Along with our Festival Guides comes a new feature, On The Road centres around the colliding worlds of music and travel. With these Q&A interviews we hope to delve not only into the touring side of a musician’s life, but to also see the world through their perspective.
Based in East London hard at work on album number two Deap Sea Arcade chat to us about their experiences within the local music scene and their tour across Europe, while meeting Oliver Stone and witnessing Tyler The Creator cry are also just some of the many things the five-piece have seen in their travels.
You guys are currently based in Clapton Pond, East London what inspired the move to the motherland?
When we finished the album cycle for Outlands in Australia we had to choose between either writing and recording the next record in Australia or writing, recording and road testing the new record in London/Europe and being the insane touraholics/writing addicts that we are we chose the latter.
Give us a rundown on the London music scene you’ve experienced so far. Is it what you thought it would be?
I’ve been into a lot of the bands coming out of East London for a while like The Horrors, Toy, Temples, Charlie Boyer and the Voyeurs (who we toured with). It was great to find that those bands are not only amazing live but they are all super friendly too. While we’ve been over here Temples and now new comers Telegram have been making enormous waves so we feel privileged to have seen them at their first gigs before they blow up.
Have you been working on much new music? If so do you think the London music scene has had any direct effect on your music?
It certainly has had an effect on the record living over here. Upon reflecting on Outlands I can see that as songwriters Nick and I have developed a sound that is distinctly our own. Perhaps we were a little hesitant to deviate from traditional song structures i.e verse/chorus/ middle 8 etc, which to my ears now sounds too shiny and clean, it could do with a bit of merkin or maybe real chest hair.
I think that watching bands over here has taught us that it’s ok to go off the beaten track if the song calls for it and it feels right. I watched Toy play in a cathedral in Liverpool and it was like listening to an ever expanding wall of sound, it was incredibly ethereal, everything was building but I couldn’t tell where it was going to go and I wondered if they did either, though they obviously did. Bands over here are very tight and there is almost an autistic attention to detail when it comes to the look, sound and style. This of course is all backed up by an academic approach to referencing music history, all the bands over here really know their shit and they certainly know their lineage. I think that we are witnessing the beginning of something really exciting happening in the UK musically because of this attention to detail and perfection. Having said this I’m still waiting for a band that’s either so smart or so dumb that they are confident enough to take that knowledge and fuck it up a bit.
You’ve also found time to record a French track with Washington for the Mélodie Française compilation. Tell us a little bit about that experience.
I was happy we did it because it gave us the opportunity to try out ideas musically we’ve had without the pressure of doing them for an album. Instrumentally I think we were able to try out things we hadn’t done before. It was great collaborating with Megan as well, we have been talking about doing something for a while. At first the idea of singing in French was quite daunting but when I started recording it I really got into it, it’s a lot of fun trying to get a cohesive performance in a language you barely know. Maybe I should start a French band on the side.
Have you come across any record stores or music venues you’d like to recommend?
Yes I can roll it all into one story, when we first arrived we heard a band called Le Volume Courbe who had just recently supported My Bloody Valentine and we asked them to support us at The Sebright Arms which is a great new venue just off Hackney Rd in Shoreditch. It turns out that Charlotte who fronts Le Volume Courbe also works in a really great record store called Lucky 7 on Church St in Stoke Newington. So go and check out the venue The Sebright Arms and Lucky 7 record store.
You’ve also been playing a few shows around Europe including appearances at festivals like The Great Escape. How have the shows been going down?
They’ve been going amazingly and all have been really well attended.
Its been really pleasing to have crowds respond so well to the new material too. We played to one of the largest crowds we’ve ever played to at Metropolis Festival in The Netherlands. Its been lovely to travel through the Benelux and also play shows and festivals in Italy. In Italy they feed you really well. By the time we went on stage we’d been fed about three bowls of spaghetti each. People love music in the UK and Europe and you really get a sense of the excitement in the crowd when you are on stage.
Have you noticed any differences between European audiences and crowds back home?
I’ve noticed that they sing along to the songs in German and Italian accents. I think the same rules apply to Australia as it does UK/Europe the further north you go the more insane the crowds get.
Favourite show so far?
To be honest my favourite show that we’ve played so far was at a venue called the Buffalo bar in Highbury and Islington. It was a charity gig to raise awareness for teenage cancer. The place completely packed out and the energy in the room was just amazing. We ended up raising over 1000 pounds for the Teenage Cancer Trust.
While on the road did you make any detours and do any sightseeing? If so, where did you go and what did you do?
After the Italian leg of the tour my friend who is the official photographer for T in The Park in Scotland asked me if I’d like to assist her while she was shooting all the main acts at the festival. I jumped at the opportunity and onto the next plane to Edinburgh. I realised that band photographers have a better festival experience than the bands.
Bands play the set and then hang backstage or jump back in the van, but as a photographer you sit in the pit between the band and the audience. I ended up watching Snoop Dogg/Lion front row centre getting serenaded by Cathy O and seeing Tyler The Creator cry backstage after dislocating his arm and be told to ‘grow some balls’ by an older female Scottish security guard. The whole experience inspired me to start a blog with bands shooting and interviewing other bands.
Everyone always has a few strange or crazy travel stories. Could you let us in on some of yours?
When we first arrived Sky News contacted me and asked me if we could shoot an interview with Oliver Stone. They didn’t have a cameraman in town and they new that we make our own video clips and that we’d just arrived in London. Nick Weaver and I went and shot and did the sound to Stan Grant interviewing Oliver Stone. Because we are a band we agreed to shoot the interview for mates rates. Here is where the story gets hairy. After they used our footage on air they claimed it was so amateur that they couldn’t pay us, and it probably was too. Despite all this it was an amazing experience and Oliver Stone is definitely a DSA fan now whether he knows it or not.
How do you fill your time while you’re on the road? What music have you been listening to? What TV shows have you been devouring? And what books have you been flying though?
I’ve been reading Mother Tongue by Bill Bryson and I also just picked up a book in Scotland called ‘Scottish Myths And Legends’ for kicks.
I’ve been watching Dystopia, Black Mirror, the new season of Luther, Game Of Thrones of course and a new show called Hunderby.
When can we expect your return to Down Under? And will you be armed with a new album?
Yes we’ve been back working with producer Dan Grech Marguerat (The Vaccines, Lana Del Ray) and we may well have a track to listen to upon returning though the next record is scheduled for release early/mid next year. We’ve written a lot of new material and this will be scattered through the set we will be playing at our shows in September.
Can’t wait!
Deep Sea Arcade Welcome Home & Black Cat 2013 Single Tour Dates:
Friday 27 September @ The Zoo, Brisbane QLD (18+)
Friday 4 October @ Metro Theatre, Sydney NSW (AA)
Saturday 5 October @ Ed Castle, Adelaide SA (18+)**
Sunday 6 October @ Amplifier, Perth WA (18+)**
Saturday 12 October @ Corner Hotel, Melbourne VIC (18+)
**Hey Geronimo Not Appearing
