Thursday, October 3, 2024

Dead Poet Society’s Jack Underkofler Talks Songwriting And His Perfect Day In Boston

Dead Poet Society is a rock band formed in Boston, Massachusetts in 2013. The members are lead vocalist and guitarist Jack Underkofler, guitarist Jack Collins, bass guitarist Dylan Brenner, and drummer Will Goodroad. Their sound has been described as 80’s nu wave, anthemic alternative, and progressive indie.

The band originally formed as an independent group out of Berklee, a premier music school in Boston. They would get together and rehearse and record their own music before signing to Universal Music Publishing Group in 2018. They released their debut album, -!-, in 2021.

The group’s newest album, Fission, came out earlier this year. The album is a self-validating 13-track study of personal change and the instability of growth. This album came out of a compilation of troubles that the band members had experienced over the past few years, and created a beautiful work of art to represent those moments in their emotional journeys. 

Dead Poet Society kicked off Louder than Life with a bang on Thursday on the main stage. Before performing “Hurt,” Jack Underkofler announced that he needed to finish a tattoo that he had started on his a$$ of BMO from Adventure Time with his tattoo artist Annie Miao onsite to do the job. She finished the design while the band continued to perform. During the painful process he invited Josh Katz from Badflower to join him to play guitar while he got the tattoo The crowd started to grow to see the impressive feat and how Underkofler powered through the pain, while still being able to sing perfectly. 

Photo Credit: Amy Harris/The Travel Addict

While on ShipRocked earlier this year, we met with lead vocalist Jack Underkofler and chatted about the inspiration behind their new album, the making of “My Condition,” and what the band does in their downtime on the road.

You have a new album that just came out, Fission. Tell me about the album release in LA. What’s the best thing about the album?

The album release show went really well. It was the first time we actually had the opportunity to really test out the songs live. It was good to finally be able to get comfortable with them and kind of get the nerves out of the way. But the best thing about the album, it’s just an evolution, you know?

Dead Poet Society's Jack Underkofler Talks Songwriting
Photo Credit: Amy Harris/The Travel Addict

What was the inspiration behind it? 

The inspirations behind it were just kind of an amalgamation of all of our life experiences at that time when we were writing it. I was going through a very tough period in my life. I’d gotten out of a relationship and found out my mother had cancer and was just kind of bouncing around couchsurfing and sh*t like that. It was a pretty hard album to write, emotionally, but I’m very proud of what we came up with.

Will it be hard for you to sing the songs or is that cathartic for you?

It’s cathartic. I mean, performing is the best thing on earth. I love to be able to share that and see people that resonate with it. 

Photo Credit: Amy Harris/The Travel Addict

What’s your favorite song to play live?

I don’t know. It kind of always evolves, but out of the new ones, I think “I Hope You Hate Me.” is turning into a favorite of mine to play live and “Hard To Be God,” too.

You guys are playing Shaky Knees, Sonic Temple, and Louder Than Life. Any favorite things about playing a big festival?

Festivals are just awesome in general. I feel like it’s just as fun for the musicians as it is for the people going to the festivals, because you get to hang out and watch all the bands that you came to see and get paid doing it.

Photo Credit: Amy Harris/The Travel Addict

Any cities you’re looking forward to visiting for the first time or again on your 2024 tours?

In Europe, I’m looking forward to Amsterdam. It’s just an awesome place. We’ve got a lot of fans there. I’m looking forward to seeing Lisbon. That’ll be my first time there. In the U.S., Boston. I can’t wait to play the Sinclair. I mean, that’s where we started as a band. I’m looking forward to every show. 

Photo Credit: Amy Harris/The Travel Addict

What’s the story behind “My Condition?” I thought the animated music video was super cool.

We actually had the first verse for a long time before the song ever came together. I wrote that first verse after we came up with this voice memo, whenever we get in the practice space, not every single time, but occasionally it’s kind of spontaneous. Somebody will just start playing something really horrible, and everybody else joins in and you try to make the worst sounding thing you could possibly do.

