Dead Sara Poised to Dominate In 2013

Interview – Dead Sara vocalist – Emily Armstrong

Los Angeles alt rock quartet Dead Sara had a huge year in 2012. The female-fronted act released their self-titled debut record (04.10.12; Pocket Kid Records), spent the summer on Vans Warped Tour, and found themselves on several publications’ “best of” lists.

With a lineup featuring Emily Armstrong (lead vocals, rhythm guitar), Sean Friday (drums, backing vocals), Siouxsie Medley (lead guitar, backing vocals) and Chris Null (bass guitar, backing vocals), Dead Sara is poised to reach even greater heights in 2013. And is there any better way to take things to the next level than playing in sold out arenas night in and night out, opening for arguably one of the biggest bands in the world, Muse?

On the afternoon before the tour kicks off (Thursday, 02.21.13), frontwoman Emily Armstrong phoned CleveRock’s hotline to discuss the band’s upcoming trek.

“I’m pretty excited, but I won’t really be until the day of. That’s when it usually hits me,” said Armstrong, who called while en route to the airport.

Her responses to questions were brief. Emily seemed to have thoughts preoccupying her, but she denies that it is pre-tour nerves.

“I’m not nervous, actually. I will be tomorrow. Maybe we should have this conversation tomorrow,” she said.

Armstrong and company have played a summer’s worth of Warped Tour dates and plenty of club shows, but will grace an arena stage for the first time when opening for Muse. Emily isn’t sure what to expect, but she does know one thing:

“If I jumped in the crowd this time, I think it’s going to be a long way down. I don’t know. I’ve never done an arena tour.”

When asked to list some of Dead Sara’s influences, she replied, “That’s a really hard question. It’s literally all over the place. I can’t list just one band, or a couple of bands, or a couple of genres.”

For the uninitiated, Dead Sara’s sound is best sampled from their debut single, “Weatherman.”  [Watch on YouTube]

After making big strides in 2012, Dead Sara has no plans in slowing down in 2013.

“Having a new record on the way would be great. Being able to have our own headlining tour would be awesome. Everything else just follows. I can’t say, ‘we want to be number one on Spin’s list of top bands to see.’ I can’t picture things like that. So we’ll just make our record and if it seems like enough people want to see us we’ll do our headlining tour. That would be big enough for us,” the singer stated.

So, what’s on the agenda for Dead Sara once their stint with Muse concludes?

“It’s really up in the air right now, but we’re leaning towards just writing a new record,” Armstrong said.