How Impending Failure Inspired Dinosaur Pile-Up’s ‘Celebrity Mansions’ — Interview
Dinosaur Pile-Up released their fourth album Celebrity Mansions at the beginning of June. While the single "Back Foot" has had its fair share of radio play, including peaking at No. 10 on the Billboard Mainstream Rock Songs chart, success didn't come to the band easily. Frontman Matt Bigland shared some of the group's hardships with Loudwire Nights, including their thoughts on being compared to Nirvana.
The name Celebrity Mansions, according to Bigland, is a sort of play-on society and how certain people become famous for apparently silly reasons. "Looking at social media and just seeing all these people that have a super perfect life, success, wealth, all of this stuff just seemingly comes so easily."
He continues, "And then you're out in this RV just killing yourself, trying to scrape enough money from a show to buy pizza afterward. I guess that got us down a little bit."
Funny enough, that very piece of pizza ended up starring on the cover of Celebrity Mansions. The photo used for the album artwork was taken in the band's RV after a show in Florida, where they got caught in the pouring rain while returning to the vehicle. Bigland recalled that memory fondly, despite their financial situation at the time.
"Back Foot," which has been the most popular single from the album so far, was written from the perspective of a band struggling to make ends meet. "It's about just really believing in something and really trying to do something and putting everything into that....That's where the idea of always being on the 'back foot' came from. Trying our hardest, giving it everything we've got, sacrificing everything we've got to just keep going, but just kept on feeling like no one cared and we were just getting knocked backwards the whole time," the vocalist reflects.
Being that Dinosaur Pile-Up are a three-piece, energetic rock band with punk roots, they've been compared to Nirvana. Especially in an age where it seems like every younger band is compared to one of the giants from the past, the guys don't let it get to them.
"We used to kind of care about it and think it was negative but now we're like, whatever. If anything, that's cool. Nirvana are one of the greatest rock bands of all time, so that's rad. But it's kinda funny that people still sometimes are like, 'Oh yeah, you're really similar to Nirvana.' It's like, I don't know, have you listened to 'Back Foot'?"
To hear more about Dinosaur Pile-Up's tour stories, especially when Shinedown purchased them a brand new backdrop for the stage, listen to the interview above.
Best Rock Songs of 2019… So Far
Best Rock Songs of 2019… So Far