Deerhoof Interview

The omni-present Greg Saunier, drummer for the fantastic Deerhoof (as well as having his hand tons of other projects (e.g., the Curtains, Nervous Cop)), allowed us to bother him with some questions of utmost importance to members of the UN. Deerhoof just finished recording their new album, Milk Man, that will be released in the Spring. Of note, Greg provided one of the best responses to a canned question. Unfortunately, he couldn't come up with the answer to the bonus question (this bonus is going to be asked of all future bands we interview until someone gets it right - then we'll have a new one).

What role does chaos have in Deerhoof?

It's not chaos - it's just personality. Especially when we play, I think our personality is what makes the performance stray from the letter of the song. Other people could cover the songs and their personality would come out, but hopefully the song would still work. I think many Deerhoof songs would make great Muzak. Or we could cover someone else's song, and our personality would inflect it. Satomi said she wants to cover Little Richard!

How would you describe your sound to a five year-old?

We don't have to - we can just play for five-year-olds. We have played for, or should I say, with them. Because they tend to participate, especially when they're in a group. Deerhoof is getting popular with new parents.

Who have been your musical influences?

Yes they have been but not so much since Entwistle died.

Have you and in what ways have you seen your audience change over time?

Right from the beginning you could never put "our audience" in a category, and that hasn't changed. We've never been part of one scene or trend, but people from various scenes or no scenes have always been there at our shows.

If Deerhoof were to sell a million records tomorrow, would anything change?

I don't know. I mean we've always tried to make music that would appeal to the widest possible audience, not just an underground scene, so that wouldn't change. We'd be playing bigger venues, so sometimes that means playing the songs a little slower so that it doesn't sound muddy in those big venues. Once I saw The Rolling Stones at Oakland Coliseum and I have to say I was very disappointed - the sound was atrocious. I could hardly tell what song they were playing, let alone appreciate the details of interplay that I love in their music. I don't know if there's any way around this problem though. Actually, now that I think about it, I saw the Grateful Dead twice, and they sounded just fine in a stadium. You know, their music is quite slow, and they each left a lot of musical space which makes everyone easier to hear. Anyway, if we sold a million records, I'm sure we would get someone to do sound for us - maybe we could ask Jay Pellicci!

What book has meant the most to you?

If I say, it doesn't mean that I think it's the best book ever written, because I'm not that well read, but it's just something that meant a lot to me personally. I can think of three right away, if that's alright!

Graham Locke wrote "Forces in Motion" about Anthony Braxton, while traveling with him on tour. Mostly it's interviews, and I don't think I've ever read interviews that were as inspiring as those that Braxton gave. And it's funny, that book was also a big musical inspiration for Rob Fisk, John Dieterich, and Chris Cohen, all Deerhoof people.

I've read and reread "Stanley Kubrick: Inside a Film Artist's Maze" so many times. It sort of has a similar effect on me to "Forces in Motion" - it takes a subject that already strikes me as very deep, complicated, beautiful, interesting, and makes me realize that it's actually 100 times more so than I thought.

Another book I loved when I was younger was "Star Trek Movie Memories" by William Shatner, because this showed me that even what I thought of as bottom-of-the-barrel mainstream Hollywood drivel was actually not so simple behind the scenes. How could it be that these people were working so hard, putting so much heart and soul and manhours into this thing, and it still turns out lousy, or so trivial? And how can I hope that my album is going to be so great if I only put in 1/1000th of the effort they did? It just showed me that it's not fair to put artistic or creative things down if I think they aren't good, because they tried, which is saying a lot. And it also helped me realize that I wasn't trying hard enough with my music - I was not going to die a happy person if I knew that I put less care into it than any of the people working on a light Hollywood movie. Of course I also learned to adore Star Trek! Now Captain Kirk is my absolute favorite!

How does Deerhoof compose their songs?

All different ways. Having one way of "writing" can really stifle your creativity, or at least mine. You know, people get all kinds of ideas all the time, but actualy what's hard sometimes is having the presence of mind at that moment to realize, "Wait, this could be a song!" So a lot of times, it's things that we do unconsiously that form the basis of a song. Like Chris or John absent-mindedly playing something on the guitar, or me having a dream that had music in it, or Satomi spontaneously singing some little melody when she sees a dog on the sidewalk.

If you could pick a federal program area to receive a substantial increase in budget what would it be? What program would you cut dramatically?

John had this Noam Chomsky book on tour, and Chomsky said that the main reason for the investment of so much money into defense contracts was because it was a stimulation to the economy, not because we needed more defense contracts for our actual defense. Everybody knows we already have by far the most lethal defense of any country in the world, even if we didn't spend any more money on it. Of course, I don't know from actual insider's experience that Chomsky's statement is true, but I can say that I've never heard any other explanation, least of all from politicians trying to scare me with bogus threats like "Saddam Hussein is going to use his weapons of mass destruction against the U.S.," that ever shed any light. But the other thing that Chomsky said was that investing that same money in social programs (education, housing) that actually help the country's citizens would also stimulate the economy just as well! Just imagine
if that's true!

What are the band's hidden talents?

John's quite a skater. I guess he's kind of old school - he does things like a 360 shove-it that current skaters have never heard of. I'm hoping it won't stay hidden too much longer - maybe he could start skating on stage!

What is on the horizon for Deerhoof?

We have several releases coming out, like a split single with our friends, K.I.T. In March we will release our new CD, which is called "Milk Man". We just sent off the finished master and artwork yesterday, which is why I'm getting to your interview now!

Bonus: What does the square-root of 3 and George Washington have in common?

They both could have a carver?

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