Talk It up: Darwin Deez

Darwin Deez, real name Darwin Smith, will be out in Australia in a few weeks' time to dance up a storm onstage as part of the Parklife Festivals. We caught up with Darwin back in July to find out how things were flying with the American indie rocker to find out he feels much more at home in sunny London than he is in his homeland.

Darwin Deez has been one one of 2010's success stories. His self-titled debut album came out earlier in the year and was met with a torrent of praise from the blogosphere and mainstream music press alike. Self-recorded and produced by Deez himself, the record goes to show how far things have come for the DIY bedroom artist. He elaborates on the recording process below:

(Phone pick-up) Deez residence.

Hi Darwin, it's Jimmy from Rip It Up magazine here.

Hey Rip It Up, what’s up?

Yeah not much. How are you?

Oh yeah, I'm good. I'm just sitting down to some snacks.

Whereabouts are you today?

I'm just chilling at this apartment in London.

How is London?

It’s quite temperate. It’s like very cool weather. We escaped the fireball of the NYC summer. It’s definitely gonna continue to be hot over the next two months so I'm glad we’re gonna be gone.

What is this like the 10th time you’ve been to the UK this year?

Yeah, it feels like it. I think it’s more like the fifth or something.

There seems to be a love affair going on between you and Britain. Do you feel the love there more than other places?

Yes, the love is definitely radiating from this province first and foremost. I feel the love and I feel the gastro-intestinal effects as well.

Are you not well?

No, I'm all set, I just have to be on my guard.

Why do you think your music has proven to be more likeable in places like Britain and Australia rather than your home country?

I'll tell you, I think it has to do with the fact that it’s just seriously poppy. I think they just love pop music here. I think they have a special knack for making and appreciating it. I think the pop music on the radio in the States is really crappy.

When you were starting out did you think your music would be more successful in some places than another?

Well once I made the album I started thinking I’d be really successful in Japan because I look so weird. I thought my image would appeal to them, with the curly hair and everything. I definitely hoped that it would do well in the UK because I see the UK as the centre of the music press in the world. The only reason why we exist in Australia is because we started to exist in the UK and I think the same thing is gonna be true of how people discover us in Japan, if they discover us in Japan and the same thing’s gonna be true of America if we get a chance to stay on the radar there. So it’s all going according to plan.

Is that strange thought because you’re from America and that’d be the first place you start to get big?

America’s gonna be the last place we get big. We just don’t fit in, you know? Like there’s the cool bands that the bloggers love like Grizzly Bear and Animal Collective and there’s the pop music like Lady Gaga and Lil Wayne and we’re like right in the middle so it just doesn’t stick.

A similar thing happens in Australia. Do you think the rest of the world’s a bit behind the UK?

Definitely, definitely yeah. I know America is, I don’t know so much about Australia. I think you guys tend to have your own cultural exports but I think the common theory is they have to sort of start stirring it up in England before they can get any traction in Australia as well. I think they just have the best ears.

When did you realise you were going to steal a million hearts with your music?

I'll tell you. When I wrote the first song from this album I knew I had something that was capable of heart stealing. Because I just knew, it was so simple and fun. That was Deep Sea Divers. And then from there I just kept working on it, making more songs and playing more shows and just trying to climb the ladder. But when I wrote that first song it just came out and surprised me and made me really happy.

So you’ve always been pretty confident in your abilities?

Umm, no. I think I've always subscribed to believe that if I work on this for 10 years, there’s no reason why I can’t get everything that I want out of it. But you never know, it could be like 10 years of struggling, doing it Anvil-style. But as long as you don’t give up you definitely have a chance. I think 10 years, five years, any band could make it if they’re smart and don’t give up.

You must have been pretty confident to go into the studio alone and record the album yourself. What’s your preferred method of recording?

I like to do it myself I guess. I think everyone’s aware of the benefits of home recording now, the big one being that you can take all the time you need to get it right and you have all the practice you need because the tools are there for everybody. So that’s the preferred way of doing it is just by myself I think. But it’s tough because as much as I’d like to work with other people I think it’s just not gonna be any fun for them because ultimately I have my own vision and anyone else’s ideas tend to not be exactly the same so they get shot down. So I work alone.

Everything about your sound seems so personal and idiosyncratic. How did you come up with the little things like de-tuning your guitar the way you wanted it?

Well that’s just an exploration. A lot of it is just whatever’s available and just exploring. I’d heard Animal Collective tune their guitars low or down or differently, like made up tunings, and I was really into them. I really loved their first album from 2000 called Spirit They’re Gone, Spirit They’ve Vanished. It’s not so well-known but it really impressed me and maybe five years ago I was doing more experimental noise pop stuff. I was just playing around with that, trying to get different sounds out of the guitar and it kind of stuck. A lot of it is just circumstantial like that, like the drum machine sounds that I ended up using almost exclusively were just drum machines I just happened to have. So there’s a chance factor that ends up making the biggest impact.

So do you think you just stumbled upon your sound?

There’s definitely an aspect of stumbling and then as soon as you trip and start to fall, there’s every kind of control and shape that starts to happen. But in the very first instances a lot of it is sort of random. I mean the tuning I ended up with is totally random but I got comfortable with it after a while.

The full Darwin Deez story will be appearing in the pages of Rip It Up magazine in the coming weeks.

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