Dead Letter Circus
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Dead Letter Circus

With over 10 years under their belt Dead Letter Circus return for their fourth LP, which is also their first to score a self-title. We caught up with the bands lead vocalist Kim Benzie to catch an inside glimpse into what fans can expect from ‘Dead Letter Circus’.
“Being completely transparent, I have this habit of making epic names for albums,” he laughs. “We’ve had some crackers like; ‘This Is The Warning’ and ‘The Catalyst Fire’ so the pressure is always on.
“We did the album really quickly, it was a bit strange,” he continues, referring to the forthcoming album (released September 21 via BMG). “We didn’t mull over it for months and months; we just kind of wrote and recorded it really quickly and all of a sudden it was done and it was time to think of a title. Nothing was coming to mind; I just didn’t have any ideas and then someone commented that it seems we had returned thematically to where we begun.
“We started off making really ‘self helpy’ music; ‘fix yourself before you fix the world’ kind of stuff and then we turned to a revelation type of vibe that was more so like, ‘let’s do this together, let’s make a change’ and while I was mulling over my inability to come up with a sick album title, I thought, maybe it should be self-titled and everyone else was down for that.”
Speaking more of the albums lyrical content, Kim compares it to their last two albums which have centred heavily around politics.
“It felt like our calling for a while to shake people awake, but for this album it went really internal and is more so about personal health and getting yourself into a good state,” he reveals. “In the past I’ve always presented an evolved version of myself that is at the end of a life lesson; not the anxious person at the start of the lessons when they are happening.
“As this album started to really get working, I was writing songs and realising how honest and bare it was and I was thinking for a while that I was putting too much of myself into these songs. When we finished, I realised how the lyrics had shaped up. It was like I was alerting the world to the inner workings of my brain and how I think in relation to certain topics.”
Expanding on certain lyrics, Kim drew mention to the albums song; ‘We Own The Light’, which touches on the fragility of masculinity.
“The first reason to spark this thought in my head was Robin Williams. I grew up watching his movies and just found everything about him to be so prolific. He is the perfect case of the sadness behind the smile. The next point was when Chris Cornell passed away and it really rocked me. Luckily I’ve never been in a position where someone really close to me took their own life, so this was the closest experience I guess, my idols.
“I get quite dark on my own and music is my outlet and release so I had always thought that would get a lot of musicians through their inner demons; especially someone like Chris Cornell because his darkness is really evident in his music – he has always been a bit of bastion for putting your thoughts out there. ‘We Own The Light’ is all about that, keeping your fragilities buried due to the world’s perception on masculinity.”
When & Where: Tap house, Bendigo – December 19 & The Barwon Club, Geelong – December 20.
Written by Alex Callan