June 15th, 2022
Last week, I started the first group chat interview with a band called Dopamine. They are a new band, thus far they have released Sorry, their first single, and are set to release the next one, Self Made, this Friday. Over about 5 days I asked the band some simple, some in depth, and some completely random questions, and now I've compiled those questions and answers here. (Note: Not literally every word will appear from the dm. Certain introductory things, scheduling, etc, were removed, but basically all questions and answers are left untouched and in their original order).
I was able to get Levi, JD, and Gypsy Hawk for the interview.
Enjoy.
Names are labelled, but for Added Clarity
Everything I Said is In Purple
Levi is in Red, and underlined
Gypsy Hawk is in Blue, and is bolded
JD is in Green, and is in Italics
________________________________________________________________________________
TYLER: So just to make sure I have it right, Levi, you are vocals of course, Gypsy Hawk and JD are guitars, and then presumably the other two members are bass and drums?
LEVI: Ben on drums Lewis on Bass :)
TYLER: I will ask one question now, how and when did you meet/decide to form dopamine?
LEVI: We met in college, me and JD were in a band together for our exam and after the exam we met Lewis and I think he was in a band with Gypsy at that point, and we just kinda fused them together, & Gypsy brought along Ben but i dunno how they know eachother
TYLER: Okay, so are you guys studying music for the most part then? Or different stuff?
JD: We were all in the same course I believe? Some of us dropped out however
LEVI: Me and Lewis are going into the HNC in September (Note: For those who are unaware, HNC means Higher National Certificate. I assumed it was a specific school, and asked them if they were attending Huddersfield New College in Huddersfield, England. Yes, I am dumb)
GYPSYHAWK: I’m on the same course as JD and as for how me and Ben met we were in many bands together previously
TYLER: Awesome! how did you decide what type of music you wanted to make, and what band do you think most influences the sound of dopamine?
TYLER: And while there are bands that you actively sound similar to, are there any bands/artists that you are inspired by that people wouldnt hear unless you told them?
GYPSYHAWK: Well personally I’m inspired a lot by old 70s and 80s rock a lot of zeppelin, queen, Tom petty, Pink Floyd, Clapton, motley crue. But I’m a huge blues fan, Bb king, Gary moore, Peter green
LEVI: This is where you see all the different parts of the band because me and Gypsy’s influences are so polar opposite haha
TYLER: 😂 yep
LEVI: But it’s kind of cool, I was inspired by black veil brides majorly my entire teenage life and they are what made me want to do music and then I found palaye and Yungblud in 2018/2019 and they definitely have a massive influence over me & the type of artist I want to be. It was actually the way Yungblud interacts with his fans that made me like him as well tbh, I started listening to him after that
LEVI: And then there’s like, my chemical romance, nirvana, David Bowie all artists I grew up loving& more recently Crawlers have been a good influence for me!
TYLER: Okay, thats interesting, because firstly, people might, but probably wouldn't know about Gypsy's 70's and 80's rock influences, which adds a whole other layer to it, and it shows that you guys might already have an idea of how you want to run the band outside of the music, like with fan interaction for example. I mean you can see that like, of course Yungblud, you guys are kind and interact actively with fans, case in point: you're here doing this interview
LEVI: I honestly think public interaction is just as important as the music, idk if the others will agree with me but i think it’s awesome seeing artists interact with their listeners
GYPSYHAWK: Yeah I totally agree
TYLER:So do I for that matter. Okay, for something random: Favourite Ice Cream flavor, and do you prefer cone, or bowl and spoon?
GYPSYHAWK: I’m lactose intolerant. But Caramel
LEVI: Mint choc chip in a bowl. But chocolate in a cone. (I have the palette of a child)
TYLER: Thats interesting though! Does it just taste weird if you have mint chocolate chip in a cone?
TYLER (To GYPSYHAWK): My question then would be for you, is it that you eat lactose free ice cream, and does eating regular ice cream = figurative death, or is it more just slightly uncomfortable?
GYPSYHAWK: I eat regular ice cream I just later regret it 😅
LEVI:😂😂The chocolate chips and the cone don’t hit well together 😪
TYLER: I can understand that. If Dopamine was going to have a color scheme, say 1-3 colors, what would they be and why?
GYPSYHAWK: I’ll let levi answer that one haha
LEVI: 😂😂Probably red black but I’m so biased because it’s my favourite combination, Purple and black is also a good one
Tyler: 😂 well black kind of goes with everything, and Purple's my favorite color, but red and black probably is one of the best looking color combos to me. Also, where have you been recording stuff so far? And have you sent anything off to labels/do you plan to?
LEVI: Ahh these are the good questions
GYPSYHAWK: We record with open eyes productions
TYLER: Okay, I think I've seen their profile before....
