An interview with Narcotic Wasteland’s Dallas Toler-Wade.
By E.N. Wells, September 15, 2020.
In 2017, after 20 plus years as frontman and guitarist for Brutal Tech Death legends Nile, Dallas Toler-Wade announced to the dismay of fans across the world that he was walking away from the band that he had so helped bring to notoriety. His reasoning for this decision was quite simple; “to spend more quality time at home with his family”, and Nile’s rigorous touring schedule did not allow for this. But, this wasn’t the last we were going to hear from Dallas Toler-Wade. Because, as he says it, “I feel like I was put here to play metal”!
Let’s go back to 2014, prior to his decision to leave Nile, where he had unveiled a project that he had been working on for the past few years while he wasn’t in the studio or on the road with Nile. With this project, Dallas says that he “wanted to maintain the brutality of Death Metal, but go back to his roots and combine those elements into one sound”. And, the more songs that he completed, the more he wanted to put a full band together. Enter long-time friend Edwin Rhone (guitar/vocals) and later, Chris (LutaChrist) Dupre (bass/vocals) with the final addition of Erik Schultek (drums) and Narcotic Wasteland was born.
The bands name, along with the music and lyrics on their eponymously titled debut were conceptual in nature, as they were a stark reflection of the ever growing epidemic of addiction to street drugs and pharmaceuticals in their hometown of Fayetteville, NC. The result was an unrelenting roller coaster ride of brutality, anger and sadness for the loss of friends and loved ones.
Their second album, Delirium Tremens (2017) saw a continuation on the topics of drug abuse and death, but not being content with just focusing on these subjects, the band branches off into other areas, such as negative human behavior and personal reflection, while also expressing their evident disdain for the corporate drug pushers known as big pharma. The album also saw them expanding on the sound that they had already established on their first record by moving even further into a darker, menacing realm, with more sorrowful passages. As Toler-Wade once explained it; “we like writing music that challenges us, but we also want to connect with the listener on an emotional level.” I would also like to note that this album saw a small change in line-up with Phil Cancilla replacing Erik Schultek on drums.
In late 2019, after a successful month long trek across the wastelands of North America on the Pathological Addiction tour with Pathology, MALIGNANCY and Contrarian, and a performance at FOAMHENGE '19 in November, Narcotic Wasteland announced that they would possibly be releasing a new album in the early spring of 2020. Unfortunately, like with most artists, the onset of the Covid 19 pandemic seems to have delayed said plans.
So, I had the chance to speak with Dallas Toler-Wade about what’s been going on in the Narcotic Wasteland camp amongst all of the chaos and confusion, and what we can expect from them in the near future, and here is what he had to say...
Eric Wells - First of all, I would like to say thank you for taking the time to speak with me today.
Dallas Toler-Wade - Oh, hell yeah man!
Eric - How have things been since the start of the Covid outbreak?
Dallas - Well, I’m hanging in there. It didn’t necessarily affect my life a whole lot because, other than going out to concerts every now and then, I’m pretty much in isolation anyways, cause people are kind of crazy. So, I try to avoid humanity like the plague for the most part.
Eric - After 20 years of recording and performing with Nile, were you nervous about starting over and taking Narcotic Wasteland on full-time?
Dallas - Not really, it was something that I was going to be doing on Nile downtime anyways. So, yeah I wasn’t terribly nervous about it. For me, music has always been, I wouldn’t necessarily say more of a hobby, but I didn’t get into this thinking I was going to make it and tour the world one day. I got into it because I really like it. And actually, when I started with Nile, ya know, we were just kind of a regional band or whatever, and I was just happy to be jamming with some guys that were serious about recording music and playing shows. If we would have still been only playing regionally, I would have been fine with that. It’s the same with Narcotic Wasteland, I mean, the sky is the limit. Of course, you want to do what you can to get exposure and get your music out there and all that stuff, but I have no delusions about the industry, particularly now. It just something that I really enjoy doing. And, it’s a way for me to vent some of my own personal frustrations, and it’s a way for me to be able to jam with some old friends. So, I couldn’t say that I was nervous about it. I’m always just... when it’s time to do something like play shows or record something, I’m pretty gung-ho about it.
