Interview with The Dead Licks: ‘We really love My Morning Jacket, how they blend their melodies but aren’t afraid of shredding, we wanted to do something like that’

Chicago-based rock band The Dead Licks released their second album In Disguise in May and will be releasing their next unnamed track this winter.

The band comprises Tom Inzinga (vocals and guitar), Jack Grbac (guitar), Johnny McNamara (bass) and Jimmy Gallagher (drums). Grbac and Inzinga met during freshman year at university in Dayton, Ohio and ended up covering some Nirvana songs together. They relocated to Chicago in 2018: ‘Tom and Jimmy are both from the southside (of Chicago) and we had a lot of friends from school that lived here,’ McNamara said. ‘It was pre-determined that we’d end up here!’ Inzinga’s dad came up with their band name: ‘You try to think of a band name but they all suck,’ Grbac laughed. ‘Tom’s dad said something guitar licks being “dead” because rock music is dead now, and we took it from that.’

Grbac describes their upcoming track as ‘more like The Strokes, think big arena rock and less punk’. McNamara jumps in: ‘We don’t want to sell out,’ he said. Grbac looks at him: ‘Yeah, we do!,’ he laughed.

In Disguise marked a change of direction for them: ‘I’d say it’s a heavier sound for us, heavier guitars, then the songs get more mellow, it’s a softer rock ‘n’ roll,’ McNamara said. ‘There’s some good jamming, some good solos. We really love My Morning Jacket (a Kentucky rock band from the 90’s), how they blend their melodies but aren’t afraid of shredding, we wanted to do something like that.’

‘We know what works and what doesn’t work’

In Disguise is an unhurried affair, with roomy, often breezy songs that stretch their legs, with several of them clocking in at around five to seven minutes. They’re not quite jams but they evoke a similar spirit, clearly taking pleasure in playing with and lingering over new sounds, like the Afro-beat inflected outro on their track ‘With a Bottle of Whatever You’re Having’, which also finds Inzinga departing from his “usual bluesy, pentatonic thing” as he solos on guitar. The album was written over two years, according to Grbac: ‘For this album, we had around 20 song ideas but we didn’t write 20 songs,’ he said. ‘We know what works and what doesn’t work.’

Tracks like ‘Kids at the Park’ are a mash up of various styles, starting out softly, with a hooky riff, but it picks up the pace as it edges towards the outro, with a fanastic solo from Grbac: ‘It has heavy Strokes influences, they’re one of my faves,’ McNamara said. ‘You came up with that riff initially,’ he said, looking at Grbac, who nodded. ‘It was initially 5 minutes long. We added drums using a drum machine during COVID because Jimmy was separated from us (the rest of them are housemates).’ As Gallagher put it: ‘I love electronic music, anyway, so I was very down. Plus, it gave me a different view of the writing process.’

Typically, Inzinga writes the lyrics. ‘I’m speaking for Tom but I’d say that ‘Kids at the Park’ is about growing up after college. We never know what the lyrics are gonna be, we waited for shit to happen (laughs),’ Grbac said. McNamara nods: ‘That sort of dancey way the drums are being hit in it, that “da dum”, we simmered it down. This track was almost the album name.’

They say that moving from the Dayton, Ohio campus to the tough environment of a city has meant growing up musically, both in terms of their compositions, and as performers: ‘We’re not playing for crowds of people who’ll be drunk by the end of the set and not remember the show, anymore,’ said Grbac. Instead, the people showing up at The Dead Licks’s Chicago shows ‘care more about the music’, according to McNamara. And the band does, too.

‘It’s my fave, it’s super punk’

Other tracks, such as ‘Fly Under The Sun’ have a Soundgarden, 90’s grunge vibe spliced with punk and it turns out they are both big Chris Cornell fans: ‘Tom just played that riff one day when we had a practice,’ Grbac said. ‘It’s clean and distorted, you’ve got that “wah”. I have a phaser vibrato (pedal) thing going on. It’s my fave, it’s super punk. I feel it’s about the combination of where Tom grew up (Ohio) and getting into real life. I feel that a lot of his lyrics aren’t specific. I love the song title and I love the chorus, it’s heavy.’ I say that I do, too. Grbac continues: ‘It sounds like it’s about working hard when COVID was happening,’ he said thoughtfully. ‘But you can pin your own thing on it.’ McNamara agrees: ‘I’m a big fan of Tom’s vocals and lyrics on that song. I think he does a good job of matching his voice to what’s happening in the song.’ I say that his vocals actually sound pretty different in different tracks and they agree: ‘Was he off the cigarettes the whole time?,’ McNamara asks Grbac and they try to remember. ‘The library Tom has to chose from is really big,’ Grbac said. ‘He’s inspired by The Beatles, Radiohead, The Rolling Stones and so many other things. We were just talking about Arctic Monkeys, we love them.’ McNamara nods: ‘I was REALLY into them in 2019,’ he said enthusiastically. ‘Right when their album Tranquility Base Hotel & Casino came out.’ Grbac interjects: ‘ We all love The Strokes, Pearl Jam, The Doors and Johnny Cash but also a lot of different stuff. We saw Pearl Jam at Wrigley Fields, they played 35 songs! I love the Foo Fighters, it was terrible about Taylor.’

‘With a Bottle of Whatever You’re Having’ sounds psychedelic in places but shifts into a different gear for the tribal sounding outro: ‘Sonically, it was influenced by the Wilco song ‘Spiders (Kidsmoke)’, the way we were messing around with the drum machine, jamming that intro riff of E, B and A minor,’ McNamara said. ‘I’d never heard that song before.’ Grbac jumps in: ‘He had that riff for a while but we hadn’t put drums to it. We used the drum machine and jammed around it but that crazy beat, that’s all Jimmy.’ I say I love the song title and Gbrac laughs: ‘Me, too, I think it’s a great title. I think it’s just about hanging out and having a drink with a girl but a lot of the titles aren’t pinpointed.’

For me, ‘American Diners’ has a Springsteen feel to it, yet it turns out that they’re not fans: ‘They tell me my bass is too “notey”, McNamara laughed. ‘We love ‘Fake Plastic Trees’ (by Radiohead), the root to minor sixth like they did. You did the chorus,’ he said, looking at Grbac. ‘I did?,’ Grbac said. ‘I don’t remember! But I like that it’s singalongy!’

‘I’d bring them back to see them in their prime’

The closing track ‘Right All Along’ has an unusual intro, which sounds like a hybrid between a cat purring and a bird cawing and I ask what they used to achieve it. ‘It’s the bass delay pedal,’ McNamara explained. ‘I’m turning it up and down, that’s where that sound comes from.’ Grbac laughs: ‘He played a riff for a week straight in COVID,’ he told me. ‘Then we did it for a year!’ McNamara looks sheepish: ‘Yeah, it can be done,’ he confessed.

Their dream line up would be guitar-heavy: ‘We’d have us to open,’ Grbac said. ‘We don’t even need to be paid (laughs). We’ll have us opening for Nirvana and Led Zeppelin, I’d bring them back to see them in their prime.’ McNamara agrees: ‘Just to see John Paul Jones, John Bonham and Jimmy Page,’ he said. ‘I haven’t seen Radiohead yet live, I’d like them there, or what about The Monkees?’ Grbac has a new addition to the line up: ‘The Doors would be insane, can you even imagine?!’ They’ve had raucous moments at their own shows, too, as recounted by McNamara: ‘We were playing a show graduation weekend at Dayton and the cops broke up the show as we were covering ‘War Pigs’ by Black Sabbath!’

(Photo from left to right: Johnny, Jimmy, Tom and Jack.)