A Dirty Dozen with PAGEANT – November 2024

According to a recent press release: “Rock band Pageant is excited to announce the release of their new single, “Leave You Behind”. Hailing from High Point, NC, Pageant is a dynamic four-piece group featuring Roxxi Dirt on bass and vocals, Dylan Dynasty on drums, Cam Duke on rhythm guitar, and Dezzy Foxx on lead guitar. The band’s mission is to breathe fresh energy into the timeless spirit of rock n’ roll, inspired by icons such as Mötley Crüe, Guns N’ Roses, Aerosmith, and Cinderella.” We get the band to discuss new music, influences, and more…

1. Tell us a little about your latest release.  What might a fan or listener not grab the first or second time they listen through?  Are there any hidden nuggets the band put in the material or that only diehard fans might find?

Dylan: “Leave You Behind” was written leading up to a cross country tour we were planning to embark on in the Summer of 2024. We have a camper van (named Roxanne) that we packed 6 dudes into and left home headed towards LA, with shows booked all the way there. I remember when we first planned this trip, I was a little nervous because I had never been that far away from home before. We had played shows all along the East Coast, but never anywhere farther than that. The plan was to drive to LA, play shows along the way for gas money, and then stay in California for at least a few months, maybe longer. We needed a big change to grow as a band, and we needed to get out of our comfort zones that summer. One night, I was sorting through my feelings regarding the trip, and I felt like writing. I decided that maybe it would be easier to feel more invigorated about the move rather than nervous if I were to frame it from a different perspective, as if this was something I was doing in spite of someone who didn’t believe in me. So then “Leave You Behind” was born, a song about someone leaving their non-supportive partner to follow their dreams and talking through the complicated emotions of it.

2. What got you into music, and can you tell us about the moment you realized you wanted to be a musician?

Dezzy: My dad had a VHS tape of Stevie Ray Vaughan live and ever since I was around the age of 9 or 10 I knew deep down being a guitar player is what I wanted to do.

Roxxi: Me and Cam are siblings, and I would say our dad got us into music. He would always play good music for us growing up and I remember playing the game Rock Band with him.

Dylan: My dad would play rock music every time I was in the car with him growing up, so in a way I feel like it was engraved into me at a young age. My favorite song when I was a baby was “Don’t Fear The Reaper”, and I would beg my parents to play it for me so I could dance to it. I think the moment I realized I wanted to be a musician though, was when I was watching a video of a Mötley Crüe concert on YouTube at 14 years old. I had always loved music and bands and had been playing drums for a couple years by then, but something about seeing Tommy Lee on stage just lit something inside of me. I remember the exact moment I told myself “This is what I wanna do.”, and I’ve never looked back or questioned it since.

3. Building on that, is there a specific song, album, performer, or live show that guided your musical taste?

Dezzy: The albums that really solidified it for me were Permanent Vacation (Aerosmith), Appetite for Destruction (Guns N Roses), and Slave to the Grind (Skid Row).

Dylan: I would have to say the top albums that influenced me growing up were Too Fast For Love (Mötley Crüe), Heaven Tonight (Cheap Trick), Never Mind The Bollocks, Here’s The Sex Pistols (Sex Pistols), Kingdom Come (Kingdom Come), and Look What the Cat Dragged In (Poison).

4. Who would be your main five musical influences?

Roxxi: Guns N’ Roses, The Doors, Lynyrd Skynyrd, Bon Jovi, and Johnny Cash.

Dylan: Aerosmith, Motley Crue, Cheap Trick, The Black Crowes, and New York Dolls.

5. If you could call in any one collaborator to do a song with, who would it be, and why?

Dylan: It would definitely have to be Steven Tyler for me. One of my dreams is to write with him, or even just get his opinion on where to take a song. He is, in my opinion, the best rock melody writer in the world.

6. How would you describe your music to someone who’d never listened to you before? What is the one comparison a reviewer or fan has made that made you cringe or you disagreed with?

Dylan: I would probably describe our music as a new take on the era of rock n’ roll that made us want to be musicians. One thing we never wanna do is make music that sounds like it’s trying to be something it’s not. We don’t ever wanna be the band that “sounds like ____”. We will always recognize our influences and how huge of a part they’ve played in the way our songs sound, but we never want to sound like we’re trying to copy another band.

7. What’s the best thing about being a musician?

Dezzy: In my opinion, the best part about being a musician is not only getting to be creative everyday, but getting to use music as an outlet for how we all feel at that stage in our lives.

8. When the band are all hanging out together, who cooks; who gets the drinks in; and who is first to crack out the acoustic guitars for a singalong?

Dylan: I would say we have a pretty even distribution of everything. Dezzy’s always gonna be the first to pull the acoustic guitar out though.

9. When was the last time you were star struck and who was it?

Roxxi: Probably would have to be when we saw Zach Gordan, who played Greg in Diary of a Wimpy Kid, at a party in LA.

10. If you weren’t a musician, what would be your dream job?

Dylan: Honestly anything that I could still have the freedom to make stuff in. I would love to make a movie or TV show someday or maybe even write a book. I also think game development is awesome, it’s always interested me. I love nothing more than being able to make something that someone can experience and lose themselves in.

11. Looking back over your career, is there a single moment or situation you feel was a misstep or you would like to have a “do over”, even if it didn’t change your current situation?

Dylan: I really feel like everything that’s happened to us throughout the course of this band, whether good or bad, has happened for a reason. For every bad thing that’s happened that felt like the end of the world at the time, we can look back and pin a lesson we learned from it or why it’d good it didn’t work out. It’s gotten to the point now that when something bad happens we don’t get upset or discouraged we just say it wasn’t meant to work out.

12. If you could magically go back in time and be a part of the recording sessions for any one record in history, which would you choose – and what does that record mean to you?

Dylan: I would love to be in the room for the recording of Bon Jovi’s Slippery When Wet. The production of that album is just amazing and every song on it is a hit. To me, that’s just the epitome of a fun rock n’ roll album.

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Category: Interviews