A few months after the release of their incredible new album, "In the Shadow of the Midnight Sun", I was able to get into the incredibly busy schedule of front woman Adria Stembridge to ask her a few questions. Written while currently touring the East Coast, Adria was able to give us a glimpse into the inner workings of one of Deathrock's brightest and most buzzworthy bands.
NotTheAmp: How would you describe your journey as a musician? What made you get started, and what influenced you on the path you and Tears for the Dying are currently on?
Adria Stembridge: When I was just 3 years old I discovered that one of my relatives was a famous Nashville musician. We used to listen to a hit song that he played on (Jolene by Dolly Parton) whenever it came on AM radio in the early/mid '70s. My mom was an organist at her church but she stopped playing when she had the family. A couple of older brothers still play piano and guitar.
In middle school I took an introduction to the guitar class, but didn't pick up the instrument again till I was in my early twenties. Some friends and I used to hang out in downtown Athens and we wondered what it would be like to start a punk band. That none of us really knew how to play made it all the more appealing.
A few years later I had figured out barre chords and was starting to write my own songs. One of my bandmates asked it if I knew who Bauhaus was, because the riffs that I wrote reminded him of that band. He was surprised when I told him that I did not.
He invited me to his apartment one night where we had a large bottle of wine and we listened to albums. He introduced me to The Plasmatics, 45 grave, and most importantly, Christian Death’s Only Theater of Pain.
Without a shadow of doubt, my life and musical journey was forever changed that night.
NTA: What was it that attracted you to the goth subculture?
AS: Initially it was the purely the music, which I found to be cathartic, relaxing, and sometimes emotionally disturbing.
I was an egg until my early twenties when I started a gradual coming out process in the early '90s. Goth afforded me the ability to experiment with clothes and makeup, when I went with friends to Atlanta to the Nocturnia Goth night, I found communion, I found refuge. I was accepted for who I was without judgment.
NTA: Of all the genres under the goth umbrella, what inspired you to make deathrock in particular?
AS: Coming from the punk scene, my musical creativities gravitated towards darker chord progressions and themes. I was playing with chorus pedals in the punk band before I really knew what I was doing musically. Deathrock sort of fell into place.
NTA: With all the labels and subgenres out there, it can be a bit overwhelming and confusing. How would you describe your band to someone that has not heard Tears for the Dying before?
AS: That's an interesting question. I was diagnosed with autism spectrum disorder and ADHD quite some time ago. I find that I have this strange combination of abilities to both focus intently on certain ideas/motifs while being simultaneously driven to regularly switch things up.
That is why you may hear a fairly broad range of subgenres across our catalog. All of it is dark but some of it is much heavier and faster, some of it is a little more accessible. Almost all of it fits under the goth umbrella, to varying degrees. I've never been one to write a whole album of songs that are sonically similar to each other.
How the music is ultimately categorized is of less importance to me than the inspiration and work that goes into creating it.
NTA: "In the Shadow of the Midnight Sun" has been out for a while now, and I am still blown away by the song "Bloat". The song structure is really unlike anything I have heard in the genre, with the way it shifts from mid-tempo to a double time punk shuffle, and feels just all over the place in general. It is like a more progressive rock kind of take to goth music, and I love it! What was it that influenced the way you as a band structured the song?
AS: It might be a surprise to learn that I am not a huge fan of progressive rock music. It gets a bit long-winded, and obtuse for my ears. My father was a classical music connoisseur and introduced me to all the greats, Beethoven, Bach, and Mozart. Over time I discovered additional composers such as Henryk Górecki and Dmitri Shostakovich.
In a very loose sense, my appreciation of classical music probably went into the songwriting process of Bloat.
Also, in the mid '80s, I was introduced to rap and hip hop music through a local radio station. That was my first real deep dive with alternative music. I've loved 808 drum machines, synthesizers and like ever since and have used these on other songs such as Mortuary.
We've increasingly utilized click tracks and backtracks In the past couple of years, so this affords us the ability to use different instrumentation such as mixing bass guitar and synthbass, and at again the 808 drum voicing you hear in the Bloat’s main bridge.
