Deerpeople with Prettyboy, Softaware and Beach Language
Saturday, June 20
Native Sound Stage | Oklahoma City
Long has Deerpeople — armed with magnetic hooks, thoughtful arrangements, highly caffeinated energy and a bottomless supply of confetti — reigned as the best live band in Oklahoma, a reputation that got them an opening slot for Vampire Weekend at Brady Theater and generally been reinforced with every festival spot and house show since.
Now, over a half decade into their career and relocated from their native Stillwater to Oklahoma City, the six-piece has been out on the road in support of their proper debut LP There’s Still Time for Us to Die, which has been pressed to vinyl and is being celebrated with Saturday’s show in Oklahoma City. Oxford Karma took the time to interview guitarist and songwriter Alex Larrea about blown speakers, deflating air mattresses and mortality.
Photo: Doug Schwarz
Oxford Karma: Obviously, it’s been a long time coming, this debut album. How cathartic was it to finally get it out there?
Alex Larrea: It’s the best. As I’m sure it goes for a lot of musicians, releasing this album totally validates all the time and effort we’ve spent on the project.
OK: The vinyl, that’s got to be next level, though. Having the physical thing in your hands. What does it mean to you to have it on a physical format as everlasting as vinyl?
Larrea: The praises of vinyl have been expressed succinctly by many, so I’m not sure I can do anything besides second the feelings of those music lovers, both past and present. Sound quality and full 12″ by 12″ printed artwork aside, the fact that it physically exists really does something to enhance my feeling that it’s a real album. Our first EP is the only release we haven’t pressed to vinyl, and though I have a homemade CD/case lying around, it feels nothing like working on artwork formatting, separate vinyl masters, mechanical pieces to replicate those masters hundreds of times, test pressings, and eventually having 500 physical replication of our music wrapped neatly in the artwork of our choosing. It’s a pretty powerful thing.
OK: What are the perks of having taken your time in getting this debut finished and out there as your proper introduction to the world? Were there growing pains involved that releasing EPs first helped alleviate?
Larrea: It was hard to convince each other of the perks during the times that we were sitting on mixes and masters, carefully curating each step. But now I that it’s out, I think it all makes sense. We are still a completely independent band: No label; no agent; no management. This has given us all the freedom we needed to do exactly what we wanted. However, what we wanted was to make the album look and sound like it deserves to be listened to right along side major releases, so that is why it took us a while longer than we’d have liked. With the help of literally dozens of friends and professional allies, and the continued support of our fans (seriously every dollar/hug/floor-to-sleep-on has counted), I feel that we’ve been able to achieve this goal. Had we released an LP earlier on — even just a couple years ago — I don’t think it would have been anywhere near as strong a submission. The first EPs definitely helped us kick out some of the kinks in our thinking. We learned a lot both times about budgeting and pacing but most importantly about recording our songs. Sonically, the first EP was a bit too clean, and EXPLORGASM was a bit too muddy. We found what I think is our actual sound on There’s Still Time for Us to Die. To me, that means “what we sound like to people when we play live.” The way we tracked this album with Mack Hawkins was very fast and free flowing, and the way we mixed with Trent Bell was very meticulous. I think we’ve captured what’s best about us.
OK: How do you think you’ve most grown and evolved as a group heading from your earliest days in Stillwater to now?
Larrea: It’s definitely the songwriting. I think we’ve always been a strong live band and a lot of our writing/recording process happens with that in mind. We demo songs live dozens of times before they wind up on albums. This process may change, but for now I think it works for us. We’ve been playing live a lot and in a large variety of environments. Sometimes with a large PA and 5 separate monitor mixes, sometimes in a bar with no monitors and a blown main speaker, and then, of course, the occasional house show. Because of our experience and increased adaptability over the years, it’s allowed us to write songs with a lot more creativity and technical difficulty without worrying about how we are going to pull off harmonies and strange hits together. We are getting braver with our writing choices, for sure.
OK: You’ve been one of just a few constants over the past five or so years in the Oklahoma indie music scene. A lot of bands have come and gone in that time. How do you feel about the present state of things and the outlook of the future?
Larrea: It’s a lot of work to do anything in this field. The present state of Oklahoma music is looking great, but we could always use more bands. If anyone takes anything from this interview, I hope it’s that I want you to start a new band. Right now.
Photo: Doug Schwarz
OK: There’s always been this kind of synergy behind peppy energy and hooks and these more sinister turns looming beneath that surface. What attracts you to that duality between light and dark that plays out through your music?
Larrea: I think the heavy mood shifts in our music are representative us as people and as well as musicians. Our music definitely needs that balance. The happy moments aren’t as happy and without all the dissonance and moody moments. Contrast is extremely important when writing songs, as well as in our day to day lives. If we ran in one gear all the time, I don’t think the songs would feel natural. There’s something about a band that sounds sad (or happy) all the time that I just can’t believe in.
OK: What’s the story behind the title, There’s Still Time for Us to Die?
Larrea: At the end of a run of out of town shows, we were dropping off Jordan up in Stillwater and heading back to most of our new places in OKC when I unintentionally spoke the title. Jordan was happily announcing that “Hey, we made it,” but with another 45 minutes of travel left for the rest of us, I simply stated that there was absolutely still time for something to go horribly wrong. The guys remembered it for whatever reason, and it came back to brand this LP: There’s Still Time for Us to Die. The title is fitting for us and this batch of songs in many ways. I think you can look at it from two perspectives and just like the duality in the tone of our music, it nods at both doom as well as hope.
OK: You’ve been one of the better Oklahoma bands in regards to steadily playing shows out of state and making a point to tour as much as you can (especially given how hard it can be hard to wrangle six different members’ schedules). How important has that been to you, and how have you seen the rewards of that manifest, be it in terms of reach, audience or even just your live prowess?
Larrea: I touched a bit on this earlier but playing live and traveling it’s what this is all about for us. Our daily goals consist of talking to locals, eating awesome food, being on time for load in and sound check, and then throwing all of your energy into a live show every night … maybe sleeping well a few times along the way. I’m on a deflating air mattress in Nebraska as I write this. It’s the best. We make just enough on the road so that the band funds itself, we sleep on friends and strangers floors and I couldn’t be happier. There are some bands that are content experimenting in the studio and only tour live because they know they have to; we are the other kind of band. Every show we play for a group of strangers in DC or Brooklyn or a random house in Oxford, OH makes us so much stronger. We love playing locally, but I definitely second the common notion that a band’s goal should be to play for as many people in as many places as possible. Don’t make excuses, just start going out. We made a lot of mistakes early on, but now we’ve played in nearly every major city in the U.S. and all without a label/booking agent. On this last tour we did in April we actually made the band actually came back in the black. Crazy.
OK: What sort of plans do you have for the rest of 2015, now that TSTFUTD is finally out there for people to enjoy?
Larrea: This year has already amazing. We’ve played lots of new cities, and I obviously can’t wait for Saturday. The LP release is definitely a really important milestone for us. We’ve definitely begun planning for the future as well though. We’ve been writing and performing new material and have the foundations to start the next record … or EP or whatever it turns into. Spring will be a lot of touring again, and we’ve already lined up some special Oklahoma shows we’ll begin talking about after Saturday. I’m already so excited with the support TSTFUTD has been given. It’s very encouraging.
