Interviews
The Horror of Dance with the Dead: A Q&A with One of the Most Beloved Bands in Synthwave
Around 1986 a boy saw a horror film that he probably shouldn’t have. In catching George Pavlou’s Rawhead Rex, the seven-year-old witnessed an unhinged pagan god unleashing a bloodbath on the Irish countryside. Even if he shouldn’t have seen the Clive Barker-penned film, we can all be glad he did. It led to a lifelong love of horror that would stick with a young Justin Pointer, setting the stage for him to form the globally renowned metal-synthwave act Dance with the Dead with fellow horror fan Tony Kim.
“It just terrified me,” Pointer said in a Skype interview he and Kim did with Bloody Disgusting recently, fresh off the release of the music video for the kinetic banger “From Hell.” “From there, I’ve always been into horror and sci-fi movies — getting scared.”
Dance with the Dead — formed in 2013 — tap into their ‘80s horror film roots in both their music and in the art they choose for their albums. The cover for their latest album, Loved to Death, features a dark, red-eyed ghoul-of-a-man creeping up behind an unsuspecting young woman, his malintent oozing from his face. It was created by Marc Schoenbach, well-known to BD readers for his compelling DVD cover art. Previous albums such as The Shape and Out of Body all feature transformed humans emanating dark energy. There are no palm trees or neon grids here.
It’s not the just the visuals that draw from classic horror. Their music — a deft blend of metal guitar riffs and wailing leads with minor-key synth arrangements and danceable beats — and their song titles all draw from their interests in the visuals and music of horror films from the likes of Dario Argento and John Carpenter, among many others. Kim mentions Argento’s 1985 picture Demons when I ask him about a favorite, for lack of a better term, “so-bad-it’s-good” horror film.
“I mean, the film’s got punk-rocker demons,” Kim said, laughing.
So how did two metal heads/lifelong friends from Orange County, California, with a horror-film fascination end up creating a globe-trotting, best-selling synthwave band? How do they come up with their haunting-but-fun blend of rock and electronic music? Where do they plan to take this thing in the years to come? In this interview, conducted as the duo prepare for a European tour that begins this month, Kim and Pointer tackle those questions and many more. Are you ready for these screams and whispers?
Aaron Vehling: You two have never been averse to bringing your music to the stage. Six years into Dance with the Dead, it seems like you’re touring North America and Europe quite often. As I understand it, you tour about three times a year?
TK: Justin and I both have backgrounds in bands — punk rock, hard rock, [and] metal bands. It’s in us to want to perform as musicians rather than just releasing [our music] on the internet and hoping it catches on that way. It’s in our DNA to want to perform in front of a crowd and do our thing.
JP: We love it, but at the same time it’s our job. We really have to thank our fans for making it a full-time job. We’ve got so many downloads and sales, which freed up time to go on tour.
AV: On your records you have a deft, artful use of guitars — they complement the synths melodically and harmonically — but in a live setting they really kill. In general, from songwriting to your concerts, you two seem to have a deep emphasis on performance. (Reporter’s Note: At shows Kim and Pointer alternate their approach: sometimes both are on axes and let the machines do their work, at other times it’s one of them on guitar and another behind the synthesizers, or both are at the keys. In all circumstances, the result is spectacular.)
TK: Justin said it best to me… there’s something you can’t get with all the millions of dollars of lighting and stage props compared to just an artist having energy on stage and rocking out. For instance, if I went to see a band with a stripped-down stage and these guys were fucking rocking out, that… would blow me away.
JP: A perfect example of that— to go on stage with basically just a guitar amp — is Rage Against the Machine. They never dabbled in stage theatrics and can own a stadium, as far as energy.
AV: So did your background in bands influence your decision to do guitar-driven synthwave?
TK: When we first started off, I didn’t want any guitars. Justin was like, “Do a stupid solo” — there are not a lot of electronic bands with guitars incorporated. Obviously, there are guitars on the first record, but something was holding me back. I wasn’t super confident. We didn’t know what we were doing. As we kept making more records and more songs, guitars in a way also kind of became like the vocal part of the music, along with the synthesizers. Rather than just doing a fancy solo, we come up with catchy melodic riffs that anyone can kind of hum. That’s what I look like when I track something: more a member than being super shreddy or fancy.
AV: The guitars becoming vocals — I can hear that. As for the synths, I hear a lot of influence from folks like John Carpenter.
TK: Justin was a lot more familiar with electronic music than I was. I’ve known Justin pretty much my entire life. He’s always liked, let’s say “EDM” to simplify it. He was like, “You should check out these guys… maybe it’ll help trigger something. Obviously, I’ve always liked big guys like Justice and Daft Punk; but… also John Carpenter and even guys like Hans Zimmer are meshed in all our experiences.
AV: How do you two typically write and record your albums in a practical sense?
