Dan Deacon goes deep

(Credit: Josh Sisk)

The most high-profile member of Baltimore’s Wham City art collective, Dan Deacon went to music school in suburban New York and holds a graduate degree in electronic music composition (yes, those exist). But he’s known as the big, weird dude with the nerdy vintage T-shirts, bushy beard and Sally Jesse Raphael glasses who makes up-tempo avant-electro and turns his wild one-man shows into audience participation–fueled freakouts.

That was the old Deacon—the Deacon who played house parties and basements, played half-broken synths because he had no money for new equipment, and got his last LP, “Spiderman of the Rings” (with standout single “The Crystal Cat”), called “the most joyful album of 2007” by Pitchfork. Now he’s on to “Bromst,” a new record that’s deeper and more textured, full of bigger beats and increasingly complex compositions.

Deacon says that access to larger venues’ sound systems is partially responsible for his sonic shift; and on this tour, he's abandoning his trusty pre-recorded tracks for the excitement and chaos of fronting/conducting a 15-musician backing band. It still sounds like Deacon—blips and bleeps, heavily processed vocals and weird electro remain the heart of what he does. It’s just a logical next step for the unique performer-composer.

At the end of a long, cold day in Charm City spent eating bad Mexican food, working on music and rehearsing his neo-orchestra, Deacon talked to Metromix about his new live show, his unlikely status as a fashion icon, and how to reject hot girls’ advances.

Is bringing a bunch of musicians with you on stage meant to make a statement about where you are now, musically?
Yeah, I think a lot of it has to do with that. I mean, I don’t want to just keep doing that same show that I’ve been doing for years in basements and now have to do it in large venues. I did that, it was fun; I think I took the show as far as I wanted to take it. I just don’t want to be playing to tracks. The main reason I started playing along to a CD or to an iPod was out of necessity. Now it’s at a stage where there’s money to support a larger group; there’s no need to have anything be pre-recorded.

What about the “crazy” aspect of your shows? Would you ever try to tone it down?
No, not at all. I mean, I still want the level of intensity that the show has to not decrease; if anything, I’d want it to get more intense. But, I don’t want it to just be a non-stop plateau like the [old] show is. I’d like it to have more of an arc, more of a contrast from piece to piece, and have it be more varied in its levels of intensity.

How long have you been presenting yourself the way you do?
My whole life.

Really? The thrift store-y, art/nerdcore-ish, now-what-has-become-“hipster” glasses thing?
I used to shop at thrift stores because those were the only places I could afford. I got these glasses because they were the cheapest ones at Eyeglass Depot and they were the ones where I could see the most out of. I guess I’ve sort of noticed—to a reader this might sound really narcissistic—but it does seem like a lot of styles that I used to wear, and sort of get made fun of for, now are part of hipster culture. It’s especially weird to see people wearing thick, big glasses. I guess the first time that it really dawned on me was when someone went into American Apparel and they had large-frame glasses there labeled “Dan Deacon Glasses.”

Yeah, that’s gotta be weird.
It is weird. [Laughs] There’s also this ad on Facebook that’s a picture of me, and it says, “Do you like Dan Deacon? Find other people who do.” And then it’s just like a weird social networking dating Web page. It’s not even a picture from my Facebook account or anything, it’s just a picture from the Internet, and it’s sort of insane to me…that they would pick a dude like me. It’s a bizarre time we live in.

Where do you want to fit into it?
I don’t know if I do. One thing that bugs me is the idea of monoculture. I hope that more people discover an individual style or something that they like and enjoy and don’t co-opt what other people are doing…getting influenced by other people is one thing, but then just sort of replicating it is another.

It’s got to be odd to be the weird looking dude and be scorned for it and then have it become “you’re interesting and cool!”
Yeah, but even before it broke, it was weird how I would be on tour, like years ago, and like I’d go to a gas station and I’d walk in and the guy would be like, “What, did you just step out of a loony bin?” People would say that to me, like, constantly. And then I would play a house show, and I’d be getting hit on by this amazingly beautiful girl and be like, “How is this happening? How is this weird dude that’s considered so physically repulsive in some senses, but then in some worlds I’m attractive? This is bizarre to me: I’m the fat, bald dude who is also attractive to this woman.”

I never really think about it much anymore; I have a girlfriend and whenever I feel like I’m getting hit on, I just say that I have to take a shit. That sort of makes that situation go away as fast as possible. Works every time, guys! You can use that one, just give me the credit.