“It’s a crude way of saying good luck,� Murder by Death frontman Adam Turla says of the Italian-to-English translation of the title of the band’s new album, In Bocca Al Lupo. “It’s something like ‘break a leg.’� Anybody who’s taken introductory Italian will have certainly picked up on this phrase, a common well-wishing to pupils on the day of an exam. But in the case of Indiana goth/Americana band Murder by Death, it takes on more of a sinister implication than a mere blessing of good fortune.
“The record is based on characters that are sort of ne’er do wells,� Turla says of the album’s subject matter. “Characters who have sort of fucked up things their whole lives, and then they die or move on to the next phase. For people who are ‘trapped in the mouth of the wolf,’ it’s a fight to redeem themselves. We try to create these characters in different scenarios, making different mistakes, where some are forgiven and some are not forgiven.�
Turla, cellist Sarah Balliet, bassist Matt Armstrong and drummer Alex Schrodt create a gloomy, yet often hard rocking bed of music for these doomed narratives, taking cues from Nick Cave, Johnny Cash, Gun Club and Tom Waits. The end result is an Americana classic: haunted and brooding, yet undeniably unique. The ballads are abrasive, the rockers have twang, and the sea shanties...well, they’re sea shanties. If it sounds like the band cast a wide net to find their sound, that’s because it’s supposed to.
“For this record, we wanted to do a concept piece,� Turla said. “Not a long form narrative, but more of a short story anthology. That way, it was clear we had to do more diverse songs. We wanted to have a few songs that were just straight rockers. And we had a very clear idea that we were going to do a song that was a tango. The third song (“Dead Men and Sinners�), which is like a sea chant, I wrote while I was walking to class. I was singing it in my head and picturing pirates singing it. I actually wrote it as a poem for class, and turned it into a Murder by Death song.
“You don’t see much narrative music today. I’ve always tried to do the opposite of what most people do. I’m a big reader and I wanted to work in more thoughtful sort of concepts, rather than writing standard love songs. Political music can be effective, but it can also be redundant. I’m not a good enough student of politics to provide much insight anyway—I thought this would be more fun.�
For a band with such an overwhelming taste for the darker side of humanity, it’s easy to overlook Murder by Death’s sense of humor, which is evident in its name. Not only a redundant play on words, it’s a classic Neil Simon play which lampoons the pot-boiler murder mystery. Not everyone catches on to this bit of trivia, however.
“We thought that more people had seen it when we named the band,� Turla said. “Some people don’t get the joke. I heard someone talking about the band at a show one time, and the guy said ‘Murder by Death? That doesn’t even make sense!’ Obviously, murder implies death. Plus, people always think we’re a hardcore band.
“But…whatever.�
