Dianthus recently released their sophomore album Realms via Deko Entertainment, and I spoke with one half of the twin sister duo, drummer Jessica Parry, about the making of Realms, her background and influences as a musician, producers the band has worked with, and their venture into the comic world. Check it out below. 

First of all, congratulations on the release of Realms – I want to start off by digging into the overall ideas of what’s on Realms, and the big picture of how the whole concept came about.

So, of course, the album artwork for Realms, it kind of tells the story already in that picture – this album is very conceptual, there’s a deeper story behind it, and we also are going to explore it in other mediums as well. It’s very fantasy and mystical-based.

Are the lyrics driven by the same fantasy and mystical ideas?

They definitely are. We also have some interludes too that kind of take you to that place. There’s a lot of synth and piano, so we play a lot on that. 

The title track was revealed to us last year, before the album came out, with the music video for Realms. This is an awesome track, and very interesting because it has progressive, heavy vibes, not your standard 4/4 rock ’n’ roll time, but still very catchy and memorable without that structure. Can you talk about what went into that track?

Yeah, it was very exciting for us to write this album, and Realms was actually the first song we wrote for this record. We had lots of ideas going into it, and we wanted to write a song that kind of captured the entirety of our sound, so the synth, guitars, drums, it’s kind of like that standalone track that describes us well.

Now, “A Space In The Silence” is a more recent single we’ve heard, with another music video. It’s similar but has more of a modern melodic metal vibe, can you give us some behind-the-scenes on that one?

It was fun working on that song too, because the way it came about, we were working with our producer Steve Evetts, and he really helped us simplify certain parts where we wanted the melody to shine, so the chorus has that more simple feel with the drums. We wanted something people could sing along to live, easier to catch on to. The production was really fun, and the music video too, it takes you into that fantasy place as well.

Absolutely. You’re often called Progressive Metal by people who are getting to know you guys, it seems to be a term they hook in to, but do you put yourselves in that category, do you identify with that genre?

I actually do, and sometimes people think that we’re more pop with our vocals, but as far as progressive metal, that suits us better than progressive rock. We have the heaviness of metal, and there’s definitely odd time signatures going on, so that definitely describes us better. 

That’s the thing, the time signatures are what grab people – they hear that and it’s like, “Oh, we’re getting into some Progressive territory”, which is cool.

Exactly! Yeah, thank you. 

I want to ask more about your personal background, Jessica, as a musician, like what made you pick up the drums to begin with, and of course you also sing, not all drummers are singing and doing harmonies while they play – just want to know some of your inspiration with that?

I never thought I would be a drummer growing up, it’s kind of crazy how it all happened, but I started off with classical piano at age 7. My sister and I, we always wanted to be in a band together, especially since rock music was fun, we wanted to do a band, and I actually said, “it would be cool to play drums”, and that’s actually how I got into drums. I was influenced by lots of bands – Rush, my dad loved them, so that’s how it all happened.

That’s funny, you evolved from piano to singing to drums, so now you’re just doing all three at once.

Right, right! And singing, too, that came out of nowhere. My sister and I, we made songs together, and naturally live, I just started picking up backing vocals. 

So when you say that you write the songs together, is that both music and lyrics all together?

Yeah, it’s teamwork together. The song itself, the structure, we usually start off with that, and then the lyrics and vocals come later. 

Especially if you’re both working together on lyrics, I can see how that comes into play with you both singing as well – you’re contributing the words, the story, and the message behind the song, so you’re telling that story at the same time.

Right, it’s a process that works well for us, because we’re definitely music-based, we love coming up with that first and creating a good thing for the lyrics to sit upon.

Definitely, and I love to hear that you have a lot of classic influences in there, Rush – I mean, Neal Peart is a huge inspiration for many drummers, and I can see that’s where your progressive influence comes in.

Oh, for sure, and he was the lyricist, too, for Rush. I actually love writing lyrics too, so I relate to him a lot. 

Awesome. What are some other tracks beyond the singles that really stand out to you on the album?

The last track on the record, it’s called “Secrets and Promises”, and we don’t currently have a music video for it yet, but I think that’s another fun heavier song from the record. I would describe it as a pirate metal kind of feel with the drums, and I would say it’s a lot of triplets, as we call them. Very groovy, pretty upbeat.

