Atlanta’s Death is a Dialogue is not only one of the most energetic bands around, it’s also one of the hardest working. The band’s punchy pop punk is laced with heavy riffs and just enough punk rock attitude to keep things interesting. Led by former Drownout front man Jason Lee, DIAD consists of guitarist Joe Galunas, bassist Chris Hein and former Hanging Francis drummer Randall Gregg. DIAD recently finished its first East Coast tour and has played high profile shows with the likes of Quiet Riot, Everclear‘s Art Alexakis, Live‘s Ed Kowalczyk, Naughty by Nature and Hawthorne Heights. The band also played the Atlanta date of last summer’s Warped Tour by winning the Ernie Ball Battle of the Bands (Lee also won the same contest the two previous years with The Drownout, and you can vote for DIAD to play this year’s Warped Tour).

Having taken its name from an Emily Dickinson poem and recorded a song inspired by Edgar Allan Poe (“Low Lies Lenore”), the band has also been know to perform while wearing lifesized LEGO heads. DIAD has also been known to play some pretty rockin’ covers of songs by Queen, Rancid, The Offspring and other popular rock bands. So even though these guys may not know much about wrestling, they definitely know a good bit about pop culture, which is why they will be performing at the Wrestling with Pop Culture Anniversary Party on March 28. Coincidentally, this show will also be the band’s first anniversary performance. As we all prepare for the monsters, wrestling and rock ‘n’ roll, Lee and Hein take a moment to talk about this and other upcoming shows.

You guys have played a lot of big shows, but I don’t think you’ve ever performed at an event with wrestling or monsters.

Lee: That’s true. When I think back, I don’t think there’s been any wrestling or monsters, and definitely not the two combined, which is awesome. I’m looking forward to Monstrosity Championship Wrestling, though. That’s going to be badass.

Why did you guys agree to play this type of show? Are you wrestling fans?

Lee: I haven’t been to a wrestling event since I was a kid, but my favorite ones were Hulk Hogan and the battles between him and Andre the Giant were always totally epic. And the Steiner Brothers. You don’t really hear about them much anymore, so I think those guys are kind of underrated. I think as a kid my favorite wrestler was the Ultimate Warrior because he dressed kind of like an Indian and I’m part Native American, so I guess I could relate to him, minus the hot pink tassels.

Hein: I think it will be cool just to have that ring in front of the stage. And putting rock and wrestling together is going to be cool.

Lee: Yeah. Anytime people are fighting and there’s a rock show going on, it’s going to be a good time.

I didn’t realize when I asked you to play this show that it’s not only the anniversary for Wrestling with Pop Culture, but it’s also the first anniversary for Death is a Dialogue.

Lee: Yeah. It’s a dual anniversary party. And our CD release is April 21 at Vinyl.

I know about Jason’s former band The Drownout and Randall’s band Hanging Francis, but how did the four of you come together to form Death is a Dialogue?

Lee: When the Drownout broke up, I put out ads on Craigslist. Me and Joe had already had in mind that we were going to put together another band. He used to play in a metal band called McClane, which was a very heavy, dark band. I always liked his guitar playing in that project, so we just talked about working together. Then we started putting up ads on Craigslist and auditioning people. We got Randall first, then we auditioned several bass players and some were very entertaining, but not in the right way. Eventually Chris walked in and…

Hein: …owned it!

Lee: Well, I think it was a good start when you actually knew how to adjust the volume on your amp. There was a girl that came in and auditioned and she didn’t know how to do anything. She didn’t know how to tune her guitar, turn up her amp or any of that stuff.

Hein: I’ve always been in bands since I was 13. I moved to Atlanta to go to Georgia State and had to leave the band I was in in Buford, where I went to high school. So I was looking, but I don’t think I was actively looking. But Jason hit me up on Facebook after I saw the ad and I came and tried out and got the gig that day.

Lee: It was funny though because some guy replied to the Craigslist post and I messaged this other guy, whose last name was Heim, saying, “Hey, man. You still coming to audition?” And it was so weird because he was just like, “Yeah, sure!” But it was just some random dude and he didn’t even know what the audition was for because I was messaging the wrong person on Facebook.

You guys released an EP just a few months ago. Will the new CD be all new material?

Lee: At first we were going to release another EP with all new songs. The time frame of everything got pushed back a little bit, but we also thought, “Why do just another EP like that?” So what we’ve decided to do is release three songs at a time and do that three or four times this year, then at the end of that come out with a full album where we can put all the songs on there. I love EPs, but when I’m listening to EPs in my car I feel like they’re too short. If you’re driving somewhere, especially in Atlanta traffic, you’re in the car for at least an hour and I feel like people might get tired of it repeating over and over again. That was the only complaint we got on the last record was that it was too short. So we’re going to take our time with this and we’re going to release three songs at a time digitally and do some limited presses of signed copies for our fans and stuff. But at the end of all that we want to put all those together and do a full length that is pressed professionally so we can actually sell something that will be a complete piece of work. So on April 21 we’re releasing a disc of three songs and we’re only making 60 copies.

Since you’re having  your CD release after this show with monsters and wrestling, are you concerned about having all that kind of chaos going on around you?

Hein: I think it will make it better.

Lee: Yeah, the more chaos the better. It just adds to the show. I’m really excited about playing a show where there’s a wrestling ring in the room, like Chris was saying earlier. It’s something we haven’t been able to do before because it doesn’t happen very often. Especially the fact that there’s going to be monster wrestling. I can’t wait to see that. It’s going to be great.

For more information, go to www.deathisadialogue.com.