North Carolina indie rocker Darwin Deez will be playing Strange Matter on Saturday June 8th. His Richmond performance will conclude a brief nine-day stint on the road touring behind his second album, Songs For Imaginative People, which was released earlier this year by Lucky Number Music. These will be the last few shows Deez will be playing this summer in the US before playing a handful of festivals abroad in the UK and in Australia.
Darwin Deez's music has a bit of the garage rock feel of The Strokes, while also mixing in the complexity and musicality of Beck. His lyrics are rooted in philosophy and can be pretty fairly meta, but what make Deez really unique are the super-catchy pop melodies he employees in his songs. He’s also highly recognizable--he has a look he’s pretty much trademarked featuring long luscious curls, sometimes held back by a headband, and a Prince-esque mustache. It all combines to create a very distinctive live show that's backed by enough songwriting chops to make his performance entertaining on many levels besides the visual.
Earlier this week, while making tour preparations in New York City, Deez took the time to talk to me on the phone. We chatted about the difference between NYC and NC, wonky beats, and weird guitar tunings.
It’s known that you moved from NYC to Asheville, NC. Everyone I personally know who’s been there said that it’s actually a pretty cool town, despite being small and relatively unheard of. What made you move out there and what can you tell me about Asheville?
I like Asheville, it’s really relaxing. I'm actually back in New York City as of two months ago, but I’m going to keep living in both places. Asheville can’t live up to New York’s social scene, but the climate is what I grew up in and feels right. It’s real nice and the weather’s balanced. It feels like home, because it’s my home state and it’s really pretty.
I definitely go to shows; I’ve played one show in Asheville and it was pretty good. There’s definitely a lot of artists, musicians, and bands. There’s a lot of art being made, especially a lot of craft art being made and being taught. There’s a craft college nearby called Pendant; there are a lot of people who are crafting certain objects. You also have a lot of music, a lot of old time music, a lot of folky bluegrass around. There are street musicians, quite a few who play bluegrass. You got a lot of interesting experimental bands here also.
Mostly, it’s relaxing to be home and around nature, but it’s got enough music and things going around, such as nice restaurants around and things like that. I live the way that I like to.
How familiar are you with Richmond? Did you ever come here when you did live in NC growing up? Everyone I know who’s said something about Asheville was either visiting from Richmond or on a short regional tour. Do people in Asheville speak highly of Richmond?
I’ve played one show in Richmond, but have driven past it way more times. I’m not super familiar with it, but it does seem to not be such a far cry from what North Carolina’s style.
Last time I was in Richmond, my friend’s band put a show up for us. It was back in 2008 so I don’t really remember. It was some bar. It was the last show of a week of shows that I booked myself back when the band was just a duo.
I remember I went to this huge thrift store [Diversity Thrift] that was nearby and I bought a bunch of short sleeve blazers. It was an awesome thrift store.
My drummer actually had to go home, so I did that show solo while he took the vehicle home. I stayed a night and then took the Chinatown bus back home. That was the end of that week of shows, which was a really memorable and fun week.
Your sound has developed a whole lot over the years. Initially, you seemed to have gone for this 8-bit electro sound, but have obviously gone beyond that. If you last played Richmond in 2008, were you playing songs from your first record, Attic Attack!!?
No, I only ever played those songs out like twice in New York. That was more in 2007. In 2008 was when I was starting to play songs that were going to be released in 2010 on my debut album.
What motivated the change from the electro pop sound to what you’re doing now?
I started going to this open mic night that was hosted by a guy named Lach that was in the East Village in New York. I've realized a lot of things that translated on the debut, that I’d credit to that very vibrant Monday night scene. I think that experience of sitting there watching tens of performers whom I’d never seen or heard before, watching them try to captivate the room with just one instrument and just words and melodies, that’s a really exciting sort of challenge and most people fail at it. I learned a lot, the reason people were failing at that. There were couple people that I borrowed from. That was one of the biggest contributing factors to the self-titled debut, as opposed to Attic Attack!!
Between Attic Attack!! and the [next] two records, I discovered the art of writing lyrics and the power that lyrics have to capture people, as in the open mic night, [which would] go on for six hours.
Your last.fm page mentions some pretty interesting things. It mentions that you play a four string guitar in your own wonky tuning. Can you tell me more about that?
I was interested in Animal Collective’s early stuff and I heard they tuned their guitars down and changed them into inventive tunings. I was just kind of seeking a different sound, a unique sound. I took some of the strings off to pursue a different sound and to make it easier on my left hand, so I could get back in the groove of playing without being overwhelmed and [find] a way to sound different from any other guitarist.
