Derya “Dez” Nagle is the guitarist for progressive UK rock band The Safety Fire. The band just released their first full length album titled “Grind the Ocean”. Media Mikes had a chance to talk with Dez about the new album and the bands upcoming US tour.
Adam Lawton: Can you tell us about the new album?
Dez Nagle: The album is called “Grind the Ocean” and it is being released via Inside Out. We have a digitized version of the album as well as a hard copy version. This is our first full length album and we couldn’t be more excited to get the album out there.
AL: Can you describe the writing process for the album?
DN: We generally will start with one motif that we will develop into a whole song. Sometimes we will have a just a chord progression or a riff that we flesh out into a full arrangement. From there we all discuss where we want to take the song. The type of music we do makes it sort of difficult to start off trying to make ideas from the very beginning. Some of the ideas can be quite obscure and or abstract in conversation. It’s a lot easier to go along with the studio vibe and develop the ideas there. We usually will pre-produce those ideas and write everything else from there.
AL: Will we be seeing any music videos to accompany the album’s release?
DN: We did a video for the first single off the album titled “She’s Hammered”. The video has been out for a short time now and has gotten quite a bit of air time here in the UK. I 
think the YouTube release just recently hit 70,000 views. There also is an exclusive video people can check out on Guitarworld.com for the bands next single.
AL: What can you tell us about the concept for the new video?
DN: It’s very different from the normal kind of band performance. The video is based around Laurie drinking this peculiar drink which alters her perception. We like to have fun videos that have their own story line while keeping a connection to the song. We want people who watch the videos to have an appreciation for both the video and the music.
AL: Being from/based in the UK have you found it hard to break into new markets such as the US?
DN: I think being the type of band that we are makes us very proactive. We are always releasing new content and trying to engage our fans as much as possible. The internet has really broken down a lot of boundaries for what is possible. We have received a lot of messages and such via Twitter and Facebook from people who are excited to see the band. That has been really great. Even though we are from the UK we are always looking for ways to get into other new markets. Radio One here in the UK has helped the band a lot by playing our songs during the drive hours. That has really opened us up to a lot more 
people.
AL: How long will your tour in States run?
DN: We start at the end of March in Chicago and the tour runs through the end of April. All the dates of the tour are available on line so people wanting to check out the band can look for those and come and see the show. Once that tour wraps up we have been confirmed for some UK festivals dates. We will be at Sonisphere as well as another really cool festival called The Heavy Festival. We love touring and being busy.
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