The Dead Cinema for The Meadow
interviewer: Sara Sharif (@sarangelic)
interviewee: The Dead Cinema (@thedeadcinema)
Under the name “the dead cinema.” Analiyah Knight and Sarah Holland create Dreampop/Electric rock tunes from their bedrooms. They are influenced by artists and groups such as Phantogram, Lykke Li, and Cults. Written, recorded, and produced collaboratively their fuzzy cinematic sound is what makes the dead cinema unique. Hollands passion for music production and technology intertwined with Knights poetic writing skills interchange with each other threw out they’re music making process.
t h e i n t e r v i e w
1. Please start with a little introduction about yourselves.
Sure! Our names are Sarah and Aaliyah, and we go under the name “The Dead Cinema.” We create tunes from our bedrooms and our pronouns are she/they.
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2. We’d love to know the story behind your musical journey.
We are both from Tampa Florida and originally met in a guitar class in high school. We first met in guitar class and become close friends over the pandemic, we both really enjoy making music and one night we both decided to put our ideas to the table and came up with “perfect”. After we heard how well we worked/ sounded together we decided to create “the dead cinema “and see what other masterpieces we can come up with.
So far, it’s been really cool. on social media, we have been able to reach out to independent artists and bands like us and it’s been really awesome to be part of a musical community!
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3. How would you describe your vibe?
We are a mix between dream pop and electric rock, the vibe that we are going for is the mix between chill bedroom pop and the dark/gloomy Electric rock. Something you can definitely cry to but be screaming at a concert.
4. What inspired you to create your first, “Perfect”?
Well, I had a chorus I really loved and Ana had 2 really great verses about the same topic so we sort of mashed them together and tweaked some things to make sure it fit the message we were trying to send which was trying to alter yourself for somebody your madly in love with because when you're delusionally in love, that person can do no wrong so they might as well be perfect. Overall, the song is the perspective of rising above that type of situation. A good example would be the lyric “we walked in the dark to find our light but the whole time you had me blind.”
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5. What did you want to portray through “Perfect”?
For perfect and just about all the music down the line we want the message to be as versatile as it can be, as long as it means something to you and sorts or speaks to you is all that matters, a few ideas I have about our song perfect is that it can be about watching someone you loved and grew with, turn around and hurt you. It can also be about someone wanting to be enough for someone and feeling like the other person is too good for them.
"Before we recorded “perfect” I picked up Ana from her house and we were both feeling down so I had the idea to just go to a music store near my house for no reason. we both went and played the drums and hung out in the guitar section. Before we knew it, it was like 2 hours later and dark outside, and we felt like recharged. I asked Ana if she wanted to finally make a real song together at my place and that obviously progressed. Those two hours kind of fueled us just being surrounded by instruments and music."
7. What is each one’s creative process?
Mine (Sarah) diffidently starts on the computer mostly, then I begin to write lyrics.
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I (Ana) love writing poems and I focus on putting my raw emotions into words that can be deciphered however it portrayed to each individual, it helps a bunch to just let it out but putting it to some chords or a beat really bring it to a better level of expression.
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8. Who is your musical inspiration?
Phantogram, Chelsea Wolf, cults, the neighborhood, and beach house.
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9. Any tips from your experience for our musicians out here?
Just to have fun but don’t be afraid to learn because when you have the knowledge and inspiration together you can create amazing things. And don’t be afraid to just reach out and talk to labels, articles, etc. put yourself out there as much as you can, and build relationships with other artists either around you or similar to your genre.
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10. So, what should we expect next, in the near future?
Sarah and I have a few projects in the making so I’d say more singles while we continue to hopefully grow with our audience, we plan on looking into some local venues to perform eventually,
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The Dead Cinema is streaming on all music platforms!