Interview With Deerhoof
Hongkongers are in for a treat when quirky band Deerhoof visits the SAR for the first time. Known for exploring eclectic sonic avenues with each new album, these talented multi-instrumentalists are also lauded for their electrifying performances. Guitarist John Dieterich spoke with Lynette Chiu about their approach to playing live and creative ways of debuting new material.
HK Magazine: People always talk about your energy on stage. How do you keep up that energy while on tour?
John Dieterich: When we perform, we never really know exactly what’s going to happen. We prepare our songs, but to be honest, if there’s a good energy at the concert, it comes back to us from the audience and feeds what we’re doing.
HK: Deerhoof has released 10 full-length albums. Do you think it’s important to play older songs live? How do you plan your set?
JD: The main thing is trying to come up with a set that’s fun to play and fun for the audience. We try to include stuff from as many albums as we can. Also, certain material runs its course, but if we let it sit for a while it will usually get a new life. We’ll come up with a new arrangement for it, or for whatever reason it’ll work, even if it wasn’t working for a couple years. We’re continually evaluating and reevaluating what music we can play live.
HK: Your live set-up seems a little more stripped down, with fewer effects than the recorded versions.
JD: By necessity we have to travel extremely light. In a way, it has always been a good test. When we’re working on something, we’ll have our electric instruments and everything and then [we’ll have] Greg [Saunier, the drummer] tapping on his legs. Or we’ll just play acoustically. If the songs work like that, then they’ll work in any way, whether it’s an orchestra playing them, or us playing them with our loud, distorted guitars.
HK: For your latest album, “Deerhoof vs. Evil,” released in January, you did a “Global Album Leak,” where you released one track each week via websites in different countries. How did that idea come about?
JD: We were thinking about how the album was going to leak anyway, so it wasn’t a question of whether we could prevent it. Instead of trying to stop the impossible, why not actually embrace it? It’s actually been really great for us. It generates interest and people get to hear [the album], which is our reason for making it. There’s a song that’s sung in Catalan [a language spoken in regions of Spain], and that song was leaked in Spain. We got some really nice feedback. Apparently not a lot of foreign bands sing songs in Catalan.
HK: Have you released previous records in creative ways?
JD: Two albums ago, before the album was released, we released sheet music for one of the songs. We put up a site for people to submit their music—a lot of people sent in recordings—and so you could go through and listen to the song in a million different versions before anyone had ever heard our version. It was a way of leaking it without really leaking it.
HK: What are you looking forward to in Hong Kong?
JD: I’ve never been to Hong Kong. Satomi [Matsuzaki, the bassist and vocalist] has been years and years ago, when she was a kid. I’m looking forward to eating [laughs]. Everyone says the food is amazing.