The Dead Coats’ Big Wish

The Dead Coats talk snowstorms, Greg Abbott, giant mechanical dildos, and their new album, Big Wish

I showed up for my second interview with the Dead Coats fittingly hungover. The night before had been a debauched nightmare I’m glad I couldn’t remember. According to my roommates— I told the band as I cracked open a beer with them before we began talking— I had drunk at least a pint of vodka, attempted to lasso a light fixture with a noose tied out of a guitar cable, and come close to accidentally smashing a glass table with a medieval mace. In short: I had been in the right state of mind to listen to Big Wish.

The Austin band’s new album is a declaration of power, written in sweat and blood and signed with the essential anger that defines Punk music. Incorporating a lot of their older influences with the slowed-down, hard-hitting, style of new drummer, Ren Fletcher, some heavy metal riffs from guitarist, Joshua Jones, bassist, Joe Osteen’s driving rhythms and singer, Lauren Werner’s signature, all-out, wailing vocals, the band has crafted a sound that is, at once, both familiar and surprising.

I followed The Dead Coats from their chaotic practice space, through a beaded door, and into Ren’s back den, where we all got comfortable to talk about the new album and its upcoming release.

~~~

Jake: What is the Big Wish? Where does the name come from, and what is it that you guys wish for?

Joe: It’s not necessarily one wish in particular. It’s in the moment. The song, itself is more about need than anything, and there’s always a new need for each occasion, I guess.

Josh: And out of all of the songs, Big Wish felt like the most appropriate to name the album after because of that, too.

Jake: In what way?

Lauren: Well, we picked that one because all of the songs sort of represent a demand for something more. Whether it’s wanting to be taken seriously, or reclaiming your agency, the running theme throughout is just, like, demanding what you need. Getting your big wish.

Joe: It was also one of the first songs we ever wrote, and I’ve always liked the way it sort of gradually gets your attention. I think there’s something allegorical for the Dead Coats in that.

Jake: Some songs, like Fuzz Lighter, for instance, seem like a departure— or maybe an evolution— into this more heavy metal sound. Where does that come from?

Josh: Well, definitely having Ren as the drummer on this album changed how we played. She and I both gravitate toward that sound a little and I think we’ve taken it and ran on some of these new songs. Our last drummer loved to go really heavy and really fast, so we made a lot of more traditionally punk songs and we came out with a 28-minute album, if that. I think we’ve slowed it down from there and it’s brought out this new sound in us.

Lauren: Longer songs, more rage to savor. 

Jake: So do you think this is a departure? Would you say you’re moving away from Punk?

Lauren: People think “Punk” has to be this particular kind of sound, when Punk is more of an attitude. It’s saying “I don’t care what you think about what I’m doing and I’m going to do it anyways.” 

Joe: It’s all inspired by Beyonce, really. 

Josh: Lemonade, great album. We go back to it whenever we write.

Lauren: People always think of late 70s, or early 80s bands like Dead Kennedys, and we love that music too, but The Replacements are Punk, too. Punk isn’t a sound, it’s a philosophy. 

Jake: I’ve always thought of Punk as this attitude of going to war with something. What are the Dead Coats going to war with?

Ren: Ourselves.

Lauren: People who have always wanted us to fail. A lot of what Stoner Ray has to do with is that. Saying I have power no matter what age I am. I think a lot of it comes from spite, and I’ve always liked spite. Spite is my weapon of war. 

Josh: Fucking Greg Abbott. 

Joe: Yeah I think we can all agree we’re at war with Greg, even if we don’t directly mention him. He’s always there in the back of our songs.

Josh: If you play them backwards it’s pretty much all we talk about. Shoutout to you, Greg!

Jake: Speaking of, you guys had to cancel your original release show which was supposed to happen the weekend after our epic snowstorm. Why do you think that was an important decision?

Joe: See, the thing is, the day before that supposed storm, I blacked out, and then I woke up a week later, naked in a Walmart parking lot…

Ren: Again?

Joe: Yeah, again, and so I don’t know what any of you guys are even talking about with this “snowpocalypse” stuff.