Eric - It seemed that Narcotic Wasteland were gaining a lot of momentum during the Pathological Addiction Tour (2019). How responsive were the fans?
Dallas - It was good, it was really good. We were definitely making some new ones (fans) every night. And, of course, even with the promotion on our end, people were showing up at the show and were like, “Hey Dallas, what the fuck are you doing here?” (laughs) They didn’t even know! So yeah, they didn’t know who the hell we were! And, then there were some people who had already got the debut CD, which was released in 2014, when I was still active with Nile. So, there was a variety of that, and we definitely made some new fans.
Eric - I know you were planning on releasing new music this past spring, but things have been pretty quiet on the Narcotic Wasteland home front since the end of your 2019 North American tour. Is this mostly due to the Covid outbreak? Tell us what’s been going on with yourself and the band these past months.
Dallas - It definitely had a play in it. Also, what ended up happening after doing that tour and doing a show called Foamhenge, where we had kind of an eclectic line-up. It was an outdoor festival where you had us (Narcotic Wasteland), Power Trip, and Ace Frehley headlining. Yeah, you had a few different things. So, after that we had come to the realization that we were going to have to find another drummer. We were already supposed to have a lyric video and all kinds of stuff that kinda got shot down after we had to go on the drummer hunt again. I’m not going to reveal a whole lot about that yet, but that’s all taken care of now. But, it’s still Me, Chris and Ed, original members. We’ve just been having the drummer thing going on, but we found a really cool guy. Either way, I’m just going to leave it at that for the moment. But, then yeah, we were supposed to really have everything wind up for the spring time, and then the Covid thing happened. Then, we just weren’t able to really plan anything at that point because, typically when you start releasing albums, ya know, you’ll release a couple of singles, then the album drops, and usually, when all that is going on, you typically want to be playing shows. You know, since that flew out the window, we were just kinda like, “well, ya know, to hell with it for now” and, “that’s okay, we’ll just continue to write”. So, we have more than enough stuff for an album. And, we’re just, ya know, still plugging away at new songs. And, I took the time out to actually take some guitar lessons. And then, talking about it with some friends, I ended up teaching lessons again. I only have a couple of students. I kinda want to keep it that way, ya know. Again, it’s nothing that I really, actively promote. It’s just something that I like to do for fun. And, so basically, we’re looking at this time next year for shows. That looks like where everybody is gonna trying to fire back up, is probably about a year from now. So, we got our agent kinda looking at that. That gives us more time to really come out of the gate hard, firing on all cylinders. And, we’re real happy about all the material that we’ve gotten together so far. It’s definitely a big musical growth from the last one. Lots of brutality, of course. Lots of parts that are somewhat melancholic. It’s a... a very emotional record... and very heavy! Of course, ya know, fast and all that stuff... but, not all the time. There’s a lot of variety. And, that’s something we wanna get going.
Eric - When can we expect a new release to come out?
Dallas - It will definitely be... it would be safe to say, 100%, some time next year. I don’t know exactly when. But, right now we’re just kinda resting on our laurels, and getting everything in line, so we can really go out and attack. So, that’s pretty much it. I can say 100%, that we will definitely have an album out next year. It would have been this year, but we decided to just take a break and write stuff. And, it’s been going really great.
Eric - On the first two albums, Narcotic Wasteland tackled Big Pharma, drug addiction, and the toxic behavior that comes along with it. Is this a subject that we can expect to see more of with the new material?
