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Lyrics, style and unorthodox vocal delivery are the very heart of The Dean Project. The outer shell of The Project is a veil of traditional folk elements combined with the philosophies of Punk and Rock n Roll. Said plainly, The Dean Project is just “Two Dudes and A Nutcracker Making Independent Folk Tunes In Canada.” wpid-picsart_1414708327421.png

The universe has a funny way of aligning us with the people that we are supposed to have in our lives.  Shooting the “All Day” music video was an example of this cosmic occurrence.  If you recall from a story posted a couple weeks ago, I was reluctant to enter the Warped Tour Battle Of The Bands in 2011. However, it was through that contest that we met up with Braden Barrie (SayWeCanFly) and his group of talented and passionate friends. They were high school kids with big dreams and wild ideas. Something I could  easily relate to. But there was something else. These were the only dudes, from my perspective, who were enjoying The Dean Project the way it was meant to be enjoyed. In a group, laughing and shouting the lyrics. Saying things like “Who the fuck are these assholes?” and “Are they the dean project early 01fucking serious?”

When we entered the contest, for some reason, we dominated in pure votes. Their online voting system was very simple at the time. If you voted for a band, they would vote for you in return. So if you were the band that did the most networking, by default you’d rank highly regardless of the quality of your music. For two straight years we were #1 in Toronto and were never chosen to play. The second year we entered, there was an Acoustic Tent option. And you guessed it, we won and were not chosen to play. In fact, they removed the Acoustic Tent from all Canadian dates that year.

I must reiterate that I did not wish to be chosen. This was a big joke to me. To be chosen is a ridiculous concept to me. This was merely a new crowd of morons to fuck with. That’s all. Then this kid shows up on the charts. He starts to climb with a bullet.  Dean hated him instantly and openly. He sounded lovely. So much more lovely than The Dean Project. We set out to squash him but ended up really liking and respecting him. His name was Braden and his act SayWeCanFly was already starting to melt hearts all over the internet.

From the outside looking in, you’d never expect that two polarizing acts would find so much in common. One is making accessible music and targeting a specific group of people while the other is satirizing all the concepts that the first act is built upon. It seems to me like it’s a recipe for a feud, not a friendship. However, The Dean Project and SayWeCanFly hit it off instantly. A shared sense of humor and a common love for music and comedy can really close a generation gap and open the lines for a wicked connection. Our drive to create content and connect with an audience is what bonded us. We loved the lifestyle that came along with being an indie musician. We loved the road and all the challenges that came along with it. So, it was only natural that I would end up meeting the people that recorded his first demo and shot his first video. They were buddies of his and shared a similar creative passion. Dean and I didn’t grow up in Ontario, so our resources and budget were limited and these guys were willing to work for free. It kinda just…happened. Organically.

Our first music video was for our song  “All Day”. A gritty little number I crudely recorded for our 2012 Big Clouds EP. It was shot on location in Oshawa with our friend Kriztee Bryan starring as Munchie’s love interest.  Braden’s friend Micah directed the video.  I was very happy with his work. The color pallet was sharp. The cuts were clean and my story was told. It felt good that I found someone passionate and eager to help direct this. I would rather work with smart students of the game over industry pros any day of the week. It’s a very stimulating and enjoyable experience when all the fire is still there. When the realities of business haven’t set it yet. Before politics enter into the decision making process. For me, I try to stay in that area. For most people, it’s a stepping stone to get chosen for a job. You don’t need to think like that. You can DO. You can STAND. You’re allowed to do your thing. Isn’t that exciting?!

WATCH ALL DAY HERE –

Thanks again everyone,

Have the best weekend,

Dan

 

 

Dean had no patience. He enjoyed rushing every idea that came to his head. This personality trait of his, in hindsight, is the ingredient that pushed us out the door and into the bars and halls where we’d start to make our name. I liked the idea of writing songs, however, Dean leaned towards our improvisational roots. This difference between us was the catalyst that set the wheels in motion. For example, Dean signed us up for the 2011 Online Warped Tour Battle of the Bands without consulting me.dan and dean 001 I emerged from my bedroom one morning to the news that we were officially signed up for this ridiculous contest. At the time, I was a little annoyed because we had no songs or image. This left me with one option. Create them.

For the first time ever, we now found ourselves writing songs together. This proved to be a difficult undertaking because poor Deano couldn’t understand simple song structure. “Come in on 4” I’d say before starting the song. When 4 came, Dean didn’t. So, it hit me. This music theory stuff isn’t important to The Dean Project. Rhythm, tone quality and time signatures are all just suggestions. We were never out to compete with other bands. We weren’t interested in pissing contests. They get you nowhere and take all the fun from performing. Our focus was to just be The Dean Project. Little did I know, this Warped Tour thing would help solidify our web presence as an official act. However, In my mind, it was all satire. A commentary on how indie and commercial music are all built around false virtues. Performance art. But to those unhip, close-minded consumers of our work, we were barely talented kids just struggling to put songs together. It was a fine line to walk, especially for an unestablished act. We simply tried to Blur the lines between art, music, comedy and life.

We knew people wouldn’t understand what they were seeing or hearing. We knew some people would think of us as “wannabes”,  “outcasts” or just plain bad. It would be up to us to give whoever was at that particular bar, on that particular night, a show and make them feel something. I was always a believer that people don’t buy songs. They buy feelings. Even if the songs were regarded as garbage. If we managed to make you feel something or react in any way, we would call it a success. If we inspired dialog, commentary, jokes or banter it meant more to me than selling T shirts or growing my social profile. We were the growling folk dudes with a nutcracker. Who wasn’t talking?

