Guiltmaker:
The Dilemmas of Change
Words: Mike Delach

REAX: Can I bring up something that might make you a bit uncomfortable talking about? Specifically, your involvement in Reversal of Man and Combatwoundedveteran, as well as Shaun and John's old band Early Grace ...
DAN RADDE: Sure, let's get uncomfortable.

REAX: Ok ... let's go ... Guiltmaker seems to be the collective product of a decade of evolving musical tastes and influences. I can still hear minute traces of that old hardcore influence within the new recording, but it mostly takes a back seat to a more polished, melodic soundtrack. That being said, how do you think your past involvement in the DIY hardcore scene has influenced the way you play music today?
DR: Good question, and I think the answer is two-fold. I think all of us having a DIY/hardcore/punk upbringing helps in a lot of ways. First, our perspective - we're not confused about who we are as musicians and we're not unrealistic about where we want to go with this band. Secondly, I think having been a part of the DIY scene affects our approach to songwriting. We actually listen to and enjoy music. It strikes a nerve within us; so much so that we need to have this creative outlet.  

Conversely, looking back at DIY music versus what we're trying to accomplish today I see that I probably could have learned a little more about playing guitar, writing music and singing before getting on a stage. Back then, you started a band because you had some shit to say, not because you were an amazing player. I feel that over the years I've grown into my playing abilities. So, looking back at my life as a DIY/self-taught  "musician," I kinda put the cart before the horse.

REAX: Do you think that the niche popularity of your old hardcore band(s) lends a hand in winning over old fans whose taste in music has also evolved over the past ten years?
DR: Honestly, not that often. We see that locally because, thankfully, we are surrounded by a fantastic group of people who have been involved in the same music scene for 15-plus years now, and have either grown up with us or are in the same boat as musicians. Musically, Guiltmaker is so far removed from our old bands that we don't see a whole lot of crossover audience. People do check us out because of those past associations but I think it's more of, "I wonder what those guys are up to?" - more so than building a fan-base.  

REAX: Guiltmaker tends to stick out from the KoD roster because you guys sound so different than the majority of the other bands on the label. Do you feel like this is, or could be, a disadvantage when it comes to straying so far from the Kiss of Death "sound?"
DR: Honestly, on our first EP we were a little worried about that but were pleasantly surprised when we received emails for kids who checked us out because of the label itself. So, in a way it kind of paid off sticking out from the rest of the bands on the label because we were noticed by people who normally wouldn't check us out. But yeah, us and Light Yourself on Fire -  we're sort of the odd men out in terms of the KoD sound. Bryon was always so rad to us and willing to put in the effort, as long as we did. I think that's what we appreciate so much about him - that his approach is very realistic. Looking now at how his label has grown, we're finding that he's doing more diverse bands and drawing a more diverse audience. We love and appreciate Bryon's approach to his label and how he supports Tampa bands. After going back and forth with what to do with Dilemmas, we ultimately decided to approach KoD again because we knew if there was any "disadvantage" in going with KoD, it would only be the result of our own lack of effort.  

REAX: Dilemmas has taken quite a while to come together, considering that you guys started writing and recording it not too long after your first release, the Driven By Arms EP. That was over three years ago. Seriously, why the wait?
DR: You know ... I could give you a lot of reasons why, but it's mostly because we're indecisive and sometimes lazy. We did run into quite a few snags after recording the album, though. To give you a little history - we recorded the album in spring of '07 at Glow in the Dark studios in Atlanta with our great friend Jeremy Griffith. We couldn't afford to take a couple weeks off work to record and tour that year so we commuted back and forth to Altanta over the weekends for five or six weeks. After that, we toured for ten days during the summer when gas was 4.00/gallon and came home extremely broke. We couldn't afford to master Dilemmas for a while, so we just sat on it. We recovered that following spring and finally finished it. For a while we talked about releasing the album ourselves, but honestly we were so surprised with the way it came out we didn't know what to do with it. We knew we'd drop the ball on distro, so we chose not to, so we sat on it until the fall of '08 when we started talking to Bryon from Kiss of Death. We've had a couple loose ends to tie up, but now it's finally out to press.

