“I feel really great about this album coming out now because it reminds us all of our common humanity, just what we all bond over in life,” says vocalist Dave Smalley of Don’t Sleep’s latest release, Turn the Tide, out September 4 on Mission Two Entertainment.
“Because a lot of times, whether it’s stories, or music, or whatever else, movies, what kind of bonds this human family together is art. I think this will be one of those albums people can really believe in.”
And people need something to believe in during these hard times. Like the rest of us, Smalley, who’s been involved in the hardcore and punk scenes since the early ’80s with bands like DYS, Dag Nasty, and Down By Law, and more recently, Don’t Sleep and Dave Smalley & the Bandoleros, is feeling cooped up and missing going to shows and playing out.
“I miss going to concerts; I’ll tell you that,” he says. “As a fan and a player. I miss both sides of it. I’ve been in this perpetual thing of weirdness since March, no touring and no playing. It’s a minor complaint because there are people who’ve gotten really sick or who have even died from COVID, so my complaining is not meant to be even in the same conversation as that. But it has been weird.”
Turn the Tide marks the second release Smalley has put out since we’ve all been affected by shutdowns and disruptions amid the pandemic. In April, with the Bandoleros, he released the Ignited EP. And in the works were tours with the Bandoleros, DYS, Down By Law, and of course in support of the upcoming Don’t Sleep album, but all have been canceled.
And the live experience is something Smalley lives for, laying it all out there every show.
“I love performing for crowds and connecting with crowds and inspiring crowds,” he says. “Just putting my arm around sweaty people and screaming in a microphone together. I don’t know what’ll happen to my way of performing. I’m very well-known for grabbing people by the shoulders and screaming into the microphone with them. That’s a beautiful part of the hardcore expression. That physical connectivity.”
Smalley wonders when he can go back to that way of performing and when we can all get back to going to crammed shows, but as is his wont, he remains positive.
“I hope it’ll be able to come back,” he says. “I’m sure it will. We’re humans; we get through stuff. We do.”
In any case, as for this album and all Don’t Sleep stand for, the vocalist asserts: “This whole group is like a call to arms,” adding, “It’s got a certain chemistry to it that is very unique.” He hopes this album “will make people feel good and remember why we love music and remember why we love hardcore.”
The album truly is delightful, teeming with “hard, fast ragers,” as Smalley says, while also incorporating some other, unexpected elements with songs like the reggaefied “The Wreckage” and the acoustic closer “December.”
About how extremely powerful the songs are both musically and lyrically, Smalley explains: “I think really there’s two things about hardcore that have made I think people like you or me, have helped shape us, which obviously the music—the music is fast and powerful. And it feels good by the way to be back in a hardcore band. I gotta tell you, it feels great. But the other side of the coin is the lyrics. This isn’t—and I love the Carpenters—but this isn’t a Carpenters love song genre. This is where there’s a lot of passion and pain and determination and overcoming odds. Those are things that are part of hardcore.”
“You can’t divorce the lyrics from the music in hardcore,” he concludes.
Pick up a copy here.