Lauren: Well, the thing is, we could have gone on at Far Out that Saturday. They were up and running and ready to have us, but we thought it would just be this horrible signal to send to be using all this electricity and water when so many people were still without it. Plus we would have been asking them to drive to see us, and risking their lives. It was just the clear decision to postpone.  

Ren: Although someone risking death just to see The Dead Coats in the blistering cold would be pretty punk rock.

Jake: Undoubtedly. Back to Big Wish, I feel like the tone of this album is more sarcastic, even self-effacing. What do you think caused that tonal shift?

Lauren: I think we’ve always had that in us. I know I, for one, have always had this tendency to make jokes at my own expense, sometimes they land, most of the time not. We all get pretty dark sometimes.

Joe: Yeah, this “new” attitude is more like a return. It’s a new album, with a new drummer and a new kind of recording. More professional and purposeful, and so that’s a new beginning and a sort of fresh start, and we already had a lot of those key parts in motion, but the best thing with the sound changing was a nostalgic visitation with the basics.

Jake: You mentioned reclaiming your agency, or your power, as a message to convey. Do you think now is an especially important time to give people that permission?

Lauren: I think any time is an important time to remind people of that, yeah. But we’re also all in this fucking limbo right now, so yeah, I think it’s this time where we’re all craving that— all feeling helpless more than usual. But that sort of message is timeless more than anything. You always gotta take what’s yours.

Ren: I don’t even know if it’s about permission — people need encouragement. Lauren does an amazing job of telling the listener her emotions when she sings. It probably helps that most of the songs she writes are based on things she goes through in her life. I think a lot of people can relate for that reason. Plus it’s just awesome to see women on stage, and it’s right where they should be.

Jake: You guys have a flair for the theatrical with your stage presence. Last time we talked you guys had just played a show at the beginning of the pandemic where you dressed in scrubs and brought Lauren out in a body bag. Do you guys have anything cool planned for your release show with RIngo Deathstarr on the 27th?

Ren: We plan to rock. Loud.

Joe: I’m definitely gonna find some new sunglasses, and I’m calling my mom on stage to tell her I’m on Cash Cab, but I do that pretty often. What the trivia question is? That’ll be a mystery.

Lauren: We’ve definitely been giving it some thought. It’s not always something planned out, but sometimes we just get an opportunity. I saw an ad for a giant rideable dildo, like a mechanical bull, that you could rent and I’d love to bring that up on stage, but that may be something for a different time. We really have no idea what this show will end up being like, you have to buy tables, we’re in the middle of a pandemic still and it shows.

Josh: What I’ve heard from people about our shows is that they feel like the band is playing in your living room, everyone around is your friend, even if one of them decks you in the face.

Joe: No, that’s not it at all, our shows feel like you’re at your grandma’s house and she just baked you cookies.

Lauren: I mean, obviously I want everyone there to get amped and pissed and then go home and maybe cry a little. If that doesn’t sound like a blast, I don’t know what does.

~~~

I attended the Death Coats show on the 27th, and found that Lauren was right about the pandemic. My friends and I were confined to a “pod”— a table near the back of the Empire Garage’s outdoor venue— as was everyone else in attendance. It was the first show I had been to in over a year, which still amazes me. The limitations of the space meant that the show was necessarily toned down from what you would normally expect: no great wave of human bodies writhing against the stage, no drunken brawls (maybe a plus there), a rigorous screening by the, usually quite lenient, bouncer, and no giant dildos to speak of.
But, despite all of this, the Dead Coats still brought their magnetic energy and bombast, belting out the powerful tracks of their new album, cracking jokes like old friends, and rocking, hard as promised.

Things may not have entirely returned to normal in the Austin music scene, but the music still endures, and the Dead Coats still bring the power and the fury.

Big Wish is available streaming on:

Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCkk7hdIpgvP2_uRsniUlTUA

Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/artist/0raDAX1PLghTw7KYtCXS4x?si=ELq4KRi2REatdr4TpTHNGA

Bandcamp: https://thedeadcoats.bandcamp.com/

Apple Music: https://music.apple.com/us/artist/the-dead-coats/1394457095

Written by Jake Webber