We live in an era where people are daring. They buy a Macbook laptop, squeeze themselves into four hundred dollar jeans, play around with pro tools, then wait for the awards to arrive in the mail.
Skill plays second fiddle to image, and these days everyone is a DJ. My grandma dropped a set at Spectrum last night. One exception to this pandemic is Dan Deacon, who saw the problem and went about correcting it.
“I feel like a lot of electronic music, especially around the time when I was making it… it sort of annoyed me. It was pretentious, it was vain, they took it very seriously and at the same time sort of satirized the art form. It’s important to take what you do seriously but also people go to a show to have fun. I didn’t want my music to be a joke but I did want it to be light hearted.”
Finding the balance between taking the piss and serious musical composition isn’t easy but Deacon is able to live in the middle ground. His release, Spiderman Of The Rings in 2007, had people creaming themselves as Deacon’s unique style spewed forth into headphones across the world.
With a swag of fans ready to celebrate his music Deacon felt the need to up the ante in his live shows, and now he regularly performs in the crowd, and encourages organized sports within the show.
“The main aspect is that if the audience isn’t in the same mindset as me the show’s not going to work, I try to make sure the audience is on the same plane. If the audience isn’t comfortable than I’m not going to be comfortable. We just dance around have a good time.”
Now those of you who read our last issue will know all about Girltalk, everyone’s favourite masher. As fate would have it Girltalk and Deacon are closer than conjoined twins. The two have played together, serving up a feast of hypotonic tunes guaranteed to spawn a whole new generation of wannabes.
“We definitely have a very different approach to music and performing when we play together. Its fun, I think we both have really influenced each other’s live shows, some people describe it as watching two of the craziest shows, that are very different in their intensity and approach. For some reason two nerds can cause a roomful of people to do some crazy things.”
Having found a successful style Deacon could easily sit back and relax. Watch the crowd lose their shit, bed a few ‘herds’ (hot nerds) and just chill. But damn it, that just is not his way.
“I want to constantly reinvent something, constantly challenge myself, let the music evolve, go in the direction it wants to go to, recklessly, but also cognitively. I tend to over think everything but I’m also real lazy.”
Dan is lazy, but was thoughtful enough to make a little southern sojourn and will be touring throughout February, playing Summer Tones at Oxford Arts on 27th and the sold out Golden Plains Festival.
For more info visit www.dandeacon.com
