Tears for the Dying

Tears for the Dying is an American deathrock band that began life as a side project in 1997 by bassist and guitarist Adria Stembridge. Stembridge previously played in Athens, Georgia bands Vomit Thrower, The Endless and The Girl Pool during the nineties and aughts.
Music style.
The music of Tears for the Dying is influenced by Athens, GA bands such as Pylon, early 1980s Southern California punk rock and deathrock and anarchist punk such as Crass and Rudimentary Peni. Electronic drum machines, frequent tempo changes, dark and textural guitar effects, and complex, angular arrangements are found in many of the band's songs. The band's lyrics range from overtly political to introspective and metaphysical.
History.
While living in her hometown of Athens, GA, Adria wrote Tears for the Dying's first song, Time, in 1997. Several years would pass before she was able to enter a recording studio to record the music. Time and Disease were recorded by Chris Bishop at Radium Recordings in Athens GA on a Tascam 8-track reel to reel recorder in 2003.
It would be another year or so before she assembled players for the first lineup, which included Dara Bishop on keyboards, Todd Caras on bass, Max Alember on guitar and Jeffrey Butzer filling in on drums. Tears for the Dying would play its first official show in 2005 at a dive bar in Tucker, GA. A few weeks later the band played alongside S.I.D.S. at Lenny's in Atlanta.
While continuing to play its first set of shows Adria continued writing music which would eventually be released as a collection of demos called To the Birds. This collection included alternate versions of Disease, Go Die, and All for Nothing with Chris Phillips filling in on drums.
By 2007, the band went on hiatus for many years, only to resurface ten years later as a mostly solo effort at the inaugural Brain Aid festival in Athens, GA. Adria continued writing new material, which was performed live at shows around Athens in Fall 2017.
While attending the 2017 Transgender Day of Remembrance event in Atlanta, Adria met fellow musician Debra Beat and the two began working together, along with mutual friend Cancer Candy. Tears played its first show with the new three-piece lineup in December 2017.
In Fall 2018, the band released its first studio recording, Charon. Charon was recorded in Athens, GA by Tom Ashton (of The March Violets fame). From the same album, a video for the song Shadows was recorded by Lewis Stice and released Jun 18, 2019. Tears continued playing shows across the southeast throughout 2019 and into 2020.
In March 2020, Tears for the Dying released its second studio recording, Memories (again produced by Tom Ashton), weeks before the global COVID-19 pandemic struck.
A newly recorded single for Go Die was released in June, 2020, as a special contribution to Trans Cat online comic. This single was also produced and mixed by Tom Ashton.
The band released a special single featuring covers of two classic Crass songs in October 2020.
Band members.
Present:
Past: