Wham Dan Deacon

Posted on 25th Jul 07 by Contributor | 0

Artist: Dan Deacon " Interview
Author: Jason Golden

Dan Deacon has garnered a reputation in the underground as an intense performer and classic showman. The table top full of pedals" a sine wave generator" vocoder and casio blasting through the PA" joined by a makeshift light board with various bulbs and green skull strobe light" make his all out dance"til"you"drop performance a complete experience.

But it isn't all fancy feet and bouncy beats. Deacon is a classically trained composer with a Masters degree in electro"acoustic composition. He has released 7 albums from 2003 to 2006" but those self"produced recordings do not contain the vocal"based experimental pop that he has fine"tuned in live performance. His latest full length" Spiderman of the Rings is the first album bridging the gap between party performer and genuine composer.

Dan has performed with a host of big names including Lightning Bolt" Girl Talk" Cat Power"
Spank Rock" Numbers" Thurston Moore" Animal Collective" Video Hippos" Wolf Eyes" Jeff Lewis" Langhorne Slim" This Bike Is A Pipe Bomb" Daniel Johnston" and countless others.

This August Dan brings his live experience to Ireland for the first time. Taking in dates in Crawdaddy Dublin "August 17"" Liquid Lounge Cork "August 18" and Roisin Dubh Galway "August 19". Drop"D nabbed Dan for full details of what Ireland can expect.

Hi Dan" to start at the start. For those in Ireland who don't know you" who is Dan Deacon and how did you get into composing the music you make"

Hello" I got started composing music when i was in junior high school. My old PC had a midi program that was just a blank staff and a tool bar of different not intervals. It was really simple but totally fun. I started teaching myself theory and how to read the various clefs "I already new the basic of music since I played trombone and tuba in the school band". Quickly this led to me experimenting with various tonalities" time signatures" and rhythmic complexity. While in college I was studying political science "and hating it". I realized that all I wanted to do was play music with my friends and write absurd computer music so I switched majors and entered into a world of weird
classical performance and composition majors who had completely different outlooks and ideas about what "music" was. I was the dirty weird noise guy amongst the cleanest" most proper cello players. It was a pretty surreal time for me.

I hear you've completed graduate studies in electro"acoustic and computer music composition. What did that entail and what effect does your education have on the music you make"

I sort of ran a scam with the music program on the college to get my graduate degree while still enrolled as an undergraduate. I was taking 36 credits a semester" which was double the standard amount. I had classes Monday through Friday from 8:30 am to 10pm" plus I was in charge of booking all the shows on campus so most of my memories of that period are insane blurs.

I think the largest impact studying music in an academic setting was being able to focus on nothing else but my work for years. And since Purchase was a weird place for weirdo"s it also made it so I could be surrounded by friends who were making similar types of works in other worlds of art. This is where I met all of my friends that would later form wham city with me in Baltimore.

What was it like to study under Joel Thome"

It was amazing. He"s an amazing person. He encouraged me to take my ideas to their limits and to not let conventions or standards get in the way of instinct.

Can you describe what exactly Wham City is"

Wham City started as several friends moving from Purchase college to Baltimore in the spring of 2004. It was houses in a large bottle cap factory that was split up into many insane" large warehouse spaces where artists and weirdos lived. The shows there was totally bonkers and out of control and dangerous and I cant believe the small number of injuries we had. While we start having less shows" we started to
branch out display other aspects of the collective "theatre" visual art" film" etc". We are mainly a bunch of jerks who like being dickheads and having fun for the sake of fun since life is what it is these days.

You've been gaining a hell of a lot of attention this year. Has it meant
you've been able to go full time with your music"

I"ve been full time with my music for the past 3 years. I try to live as cheaply as possible and not spend any money at all whenever I can. Living in a huge cheap warehouse with 12 other people keeps the rent down" we have a food salvage dumpster collective that gets us a lot of free organic food" most of my gear is from the garbage and I cant think what else there is to spend money on.

You recently released the Spiderman of the Rings album but your sound is
renowned as very unpredictable and spontaneous. How difficult was it for you
to try and capture that unpredictability on record"

I always had a hard time in the studio before this record. It"s difficult for me to feel comfortable in that setting. This was the first record I recorded entirely by myself in my room. I holed myself up in my room in wham city for about 2 weeks and only left to eat and shit. It was a lot of fun. I can"t wait to start recording the new album next week.

How did the recording of the album go" Were there many major problems"

The only problem was that right on the other side of my wall was another space where the dudes who lived there played drums DAY AND NIGHT so fucking loud. Luckily it doesn't bleed through but it drove me totally insane. Another problem was my room was right off the kitchen so I think I drove my roommates insane since I was constantly screaming and blasting sounds 24 hours a day. Keep in mind all the
walls in wham city were dry wall with no insulation and most of the
room"s didn"t have real doors or windows or anything.

You seem to have a shit load of equipment when you perform… what do you use and where do you get it all from"

There are two main sections" the rack and the board. The rack is a signal generator" limiter and vocoder. I found the signal generator and limiter in the garbage and bought the vocoder like 6 years ago. The board is a pitch shift pedal" ring modulator" delay pedal" mixer" signal splitter and Casio tone keyboard. Some of this is garbage"
bought" lent to my from friends" etc.

Your shows are said to be wild affairs. What"s the craziest thing to happen at one of them"

I don"t know. I was doing a show at the first wham city and all these kids climbed up to the ceiling and were hanging on the water pipes and the electrical conduit. The building is from 1890 so the water pipes are old as fuck and if they burst we would of been totally fucked. We tried to get them off but the wouldn"t let go so my roommate grabbed a broom and start hitting them in the crotch with it until they fell. I got hit in the face and all my gear got covered in blood. It was wicked.

At another show in Baltimore the PA was a 12 foot mound of speakers and amp horns that were all taped together. During the show the floor was shaking so much that the stack of speakers started to sway and some of the top speakers fell and smashed my laptop. I know use an ipod.

Are we going to get the chance to be part of the Wham City choir when you hit Ireland" What can we expect when Dan Deacon hits Ireland"

I"ll be doing the choir on this tour. I"ve never been to Ireland and I"m really excited to go. Hopefully people like to dance and let go and not be concerned about anything but enjoying themselves.

So… Moses V Predator" who would win"""

It"s an endless battle with endless outcomes forever.

You can catch the Dan Deacon live show on the following dates"
Friday August 17 " Crawdaddy" Dublin Doors 11.30pm" Old Harcourt
Street Train Station" Dublin 2

Saturday" August 18 " Liquid Lounge" Cork" Doors 10pm " 29
Marlborough Street" Cork City

Sunday" August 19 " Roisin Dubh" Galway" Doors 8pm " Dominick Street"
Galway City