LEVI: No discussion about labels atm, we’re really writing releasing And rehearsing enough for the gig season coming up
TYLER: Makes sense, shows are an essential part of it. Do you have a dream label though, or perhaps a nightmare one (by nightmare I mean never would sign under any circumstances).?
LEVI: Sumerian Records are without a doubt my dream label
TYLER: no suprise there, it would be a good fit I think.
LEVI: Most of my favourite bands are with them it’d be cool to get closer to the opportunity to working with some of the same people, I honestly do think we’d fit in there so well. Nightmare record I’ve never really thought of, record labels can be a whole thing😂
GYPSYHAWK: My dream label is Warner or universal
TYLER: Would you want to be on the main label itself, or perhaps something like fueled by ramen (all time low, grandson, waterparks), or DCD2 (fall out boy, the academy is..., nothing,nowhere) for warner, or one of the universal subsidiaries like Island records?
GYPSYHAWK: Main label for sure
LEVI: I actually would prefer the more independent labels under the main labels. So much more artistic freedom
TYLER: True.... I have a random one: Pineapple on Pizza, yes or no?
GYPSYHAWK: There is nothing I won’t eat so sure
JD: Absolutely not
LEVI: Yes, 100% yes. It's not my go to but it's still so good
TYLER: Agreed
GYSPYHAWK: Also to add to the questions about influence country is also a huge influence of mine
TYLER: (To GYPSYHAWK) Okay, thats interesting, any country artists in particular?
TYLER: Heres a question: How do you guys write songs? For example, Bring Me The Horizon often writes the demo of the music then starts writing lyrics, Yungblud starts by writing vocal melodies, structures the lyrics to them, then writes the music around that....In your case, where do you guys start when writing new songs, where do you go from there, and how do you decide that a song is definitely a good one, or that it might need to be scrapped?
JD: I feel like the majority of our songs have been written in different ways, but some times jack comes in with a cool guitar riff and we work from that or Levi will have written lyrics to a rough chord structure and we take it from there. One thing that’s remained consistent however is when we go to record the songs we always end up tweaking them and even come up with leads on the day, like our next release, I came up with the lead guitar basically on the spot
GYPSYHAWK: Yeah I agree with JD we basically bounce ideas off each other and songs come together. And as an answer to your question to me I’d say probably people like Chris Stapleton Luke combs zac brown band
LEVI: I agree with them both about the writing process, we tend to write on the spot as soon as someone has an idea rather than forcing ourselves to write. We tried that once, It didn’t go well
TYLER: were the songs just not good? or....
JD: We just got writers block and everything felt forced and unnatural
GYPSYHAWK: Yeah exactly that
TYLER: okay, yeah, thats makes sense. So then are sorry and self-made the first two singles because they are the first two you finished wiriting, or...?
GYPSYHAWK: Yeah we kinda record as we write so yeah they are
TYLER: but I assume you guys must have a couple more that are far along enough that you can play them live?
GYPSYHAWK: Yeah definitely
LEVI: We keep writing over the process of recording other tracks so we’ve got a decent amount behind us. Like self made was written whilst we were going through the recording of Sorry
TYLER: I have one last question for Levi then I think I've got everything. I want to also thank you guys so much for doing this.
LEVI: Our pleasure !! Ask away :)
TYLER: the question is about self made. Obviously the basic meaning and inspiration behind the song is known, but is there any specific thing, or moment, that brought the song to life, and is there anything else at all you want people to know about the song?
LEVI: Okay doke
I am a firm believer in beauty is the eye of the beholder, I wanted to deliver a song that everyone could relate to for any personal reason they may have despite the song having specific meaning to me. At the very roots of it, it IS for the my space in the trans community because that’s the influence I had when writing the lyrics but I really wanted to use this song to create a space that brings people together no matter their identity, so overall self made is a song of self acceptance and appreciation, for everyone out there that feels looked down on for whatever reason and encourages them to bypass that, to be unapologetically themselves and embrace every part of that, everywhere you go there’s going to be someone that disagrees with or dislikes you for whatever reason, even stupid ones, but their opinions are obsolete, as long as you aren’t harming anyone or yourself the only thing that really matter is that you are happy and enjoying your life and self made is a reminder of that.
Sorry it’s a long one😎👌
TYLER: no, its perfect, thank you
LEVI:No problem !!
GYPSYHAWK: Well said
LEVI: 😂😂
END OF INTERVIEW
Dopamine is releasing "Self Made" on Friday, go give it a stream or two hundred when it drops.
Thanks,
Tyler.
You can find all of Dopamine's links here: https://linktr.ee/Dopamine.Band
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