NeverWake

"The first band that we watched kick off the festivities was Neverwake on the small Reverbnation stage. We had listened to a few of their songs in the hotel the night before and were impressed. They were really good! They sounded great and played the stage well. Neverwake got the crowd super pumped up and ready for the day ahead. They reminded me of a very young Trivium and they have a lot of potential! I'm excited to see where they go from here." - Metalhead Blog

NEVERWAKE
On the ReverbNation stage, battle of the band winners NeverWake opened things up with their melodic Hard Rock sound. Claiming split origination between Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania and Steubenville, Ohio, NeverWake won the ReverbNation battle of the bands contest for the honor of being part of Carolina Rebellion’s commencement. Attendees seemed to receive them well and their sound was tight. Their 2013 album, Sleepwalker, features a great sense of who these guys are, and comes recommended for those looking for something new to add to their underground collection. - CAROLINA REBELLION DAY ONE: DIVERSE & DYNAMIC 5-2-15

Day 1 DEFINITELY beat us to a pulp, but we are the music hungry hooligans that LOVE the pain of it all! We reveled in the total awesome of what the Reverbnation Stage had to offer, which was none other than Neverwake, Islander, Stars in Stereo, and the classic band, CHEAP TRICK! - RockRevolt

"lots of in-your-face guitars, paint-peeling solos and the ever-present double-bass drum as well as lots of melody with touches of baroque and classical stylings, such as diminished arpeggios and harmonic minor-influenced chord structures." - Mark Miller - Herald Star

"Neverwake, "Vitality" - I didn't pick this album because these guys are local. I picked it because it's good. modern commercial metal from a talented young band and major-label quality production from Mike Ofca at Innovation Studios right here in Steubenville." - Joe Zelek - Herald Star

NeverWake is a fun group of guys with a unique metal / rock sound. Even though their drummer broke his pedal during their set, they didn’t miss a beat. The bands high energy and infectious charisma made for an awesome performance.

Though NeverWake has been extremely busy with a new album and video release, Johnny DiCarlo was nice enough to give me the scoop on the band.
NeverWake is Johnny DiCarlo (lead vocals and guitar), James Watson (background vocals and guitar), Marcus Giannamore (drums), and George Scott (bass) and the roots of the band were formed several years ago. - Kaleigh Rectenwald

First up NeverWake. As Halloween has just gone I had to pick NeverWake as they are all about the weird, the dark fantasy site of life, which is perfect for today. From Pittsburg, US, NeverWake create a sound can only be described as acombination of haunting gothic melodies with metalcore riffs topped with powerful screams, it’s head banging at its best. - ZombieGirl - SkuaMedia

But he points out even though other bands are influences, the idea is for NeverWake to create its own sound. DiCarlo said the band has gone as far as charting out themes for its upcoming albums to establish a brand. He added the plan included courting Schecter guitars - all three of the band's stringed instruments are Schecter guitars - Mark Miller - Herald Star