Dallas - Maybe, ahh, some of the lyrics are kind of in that vein, but a lot of it has kind of... for me personally, in the stuff that I have written so far, there’s not necessarily a whole lot about drugs as a whole. I mean, there’s still some of that in there, but I’m kinda taking a step back to just write about stuff that... “you said the thing about... you know, venomous behavior”. As we all get older, we realize just what people are made of, and there’s really... I mean, to be a southern guy, there’s some real sorry sonsofbitches out there. There’s just like, a level of narcissism, just inherent in people, and you don’t realize it until... you may not realize it right away, cause it’s hard for me to personally fathom how someone could be that bad, or that selfish, or whatever. So, there’s probably, the first lyric video that’s gonna come out, will be a song kinda talking about that. Me, just really lashing out some angst towards, ya know, people with really shitty behavior. They treat people around them like crap. Ya know, it’s like the syndrome of where someone has to tear you down in order to feel better about themselves. I really want to touch on some subjects this time that... are just stuff that people can really relate to on a daily basis. And, that’s kind of where a good bit of the lyrical direction is going this time. So, it’ll be a little bit of a different record, as far as that’s concerned. I think what’s going on (with the band), it’s just overall, the whole project, is getting more and more focused and more mature. And, we’re kind of really dialing in what exactly we wanna do and how we wanna do it... What we wanna say, and how we wanna say it. And, it’s just getting a little better every time.
Eric - On the subject of themes and what not, do you find it easier to write music on a common topic or does it become more challenging?
Dallas - I think it’s... ahh, pretty easy, in a way. Because, I’ve always kind of viewed what Narcotic (Wasteland) does, as sort of a Metal band with punk lyrics. I don’t want it to be all... I mean, I’ve had people in the past say, “oh, your lyrics are cheesy” or whatever, and I’m like, “we are talking about heavy metal right now, aren’t we?” (we both laugh). I mean, what makes mine any more or less cheesy than... (singing) “In the days, when dinosaurs roamed the earth”! I mean, it’s like, what are you basing this on? But anyways, kinda getting back to that, I find it pretty easy just to vent on paper, about something I feel strongly about, whether it makes me sad, or pisses me off, or whatever. And, kind of like, take the good bits and make something from it. I find that to be a pretty easy way to do it. Or, sometimes I’ll just have a chorus or something in my head and it will kind of fit in with what’s going on with the music at that particular part of the song. Or, sometimes I’ll just have a couple of good verses, and it will be like, “okay, where the hell’s this gonna go?”. I just vent for a couple of pages and then crop it down to something that will, ya know, fit in a song.
Eric - It’s pretty much therapeutic, in a way.
Dallas - Absolutely, absolutely! I get to do that, and then the aggression or whatever the music is supposed to do is backing that all up. There’s one song, actually, that’s kind of slow and melancholic, and crunchy, that is actually talking about the realization of ones own mortality. Yeah, and I hope it gives people goosebumps all over, and I hope it brings a tear to their eye when they hear it. Ya know, when I write music, that’s what I’m going for. Of course, you know it’s good to have all the chops and to be able to play really good and all that stuff. But, at the end of the day, it’s about what are you actually achieving? Are you connecting with somebody on that kind of emotional level?
Eric - Yeah, that’s the thing that I look for the most, drawing a connection between the person and the song.
Dallas - Yeah, and you know if “I” have a connection with it, there’s a chance that there’s at least one person out of the seven billion, other than me that might get it. (laughs)
Eric - You seem to be a very motivated person, what aspect of the music fuels this drive the most? Is it writing the music, recording the albums, the tours, the fans, etc? What drives you more?
Dallas - I think, all of the above. But, I would say most importantly, just umm, my personal love and appreciation for anything music related. Whether it be just equipment, guitars and gear, or just listening to stuff. Or, just sitting down with the guitar and pouring myself a drink, and just warming up and jamming out, ya know. I think that’s really the driving force in me, is just that I’ve been doing music ever since I can remember. I’ve been just absolutely fascinated with it my entire life. And, it’s always been a big part of my life.
Eric - Wow, you sound a lot like me. (we both laugh) That’s the reason I am even here with you today, because of my passion for music.
