New Los Angeles act The Dark are set to unleash their self-titled debut EP later this month. Their sound is unique, with nods to everything from metalcore to nu metal to ’90s industrial, to simply name a few. There’s notable moody atmospheres, intertwined electronics, and some blunt heaviness all wrapped together in this exciting sound. We spoke with vocalist Craig Johns Jr. to hear some of the history of the band, what his production work has aided with in The Dark’s sound, social media efforts, aspirations about future live shows, and much more.
Dead Rhetoric: How are things in California at the moment?
Craig Johns Jr: Not very good. I’m personally situated in a place where I am okay, but a lot of friends have lost their homes and things are definitely stressful right now. Hopefully it will get better in the next couple of weeks. It’s a lot. LA is built from a lot of strong people and passionate people. I’ve seen a lot of people donating and delivering them. Everyone is working really hard. I hope it’s fixed soon, it’s a terrible tragedy for everyone. It’s devastating so I hope we learn from this and I’m proud of everyone for coming together.
Dead Rhetoric: How did The Dark come about?
Johns: The Dark started as a writing project about two years ago. Alan [Ashby] had reached out to me to work on some music in the realm of video game and movie scores, and then little by little it got heavier and it sort of turned into a metal band. Then we had the talk about whether we should go ahead and make it a band. So we did. We spent the first couple years writing tons of songs, then throwing almost all of them out. Then the search for a label began and finding members to play drums and bass. It was really just writing music for a while until we decided to take that leap and make it a real thing. We really came together in a very serious way in the summer of last year, so less than a year ago.
Dead Rhetoric: So what were those sort of initial influences? You said there was more of a video game and movie score kind of feel to start.
Johns: He [Ashby] had been playing a video game, Cyberpunk, which had a lot of more techno/industrial feels to it. He was very inspired by that. I’ve always been very into nu metal and industrial metal. So there’s a bit of that, as well as movie scores combined with him playing in metal bands for quite some time. I’ve been producing metal for a long time, so we combined in a unique way, to make the band what it is. ‘90s metal for sure, movie scores, a lot of electronic stuff – those are the influences.
Dead Rhetoric: There’s some notable ‘90s nu metal and industrial elements that you can hear creeping into the band. What do you like about that particular sound?
Johns: I don’t know if it’s something about the sound. I just kind of grew up on it. My mom was into heavier stuff growing up and I spent a lot of time in the day care in the personal training gym where she worked, and they played a lot of Limp Bizkit, Deftones, Slipknot, and Linkin Park. I just grew up on that stuff, and I think that whatever you listened to in your formative years kind of carries into your adulthood. It hits a sweet spot for you. I’ve written all kinds of stuff, but that’s the sound that gets me the most excited. There’s also so much room for exploration.
Metal in general is so diverse. I think that being able to play so much with the electronic space and the industrial space – there is so much impact you don’t really get in a lot of other kinds of metal or other types of electronic music. There can be such dynamics with it by just cutting things out or bringing things in. You can be really creative with the layers. I feel like it just feels like there is an epicness that is unique to the industrial side of things.
Dead Rhetoric: On the production side of things, have you taken anything you have worked with as a producer and applied it with The Dark, or things that you specifically didn’t want to work with?
Johns: I don’t know, I do have a bit of disco stuff I want to play. There is a very delicate balance between the organic and synthetic elements in that genre. You want to have a lot of very real sounding section with the guitars and horns, but you also want to have these electronic drums or synthesizers. To get it all to blend is something you learn. I think I used a lot of that in The Dark. I am constantly trying to blend what is a guitar and what is a synth. Or what is a real drum kit and what’s a machine. I think we exist in that gray area for the listener, not necessarily picking out sort of what is what, but how it all sounds together. I think keeping people in that space – the balance between what is real and what is not, and emphasizing the mood and impact over a particular tone or sound. I incorporated a lot of that, which I learned from disco.
Just to avoid it, I think there is a lot of formula out there, and I think I avoided a lot of that. Sometimes we use a lot of that, but it’s more like, ‘let’s just double this chorus, because that’s what everyone does and it just makes sense.’ So sure. But do I want to do that? When you have a new band, you have a new opportunity to do whatever you want and set your own template. There’s no need to just do what you have always done because you haven’t done anything. So I am careful to not do the obvious thing all the time.
Dead Rhetoric: Related to that, what do you feel you have to offer the average listener that helps you to stand out?
