What the Deus?
Speaking upon the release of the new Deus album, founder and frontman Tom Barman couldn't be happier.
By Andrew P Street
It’s not easy being a Deus fan on this side of the world. While the band have had a significant cult following in the UK and through Europe, around these parts they barely get mentioned outside of pub trivia questions regarding musical artists from Belgium. However, if you’ve missed them thus far, there’s never been a better time to acquaint yourself: their fifth album, Vantage Point, is arguably their best (and certainly their most accessible) yet; preceded by the superb single ‘Slow’ and its threatening-teenage-dance-troupe video clip. Tom Barman is bursting with enthusiasm in the fleeting moments before his band hit the road. “I still have to pack,” he laughs. “But I like touring, it doesn’t feel like I’m gonna be un-free.”
He’s clearly excited about taking these songs on the road. “We did our first show on Sunday, a little try-out near Antwerp, and it felt good. We played the whole album and a bunch of old songs – we did a two-hour set without even noticing! – so we look forward to it, man. We’re doing Europe and a bunch of festivals, then some bigger places toward the end of the year, and then hopefully go to Australia for the first time. We’ve been talking about it for a long time, but I hope it’s gonna work out.”
It’s not just the distance that’s prevented us from getting a visit thus far: the band have been hamstrung in the past by the lack of a full-time line-up, as befits a group that started off more as an art project than a rock band. While Barman insists that the constant turnover has benefited the band in some ways, he’s clearly delighted to still be working with the same people he’s spent the last 18 months touring alongside.
“It is remarkably stable, and I can tell you, my friend, that it feels fantastic,” he gushes. “There’s always been good sides to having all these line-up changes, sure. It’s always brought a fresh wind, and especially if I talk about guitarists, every single guitarist I’ve had in my band has been an unbelievable influence: on the first two albums it was Rudy [Trove, acclaimed visual artist and Barman’s early creative foil], then Craig Ward, and now Mauro Pawlowski is absolutely great too. But on the other hand, I’m really happy: it’s the right time to be stable now, because there’s an unbelievable amount of energy that gets into sorting out personal issues, or people not wanting to tour, or this or that, and for the first time since the beginning days I get this feeling that these are five people who just wanna go for it. And also it’s the first time that I can look forward longer than a couple of months.”
And what do you see?
“We’re actually talking about the next record already. We built our studio and we wanna explore the sound of these guys. And on Vantage Point there’s already a couple of hints of that, but it’s just a really good period.”
Barman laughs delightedly when I single out the unison vocals of songs like ‘Slow’ and ‘The Architect’ as giving the album a certain weight and unity – not to mention a distinctly masculine energy.
“Yes! It is a new thing! It’s just one of those symptoms of getting in your skin and feeling it and having a good time in the studio. There’s something very natural about singing together, there’s something like a brotherhood feel to it and that’s definitely true. And I love vocals – I’ve always loved choirs. It’s not the first time that we’ve worked with choirs, but it’s the first time we’ve done it in ourselves. It’s such a simple thing to sing together, but it’s a new thing for us. There’s something very old-world about singing together. It’s probably a symptom of the reasonably easy recording of this record and the whole vibe that was going on.”
It’s odd that the album sounds as cohesive as it does, since it features a number of guests: Guy Garvey from Elbow turns up on ‘The Vanishing of Maria Schneider’, while The Knife’s Karin Dreijer Andersson contributes vocals to ‘Slow’.
“When Karin came I had this vision that we were on a ship and she was on the front raising her fist,” he laughs. “I wasn’t on drugs or anything, I just got carried away.”
Vantage Point is out now through V2/Shock
Where did they come from?
Deus congealed out of a group of Belgian artists at the end of the 80s and their sprawling, messy, glorious debut Worst Case Scenario (led by the still-stellar debut single ‘Suds & Soda’) saw them melding influences like Sonic Youth, The Velvet Underground and free jazz into a gloriously wide-ranging whole. As the band settled into their skin some of the more abrasive edges have been rubbed off, but can still be heard even in their poppiest moments.
Who’s been listening?
The Silversun Pickups have clearly absorbed a healthy dose of Deus along with their My Bloody Valentine, Smashing Pumpkins and Swervedriver influences, revealed in their chiming guitar lines and the occasionally Tom Barman-like cadence to Brian Aubert’s voice. In fact, at first listen the Triple J favourite ‘Lazy Eye’ is the best mid-period Deus single that never was.