Interview: DEADLETTER
Photograph by Alice Wilcox of interview BTS
I managed to get the chance to chat to DEADLETTER pre their set at Brighten The Corner’s Festival. After meeting them during soundcheck, we snuck out to a private room downstairs in King Street Cinema with a fully stocked bar (which took all our strength to walk straight past) and a piano which they immediately started jamming out on. An oddly eerie film with no video, only distorted audio playing in the private screen room, set the ambience to my first interview of the weekend.
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After rearranging the entire room to fit our seating needs and trying to guess what film soundtrack we were hearing, I asked them a few introductory questions.
“How would you personally describe your sound?”
Zac (vocals and acoustic guitar) described DEADLETTER’S sound as “sort of just alternative rock music with a danceable element to it, quite rhythm heavy.” One thing I noticed upon reflection regarding all the bands I spoke to, is that they avoid labelling themselves with very genre specific terms, such as solely post punk or jazz. It’s nice to have a less reductive description.
“I read that your previous band name used to be Mice on Mars. How did Mice on Mars evolve into the DEADLETTER we know today?”
George (bass) explained that Mice On Mars was started with just three of them - Zac, George, and Alfie. As it grew, they reached a new phase in their lives, and with 6 members now, it felt like a different project that needed to be coined differently.
We got into chatting about their musical influences growing up, and I asked if they thought “any musical influences are audible in their current musical output.”
Will (guitar) named The Clash, and Jimi Hendrix notably. “I don't know if we hear him in our sound, but The Clash, I'd say. I'd like to think that is the case, but I don't know. I’ve had a lot of different influences growing up”.
George agreed that at that point in his life “it was probably similar to Will. The Clash, Massive Attack, was kind of getting into Marvin Gaye. Maybe Marvin Gaye doesn't come through in DEADLETTER, but I think you're always influenced even if you don't know it subconsciously.”
“It probably all creeps in in some way.” Nathan guessed that he "brought a jazz influence. I play the saxophone, so I was very interested in jazz when I was growing up. Obviously, sax is such an important instrument in jazz. I have a few solos in the set in our music and I definitely try to bring out some jazz improvisation, stuff that I've picked up over the years by, I've been inspired by.”
Zac listed loads of different people like Eddie Harris and John Coltrane. “I don't know if it comes through in the music but like it's definitely kind of there in my mind for sure. I think musically it's quite hard to pinpoint kind of a specific artist because I think that our sound really does bring together a lot of different influences, but at least lyrically I'd say Shane McGowan is a big one in terms of someone that I was listening to a lot when I was growing up. The way in which he sort of weaves syllables together and the stories he tells I think had a huge impact on me.”
“If any director could direct a music video for you, what director would you pick, dead or alive, and what song would you pick of yours?”
Zac immediately continued that right right now he’d confidently say David Lynch because he’s in the middle of Twin Peaks (which I learned is now on Mubi thanks for the inspiration Zac). “In terms of what song maybe something, again it's it's unreleased so right now the context won't be there, but but the tune It Comes Creeping. I think he could do something really horrible with it. Or just Bong Joon Ho for Mother with clips of his film of the same name.”
“I was wondering do you guys write with meaning in mind? Do all of your lyrics and all your instruments have a specific meaning to the song that you're writing?”
George clarified that they all often write their own parts. “It's hard to know what Zac’s trying to get across before he sings it. A lot of the time feels quite detached but think we all react more to each other rather than pre-plan which direction it's heading.”
Zac continued that typically he’s choosing lyrics to put with the music. “It means I’m actually finding what lyrics would fit the message of the tune of the melodies as opposed to kind of having this complete body minus lyrics and then writing to that. The music can define the lyrics that I choose.”
“If you were stuck on a desert island and you could pick one album, one book, and one luxury item, what would it be?”
Will discussed that he’d go for “Four Calendar Café by the Cocteau Twins. I feel like it's my kind of home in a way that record. I mean I’d bring my acoustic guitar, and for book it's called Stoner by John Williams.”
Zac continued, “In terms of album, I'd probably take Death of a Ladies Man by Leonard Cohen. Luxury item, I mean, does like a notebook with a pen attached to it count as one item?”
After a brief debate on what counts as one item, Zac continued that for his book, “it's probably got to be something long because the chances are you're going to reread it quite a lot. I’d probably take The Brothers Karamazov by Dostoevsky.”
Will proceeded that he’d take Hijira by Joni Mitchell, a notebook for his book, and he was actually going to take a bed as his luxury item. “If I'm stuck there forever, I might as well be comfortable.” Back to pen specificities, and Will forgetting to bring a pen for his notebook, he justified the well known “bed-with-a-pen-attached” piece of furniture as his luxury item.
Nathan was up next. “My album would be Music for Large and Small Ensemble by Kenny Wheeler. My luxury item, I don't know if this is stupid, but I was thinking maybe like a really, really high-end hi-fi, because how else am I going to listen to the record? Like a £25,000 hi-fi, but obviously that is like one item, right even though it's got speakers and an amplifier?” I agreed with Nathan that he could have that as one item. “ And then my book would be The Line of Beauty by Alan Hollinghurst.
Alfie finished by saying he’d “copy Nathan with the hi-fi thing and probably take, if he ever releases the full works, John Cooper Clarke’s poetry. I'd probably take that, like all of it, because it'd be then quite big. And then I'd probably take Catch A Fire by Bob Marley or What's Going On by Marvin Gaye, I can't decide.”
Photograph by Steven Spicer of DEADLETTER
Thanks to the DEADLETTER boys for a lovely chat, Tom Larsen-Wright for filming / audio and Alice Wilcox for BTS pics! Keep your eyes peeled for new music from DEADLETTER soon…
Written and edited by Faith Hussain
Cover courtesy of Alice Wilcox