Deerpeople is coming to rock Club 156 in the UMC this Friday night. The indie band from Stillwater, Okla. has released one self-titled EP, with another �on the way. They recorded at Bell Labs Recording with Trent Bell, who has worked previously with The Flaming Lips. Deerpeople have played shows all over the Midwest, including a show at Oklahoma�s Buffalo Lounge at SXSW 2011.
(Courtesy of Hear Nebraska)
Brennan Barnes, the lead singer, spoke to the CU Independent about touring and making music.
CU Independent: Have you guys ever played at universities or on campuses before?
Brennan Barnes: We�ve done quite a few on-campus stuff, just because we live in a college town. We live in Stillwater, where OSU is. We did a thing at OSU-Tulsa, and we did some OU stuff, on their campus in Norman. Not really out of state.
CUI: Do you guys like playing to the college crowd? Is that more your scene?
BB: I mean, of course. We [the band members] are all college-aged. It would be weird if we either had teens or old people coming to our shows. It�s fun to have people your age at your shows appreciating your music. I don�t even care if they appreciate our music, I just want people to dance.
CUI: Are any of you guys OSU students or past students?
BB: I think at one point we�ve all gone there. Kendall graduated in December and Julian graduated last May. Derek graduated a couple of years ago and now works on-campus.
CUI: Have you guys done any large tours or just mini-tours around the area? Where have you been playing lately?
BB: We tend to just do these little mini-tours. And it�s fun to do these three-day things. Our booking agent lives in Missouri, so he�s been routing us through Missouri and Kansas and Nebraska a whole lot. In fact, we have our biggest draw outside of Oklahoma, in Lincoln, Neb., surprisingly enough. I don�t really understand why or how, but we tend to have a pretty big crowd there. We have been to Colorado a couple of times, we�ve just never made it to Boulder.
CUI: Is there anywhere you�ve really wanted to play, that you haven�t gotten the chance to go to?
BB: There�s tons of places I want to play, I want to play Japan really bad. I�ve never gotten to go there, you know? Sometimes I feel we can�t go to the places I want to go because there�s nowhere in the Midwest that I necessarily want to go, aside from Chicago or something, but even that … it�s not the best. I really want to go somewhere with a little bit more of a liberal attitude, so that we can dress like women, or cover ourselves in blood and do stuff like that and not offend people.
CUI: You guys just have the one EP, what�s next recording-wise?
BB: We have finished everything up on the second [EP]. It�s in mastering right now, so we should have it out in the next three or four weeks.
CUI: Do you have plans for a full-length album? Or are you going to tour behind this new EP for a bit?
BB: I�m working currently on a full-length that I�m pretty proud of. So I want to put this EP out, so that people don�t forget about us, and then release a full length fairly shortly after that. ��
CUI: What is the writing process like for you guys?
BB: The way that we�ve always worked, from the very beginning, is that I�ll write the skeletons of these songs � and then everyone else comes in and just fills in their whole parts. I really like working like that.
CUI: Who are your greatest influences?
BB: I listen to really upbeat stuff, I�ve been into Yeasayer lately. A lot of our influences overlap, but there�s also a lot of stuff that sticks out. I like crazy stuff, like The Apes… and really weird, almost post-glam stuff. It�s funny, our guitar player, Alex, who is a fantastic guitar player and a crucial member of this organization, listens to shit. We�ve made fun of him for this for years. His favorite bands are like 311 and Dave Matthews Band. For a while he was into Jason Mraz. Julian listens to Jonsi and Sigur Ros and Bjork. He�s really into Icelandic bands.
Check out Deerpeople this Friday at Club 156 in the UMC at 8 p.m. Tickets are $8 pre-sale and $10 at the door.
Contact CU Independent Breaking News Editor Isa Jones at [email protected].