 

 

 

 

When I got into music in junior high, my natural inclination was to gravitate to the drums. My other friends had picked up playing the stringed rock instruments, so it was really my only natural choice. I still remember coming home from school in grade eight and to my delight my parents had purchased and laid out all over the kitchen, my very first drum kit. It was a bottom on the barrel kit with no bells or whistles, however, it dean 005would be more than enough for me. I played that kit every night after school with my friends Phil, Paul and Alex on bass and guitar. I had no formal training, so these jams would be my lessons and Green Day would be my teacher. We called ourselves Shiny Pencil and recorded a track list of covers straight to tape . We had the audacity to sell those tapes to the other kids at school. We were in fact, the only “band” in our grade and immediately started to gain a little bit of attention. We didn’t know what to do with the attention. Shit, we weren’t even musicians at this point. But, that’s not where this story is going. Years later, when I was actually playing shows in serious high-school rock bands, I sold that first drum kit of mine to Dean.

Dean had no idea what to do with the drums. He didn’t understand what he was hearing, I guess. He just hit everything at random and would tell me that he learned how to play “Voodoo” by Godsmack.  I told him that that was not “Voodoo”. So, I picked up a guitar to demonstrate rhythm, and The Dean Project was born.

My first guitar was a blue Telecaster. And boy, was it ever a piece of shit. I scraped all the paint off with a Loonie and had the ugliest Zebra striped strap. I would head over to Dean’s Mom’s house, climb down to the basement where the now junk drums lay with this guitar and we create our brand of noise pollution. I remember Dean had this old boom box that had a record function. He suggested we record an album. I laughed, of course. “What album? What songs? What band? Jesus Christ, Okay, hit record.”

We recorded whatever came to mind at the time. The songs I remember most were “Big House on Wheels” and a horrendous version of “In Da Club”. Embarrassing as it was, I loved it. I couldn’t sing or play. Dean couldn’t sing or play. But, I guess that`s what made me love it so much. There was always an energy between Dean and I. We loved music. But more than that, we loved playing with people perception of us. We shared a common love for what I called art and he called work. “Work” is an old carnie term for swindle or lie. And I guess that we did a lot of work, but it was never to take money from people. It was never a bait and switch type situation because we weren’t, and never wanted to be, business people. So, I would tell him that it’s not work if it’s purely to tell a story and bend people’s perceptions. Everything we gave, was 100% genuine because of how much we loved the lifestyle, the culture and everything that goes along with being in an indie band.  Sure, we had gimmicks and merch. But, seldom were we seen tending to our “inventory” or “profit margin”. No, we were chillin’, smokin’, talking with people. It was the human aspect, though through workers eyes, that kept us glued to the lifestyle.

If it’s okay with you guys, I’d like to share some of my favorite Dean stories and pictures on this page. Some stories from before The Project started but mostly I wish to chronicle The Tales of The Dean Project.

dean 05The Dean Project operated from two locations. Charlottetown, PEI and Toronto, Ontario. I had moved to Toronto from Charlottetown in 2008 and Dean would bounce between the two cities until 2013, when the you-know-what happened. This would prove to be a very demanding set-up for any writing and touring creative entity. Especially one that had a commitment to playing the drums on a 3-foot-tall plastic nutcracker. However, we weren’t going to let anything stand between us and the grimy stages and dive bars from all over this great nation. In retrospect, all the effort we put into playing for no pay was what gave us that sense of a pay-off. Like, “We fucking did it. They said we couldn’t but we did!”. Even playing a local open mic was a big deal to us, because it always felt like getting-the-band-back-together. It always had that spark. We were ALWAYS excited. Every show would keep us awake, talking and smoking on the balcony until the sun came up. Those talks are what we valued most. It’s where to devised our schemes. It’s where we could be 100% ourselves without fear of outside infiltration. We liked to keep our philosophies to ourselves. We had a Dean Project way. That way would not have happen without those frequent and cherished balcony chats.

The point of this post is to come clean. Because during our “run” that was NEVER the story. The truth was the plague. If anyone knew anything real, the mystique would have be blown. We always had an angle. Always. When Dean would inevitably move back to PEI what could we say? Surely the truth would be too boring. So, insert angle here.

I want to tell you some of my favorite truth-bends here. [Comment if you remember/fell for them. Also, I forget most of them, so feel free to ask about anything specific if it pops up]

Of course when Dean went home, I kept all the live bookings and would tell audiences he broke his leg or that he was in drug rehab. His leg was always okay. He was just at home, being lazy. The real Dean wouldn’t touch a drug, even a Tylenol, if you paid him. (I sort of felt bad for the people that sent him get-well cards.) There was another time I told people he left to learn the ancient craft of the luchadore. That one was less believable and in retrospect I’m surprised no one called us out.

Typically, I’m a very open and honest kinda guy who preaches the value of those morals. Dean… was not. What we did together was for the art. What we did together was for a mutual love of music and performance. I think the stark differences in our personalities is what helped finish the illusion we were out to create.

That illusion may be a thing of the past. But the name The Dean Project can live forever. It’s my job to ensure that it does. Hopefully telling these stories will keep Dean’s spirit present during this rocky portion of the journey.

Thanks, guys. Have a great weekend.

Dan