Dallas - Oh yeah man, I mean it’s a viable and healthy thing to get into. Maybe, not this kind of music, not necessarily for everybody. But, if you appreciate music, and even if there’s a certain thing or a certain style that you like or maybe hate, you still have to give credit where credit is due. Those guys are working their asses off and playing there asses off. That’s the thing a lot of people forget sometimes.
Eric - That’s funny, because I just wrote a small piece on that subject the other day. (we laugh)
Dallas - Hell yeah!
Eric - Many metal musicians are taking their side projects in other directions, away from metal; Nergal (Behemoth/Me and that Man), Teloch (Mayhem/Bergeton), and Malcolm Pugh (Inferi/Graveslayer). Have you ever had a desire to release a non metal album? If so, what genre would you explore?
Dallas - I can’t say that I’ve had the urge or desire to do anything like that. For me, Metal is still the most ahead of its time, the most innovative, and has the least filters between you and it. There’s no filter there. It’s all in your fuckin’ face, ya know! And, ya know, if anything, maybe I would do something in the vein of Punk, Thrash-Crossover or something. But, I feel like, in a way I’m kinda already doing that. But, you know, that’s where my hearts at. My heart is in Rock and Metal and Punk. And, if I was going to play something, I want it to be fast, and loud, and aggressive. And, I’ve never had a desire to play any other way. Now, when I started out on the drums, I was so young that I didn’t know what the hell I wanted to do, but very much enjoyed Rock N’ Roll. That’s kinda right where I started. I don’t know if I... If I was to play in, say, like a more Rock or traditional Heavy Metal band, I don’t even think I would play (an instrument). I think I would just sing. Yeah, sometimes I do miss actual vocals. (we laugh) You know what I mean?
Eric - Yeah, yeah, I most definitely do.
Dallas - But, other than that, ya know, I’m 100 percent... ya know, NW is different from Nile, but it’s not so different, I didn’t switch genres or anything. It’s still like a brutal style of Metal. It’s like Death Metal... Death Metal at the root. And, I just don’t see that ever changing.
Eric - Yeah, on that topic, you’re right, it’s still brutal. But, I’ve read that you had said you wanted to go back to your roots, and I’ve noticed that there are some really technical Thrash elements in the new music.
Dallas - Yeah, that’s where my hearts at. I love all of the old school Death and all the Thrash stuff that we grew up with, and all the Punk Rock we grew up with, and Crossover bands like D.R.I. And, I fell in love with guitars that aren’t tuned all the way down to “J”, ya know. Narcotic’s guitars are only either; well, some of the songs are a half step off of standard, or a whole step from standard tuning. Which is not a far stretch compared to, you know, people with twenty strings on their guitars and stuff. Which, there’s nothing wrong with that. I’m not bagging on any of that at all. It’s just not for me.
Eric - Do you remember the first time a fan mentioned to you, how your music has affected them? If so, how did this make you feel?
Dallas - It was a good feeling. When we started really firing up... really, with the debut album, I had a guy send me a personal message on Facebook. He was having some real issues. I think he was having a pill or opium issue, or something. And, some of the lyrics really hit home with him and he was very appreciative. And, he said that it, you know, made him stronger and kind of helped him. And, I couldn’t ask for a bigger compliment from someone. To know that I did something or said something in a song that really helped them along, and they didn’t feel alone in the world. They knew that there was someone out there that understood what they were going through, at least a little bit. And, that was probably... that’s probably one of the best moments ever, for me, as far as, you know, just putting my music out there... and, getting that kind of response. Cause, you know you’re always gonna have your trolls, “I don’t like this!”, “I don’t like that!”, “I don’t like the shirt he’s wearing!” or, ya know, “why does he play that guitar?”. There’s all that bullshit. But, once you sift through all the neurologically typical people that just want to hear their voices, and want their little misinformed opinions to be heard, there are some real people in there that you really connect with, and those are the guys who matter. Cause, these other guys, they’re not gonna buy your CD. They don’t give a shit about you. They’re more about promoting their own bullshit opinion about something. (laughs)
Eric - Was there a defining moment; as in an album or concert that made you say, “yeah, that’s what I want to do with my life”?
