In continued support of their 3x GRAMMY-nominated album Dark Matter, Pearl Jam will be heading back on tour for 11 shows in the spring of 2025.
Indigenous led punk/post punk art band Dead Pioneers will serve as support for the opening two dates in Hollywood, Florida on April 24 and April 26, along with the following two shows in Atlanta, Georgia on April 29 and May 1.
Dead Pioneers vocalist, nationally known Indigenous artist of the Pyramid Lake Paiute Tribe, Gregg Deal says he started this project as an extension to a performance piece titled ‘The Punk Pan-Indian Romantic Comedy’.
With the intent to create original music for this performance piece, the Dead Pioneers was born.
Dead Pioneers is rooted in creating and performing a sound heavily influenced by the punk aesthetic with an edge built on a First Peoples perspective and not afraid to tackle hard political and social issues, standing in solidarity of Indigenous rights, Black rights, Brown rights, Asian rights, Gay rights, Trans rights, Workers rights and beyond.
SWOMP caught up with Gregg for an interview to discuss the launch of the band, along with the gigs opening for Pearl Jam.
Listen, below:
Working closely with guitarist Josh Rivera and drummer Shane Zweygardt, Gregg tried to form something over the Covid lockdown.
Original music from Shane and Josh got things flowing, but things clicked when Gregg met Lee Tesche, lead guitarist for Algiers, at an art residency in Florida and became Dead Pioneers bassist.
The Dead Pioneers first single Bad Indian was born!
Heavily influenced by Gregg’s Indigenous voice, this gave enough information to begin forming songs and the overall sound of Dead Pioneers.
Later adding guitarist Abe Brennan to the crew while recording their first self-titled LP at The Blasting Room in Fort Collins, CO.
From original songs to spoken word with punk riffs, Dead Pioneers was created with a love of music, a love of art, love of a scene that saves lives as well as the DIY disposition of just figuring it out and seeing what happens.
Follow the band at https://www.deadpioneers.band/.