Photo by Michael Donahue // Buy this photo
Deadfall Road features (from left) Blake Leonard, David Hoffman, Eric Graham and Preston Jones.
Deadfall Road experienced a windfall when they were asked to perform the soundtrack for the upcoming movie, “Shattered Hopes: the True Story Behind the Amityville Murders.”
“It was really kind of a shock,” said Blake Leonard, 17, guitarist in the band that includes guitarist and lead vocalist David Hoffman, 16; drummer Eric Graham, 16; and bass player Preston Jones, 15.
Memphian Andrea Jones, who blogs about music for examiner.com, recommended Deadfall Road to Ryan Katzenbach, writer/producer/director of the movie, which now is in production. The documentary is about the murder of the DeFeo family in 1974 in Amityville, New York. Ronald ‘Butch’ DeFeo Jr. was convicted for killing members of his family.
Katzenbach, who lives in Los Angeles, originally was interested in using the Memphis band Egypt Central, but they were busy recording an album. Jones sent Katzenbach a Deadfall Road CD. “I liked their sound overall,” he said. “They have a very edgy, unique sound and, of course, our movie is kind of edgy by its nature — considering the very dark material we’re covering.”
When they heard they got to do the music for the movie, Deadfall Road went a step further. “We’re like, ‘OK, let’s write a song about the Amityville Horror,” Hoffman said.
They wrote “Voices,” which begins, “The family is sleeping like stones in their bed. The voices are pushing this gun in my hand. It’s over. It’s over. They all lay dead. The blood in their veins replaced by lead.”
“Out of the blue Andrea comes to me saying, ‘They wrote an original song for you. They think it would be relevant to the film,’” Katzenbach said. “She sent me the lyrics. (They) were just chilling. It was evident this song they wrote, ‘Voices,’ is the embodiment of this movie.”
Katzenbach then asked Deadfall Road to re-record songs, including “California Dreaming,” “Turn Turn Turn” and “The Night Chicago Died, that were popular around the time of the murders. “Dawn DeFeo (one of the murder victims), who loved the Paper Lace song ‘The Night Chicago Died,’ re-wrote the song and changed the (song title to) ‘The Night the DeFeos Died.’”
Dawn might originally have been in on the plan to murder the family, Katzenbach said. One of the lines in her song was, “I heard my mama cry. I heard her scream, ‘Big Ronnie, we’re going to die,’” he said.
Deadfall Road might do a “Voices” music video to coincide with the movie. “It’s gonna pan in through the half moon windows,” Hoffman said. “I’m supposed to be tossing and turning in the bed and I wake up . ... I walk through the house and the shots are fired and everything. I’ll be holding the gun. I basically turn into the character (Butch DeFeo) by the end of the music.”
Even though Deadfall Road practices on Burrow Cemetery Road in Arlington and is dealing with some ghoulish material, the band is not a death metal or a Marilyn Manson-worshipping group.
The alternative rock band is going to release their third album, One Bullet at a Time, Friday at a show at The New Daisy. “We decided we’re just gonna keep putting music out there in the world until someone finds that song they like and it goes somewhere,” Graham said.
Blake Allison of Egypt Central produced the record.
Describing “Riverbed,” one of the songs that he wrote on the album, Hoffman said, “You’re dating somebody else and then they break your heart. You go out looking for love and you find it and you realize that what you had before was nothing compared to what you have now.”
It was based on a true story, Hoffman said. As for the new girl, he said, “She turned out to break my heart, too.”
Listen Up spotlights area performers. Michael Donahue can be reached at 529-2797.
Deadfall Road
The group’s EP release concert is Friday at the New Daisy Theatre, 330 Beale. Doors open at 7 p.m. Cover: $11.
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