REAX: How did you eventually find your way to Jeremy and Glow in the Dark?
DR: I played in Combat with Jason Hamacher from the DC band Frodus. About four or five years ago, he was playing in Decahedron and touring with Moments in Grace from St. Augustine. A couple years pass and I mention that we were looking for someone new to record with. Jason liked our EP and knew our sound and ultimately suggested that we record with Jeremy Griffith from MIG. At the time he was recording out of his house in St. Augustine. We chatted a few times online and I sent him some demo recordings of songs from the album. Everything was cool for a while and then we sort of lost touch. Finally, when we were ready to go into the studio I contacted him to see if he was still interested. Turns out, he had moved to Atlanta and hooked up with Matt Goldman at Glow in the Dark Studios. Jeremy called me back and honestly, we took a chance because we didn't know this guy at all. But, it ended up that we were great friends instantly and have been ever since. He's helped our band in so many ways, we can't thank him enough.

REAX: Well, Jeremy did a great job with Dilemmas. The new recording is a vast improvement over Driven By Arms. The sound itself is so much bigger and tonally varied than the EP. Sometimes I'm surprised at how much kick it's got to it. Was the sound of the recording something that you had already decided on before you went into the studio, or was it more of a give-and-take collaborative effort with Jeremy?
DR: Definitely a collaborative effort. When we approached Jeremy we had no idea of the level of talent we were dealing with. Really, we went in with our fingers crossed and our only goal was to make the record sound better than the last one. Our experience with Jeremy was completely different from any other that we've had in the studio before. Rather than just sitting behind the board, he actually taught us about writing and recording and pushed us to make the record the best we could in the time-frame that we had. When we went into the studio we all knew that we had grown as a band since Driven By Arms. But Jeremy created such a creative environment in which we were able to play off each other and add further depth to the songs that we could have never done alone.  

REAX: There’s a bit of studio trickery on the new record, but for the most part it doesn’t seem like you were trying to beef up the songs in a way that sounds great recorded but might be impossible to emulate live. It can’t be entirely effortless, so how much of that was a conscious effort?
DR: We're a bit obsessive about this, especially Shaun. We struggled with parts of the album because as we added things in the studio to compliment the song, our first thought was, "How are we going to pull this off live?" We were very conscious of the added extra layers and just how much of it we were going to add.    

REAX: I want to talk about touring for bit. 10 years ago it was easier to go on lengthy, cross-country tours, but I know it's a bit more difficult nowadays. Is there a possibility of a Guiltmaker tour in the near future, especially with the release of Dilemmas right around the corner?
DR: Actually, we have done two short tours up the East Coast in both '06 and '07. Music has changed so much (and so have we) and it's an entirely different world out there than it used to be. We found that out the hard way in '06 and I guess we didn't learn our lesson so we did it again in '07 and took a beating. After that we decided to focus more on the Southeast rather than trying to get so far out of Florida on every tour. We're hoping to build more of an audience that way and then branch out to the bigger tours once people are vaguely familiar with who we are. It's funny because we recorded Dilemmas almost two years ago now so some of those songs are close to three years old. So, in a way, we did tour on Dilemmas. But now that it's actually going to be released we're struggling to find time to tour because of new jobs and such. We've committed to playing more regularly these days, but no continuous tours in the pipeline as of now.

REAX: Anything else you might want to add about the ever-evolving climate of music?, and how its changes/effects make it a different experience today than when you were younger?
DR: I could go on forever about this. I've had so many discussions with old friends about this particular topic and have thrown around a lot of theories about why/how music and the scene itself have changed ...  Let me say, first and foremost, that I recognize that if anything has changed over time, it's me. Like everyone else, as I get older, my perspective continues to change. With that being said, I think it's mostly attributed to convenience. When we (you & I, Mikey) were younger, a stronger and more tangible social network existed - all without the Internet. We went out to shows (at a record store) to check out bands because they had driven all the way from California. We couldn't check out their Myspace page ahead of time and decide by listening to a 30-second clip that they suck and then find something else to do. We also bought records because we couldn't conveniently find them online, for free, whenever the mood struck us. Also, we networked with people because we knew there was a chance that we could find ourselves in their city one day. I think now, DIY/punk/indie music has kind of lost its adventure, now that everything is within that overly convenient reach. (Damn, I'm jaded.)