TK: Literally today I woke up, heard a bass line in my head and just wanted to lay it down really quickly before I forgot it. That ended up becoming like half a song. I can’t stop — it kept flowing out of me. There are times when Justin and I feel the need to sit down and write songs right now, because being a musician you hear melodies and beats and riffs in your head all goddamn day. In terms of technology — what we have now compared to 15-20 years ago — we can just go in our bedroom and lay something down real quick.
JP: Tony lives in Orange County and I live in Washington. Usually how it starts is through email we throw riffs back and forth together with Logic sessions.
AV: When you’re playing in front of audiences in all of those different places, what do you learn that you bring to your music on subsequent albums?
TK: We learn off the crowd what kind of energy they go off. For Loved to Death, Justin and I were like, “Now that we know what the crowd gets into, we have to capture that energy in these songs.”
AV: Anyone have a favorite horror score?
JP: Disasterpeace’s It Follows. He just nailed it: every scene, every synth sound. In terms of modern-day scores, it’s one of best.
AV: Is there a movie you’d love to rescore?
TK: I think Justin will say Christine. [Justin agreed.]
JP: I’ve got two that pop out right away: Gladiator and Christine.
AV: What is it about Christine?
JP: It was perfectly done. The directing and acting is perfect.
TK: When I first watched Christine in high school, the score reminded me more of something like Tales from the Crypt almost. It was a more song arrangement than sounds or a spooky synthesizer in the background. It’s one of my favorite Carpenter scores for sure.
JP: Just like Halloween will not work without that theme, Christine is in the same boat. That movie would not work without the exact score that’s on it.
AV: If you didn’t actually do a rescore, perhaps because an existing score is just too good and memorable, would you consider getting into film scoring?
TK: That’s our next goal. We’ve always incorporated some kind of score piece in our records — a mellow score piece in the middle of an album (though not on Loved to Death). We love scores. If a horror director approached us, we’d be open to scoring.
JP: I don’t think we’re looking for rom-coms. [laughs]
AV: I could see you rescoring You’ve Got Mail. That would be wild. Anything else you’re up to? What’s next for you guys, in addition to the tour? A new album?
TK: No album, but we have more tours coming up after the European run.
JP: As far as an album, we’re always writing, but one thing we’d like to dabble with in future EPs and albums, if the situation presents itself, is working with vocals (in a collaboration). We don’t know who we’d work with at this point, but it’s something on the horizon for us.
AV: Before we sign off: What do you want people to get out of your music?
JP: We want our music to touch people emotionally. We’d like people to create stories of their own in their heads with our music. We have always been super passionate about all kinds of music and the escape from reality that it can bring.
This interview has been edited for clarity.
Dance with the Dead kick off their headlining Europe/UK tour on Feb. 17 in Cardiff, Wales, UK and concludes it on March 9 in Amsterdam.
DANCE WITH THE DEAD
https://dancewiththedead.bandcamp.com/
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Interviews
The Work ‘Grind’ Is Hell, So Brea Grant & Ed Dougherty Made a Horror Anthology About It [CFF 2026 Interview]
Genre fans rejoice! Chattanooga Film Festival is back for its 13th year in 2026 with a killer lineup and once again offering audiences both in-person and virtual options. After having its World Premiere at SXSW this spring, the horror comedy anthology Grind is playing CFF 2026 opening weekend.
From a screenplay by Brea Grant (Torn Hearts, 12 Hour Shift) and Ed Dougherty (MLM) and segments directed by Grant, Dougherty, and Chelsea Stardust (Satanic Panic), Grind features four interwoven stories that parody the gig economy, hustle culture, and the evils of late-stage capitalism.
The anthology follows weary everyday people juggling side hustles just to survive, while going up against greedy oligarchs, and cleverly uses dark humor and bloody practical effects to portray a world much like our current economic nightmare.
Bloody Disgusting had the pleasure of chatting with Brea Grant and Ed Dougherty about the socioeconomic commentary in Grind, casting Barbara Crampton as a villain, and DIY filmmaking.
Bloody Disgusting: Every segment in this anthology feels relatable because people are actually struggling to survive in the gig economy right now. How did the two of you come up with the idea of creating Grind?
Brea Grant: Like you said, we were trying to come up with a cool idea that seemed relevant right now. The thing that everyone we know is talking about is the economy, the lack of work, and the nightmare hellscape that is late-stage capitalism. It felt like the right time to write something that really featured that as the main horror. As the main thing that people were scared of, this world sort of came to us over the course of a couple of years.
Ed Dougherty: We wanted to make a hit film, and we said, “Let’s make a horror anthology, that’s the most marketable thing there is.” [laughs]
BG: [laughs] Definitely not!
BD: I love anthologies!
ED: We do, too. We feel like it’s kind of an undervalued form of horror film, but it’s a hard sell.
BG: People told us not to make it. They said, “Don’t make an anthology. It’s too hard to sell.” But we did it anyway.
BD: I guess I’m just one of those weirdos who likes anthologies and watches them all.
ED: We believe that there are a lot of weirdos like you out there. It seems like every good horror anthology has a long life, but it’s just getting over the initial hump that’s difficult.
