like, in order to figure out how to do some shows, seeing it’s more the drummer that we’re trying to figure out for out-of-town stuff, you know, because recording, I would definitely want Mark or Steve McCarty, who we reconnected with, or I reconnected with at the Memorial for Steve. I hadn’t seen him in a while. It’s been really cool playing with him because they’re both such great, unique drummers.
LeValley: Yeah. Do you anticipate touring at any point in the near future?
Simon: You know, when I was playing with Steve McCarty and this new guy, Caleb on bass, Steve McCarty was thinking about touring for a while, and I actually kind of agreed to some Europe shows. And then it eventually turned out. Steve McCarty couldn’t do it. But these shows are already booked. So yeah, we’re going to be over in Europe in June, you know. So I’m going to try some shows. And I have a friend playing drums, and you know, see how it is. We’re going to play. The first show we’re going to play is in the summer. We’ll be with Mark, and with a lot of friends joining up kind of like a tribute to Steve.
Simon: But I guess they’re going to feel how it feels in Europe. You know I want to honor these commitments, but if it feels, I don’t know, see how it is, you know a little bit.
Simon: I don’t know a little nervous on the whole thing, because it’s strange, you know, I want to keep going, and I feel like this record’s cool. I want to share these songs with people, and I want to keep playing music. And this is something that worked a long time to make it into something that does make enough money and can support itself. So, I don’t know.
Simon: Yeah, day by day.
LeValley: I’m sure it’s very difficult, and you have my deepest condolences about it.
LeValley: Steve, who I, you know,it sounds like he was a good friend in addition to a bandmate.
Simon: Yeah, yeah. I mean, it’s been so long as family, you know, it’s just like with Mark and everyone in the band, you know, after traveling bands together for so long and everything, you know it’s crazy.
LeValley: Alright, Jason! Well, thank you so much for your time today.
Simon: Thank you. Thank you for doing the interview. Appreciate.
LeValley: Yeah. The new album Voyager to Voyager is out. I think it’s on all streaming services.
Simon: It’s everywhere now.
LeValley: Yeah, okay, well, thanks. So much.
Simon: Great. Have a good day.
LeValley: You too. Take care!
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