Niji Magazine

Meet Hard Rock / Metal Four-Piece, NeverWake
You only have to listen to one of their tracks to understand that NeverWake is a band jam-packed with talent, ambition, and musical intelligence.
A promising young group, they have seen quite a few successes early on, such as the opportunity to play for a hundred-thousand-member audience at Carolina Rebellion and have their upcoming EP produced by John Moyer of Disturbed.
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Intrigued by their progress and eager to learn more about NeverWake, we asked frontman Johnny D to tell us a little more about the band.
By Brandon Schiafone
Tell us about how NeverWake was formed.
I grew up surrounded by music. My father has been a performing rock musician for thirty years. I was always writing and coming up with ideas with my friend. It was time to go into the studio and we needed a drummer and a bassist.
I met George and Marcus in high school, but we came from different experiences: sports, band, and quiet kid in the corner. It was our creativity that brought us together. I met George in an art class. I’m pretty sure he hated me. I was on the football team, and he was the kid who wore a slipknot shirt on dress-down days.
We’d never talked until I saw him drawing a picture of one of my favorite bands. That sparked a common interest between us and that kind of started our friendship. George is a guitar player turned bassist. He is also our screamer on stage. John Moyer recently said that George approaches the bass like he (John) does.
I knew Marcus in high school but we never really knew each other musically until we had a music class together. Marcus had grown up a trained musician. I would compliment him after hearing his compositions in class and, in turn, gained his respect for my music.
It devastated us when our original guitar player left, though he is happy and we’ve remained friends. It took us six months to find a replacement, but we found Justin. We had played a gig with him and liked his style.
As fate would have it, Justin landed with us and has added another dimension to our music. He also provides background vocals. Justin is a showman and loves the fans!
Collectively, who are the bands biggest musical influences?
That’s a tough one. We all like similar artists, but everyone’s got a different favorite. We are all influenced by ’00’s metalcore, like Avenged Sevenfold, Bullet For My Valentine, Killswitch Engage and Trivium, but we even go back to bands like Godsmack and Disturbed.
Justin is a huge Zack Wylde fan so we have some influences everywhere!
What was the motivation behind the name NeverWake?
When we were naming our band it was really popular for bands to have these huge, random names. They had all these half-finished sentences. We didn’t like that at all. We wanted a name that wasn’t a word but meant something to our music.
When we were demoing our music to people, they would describe it with words like “dream” and “nightmare.”
So, after some discussion, we kept it short with “NeverWake.” When we first released our band name, people thought we were Swedish metal, which was funny, because though it’s not our style, we love Swedish metal!
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Over the last year, you’ve played some pretty substantial shows, such as The Loudest Month Festival, The Heart of Texas Rockfest-SXSW, and Carolina Rebellion, the latter of which had a turnout of around 100,000. What was it like for you to perform for an audience of that magnitude?
AMAZING. Standing in front of a huge crowd moshing to your music is one of the best feelings any metal artist can ever have. It was even better knowing that most of the people had never heard us before.
To see people instantly like our music and get into it like that was breathtaking.
Who is the one band that you’ve performed with and you’re still awed by the opportunity?
We’re picking two because we can never pick just 1. Adam D’s side project Times of Grace, and The Foundry (John Moyer, Blaze Bayley, AJ Pero, and Rick Plester). Meeting the guys in Times of Grace was a hell of an experience.
At that time we were all listening to Killswitch Engage. When we heard Times of Grace, with Jesse Leech, we were STUNNED. After listening to just one album we were hooked. So we jumped on the show and got to meet the guys. They are all super nice dudes and are very down-to- earth.
The Foundry show was just an honor.
To share the stage with those artists was unbelievable. And to see how they play–holy hell! (Plester is a BEAST!) Unfortunately, shortly after that show Pero passed away. It was a pleasure meeting him and watching him play. Rock on, brother.
If you could identify one thing that really sets you apart from other bands in your genre, what would that be?
If there is “one thing”, we don’t know it, and we don’t want to know it. Answering this question is never easy. We individually write differently, but have a general idea of what makes “NeverWake.”
You know, we write what we feel and don’t purposely make it different for the sake of “being different.” That just makes you fake.
You are currently finishing your third record release–a four-song EP following two full-length albums—what concept are you focusing on with this new record?
I guess I never realized the concept until now, and I thank you for asking this question! Most of the songs relate to the idea of starting again. A lot of times, life is a struggle. Some people find themselves stuck in situations and at the end.