BD: Chelsea Stardust directed some of the segments with the two of you and serves as a producer. How did she first get involved with this project?
BG: The project has a long history. We shot the first segment, which is about multi-level marketing, a couple of years ago. We had decided we wanted to make a full anthology, but it took us about a year after shooting that initial segment to shoot the rest of the movie. When we did that, we knew we needed to bring on a producer aside from Ed and me, since we were directing the bulk of the movie, so that was how she came on board. I’ve been friends with her for a long time, and the one thing I know about her as a friend is that she is very organized, so it felt like a good fit. I just called her one day and said, “Would you want to produce these three segments that we have left to shoot of Grind?” and she came on board.
BD: There are some fun cameos in Grind, but we have to talk about Barbara Crampton. She’s so good as a villainess. Why did you want her for this role, and what was it like working with her on this film?
BG: She’s in her villain era, which is so fun. [laughs] Obviously, we’re huge Barbara Crampton fans, and when we were making MLM, it was a smaller part of the movie that we knew we needed to call on people who could do a good job but were also friendly to us [laughs]. I’m friends with Barbara Crampton, and we’ve done three movies together before this. So, it felt like someone within our reach, but could also really draw a horror crowd. She has a huge fanbase, and she’s also super supportive of all the projects that she’s been in, so that was also really exciting. She’s a great actress, and she’s super funny. I think a lot of these horror actresses, especially those who came up in the eighties and nineties, weren’t given an opportunity to be funny. I think she was ready to jump on an opportunity that was different than what she was used to; it’s not running around and screaming. She is a cult leader, and she is quite funny in it. She just takes the comedy so well and seriously, and she does such an amazing job with it. She has a scene across from Rob Huebel, who is obviously a comedy master, and I feel like the two of them together were hilarious. It’s been fun to watch Barbara go from these iconic roles to a different kind of role at this point in her career. We’re super happy to be a part of that.
ED: And she loves the movie and has been so supportive. Every time she posts about it, I’m like, “I can’t believe this. This is amazing.”
BD: This is an accurate parody of the current socioeconomic situation in this country, as well as our obsession with online culture. It repeatedly asks the question, “What are you willing to do to make money,” in a world with wealth inequality and evil oligarchs. It’s fun, and it’s a horror movie, but it’s thought-provoking. What do you hope audiences take away from Grind, besides having a good time?
ED: I read every review and every Letterboxd review; Brea does not. So, I’ve seen it all. I’ve seen some reviews that say, “Good movie but doesn’t propose a solution.” I think we do propose a solution, which is that the power of unions and organizing is the only way that we will be able to fight back against oligarchs. I do think that is the message of the film. Organizing is the only way to defeat these villains. I do think we have a lot to say in the film. I’d want someone to say, “Man, I’ve never seen a horror anthology that had a political message before.” [laughs]
BG: I think the other thing is that what is currently happening is that we live in a world in which people kind of feel alone in this. They’re like, “Well, I’m doing bad, “or “I’m having trouble paying my rent.” We wanted to hang a lantern on the fact that this is happening to everyone, that wealth disparity is at an all-time high. We’re pointing out to people that you aren’t in this alone; you’re not the only person doing side hustles. Every filmmaker friend I have is working a side job of some sort at this point, and that is just in Los Angeles. Outside of this city, I think things are more dire. I think it was about infusing some politics into something that could make people realize that they aren’t alone and that there are ways of fighting back and fighting the system that has been set up against them.
ED: I think the tone of the movie, which is darkly comedic, also really matches the tone of life right now. Everything seems almost at a parody level as far as the disconnect between oligarchs and trying to make a living and reality. The absurdist nature of the film kind of captures the real tone of life.
BD: There are some cool creature effects and makeup effects in this movie. Can you talk a little bit about the practical effects and makeup?
ED: I think especially because of the message of the film, which is pushing back against the current hellscape we’re in, we wanted to use as many practical effects as possible. We used matte paintings, miniatures, and practical creature effects. I’m always afraid of the matte painting because we used the old school matte painter, but they do look a little AI. I heard someone make a noise behind me during one of the shots, and I was like, “I hope that noise wasn’t them using AI because that’s a matte painting.” [laughs] There’s also the fact that it’s pretty DIY. It’s a film that we financed ourselves and shot in our houses as much as possible. We wanted the whole thing to feel handmade and very tactile.
BG: We’re old school horror fans, so we love seeing practical effects. The practical stuff is really fun for us. It’s the stuff that we think is actually cool. [laughs] So, practical stuff made the most sense for us. We both grew up in the punk scene in the nineties, and I think it just kind of comes naturally to us to try to do things ourselves. And we both work on projects for big companies, with smaller companies, but always for other people, so trying to do something ourselves to see what that felt like was also part of the experiment of Grind.
ED: This was our chance to do everything we wanted our way.
Grind screens at the Chattanooga Film Festival on June 20.
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