Dallas - Yeah, ya know, I have to say that I wasn’t even playing at that concert, I was just attending the concert. The first concert that I ever went to, I think I was 10 years old, and it was Rush. And, I believe it was the Power Windows tour. And, I knew then and there... I kinda already knew anyways, but after experiencing such a legendary band, which I got to see six times over the years. I was just like, hell yeah, I would love to be able to play on stage and do the thing. I think that was the defining moment. And then, every show after that, whether I attended it, or played it, it just kinda further cemented that within me.
Eric - You stated earlier that you started taking guitar lessons awhile back. Is this something that you are still pursuing?
Dallas - Yeah, I’m also giving some lessons. But, at the moment I’m taking a little bit of a hiatus on taking the lessons, just because I’ve been kind of concentrating a little bit more on what’s going on with the new music and everything. And, some of the stuff he was teaching me was pretty difficult for me. And, it’s a lot of fun and challenging, and I definitely came out a better player. And, I will return to my lessons once I get a little bit of these other guitar duties out of the way.
Eric - Well, coming from you, that is pretty humble, because I think you’re a pretty awesome guitar player.
Dallas - Thank you!
Eric - You’re welcome! Has taking guitar lessons impacted you as a songwriter?
Dallas - I don’t know yet! Because, a lot of the stuff that we’ve done had been written by the time I started taking the lessons. I will say, on the performance side, it’s definitely upgraded. Yeah, I’m upgraded now, on the performance end. I was just burning up a lot of energy (before) that I didn’t need to burn up, ya know. And, learning the proper way to do things... some people shun it... I’m never gonna sound like a computer, you know what I mean?! It’s okay! But, it definitely tightened some things up. There were some things that I was doing that was just making life difficult. And, sometimes when you’re playing guitar, that’s when you really feel like you’re doing something, is when it’s really crazy hard to do. And, just a few finger exercises and picking exercises, and stuff like that. The Narcotic Wasteland setlist, for instance.. like the set that we would play at a live show, it would kick my ass. But, if I would practice it regularly, I could pull it off just about any time. But now, with all this new stuff that I’m practicing, If I practice and warm up on that stuff for about 30 minutes and then play the setlist, my life is so much easier. It’s like... wow! And, I can play with more aggression, I’m tighter, and with less fatigue. Yeah, I’m really excited about it.
Eric - Yeah, I’m excited! I can’t wait to hear the new material. Now, you were talking about this a little bit earlier. Your musical journey started with drums. And, you handled drum duties for Lecherous Nocturne’s first full-length album, Adoration of the Blade (2006). Do you ever have the desire or wish you had explored that route further?
Dallas - Yeah, sometimes. But, ya know, guitar is just where I’m at. I mean, I enjoyed the drums very much. It was a lot of fun playing with those guys (Lecherous Nocturne). Ya know, me and the main guitar player, Kriesh, me and him are pretty good friends still, to this day. And, I can just see him around town every now and then and stuff. And, we talk gear and talk guitars, and stuff like that. But yeah, ya know, it’s just something I keep thinking about. “I’m gonna set my drums up and knock the dust off of ‘em, and get some practice time in”. But, I just never get around to it, and I end up like... ehh, “I’m just gonna play guitar”. (we laugh)
Eric - Okay, I only have one final question for you, and that is... what can we expect from in the near future, once the restrictions are lifted? Is there anything else in the works?
Dallas - Yeah, I mean, you’ll definitely be hearing some new material, a full album, a couple of videos, and definitely some live shows.
Eric - Well, that’s really all I have for you at the moment. I do appreciate you taking the time to talk with me today.
Dallas - Oh yeah man, absolutely! Thank you for having me. You have a good rest of your evening and hopefully I’ll see you out there.
Eric - Oh, you’ll definitely see me out there as soon as you guys hit the road.
Dallas - Excellent man! You take care now!
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