Johns: I think that it’s more of what we don’t have. We don’t have a lot of the obvious stuff, like the classic chorus sound a lot of groups have. We don’t have a big one-liner breakdown a lot of bands have. Nothing wrong with those things, but there are other bands that have really honed them and there’s no point in coming in and trying to do something that someone else has already done and are known for. I think that when someone listens to us, it’s not a metalcore band. It’s not that – it’s it’s own thing. It’s heavily electronic and you have so much dynamic between the push and pull of completely empty space and the overwhelmingly full and dense. If you are listening to us and you like us, it’s because it’s like watching a sci-fi movie but it’s like a band. There’s something very dense about that.
Dead Rhetoric: So do you feel there’s a lot of crossover potential outside of the metal market that you can appeal to? I know you have been getting played on Octane already.
Johns: I hope so. I definitely see the band as growing into a space that’s just not the metalcore scene. I hope that we aren’t stuck there. I want to see the band grow into more of a bigger, rock space. Theres always subgenres and you can chop things up however you want, like is it this type of metal or that type? But at the end of the day it’s all metal, it’s all rock. I think that I try to make it so the melodies are approachable for everyone. If you listen to really heavy stuff, there are some super heavy parts – screaming and breakdowns and all that. But I don’t think the band overall feels like something you can only listen to if you are into that sort of stuff. I want it to be approachable for everyone. But also, unique. It’s it’s own thing that a lot of people can get into.
Dead Rhetoric: A good chunk of the EP is already available for listeners. How do you feel the band has been received so far?
Johns: I think it’s way better than I thought it was going to be [laughs]. I thought that it would take a while to grow. We have so much growing to do – we are still brand new and small. But it was cool, our first song just had a bit more of a moment than I expected. I expected nothing, and there was a little bit of a pop, and it was a wonderful surprise. “Slip Away” has been received so well by radio and playlisting. It’s better than I could have imagined. We’ve been shocked and grateful and excited. So the pressure is on to continue to fuel that fire, and not let it be a flash in the pan. We are doing everything we possibly can every day to keep it going. We have a lot of people to thank for that. People on TikTok who made reviews, people on Spotify who put it on a playlist, and the amazing people at Octane who just genuinely like it a lot and want to keep playing it. You can’t ask for that. We are stoked and grateful. We want to keep everyone happy and want to keep them listening.
Dead Rhetoric: With the room for growth, is there anything that you can think of that you think would be a cool idea to expand upon? Any thoughts as to how you want to grow?
Johns: No, not like in a weird way. We don’t want to break into doing movie scores or anything like that yet. We are a new band, and until everyone has heard of us, I don’t think we can stop pushing. I want to be the biggest band in the world, and I don’t think you can set your goal anything short of that if you really believe in something. I think I just want everyone to check us out. It’s going to take some time.
Dead Rhetoric: How important is the social media piece in getting exposure for a new band? A lot of bands shy away from it, but do you think there is a certain amount of relevance to play the social media game and have it work in your favor?
Johns: Yeah, I think it’s a necessary evil. I don’t know if I want to say it’s a necessary evil – I don’t know if it’s really evil at all. I can be. There’s a lot of people who hate doing social media, and I get that. I think a lot of people have been pressured by a lot of other artists who had success in one pocket, to do what they did or some marketing person is telling them they need to make one post a day singing in your bedroom. That’s not necessarily true. I think it’s different for everybody. Who your band is, what your genre is, and what your personal vibe is. We treat social media like more of a gallery. We post our videos and songs on there. We aren’t trying to have people relate to us, or be cute with it. Here’s what we do, here’s what we sound like and look like, and we help people like it. That’s just who we are. I spend all day making stuff in a studio and I just post it.
I’m not spending all day chatting on TikTok. That’s not who I am and I don’t want to fake it. It would feel really ingenuine. But I love making art and I love showing it to people. We treat it as a gallery of what we do. I think the important thing is just getting your art in front of someone, so we do post constantly on Reels and TikTok. We try to get creative and repurpose – as long as something is going out almost every day, I’m happy about it. If you do like this genre, if you could like our band, then hopefully we have popped out in front of you. So just making an effort to do that. It’s overwhelming, social media. We just try to make cool stuff and post it.
Dead Rhetoric: You had your first live show last month? What goals do you have for the band in the live setting moving ahead? What would you like to achieve as a band with them, other than the obvious growth?