The guitar licks in the forementioned bridge were partly inspired from Зола - земля, a 2020 release from the Ukrainian band Morwan. That record still slaps hard.
I've also been listening to quite a lot of Japanese pop and hyperwave. The song structures of many top songs such as "Yoru ni Kakeru" by YOASOBI are somewhat complex and ever-changing. I've grown to really appreciate that style of writing. My first dabbling with this style might be our song Flow off of Epitaph.
Conversely, I really love incredibly short, intense songs, such as those sometimes heard from Melt Banana.
NTA: Some of the subject matter in "In the Shadow of the Midnight Sun" is pretty heavy emotionally and speaks to a lot of struggles with mental health. You are very open with the things you deal with, and your lyrics showcase that vulnerability so beautifully and bravely. What is the one message you would like your audience to take from your lyrics? And I ask this as someone who battles their own demons daily.
AS: There is hope. As fucked up as the world is today, there is hope. Life ultimately wins over death, it has throughout the millennia. Whether it be exiting a painful relationship, moving to a new city, losing a family for being trans, they were always be new beginnings and new opportunities and friends.
2021-22 were personally very challenging.. I had a life-threatening health issue happen in 21 at the same time as ending a several year long relationship. As a result of the health issue, I was pulled away from many of the coping strategies that I might have ordinarily used such as roller skating and bike riding. I wasn't sure I was going to survive all of it.
Around this time I decided to start studying Japanese as a way to help take my mind off of everything that was seemingly falling apart around me. This is why a couple of the tracks on the new record are written in Japanese as a nod to that effort. Our song Ikinokotta is specifically about overcoming pretty bad mental health situations and growing to become a better person on the other side.
Ultimately, I persevered. Every struggle is our own, but it helps me to put things into context sometimes. People have endured far worse such as those currently in Gaza for example.
The past few years have been an era of change in my life. I've moved on from old friends and made new ones; I've grown more comfortable with accepting change. I've grown more assertive, and speaking up for myself when it's important to do so.
Tears is a gift. It's allow me to help process through lyric and song, a life of relative sadness and disconnection from things that I've longed for such as an accepting family. It's been a blessing to hear stories of how our music has helped other people through tough times.
I feel it's incredibly important to be visible. Especially as an elder goth, and elder trans femme, to continue writing music and being visible and being present. I didn't have anybody like me to look towards when I was younger.
NTA: Tears for the Dying are about to embark on tour! What is your favorite tour story? What cities have the best crowds/are the most fun to play?
AS: As I write this, we are in the middle of our East Coast tour. It’s been super fun and we've been enjoying every moment of it.
Every city has been very warm and receptive to us. You kind of expect people to be into this kind of music in big cities like New York and Baltimore. I was slightly taken back of how vocal the crowds were in Richmond and Durham. The cheers were incredibly loud!! The Pinhook in Durham was probably my favorite night so far, but it's really hard to choose!
I guess we've been somewhat lucky that we haven't had a ton of crazy stuff on our tours so far.
Back in 2022 we went on a southeast tour. Our former drummer Mick had just recently joined the band, and this was still kind of on the tail end of the worst of the pandemic. A club in Nashville sent out a note that they needed everyone to have current vaccinations. Mick could not find his vaccination card, and without us knowing got his COVID shot the day we left on tour. When we got to the club, they did not ask for proof of vaccination, they did not seem to actually care either way weirdly. Mick played the set that night feeling extremely sick from the usual reaction that many of us get. We all felt so bad for him!
NTA: After returning from tour, does Tears for the Dying have any plans immediately after?
AS: We have a few dates set up closer to home in July and August, and we are scheduled to perform at the second annual Southern Gothic festival around Halloween here in Athens.
We are working on another Florida run towards November or December after hurricane season.
We've had a lot of requests to tour the West Coast so we are starting to put together some plans to that end. We'd also very much like to go to Japan and or Europe. We have something on tap for Europe next year, however Japan can be a little hard to get to as a foreign band. We're certainly going to try!
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