Alright – so today we’ve got the honor of introducing you to DEAD YOU. We think you’ll enjoy our conversation, we’ve shared it below.
Alright, DEAD thanks for taking the time to share your stories and insights with us today. What’s been the most meaningful project you’ve worked on?
As struggling independent musicians, there are many projects we’ve released that we are all very fond of and attached too. Previous to DEAD YOU, Marko and I have worked together in some capacity on roughly 6 other projects in our respective musical careers. Jorge has been a member of a very impactful Indie/Queer outfit from Los Angeles for going on 11 years. As we all get older naturally, a process of assessment occurs. As your taste refines so does your tolerance. Music has always been an outlet and filter of expression for the three of us in each of our own journeys for truth.
‘No Virtue Without Temptation’ is our first offering as a trio; where we fuse our collective tastes and experiences into one fully solid concentrated core. We began writing songs for NVWT in the summer of 2023. The album was recorded by Anthony “Muteman” Perez; in November of 2024, in Pico Rivera, California. But the story begins back a little further than that. In 2019 I had just started a new relationship, and shortly after that relationship began, so did Covid. My partner and I shacked up with two Huskies in Koreatown, I was working at a grocery store and worked through most of the pandemic. Covid had brought us much closer together and a lot faster than either of us might have been ready or prepared for. Three years later we had become “temporary roommates/co-parents” as our relationship had deteriorated.
It was when she began seeing other people that I began to see other people and shortly thereafter our “temporary roommate/ co-parent situationship” had finally come to an end. She kept the dogs and the apartment. After an even shorter and more embarrassing reach for companionship, I soon lost my job, car and apartment. Any idea of an identity I had of myself had been shed. I was lost, sad, and alone. In the summer of 2023 I moved my stuff into Jorge’s living room coat closet and he took me on hikes with him almost daily. Soon we were coming back from our hikes with song ideas which we would promptly record in our home studio. It is there where ‘No Virtue Without Temptation’ would take its first breath and first few steps.
During these days Marko was also going through his own personal obstacles. A close high school friend of ours was fighting a losing battle against cancer, and would be leaving behind a wife and very young daughter. During this time Marko would miss work, spend holidays and celebrate special occasions in Irvine, Ca supporting our friend and their family in his journey to the other side. When he wasn’t there supporting them, Marko was with us supporting our newly found passion project. The amount of love and pain poured into this project is immeasurable. We like to hope we write music for the difficult times, for the growing pains. Growing up never stops, the lessons don’t stop coming. The music we write now is meant to be a soundtrack to growth, that space between beginnings and endings.
On one of our hikes Jorge and I encountered two snakes engaged in what we assume was a mating ritual. The initial angle presented the two snakes as one body, two heads. It was very startling in the moment but after looking into the symbolism behind such a sighting, it would catalyze us and our resolve to create something meaningful. That day we went back to the home studio and recorded a demo called, “The Two-headed Snake”. It was that day that I knew we found the sound and style that would go on to define our band. So now we had a sound and a fistful of home demos, but we still needed a name for the first album.
While stoned on a living room couch a la Beavis and Butthead we were watching Doug Benson’s incredibly insightful feature length documentary film “Super High Me”, and there like a secret gem left stashed specifically for us to find, “..there cannot exist virtue where there is not temptation..”. I feel terrible now not knowing exactly which person is responsible for using this phrase in the film. I never saw myself telling this story so soon.
“No Virtue Without Temptation” was released on January 24th 2025 independently and can be found anywhere streaming music is available. Dead You now spends its time playing local, and not so local shows in the greater SoCal area. We have new music on the way and big plans for this summer. Stay tuned and please follow us on all social media platforms to stay up to date. Our influences include but are not limited too; Alternative, Punk, Hardcore, Pop, Hip Hop, Trap Corridos, Jazz, Classical anything from the 80s, lots of 90s so on and so forth. We have lived enough life to know what’s important to us and what we want to do with our time. “No Virtue Without Temptation” is the most meaningful project I personally have ever worked on.
DEAD YOU is
Marko Reyes – Bass
Jorge Pimentel – Drums
Jon Barnett – Guitar/Vocals
SPECIAL THANKS to
Anthony “Muteman” Perez for recording our album/for shooting and editing the “Lush” video
Lo Artiz for nominating us
www.deadyoumusic.com or @deadyoumusic on any social media platform
DEAD , love having you share your insights with us. Before we ask you more questions, maybe you can take a moment to introduce yourself to our readers who might have missed our earlier conversations?
DEAD YOU is an alternative punk band from Mid-City Los Angeles. We have been actively recording music and playing shows since summer 2024. We have released 2 home recorded demos and 1 independently released full length. Our music is available everywhere music is streaming. We write moving songs about difficult life experiences. We do not sound like our influences or like we belong to any one specific genre. We take pride in the songs that we write and the stories we tell. We are all inclusive and write songs for everyone no matter what they subscribe too or identify with. We write with an attitude and intention to seek truth.
Are there any books, videos or other content that you feel have meaningfully impacted your thinking?
Some of the books read by us going into this project were
“The Creative Act: A Way of Being” by Rick Rubin
“Hard-boiled Wonderland and the End of the World”
&
“Norwegian Wood” by Haruki Murakami
“The Fountainhead” by Ayn Rand
“Contact ” by Carl Sagan
“Sicker in the Head: More Conversations About Life and Comedy” by Judd Apatow
“American Cosmic: UFOs, Religion, Technology” by Diana Walsh Pasulka
“A Brief History of Time” by Stephen Hawking
“Astrophysics for People in a Hurry” by Neil deGrasse Tyson
“How to Win Friends and Influence People” by Dale Carnegie
“The Book of Five Rings” by Miyamoto Musashi
Is there a particular goal or mission driving your creative journey?
The goal of DEAD YOU is to write the most meaningful, moving and memorable songs we possibly can.
The rest is gravy.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://deadyoumusic.com/
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/deadyoumusic/
- Twitter: https://x.com/DeadYouMusic
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@DEADYOUMUSIC
Image Credits
@GS_Archives on instagram
@yellowlampcollective