Electrifying Experiment with Dan Deacon
Have you ever been to a concert, where the musician, instead of just playing and occasionally telling half-funny stories, forces the audience into a wild dance battle? That, and much more, was what happened on Dan Deacon’s Friday performance at Way Out West in Gothenburg. The master of experimental electronics was also opened for trying out things with The Forumist – from tasting super strong Swedish coffee to an unrestrained photo shoot in a colourful haze. Electrocuted by his show, we talked to Dan about festivals, his freaky visual world and having a crush on Francis Ford Coppola.

You are known for embracing all the extremes of electronic music – from your Tiny Desk Concert to, Carnegie Hall… How does your approach to music and process change depending on the scale of the project?

– I like to approach every show thinking about the psychology of the audience. As an opening band you need to perform knowing that people are going there to watch one thing and they are listening to you in order to build the anticipation. You need to perform to an extent that they not only pay attention but they also like it and remember it. When you’re a headline show, your audience is there to see you and you have to figure out how to meet expectations and surpass them.

If it’s a festival, everyone going there know a handful of bands, but they are there to discover new music. That atmosphere of discovery makes people more adventurous and dive into new music. It’s also what makes playing on festivals fun for the musicians.

That’s why the festivals are important. It reminds me of this very nerdy card game called Dominion. There’s this one card called Festival. It’s a very powerful one, cause it gives you both influence and money. I always think about how some festivals don’t make money anymore… but they do bring a lot of influence. There are cities that become destinations because of the festivals.

There’s also a very specific visual world around your music. I am thinking about videos such as “Feel The Lightning”. Do you also think visually while creating music?

When it comes to ‘’Feel The Lightning’’, the director AndrewJeffrey Wright send me over two ideas – one about the furniture coming alive and another one sort of a Bauhaus psychedelic party. My only input was why don’t we merge the two together.

For the track “When I was done dying” I was thinking about the video and having the idea of the every verse of the song changing with the different animator along with the consciousness of the character shifting, and luckily I knew so many good ones that made it all happen.

But I do think a lot about the visual content of the performance. One of the only ways to re-live the music is through photography.

– It seems like your city, Baltimore, is a special place for creative music. Your good friends Future Islands also live there. What makes it so unique – do they put something to the water there?

– Yeah, it’s a place for weirdoes! I make music on the fringe of pop and experimental, and I don’t align with neither of the two to 100 %. When I play experimental music, I’m a pop show, When I play pop I’m a freak show. Baltimore is a great place to find your way without the need of making a commercial success.

I feel there’s a fascinating environment and a community that’s growing and getting more and more diversity. It’s become a great hub. When I moved there 11 years a go, I remember meeting Beach House around. Future Islands lived in North Carolina and I was calling them saying: move here, move here! Then they finally got here and it got so much louder☺

I can’t help asking you about your collaboration with Francis Ford Coppola for his movie ’’Twixt’’ in 2011.

– It was really surreal. Before we started working he just started inviting me to his house, talk on the phone, no project mentioned. I am sure he had something in the back of his mind, but I didn’t want to get my hopes up. You know, like having a crush on somebody: I think he likes me, but maybe no… Maybe one day he invites me to work with him… I don’t know…but it’s fine like it’s now, I don’t want to ruin it…

He treated me as an artist and we could disagree on things. I never felt like: he is a legendary director, that will be in the history books until people stop writing about Mozart. I think, what defines his genius is willingness to fail, looking to experiment. He has a vision and wants to shoot for it without worrying about failing. I guess that’s what is holding many artists back. For someone of his level of success it takes a lot of risk. It was crazy to see someone of his stature to make an independent film – he doesn’t need to but he just wants to do it.

What is the next experiment for you then?

– I started to make a new record – I think it’s going be a one piece of music album.

After making ‘’America’’ I was working with a lot of great musicians live. There were only a few performances, where I let them do their own input, and I realized this were my favourite performances. Now I want to go back to working with people, but not in the same way. I want to have form, but be much more exploratory while collaborating with my favourite musicians.

Experimenting! Who knows, it may probably fail, but that’s what it is all about.

Credits:

Words by Weronika Pérez Borjas

Photography by Clara Uddman

Special thanks to WOW2015, SJ, ESS HOTELL