Dearly Departed is a midwest active rock/metalcore band who aims to release songs all the way from melodic hard rock with catchy vocal melodies that’ll get stuck in your head to crushing metalcore with intense story and internal conflict that’s still appealing to the average listener.

Please list all of your band members and their roles in the band.

Jesse Pabody - Vocals

Jordan Rasmussen - Drums

Deven Jason - Guitar

Alex Nikolas - Guitar

Hunter Bring - Bass

For starters, what bands were you guys a part of prior to Dearly Departed? How long has the band been around?

Dearly Departed was actually the very first professional band Deven, Jesse, and Jordan had been a part of. It started off as a hobby/passion project in 2018 and grew into something much more the following year!

Guitarist Alex Nikolas was originally a part of Sleep Signals (active rock) before joining MAUL (Midwest death and Dearly Departed.

Bassist Hunter Bring was a part of a pop punk band called “Say The Word” which would eventually become Brooklane.

What’s the origin of that name and have you changed the band’s name before?

Coming up with band names was AWFUL for us. I honestly think we had hundreds tossed around but no one could agree on one. I still remember Jesse saying “Fuck it. Dearly Departed” and we went with it. It checked the boxes for us: has meaning, it’s a common phrase so it’s memorable by default, and it’s not the cliche ‘Verb the Noun’ naming scheme. We still weren’t t sold on it for the first year or so, but my advice was always “it’s up to us to MAKE the name cool. For example: who the hell would name their band after a vegetable (Korn) and think it’s cool right away”. But we love it now!

Who writes your songs? What are the main themes or topics for most of your songs and do you think these topics will change over time?

We all play a big part in the writing process but I’m the primary “composer” if you will. I’ll record all the instruments of a song on my own and the band will take the reigns afterwards and build upon/improve it from there. With the exception of vocals. Jesse writes all his own lyrics and melodies with little help. It’s pretty great! 

With regard to themes, it’s changed between each record. Extinction covers a lot of mental health related topics such as suicide, loss, internal conflicts etc; but from the angle of making the effort to conquer and overcome. Even in our darkest songs, like Psychopathic for example, it’s about BEATING the issue and not just suffering.

The new record, Heartless, is all about love, loss, and heartache. I constantly joke that it’s a breakup album. It was written during a very tough time for us, I think multiple members had gone through some heart crushing stuff over the pandemic so it became the concept to the whole record. Heartless actually plays as a story and the tracks are ordered in a way to make it almost movie like. Like one big 30 minute song — lyrically anyways.

What bands are currently inspiring the music that you’re making?

Our inspiration makes no sense -laughs-. I definitely look up to bands like Periphery for their tones and their DIY/business mindset. And then Architects, Beartooth, Breaking Benjamin, or Coheed and Cambria for the songwriting craft and live show energy. But Jesse Jordan and I don’t listen to music very much. It’s all podcasts or educational stuff that’ll be in our headphones like 95% of the time.

Was there a particular band/artist or concert that inspired you to start a band?

For Jesse and I it was Metallica. The live videos Metallica did in Moscow ‘91 and Seattle ‘89 inspired us to want to do exactly what they were doing instantly. We’ve been friends a LONG time so I remember wanting to start a band when we’d play Guitar Hero Metallica together as kids.

What do you do to prepare for a show? Any flexing, exercises, ect …

We’ll talk about a game plan for our performance while going for a walk or doing stretches back stage. We also might brainstorm ideas for content or crowd interaction type stuff. We also value sobriety in preparation for a show. It’s usually energy drinks and water before we go on. 

What has been the biggest highlight of the band’s career so far?

There’s definitely a handful of things that have been awesome! Performing a concert in which our position on the bill was right before Beartooth was EPIC. The crowd was awesome for that show. Being in-studio for a clear channel radio interview was pretty cool! Being on the cover of a magazine was also a kickass first. Recording with a radio rock producer in a massive four million dollar studio was pretty incredible. Signing with a quality record label that cares was a big feat for us. It’s all been pretty surreal! 

If you could tour with any bands, past or present, who would they be and why?

I really don't know who we’d want to tour with. I guess it would come down to who would make a tour the most comfortable for us as we've never been on a tour in the first place — always been weekend warriors doing small runs. 

I feel that would have more of an impact on me rather than just playing with a band I really like.

Is there anything else you would like to add?

Yes! We just dropped our new record ‘HEARTLESS’ on all platforms via DI Records! There’s physical copies and brand new merch available on our website at www.dearlydepartedband.com