It’s a destructive concept to think about. But we focus on these situations as renewal processes–burning away the bad and coming clean again, starting anew. Most of these songs relate to moving past these obstacles, whatever they may be.
In the world of metal, Disturbed is one of those bands for whom metal fans have respect, if not love. Tell us about what it’s been like to work with John Moyer throughout the recording of the EP.
It was awesome! Moyer was very laid back in the studio but is an absolute work horse! He pushed us all to give the best performance possible on this EP. He was open to every suggestion we had, but wasn’t afraid to tell us if he thought something didn’t sound right or was off.
It was an honor working with him and hanging out with him, being that we all grew up listening to Disturbed. We cannot wait to continue working with him in the future!
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After only two completed records, NeverWake has already been endorsed by Dr. Strings, Splawn Amplifications, and two other companies yet to be announced. How does it feel knowing that, so early in your career, you’re already backed by such high-level corporations?
It’s dreamlike. We all grew up with our guitars in our hands, sitting in front of our computers, surfing through artists’ MySpace pages and watching all their videos. We would always look at their gear and find out who was endorsed by whom and who used what.
Back then, it was a DREAM to be in touch with these companies. Now it’s literally a dream come true. To have these companies support us is just freakin’ awesome.
I hope young musicians surf our pages and are driven enough to start their career and get some endorsements of their own!
You just released your own rendition of Michael Jackson’s ‘Thriller.’ What was the motivation behind releasing this cover?
Long story…
The decision to remake “Thriller” was one of the most spontaneous things this band has ever done. It was Saturday morning a week before Halloween. I was going over some adjustments to be made for a couple tracks on Monday when we had studio time scheduled. I was working hard and my sister walks in and goes, “Have you guys ever thought about remaking “Thriller?””
By this time about 2,364,569 people have asked us to remake different songs. We never liked any of the ideas. I didn’t even like this idea. But I went, you know what? Screw it. I’m just gonna make a demo so people will lay off. So I started making the demo, and slowly started feeling like an ass for being rude to my sister because it was sounding REALLY cool. I worked on the composition the entire weekend.
So we skip to Monday. It was 10 a.m. and I walked into the studio. Mike Ofca, our producer, greeted me and we both sat down. Mike started his computer and I said, “Mike, before you load up the session I want you to listen to this idea we have.”
I started to play the demo off my phone, and Mike stopped it very suddenly and said, “WAIT… HOLD ON… WE HAVE TO DO THIS NOW. If we start now, we can get this done by Friday!” So I’m thinking there’s no way possible.
First we have to bring ALL of the drums back, bring ALL of our amps back, set them up, run the idea by John Moyer, who is back in Texas by now, then we have to see if its even possible with our schedules. Our drummer Marcus was starting a new job THAT DAY, and our other guitarist Justin was working daylights and watching his son all week.
I group texted the band jokingly, “Haha Mike wants us to record Thriller right now.” Marcus responds, “Actually… My job was delayed a day because my office computer didn’t come in on time. I can bring my drums over right now.” Then Justin says, “Beth (his wife) is actually getting home from work early this week and I’m available Tuesday.”
I’m in shock right now because this NEVER happens. We are never just suddenly “available”. So I call John Moyer. Now John is VERY particular in the decisions he makes.
He never just says “yes” or “no” without providing elaborate reasoning. He answers and I go, “Hey, John… Uhh, we are doing something crazy… Instead of making the adjustments today, we are gonna remake “Thriller.”” Without hesitation he goes, “Awesome. Do it.”
At this point I’m like, “what the hell is going on? I can’t believe we are doing this.” The recording process for the EP is OVER. We are way beyond tracking and there’s only five days until Halloween.
But we did it. Drums on Monday, Bass and rhythm Tuesday, Leads Wednesday, Vocals Thursday, mix and master Friday. Every day was at least a twelve-hour day.
Friday we finished at 9 p.m. Mike and I were exhausted, but felt very accomplished. We took the track back to my house, put the song on repeat, and drank some celebratory shots of Jack Daniels.

Recording this song was so much fun, because absolutely everyone stepped up to the plate last minute and gave it their all. It really showed character on everyone’s part. Everyone was collaborative. It was really cool to see how we could work creatively under those time constraints.
NeverWake already has an exciting forecast for the near future. With the announcement of the other two endorsements, as well as the release of the new EP coming up, what else can we expect from you guys?
You can expect to see us a lot more. We will be busting our ass playing every venue we possibly can this year, releasing music videos, and even another EP coming up shortly.
We have a couple big shows lined-up such as the “Butcher Babies” on March 10th at the Altar Bar in Pittsburgh, PA and music conferences.
Connect with Neverwake
NeverWakeMusic.com
facebook.com/neverwakemusic
twitter.com/neverwakemusic - Niji Magazine- Brandon Schiafone