Known for hyper rhythmic music that mixes strands of dance, pop and avant-garde into a wild electronic haze, Dan Deacon is a singular performer in contemporary music. in the aughts he emerged from a fertile DIY scene in Baltimore, Maryland, where he was part of the Wham City collective along with Ed Schrader, Jimmy Joe Roche, Dina Kelberman, Robby Rackleff, Alan Resnick and Ben O’Brien. Deacon is known for highly interactive, playful shows that almost represent happenings more than straightforward gigs. Ahead of his appearance at Body&Soul festival on the weekend of 19th to 21st of June, we chatted with composer and performer Dan about the nature of performance and the difficulty of putting him on a musical map.
Hey Dan, How has the tour been going so far? Following your experience touring with an ensemble how are you finding the return to your roots as a solo performer in terms of live performance?
While I recorded Gliss Riffer solo, I haven’t been performing solo. On this tour in Europe I’ve been playing with a drummer and also have another three people making the show happen with me. It’s a real team effort. I can’t imagine doing it solo to be honest.
How do you find the festival circuit? Much as I enjoy your own headline shows, you seem like one of the few acts I can think of that could conceivably benefit from the festival environment.
I like performing anywhere good people who like to have fun are. Festivals are full of people that are there for music they love, to discover new music to love, and to escape regular society for a little bit. Headline shows are similar with a different psychology and setting. They can both be really fun if thought of in the proper context.
Tell me about your attitude towards live performance. For years you’ve toyed around with different ‘games’ in the live environment. What prompted this approach originally, and how has it developed over the years?
The audience is the focal point of my performance. going to see live music is a social experience. I like to create situations that highlight and amplify that. When the performance shifts from the stage to the crowd and the people in the crowd go from passive to active participants it’s always the most fun.
I’ve heard you refer – potentially in jest – to some of your on stage speeches as ‘mantras’? What degree of sincerity are you using there?
I try to always be sincere and i think the best performances are always sincere.
Do you view your work to be particularly personal? Especially considering the inclusivity that makes your live show so unique.
I hope my studio practice is personal and performance practice is both personal and interpersonal.
Speaking on inclusivity, that’s always been a central idea of dance music culture, do you think pursuit of ‘coolness’ has done damage to some of the most crucial aspects of the culture itself? It would seem to me that in many ways your live show is almost an attack on traditional notions of ‘cool’ – by which I mean a kind of callous, Marlon Brando, Rebel Without A Cause-style coolness.
Fuck ‘coolness’ and the people who like to exclude people. I’d rather go to a party of weirdos than of cool people. So much of the music industry just reminds me of the cool rich kids in high school, and what I loved about the DIY [culture] was that it wasn’t about getting rich or getting laid, it was about trying to create something no one has ever experienced before and sharing that with other people who would hopefully take that idea and make something new on it, back and forth forever.
Can it be tiresome to be faced with broad questions (like my previous one) about ‘dance music’ as a whole? Especially in light of the EDM boom in the States. Have you noticed people engaging with your work differently as a result of this increased interest in electronic music? It can be hard for those of us at a distance to really get to grips with this change in attitude in relation to electronic music in America.
I’m happy to answer questions more than once because its proof the original answers haven’t resonated enough! Anyway, I don’t think anyone has any idea what I ‘am’ or what my music ‘is’. It’s dance music, but you wouldn’t hear it in a club. It’s electronic music, but not EDM. When I play a festival, I’m either called a DJ or an indie band, but I’m neither or both. I don’t know – and I don’t really care. Everyone hears music differently and sees the world in their own way.
Do you give any credence to the idea that your non-traditionalist approach to performance is a bi-product of the multi-faceted artistic scene you first emerged from?
I think everyone is the result of how they interact with their influences and how much of themselves they apply to their own self expression. Like all things, I am influenced by environment and I influence my environment. Those ripples in the water mix and merge into new waves and spread far and return home to re-smash and fade.
I’ve seen you speaking about the meaning of Gliss Riffer’s title in relation to glissandos. You also mentioned how susceptible it is to auto-correct and your interest in having your work interpreted, or it’s meaning compromised, by technology. Can you expand on that?
I’m not sure I can. I guess what i’m saying is, there is both a beauty in technology making a mistake and tragedy in the fact that mass technology [has] homogenised culture and is like a sandpaper on the beautifully textured surface that is humanity.
Finally, what are you listening to at the moment? What current artists excite you?
I’ve been listening to some of my favourite old favourites like Glassworks [by Philip Glass Ensemble]. New artists that excite me are Abdu Ali, DDM, and Chiffon.
Body&Soul takes place on Friday 19th to Sunday 21st June at Ballinlough Castle, Co. Westmeath, with performances from Dan Deacon, as well as Leftfield, Super Furry Animals, Cloud Castle Lake, Savages, Soak, Austra, MMOTHS and lots lots more.
For your chance to win two tickets to this year’s Body&Soul, courtesy of Absolut, check out our competition over here at www.totallydublin.ie/competitions/bodyandsoul
Words: Danny Wilson
