Dead American was born out of timing, patience, and waiting for the right moment. In the wake of his departure from Saosin, Cove Reber ventured into a slower paced lifestyle in order to both deconstruct and then rebuild into a new normal. Though the desire to write and create never dissipated, the opportune sign needed to present itself in order to regain the needed passion to commit to the process again.

In 2016, Cove was introduced to Chad Jordan through a mutual friend. At the time, Chad had a lot touring experience as a drummer and guitarist for numerous bands, but was looking to put to use some instrumental compositions he had written throughout his musical career that needed to be completed with vocals. Chad began sending these self-recorded demos to Cove through email, which resulted in Cove tracking vocals to them due to feeling a connection to the nostalgic sensibility of the songs.

Songs from “The Shape Of Punk Is Dumb” began to take form in the coming year, with the duo heading into Rigby Road Studios in Salt Lake City with producer and engineer Joel Pack in the winter of 2017. Amongst busy schedules and slowly chipping away at the songs over time, the record was completed and mastered in the middle of 2018. Within conversations and dreaming up the concept of the band, the duo decided to leave their current residences in Utah and move to familiar Southern California where they both individually grew up.

During this transition, the need for a bassist was present, resulting in Chad connecting with Josh Latham. Chad and Josh were long-time high school friends who had written countless songs together throughout their adolescence – Josh had years of knowledge in recording and playing music, and was looking for a change from his current life pattern, so the decision was made to relocate from the state of Washington and move in with Chad and Cove to pursue this project together.

As the trio made progress, the next undertaking was searching for a guitarist. While names had been thrown on the table, Chad suggested teaming up with Jamey Price who was previously in a band called Sleep For Sleepers with him. Chad and Jamey had written together and toured the country in the past, so being productive in the creative process was of familiarity. Jamey had also been playing a role in the project since its conception through designing artwork and suggesting the band name, so the vision was caught early on when officially joining. Read more on Last.fm. User-contributed text is available under the Creative Commons By-SA License; additional terms may apply.