Johns: I’ve always hoped that our live show could sort of exceed the norm. I have had this dream that our live show is more of a 3-dimensional experience than just playing our songs really loud. I want to start playing with things like lighting and atmosphere, and other kinds of activation senses…even playing something like smell. I want to make it so when you go to the live show, your friend is like, “Have you done this before?” not just “Have you seen them?” I want an intense experience. We already play our shows super, super dark…not just because we are called The Dark, but I think it’s more intense that way. When there are no lights, there are no lights. It’s unnerving.
We think it’s cool to go in and have your adrenaline a bit high and be in the pitch black in between songs. It feels a bit more like an adrenaline rush than just having someone play loud. That’s great, but I hope that it becomes…I don’t know, I’d really like to change the game with that and really fuck shit up, but again. When you are a small band with a small budget, it’s hard to accomplish that. But I have a dream of making it a very one of a kind experience someday.
Dead Rhetoric: Do you feel that heavier music has been making more of a mainstream comeback?
Johns: I don’t know. I feel like when I was younger, it was huge. Maybe it was just where I was at. Nu metal went on to be more of a mainstream thing. Then in the 2000s, the Rise Records scene was getting pretty big. A lot of people who knew those bands and it was pretty cool. I think it has taken quite a huge dive. In the past 5-10 years it feels like things have started to die, but it’s starting to come back now. Gojira playing the Olympics was huge! That was really sick. It seems like it is coming back strong, but we are still on the climb up, so I’m excited to see how big it gets. But if you are structured in movies again, you are starting to see bigger shows again. Warped Tour coming back is huge. I think that all things combined, I think it’s coming back but we haven’t hit the peak yet. I’m hoping the peak is soon.
Dead Rhetoric: The band is called The Dark, and there’s a lot of stuff in there about the dark side of human nature. What’s appealing about that in terms of making a sound around it?
Johns: When I am making music, I think I am very visual with it. I’m not sure if it’s full on synesthesia but I feel like a lot of those sounds feel like those spaces to me. When I am chasing a certain objective, or a verse/chorus, and I have an idea about how I want it to sound, it feels very much like I can see these spaces or see the color of the art. I think that I am trying to make things sound how they really feel to me.
A lot of times it’s the same thing with what I am singing about. When I am singing about something cold and distant, I don’t just want the words to be that, but the part should sound that way. So I go to great lengths to get certain sounds and flavors that really reflect what I am talking about, so that it feels very connected. It was more of a theme of this, lyrically, before it became the name of the band. We had a song called “The Dark,” and it became the name of the band. That song later changed names and is now one of the ones that is not out yet on the EP.
Dead Rhetoric: You have those five songs on the EP, do you have more written that you are working towards with future releases?
Johns: Yeah, we are working every day on something. We have already started working on the record for after the EP. I have no idea when that will be out or even start to release it. But we don’t just stop writing because there is and EP coming out. As soon as it was done, we kept writing songs and now that will be a record. But yeah, Alan is always sending me demos and I’m always producing them. We are always working, always. It’s what we literally like to do, like playing sports or watching TV. We just like to work on stuff. So I do it all the time. There’s a bunch of stuff I have already written that is just sick.
Dead Rhetoric: A cool thing I have seen with some other Arising Empire bands is that the singles keep coming out, and eventually there’s an album announcement. But it keeps the music in people’s attention span longer that way, with the lead-up.
Johns: Yeah, if it was up to me, we would just release a song every 6-8 weeks forever. I don’t know if we need to have things packaged. I guess creatively, you can categorize things like when we wrote this EP we were in this headspace and this sort of sound. Then here is our pocket for when we were writing this album, and it feels like an album. It makes sense to have those things, even if we are in a singles-driven culture now. I like the idea of having the albums for categorization, or collections of different times of writing things. But as far as releasing things, I’d just release things constantly, forever if I could. It’s awesome, and I like making stuff. I don’t like not putting stuff out, just because we have to wait. The album comes out, you can’t just drop a new song a month later. You have to give it a bit. But I would if I could. I enjoy it, and I don’t want to stop writing or producing stuff.
Dead Rhetoric: What are your other plans for 2025?
Johns: We have our show on February 23 in Los Angeles at The Echo. We are super excited for it. It’s our first headline show. We have some really awesome openers for it. Kent Osborne and Chino. It’s going to be super sick. The tickets are up at our website. We have a few other shows and other things that I can’t give out details on, but they will be spread out throughout the year and the EP comes out in February and hopefully we will be touring our asses off. I want to be playing as many shows as possible. Then just cooking on the record. It’s a busy year already. We are shooting another music video in a few hours! We are constantly doing something and working our asses off. Putting out content, putting out songs and playing shows, getting ready for whatever comes next.