Zach Ellis stops off for a chat from NYC post punk band Dead Tooth about their new single and more…
- snaphappypixie
- Jun 23
- 4 min read
NYC post-punk band Dead Tooth have dropped a fiery new single, “You Never Do Shit,” via Trash Casual. The track follows last year’s “Birthday Boohoo” and leads into their debut self-titled album, landing this July. Originally written for Apple TV’s City on Fire, frontman Zach Ellis reworked the song for Dead Tooth, which includes James Duncan, Taylor Mitchell, Mikey Cohen, and John Stanesco.
Born from Ellis’s collaboration with DIIV’s Andrew Bailey, the band has released two EPs, earned praise from NME and Spin, and toured the U.S. and Europe, sharing stages with acts like GWAR and Bass Drum of Death.
The single is now streaming everywhere. Album incoming! Exciting stuff. We decided to have a chat with frontman Zach Ellis and find out more
Hi there – where do we find you today?
Sitting on my balcony in Queens, NY
‘You Never Do Shit’ hits like a sonic gut punch —what’s it about?
POW! Thank you. Oftentimes my angrier lyrics are directed towards myself but this is a pretty pointed indictment of the establishment and systems that continue to fail our society and make it damn near impossible to succeed for the majority of people in the music world that don’t have large disposals of money backing what they do
That title doesn’t hold back! Did you ever think, “Should we tone it down?” or was it always meant to be a kind of slap in the face?
Toning it down was never an option. I was never that big into cursing in songs or song titles in the past, but lately it feels appropriate. Fuck pandering to the algorithm or censoring for radio. This isn’t the Ed Sullivan show anymore haha. If you feel like droppin a fuck or shit go for it
There’s this restless, almost rebellious energy in the track—are you calling out procrastination, society, or just screaming into the void?
Yes. Very well said. Things need to evolve. The system is broken, and there’s a finite amount of time to fix the damage that’s been done
What was the most chaotic moment while recording ‘You Never Do Shit’?
The whole session was kinda chaotic. We won the time in the studio from a battle of the bands at Our Wicked Lady. It was an 8-hour session, and we decided to do 6 songs to really get our money’s worth. We all collectively skipped lunch and just kept tracking. The day happened to start early in the morning following a show the night before and I remember thinking “I’m gonna just do scratch vocals today cuz my voice was pretty crunchy” but, Billy Aukstik (the engineer) had this EV broadcast mic hitting this really nice compressor and that with the natural distortion on my voice ended up being the perfect sound for the record. Tbh I wasn’t even totally sure if the lyrics were done yet and tried to dub them over with some slight tweaks, but none of them had the magic the “scratch” takes did.
If this single were a soundtrack to a scene in a movie, what’s happening? Car chase? A riot? Existential crisis in a neon-lit alley?
Oooh fun. Definitely a “Gone in 60 Seconds” style car heist scene with Nick Cage at the wheel
How did the idea behind the video for ‘You Never Do Shit’ come about?
I grew up very into rock music, but at the same time, there were all these boy bands that were bigger than Jesus. We all acted like we hated it cuz we were too cool for school, but deep down, we knew the dance moves and production were fire. I’m always trying to come up with affordable/funny music video ideas, and something about having a band of dudes mostly in their 30s who’ve never taken a dance class in their lives learning this intricate step-by-step dance number was extremely comical to me. Nola Sporn Smith, who stars in Blind and cameos in Hot Summer and Sporty Boy has always been kind of our movement coach, and I asked her if she would choreograph a dance for us, and she sure did. Ginno didn’t want to be in it as he was kind of bowing out of the band cuz of an intense touring schedule, so Nola just stood in as the fifth member. It would have been impossible without her
What’s the music scene like in your town? Where would you take us on a night out?
NYC is crazy. There’s a never-ending surplus of amazing shows every night of the week. It’s actually really hard to pick and choose where to go and whom to see. I love TV Eye and Sleepwalk cuz they’re both relatively close to me and are a bit more intimate and always fun. Our Wicked Lady is my favorite, but sadly is closing soon(we’re playing the last show July 20th)
Fantasy dinner party: who (living or dead) would you invite and why?
I’d probably bring my grandfather back to life and have a sit-down lobster dinner at his old house in Maine with him, Neil Young, John Prine and Herman Hesse, with lots of booze
What’s next for Dead Tooth?
Big tour in the fall. East and west coast. Europe again sometime next year. Demoing out the follow-up record.