Another thing I was doing at the time was I was teaching myself the sound of different chords, so I had three strings on the guitar. It was really helpful for simplifying these chords visually. [It] gives you the ability to play major or minor chords with just three notes at a time. It forces you see the relationship between different major and minor chords. It was really helpful for the ear training I was teaching myself at the time.
Ironically, I was doing this at a music school I was not attending. I was in New York City going to a school that was having a housing issue. So they found me and some other people a dorm space at the Manhattan School of Music in uptown, which was pretty far from my school. They had some music practice rooms in those dorms, so I was using that space and getting my feet wet in guitar/bass composition. It was pretty fun to be learning how to play and sing and how to make pop songs, testing my knowledge. I eventually found a three-string tuning that stuck, and had some songs that I wanted to keep. Eventually I added a fourth string to make it sound better. That’s how Darwin Deez came about.
Before you started writing those songs for what would become Darwin Deez, did you ever play in any other bands (aside from Creaky Boards), or try to start any others?
I tried to form one band in my freshmen year at Wesleyan. We had one practice and it was very exciting, but it was logistically a nightmare to get all these cool people in a room together and I gave up for awhile. I had a drum set that I brought up to school in my second semester. My goal for that band was to sound like this DC band called Q and not U.
That’s actually one of my favorite bands. I love all that Dischord Records stuff. Speaking of DC bands, I’ve also heard that you’re big on The Dismemberment Plan. Did you ever get to see either band back in the day?
Yeah, I enjoyed [Q and Not U's] stuff a lot while I was at Wesleyan. I’m really interested in their composing and set up of guitars. I just really wanted to make that kind of band, but nothing came of it.
I saw Dismemberment Plan and Death Cab For Cutie on the same tour together. I’ve seen Q and not U as well, but it was much later in their career. I also saw Fugazi when I was 18 and they had just put out The Argument.
You’ll be playing a bunch of dates abroad this summer. What have your past experiences touring/playing abroad been like? You seem like you’ve gotten quite the reception across the pond.
It’s definitely different, but it’s hard to explain the difference. I definitely enjoy touring Europe, the bands and crew members are always so cool there. People drink more in the UK, they sing a lot more, people dance a lot more in Germany and have a lot of energy.
Things that are available late at night, like fast food, is so different. There’s a lot of things that are decent and a little disgusting. Like in Germany, they serve you salami and tomato slices for breakfast, which I found disgusting. In the UK they serve fried fish and fried potatoes, and that’s a balanced meal. I find that sometimes delicious and sometimes disgusting.
It’s been a long strange trip, and it’s hard to explain the difference. I’ve never been someone who wants to travel. I’m not in this for touring or the traveling or the performance. Touring is just something I do to be taken seriously as a composer. I just want to write pop music, that’s my joy.
You released Wonky Beats back in 2011, a hip-hop mixtape that heavily samples Charlie and The Chocolate Factory that was released under the Darwin Deez name. Obviously, it’s different than your other releases. Would you consider putting out more material like this?
I like to make lots of different kinds of music, I like to make noise and play instrumentally. I made more wonky style beats over the last year. I've got a mixtape that was much more eclectic, but some friends of mine kind of discouraged me from putting it out. Doing those more fun creative projects is important way to stay connected to my creative self, instead of going through this process of promoting this piece of art that has an exploitable commercial potential. I’ll probably make another mixtape at some point and put it out. There’s a good possibility of that.
I’ve read that you were planing to work on your third record after this summer, but do you already have ideas for new songs? Are you planning to start writing in some of the weeks you have between the festivals you’re playing?
Definitely. Writing is always a slow process for me; I seem to not be able to write more than one song a month. I’m already working on it though. After the summer I’m just going to be writing and enjoying my life. It’s a really weird life to be given. I’m still figuring out how to make it. It sometimes seems easier to follow along with a 9-5 life and do your creativity in your downtime. I find that I’m only doing writing I feel good about when I’m supposed to be doing something else. It’s a strange brew that I’m still trying to figure out, but writing is always my number one goal when I’m not on tour.
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Darwin Deez will perform at Strange Matter, located at 929 W. Grace St, on Saturday, June 8 with Crushed Out and Herro Sugar. This is a matinee show, doors open at 5 PM. Admission is $10 in advance, $12 at the door. Advance tickets are available HERE. For more information, check out the facebook event page here: https://www.facebook.com/events/188627464621272