It’s stressful. I don’t know why it happens, but it just does. We took a big risk with that one. But we tried to play the worst thing possible, and that riff came out and we were like, ‘Oh, that’s kind of sick,’ and took it home and I wrote the first verse over it. It’s been a real f*cking struggle in this, you know? I mean, every musician goes through it. It’s self-torture trying to make it as a band. This song was kind of like a ‘f*ck it. I’m going to do it anyways’ kind of thing. 

Then we had that verse for years, couldn’t figure out what to do with it, and we tried to put it on the last album but we couldn’t come up with it. Then the other Jack really just kind of kept at it and just kept writing choruses and he showed me one one day and I was like, ‘Oh, that’s it, that’s perfect.’ Then I wrote the second verse and it just came together.

Dead Poet Society's Jack Underkofler Talks Songwriting
Photo Credit: Amy Harris/The Travel Addict

What’s your favorite part of ShipRocked

Just seeing all of our friends in different bands, it’s just been so sick to have everybody in one spot. It’s awesome. 

Photo Credit: Amy Harris/The Travel Addict

What’s your perfect day in Boston? Are there any good hidden spots?

You get up, you walk down to The Charles and just take that path along there, go down to the Common and hang out with some friends. Go get Tasty Burger. Take the green line up to Government Center and then go get Mike’s Pastry. The Charles at night, the views from the docks are just insane. So, I love that, too. So much about that city is just amazing. You should check out Anna’s Taqueria. Also, Spike’s in Allston, amazing hot dogs. It’s like a street food joint.

Dead Poet Society's Jack Underkofler Talks Songwriting
Photo Credit: Amy Harris/The Travel Addict

The band formed at Berklee. How did you guys come together and would you give somebody the advice to go that route? 

I think that if your school is done and paid for, If it’s free, go for it, especially if you’re not looking to be an artist. If you’re looking to do something like sound design, I have a lot of friends that went on to have really successful careers doing sound design and stuff like that. 

If you’re an artist, especially if you get loaded up with debt, like some of the guys in our band, including me did, I would say a massive hindrance to being an artist is going to school for that. Nobody can teach you how to create. That has to come from you. It has to come from lots of writing and then thinking about how you could dig deeper and get better.

If you’re going to Berklee for art, I would say don’t unless it’s paid for. But also don’t neglect touring. Go out there and tour. You practice, get as good as you feel that you need to be to express yourself. You don’t need to go further than that, I would say. Just don’t load yourself with debt. Berklee is f*cking expensive. You don’t need to go to music school to be an artist. It’s almost an oxymoron. 

Dead Poet Society's Jack Underkofler Talks Songwriting
Photo Credit: Amy Harris/The Travel Addict

What are your must pack items for travel on the road?

As much underwear as you can possibly find. You just always have to have enough underwear. You shower in the morning, you put on underwear, you sweat at the show, so you put on another pair of underwear at night. Then if you go to the gym, then you’re going through two pairs of underwear that day. You’re going to blow through your underwear in, like, a week, so you just gotta shove as much as possible, unless you want to just be a heathen. 

Dead Poet Society's Jack Underkofler Talks Songwriting
Photo Credit: Amy Harris/The Travel Addict

What do you do in your downtime on tour?

We all kind of do different stuff. Other Jack, he does trailer work (writing music for TV and movies.) The drummer and I go to the gym, like, religiously, as often as we can. We go to Planet Fitness. No matter where you are in the US, you’re ten minutes from Planet Fitness. They got showers, they got all that. So, we hit that every single morning that we can when we have time, which is usually like 5 to 7 days a week. 

We just try to occupy ourselves. I was learning coding for a little bit on the road because you get so tired of doom scrolling and your brain is just going to mush. So, I signed up for Brilliant and I started learning coding. I’m not good at it. I was learning German, too. 

What’s in store for 2024?

Just touring our asses off. Whenever we’re not on the road, we’re going to be writing. That’s what we do.

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Amy Harris
Amy Harris is a writer and photographer who has been traveling for 20 years and flown over 2 million miles to visit over 80 countries on 6 continents. She is a freelance photographer for Invision by Associated Press, AP Images and Rex/Shutterstock. Her work can be seen in various publications and websites including: Rolling Stone, AP Images, National Geographic Books, Fodor’s Travel Guides, Forbes.com, Lonely Planet Travel Guides, JetStar magazine, and Delta Sky Magazine.

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