Now, when you say that you and your sister learned your instruments growing up, were you self-taught, was it anyone in your family, or did you take formal lessons? 

We took formal lessons with the classical piano for over ten years, but also, at the same time, we were getting formal lessons in guitar and drums at a rock school academy. That really helped us get used to being in a band with other kids our age, and now we’re kind of just taking things from YouTube and self-teaching, learning things on our own now.

And I’m sure you’re getting opportunities to learn from other artists now that you’re getting more out there in the industry.

Yeah, there’s so much to learn at our fingertips now with YouTube and other platforms – every day is something crazy online *laughs*.

*laughs* Absolutely. I’m also curious, because sometimes when people come from a classical background, that’s a very structured, strict way of doing things – you’ve got your sheet music to play things the way they’re written and that’s that. So going from that to a band setting, where a lot of it is open and free, and jamming until you find the sound as you go along. How was that transition?

It was really fun. For me personally, going from classical piano, which, yeah, is a lot of theory and dynamics…going into drums, I felt like I had more space to breathe, more freedom if you will, because there’s not actual pitched notes going on. I still play a lot of the piano too, but with drums, it’s another fun side to music that I just release.

And I see that you do a lot of covers on social media too, so I’m curious, what’s the process of picking those out – do you just get in the mood for a certain song and say, “You know what? I’m going to cover this now”, or is it long-time favorites that you’ve been building up to?

Sometimes it’s just based on feeling – I’ll have short bursts where I’m listening to a certain song and I’m like, “Wow, I didn’t realize how cool the drums were”. It’s like a revisiting thing for me, and manifesting certain skills, that I can actually record certain parts that I didn’t think I could years before. It’s just fun to see my progress and see how other people feel.

You definitely get a different insight on music when you learn new instruments, I’m sure you’re able to notice exactly when the drums are hitting what, you kind of tune into it more.

Yeah, that makes sense because when you revisit other songs, you have more of an appreciation for it. You can also experiment with your own style, different drum fills, it’s cool to find your own thing.

And that’s where covers can really shine through, because you’re putting your own touch on it. It’s fun to do covers paying tribute to the original artist, but it’s great to put your own spin on it as well.

Definitely, music has to be fun in the end. You’ve got to make sure you’re having fun, and a good challenge is always good too.

You mentioned working with Steve Evetts as a producer as well, and he’s done a lot of metal for sure, but he also has some alternative and other genres under his belt as well – what do you feel his touch brought to the Dianthus sound?

Definitely his experience with other bands has helped us mold our sound too, he’s worked with pop-punk bands like New Found Glory – actually, at the same time as recording our album, he was working with these other pop-punk bands too. He has such a good ear for radio-ready songs, and coming into the process, we had all these crazy technical ideas, and he kind of calmed us down at certain parts to simplify and let the music take over. 

That’s pretty funny, you had all these crazy progressive ideas and he’s just like, “All right, guys – tone it down”. 

Right, if you want to reach more people, they have to understand the song, and you can’t get too crazy at certain parts.

Some progressive metal – and, what am I saying, some Rush – can get really crazy and out of hand, but sometimes even their craziest songs were radio-friendly, as long as you’ve got a hook, a melody, something that people can grab onto. 

That is true, yeah, there’s always a flipside to everything.

That makes sense with his pop-punk/alternative background, that makes things very melodic and catchy, and that helps explain why you have that “almost drawn from pop” sort of song structure…but it’s not pop, of course, but just the structure of a memorable, catchy chorus that people can come back to.

And another thing to add to the reason why we kind of calmed down at some parts – it was something we never really tried before, so we were open-minded because our first record was definitely very progressive and we wanted to try simplifying certain parts, and seeing how people would react.

Right, and of course, your previous album, Worth Living For, that was produced by JINXX from Black Veil Brides, can you talk about evolving your sound with him?

Yeah, well, to start off, Black Veil Brides played a huge part in inspiring the Dianthus sound, very melodic, kind of bright at some parts. So working with him hands on was super cool. My sister was able to come up with a lot of great guitar tones, certain riffs, we had harmonies, guit-armonies, going on. So it was a really cool thing. 

You also signed to Deko Entertainment in the past couple of years, so I wanted to ask about that experience and how that connection first came about?

We love Deko Entertainment, and we love the team we have now. It actually started from creating our Realms album, because Steve actually knew one of the team members from Deko. So naturally, when we were having our songs mastered, it went to someone who kind of knew of Deko, so that was how we got connected.

You mentioned having this fantasy world of Dianthus and Realms in other forms, so what is this I’m seeing about a Dianthus comic book to go with Realms? You’re giving me a throwback to when Kiss came out with comic book characters when they first came out. Talk to me about that project?

Definitely, it was an idea from one of our team members at Deko. He kind of suggested they’d be cool to kind of dive deeper into the story of the albums, because there’s only so much that you can tell through music, that you need that extra visual to supplement the storyline. We never started any comic books before – we’re not too much comic book junkies, but we love the idea of doing it, and plus we know the whole scene in comics is pretty huge, so it’s pretty exciting. We think it will definitely help the fans understand the concepts more for sure.

You’re talking about the visuals of the band, through the comics and music videos, but I feel like the fashion and general aesthetic is part of the visual for your live show as well. You have the Victorian Goth appearance that a lot of symphonic metal bands tend to do, but without being a symphonic metal band yourselves.

It’s kind of interesting, yeah, we’ve always loved the Victorian style, and combining that with metal, we think it has a really cool intrigue. Plus, Victorian has a lot of black clothing and kind of fanciful wardrobes, so we just like the look of it. We kind of want to become characters in a way to really tell our music better.

As a drummer, do you have any go-to gear or brands that you work with that you’re particularly fond of?

Yeah, as far as drumsticks, I always use Vic Firth even since I picked up the drums, it was the main brand that I really gravitated to. So they’re great – I love Zildjian cymbals too, especially the darker kind of K cymbals, those are pretty good for our sound, and I play Tama drums.

What about the flower of Dianthus did you identify with that made you say, this just feels like the right band name?

It’s actually interesting how the band name came about – my sister was looking through different plant and flower names, and then she came across Dianthus so of course we had to look up an image of it, and the flower itself has kind of rough edges, but it’s also very bright. Plus it sounds kind of metal, people don’t really know that it’s a flower, so it seemed natural to choose that one as our name.

It does feel like a natural name for a metal band – when I looked it up and actually saw flowers come up too, I was like, “wait…what?” *laughs*

*laughs* It is a funny surprise there.

But it is mostly content about you that comes up when you put “Dianthus” in at this point, so you’re overcoming the flower results in Google!

 *laughs* Exactly, I told my sister that maybe we should tweak the spelling or lettering, but I think it’s cool.

Another exciting thing that I see coming up for Dianthus is that you have some support slots for Angel at the legendary Whisky a Go Go and Count’s Vamp’d, two very well-known venues in the rock world, have you played either of those before?

Well, we’ve played the Whisky before, but Count’s Vamp’d in Vegas, we’ve always wanted to play there, so we’re very excited that we’re finally playing that place in June. 

Awesome. I also want to ask a little bit about Jessica outside of the music world, and what else you’re into?

For sure, I’m definitely an artistic person, I’ve always loved to sketch and draw, but in my free time outside the band, I like to create graphics. I like to do a lot of the posters, actually, so it all comes back to the band in a lot of ways, I love designing graphics. I also love to go antique shopping, my sister and I love to do that – it’s therapeutic for us. 

That’s fun, and I feel like that also ties right back into the band since you have the vintage Victorian aesthetic. Even if it’s something that’s a hobby, you still end up using it for the band.

Right, *laughs* it all comes back to the band, it’s always art-based. 

To wrap things up, what’s on the horizon for Dianthus at this point?

We’re excited to be continuing to play shows here in the area – we’re based in Riverside, CA, so we’ve got some shows coming up, and also in the summer with Angel on June 10th and June 11th, so keep an eye out for those dates – and those tickets are available now.

Awesome, thank you so much for your time today, Jessica!

Thank you so much again!

Keep up with Dianthus via: https://www.dianthuslive.com.