It's not often that you get the notoriously blasé Hong Kong music crowd crouched on the floor of a nightclub bouncing and gyrating in a collective form of interpretive dance. Bu then it’s not often that Dan Deacon is in town. Well, actually, he’s never been in town before. So it was no surprise that Hong Kong’s newest underground venue XXX Gallery crammed more than 300 music loving locals through their doors to help Deacon kick of his first Asian tour.
It was more of a surprise to see those locals jumping and playing and chasing through various Deacon-inspired imaginative assignments . But then such endeavors are par for the course at a Deacon gig. Half performance art, half total freak-out the Dan Deacon experience requires more then the usual beer-sipping and head-bobbing.
The word "community" comes up a lot when people speak about Deacon’s music, both in the press and from fans. Listening to his first commercially successful album "Spiderman of the Rings" released in 2007 or his more recent 2009 album "Bromst" it is easy to see why. Amidst the blistering layers of impossible sound combinations rises a communal shout. A collective yell of fun-loving mayhem that is as incomprehensible as it is addictive. Throughout his two hour set there is a distinct sense in the crowd that they are sharing something. Something really fun, that doesn't take itself too seriously.
Deacon has been based in Baltimore since 2004 where he became one of the founding members of the artistic collective "Wham City." The last year saw the classically trained musical maestro sign to Domino records, premier a new piece titled "Ghostbuster Cook: Origin of the Riddler" at the Merkin Concert Hall in New York, and then go on to play the Whitney Museum of American Art in New York and the Getty Center in Los Angeles as well. This year Deacon is set to release a new full length album produced by Chester Gwazda (who also produced “Bromst”).
ARTINFO HK spoke to him about Hong Kong, Baltimore, “Beauty and the Beast” and why houses should always have names
How do you like Hong Kong?
It is crazy! This is my first time in Asia. We just came from Australia and this is a major change. It is just so towering here. I live in Baltimore and the city is pretty vacant. It is crazy to be at our hotel and be looking out at all the lights. I mean it is just crazy.
You played at the Whitney Museum of American Art recently. Why do you think that your music fits that environment?
That was just a regular show. I think it fit because my work is very performative. It uses the space as an element. People went pretty crazy. About 50% of the people there were there because they go to the Whitney and the other people were there because they go to my shows. So it was a fun show. I should have done something specific for the space itself though but I guess you can revise everything in the past. I am looking forward to doing more and more of those shows.
Can you see yourself creating specifically performance pieces?
Yeah totally, I would love to create something that is site specific to a space like the Whitney. We have talked about doing something like that in the future. I think there has always been a little part of a performance artist in me. I normally get the audience to do the actual performing and of course there is the space as well.
How much do you think the visual arts and music go hand in hand?
Oh completely. Without question.
There seems to be a visible change in your energy and demeanour as soon as you start playing to a crowd. Is that something you are conscious of?
Oh every time. I think that happens with anyone that is a performer. There is an energy shift but it is still definitely me up there.
What about when you are making music? What is that process like for you?
It differs from track to track and depends where I am and what I have around me. Nine times out of ten songs are like sketches in a sketch book and every once in a while it is like, “Oh this would be cool to do something for this one.” So I guess it is trial and error. I would say about 80% of what I mess around with never sees the light of day. Making music is my biggest hobby. I like to think of it as sketching or creating a drama.
If creating a song is like making something from a sketch then how do you come up with a complete album like “Bromst”?
When I was making “Bromst” I wanted it to be album based and not like a single-focused album. I wanted it to flow as one piece and you could listen to it in a single sitting. The concept itself was “album”, not too get too meta on things.
How did that change with the new album?
Now I wanted to do something different for the new album. With this one I wanted to make a collection of songs. I wanted to revisit the idea of singles. I wanted to go in a totally different direction.
Things have been happening pretty quickly for you. Have you had a moment along the way where you thought, “Wow, things have changed?”
Yes, I would say there have been many moments like that! Performing at the Whitney was, of course, crazy! Also the first time that we needed to bring the money inside ‘cause we actually had money. That was a moment! This was after our first record came out and we were on tour and we were like, “What are we going to do with this $600.” It was the most money that we could imagine having at one time. That was when I was like, “OK something is going on.”
So tell me a bit about the start of “Wham City” in Baltimore in 2004-5?
Well we didn’t really mean to start a collective. We sort of just got a space, 7 of us, and started having shows and putting on plays while being super poor. Houses with names are very important I think. Once you name a house it is like the house becomes a room-mate almost. If it doesn’t have a name then there is something missing.
What kinds of things were happening there on a weekly or day to day basis?
Well we would dance everyday for about three hours to the same mix and eventually we all became obsessed with “Beauty and the Beast” the Disney version and we would sing along to it all afternoon long. None of us had jobs, we were all living pretty meagerly. Literally eating out of the garbage. Although the house was huge so it was really easy to put on shows.
Was there a “scene” to speak of at the time in Baltimore?
Well there was and we kind of came in at a good time where people started doing similar stuff to us. There was a very vague improvisation scene and a Harsh Noise scene but there wasn’t an art/music scene. There was a rap scene and there was a very avant-garde scene but there was no middle ground. I think we provided that. In a way that still promoted pop music. Bands like Pony Island and Future House and Beach House all started coming out and we kind of merged with that.
What is it like now, what keeps you there?
Well the community is a massive part of that, but I don’t know! Baltimore as a city itself is pretty weird. It is half abandoned and there is horrible crime but because of that it is very affordable and I think you need to have those three elements for there to be a relevant art scene. For people to be able to experiment they need to be able to focus on just their work. If they are working other jobs or worried about media or critics that are in scenes like New York or London and LA then it is not going to happen. Like if the New York of the seventies tried to happen today then it would never happen at all.
Dan Deacon’s Asian tour is now in New Zealand where he will play Auckland, Wellington, Nelson and Christchurch, finishing up in Dunedin on 7 February.