DAN DEACON
LOCAL 506, CHAPEL HILL, NC
WORDS: AW HENDERSON
PHOTOS: JESSICA SMITH
MAY 26, 2007
Dan Deacon, wunderkind of Baltimore's Wham City arts collective, makes no secret about his love for North Carolina. Greenville in particular welcomed Dan Deacon and his crew long before the mainstream underground did, and he rewards them, and the rest of the state, with three stops on his current summer tour, in support of his new album, Spiderman of the Rings. The middle of the three shows, at Chapel Hill's Local 506, drew an enthusiastic crowd of twentysomethings with nothing on their minds but the boredom of summer and Mr. Deacon's miracle cure: beautiful absurdism.
Like any good witch doctor, Deacon's method is made all the more mysterious for being laid bare before our eyes. While local openers Future Islands preached their frenzied rock from the stage, and Wham City fellows Video Hippos enchanted the crowd with a giant screen of animated chaos, Deacon himself set up his equipment on the floor, freeing the stage for the sweaty overflow enthusiasm of bodies. With the bare minimum of decoration (one Trippy Green Skull-modified strobe light did the trick), Deacon nevertheless sustained a hurricane of energy and dancing that worked around him to channel his muse into the fringes. And even though everyone could see that most of the music was coming straight from a dangling blue iPod shuffle, no one begrudged Deacon his rightful place in the center of the maelstrom. In that swarming amphitheater, a man achieves godhood by virtue of his circuit bending alone.
Deacon's desire to bring the Wham City experience on the road with him was realized by eight eager acolytes who donned neon robes adorned with pep-rally letters spelling out (take a guess): W-H-A-M C-I-T-Y. Lyrics sheets found themselves into the hands of the devoted, and soon everyone in the crowd was joining in a chorus of "Wham City." The psychedelic choir consecrated the crowd with their sweat, and although it may not have quite been holy, it sure was a hell of a lot of fun.
Before the show, 'Sup sat down with Dan on a bench at the corner of Franklin and Graham. Already dressed in his attire for the night (a worn-out Tweety Bird t-shirt), he explained a little of how he makes his music and what happens when Casiocore meets early morning local news:
'Sup: A lot of your lyrics come across as very surreal or almost silly. Do you generally write them before or after the music is finished?
Dan Deacon: Depends on the track. I'd say it varies from track to track for most of the songs on this album. "The Crystal Cat" carries a narrative, I wrote that after the music was composed. "Wham City" is obviously a narrative that I wrote while the music was being written, so they sort of came together. "Trippy Green Skulls" is just phonetic based. "Okie Dokie" is phonetic based. "Snake Mistakes" is phonetic based. "Moses vs. Predator" is phonetic based. "Big Big Big Big Big" is phonetic based, but still with a slight narrative.
What do you mean by phonetic based?
Just like, the vocals don't have any sort of vocal content. There's no, like, language attached to them.
Who are all the animals listen in the song "Wham City"? Do they correspond to anyone you know?
No... they're just animals.
How did you decide which animals made the cut?
[Laughs] Again, I think it was mainly just I liked the way the words sounded rather than the definitions of the words.
For the most part, do your songs start off as ideas you try to recreate in the music or the song rising out of experimenting with the equipment?
That's still a track-to-track situation. Like, a lot of times I'll just sit down at the computer and just hash something out after like hours and hours, or days and days, and sometimes it just comes instantly, or I'll be walking on the street and a melody will pop into my head, or I'll be at the piano, or playing bass, or something, or just improvising.
Where did the idea for the Wham City choir come from?
Originally, when I started playing this song, I handed out the lyrics sheets, which just makes it easier to know the words. I wanted to take it a step past that, and Stephanie had all this bright yellow fabric and I had all this bright blue fabric, and we were moving and it seemed like a good time to get rid of it and use it at the same time. So we made these robes, and hopefully they will be the first of many. I'm hoping when Wham City reopens in Baltimore in September that we'll have about 250 robes, so the entire audience can wear them. For this tour, it really helps to blur the line between audience and performers.
The first time I ever heard of Dan Deacon was a few years ago when someone sent me the link to a video of you performing the song "Ohio" on some local morning television show, and it blew my mind. Where and how did that come about?
I was playing a basement show in Savannah, GA, and my friend who booked the basement show did sound for the news station. He sort of tricked them; he told them I was like Moby.
What was the reaction among the station?
I think they thought they had been had, which they had...been had...had had? [Laughs] I think ultimately they were fine with it.
I watched the full interview before the performance, and the news anchor seemed sort of patronizing.
No, he was the only one who seemed to actually enjoy that it was happening. I just think the dude had no idea. I mean, we had nothing in common- what the fuck were we going to talk about?
What was the mood as you were walking out?
[Laughs] Just a sort of "Get the fuck out of here" type vibe.
In that interview, you said you try to make music that 6-year-olds would think is awesome. Do you think your music passes that test?
I've met some people who have played it for kids...some kids really like it and others think it's just noise, which I think is good. I guess what I was ultimately trying to say is that, like, I'd want it to be music that people without any sort of preconceived notions would enjoy. That it wouldn't be based upon, like, "I like this because so-and-so likes this," or "I dislike this because so-and-so said it wasn't good," you know what I mean? I try to write music that people would either intrinsically like or dislike based upon what the music itself was, rather than some sort of hype, if that makes sense.
When I listen to your music, I think I can hear influences from other media besides music. What, other than music, has inspired your sound?
I guess mainly just my friends, and the other people in Wham City. Video artist Jimmy Joe Roche, playwright Connor Kizer. On a more massive scale, I guess like...I really like the work of Tom Friedman and Jessica Stockholder.
I hear that you don't have a license. Why not?
I'm a terrible driver.
You can still get a license even if you're a terrible driver...
I'll get one one day, I guess. Do we really need more drivers?
