INTERVIEW: Deerhoof (Part 1)

by John Davidson
16 February 2007

DEERHOOF has always been a little bit too weird for most folks, what with the way they flit from pop to jazz to avant garde to punk. The semi-controlled chaos went largely unnoticed despite putting out seven albums on the erstwhile Kill Rock Stars record label, home to luminaries such as SLEATER-KINNEY. But then along came The Runner’s Four in 2005, which put the decade-old band in the pages of the New York Times and near universal praise. I’ve always thought that Deerhoof was more accessible than their indie-centric fans have given them credit for, and on the eve of the release of their latest and greatest album, Friend Opportunity, guitarist JOHN DIETERICH gave me some good insight on his band and their music.

How did the musical dynamics of the band change after CHRIS COHEN left?

DIETERICH: The first time we practiced without Chris, we were all struck at how empty things sounded but that we didn’t necessarily mind having it empty and that maybe a fun thing to try with the trio lineup would be to keep emptying it out, finish the job that Chris started by leaving. Of course, Chris’ musical language had a big impact on the band, but I feel like he’s still here because I think we all have incorporated parts of him into our own ways of thinking about and playing music. Sometimes, I will be playing a part and imagining in my mind the way that he would have played it.

How much does personality play into the varying lineup changes over the years?

DIETERICH: On some level or another, it probably all comes down to personality. Chris left because he had a burning desire to complete another dream that had been deferred too many times for him (the Curtains). Everyone in the band has had other bands happening at one time or another, and we have always thought that it is possible to have those while still keeping Deerhoof going, but we became so busy at a certain point that it seemed ludicrous for all of us to even try to keep something else going except in the most skeletal state.

Please describe the process of writing music for this album in comparison to others.

DIETERICH: The actual process of writing the songs wasn’t that different on its surface. We all brought in what we each thought of as finished or semi-finished songs and then we all went through them together and decided how we wanted them to sound and came up with arrangements for them and kind of reconstructed them from the ground up. The main difference was that we had given ourselves a deadline of when we wanted the album to be done, so we ended up having to work really fast, even to the point where we were mixing while we were on the road.

Runners Four was allegedly reworked quite a bit before the final version. How does the band decide when songs are complete and ready for release?

DIETERICH: When everyone in the band is happy with them. With The Runners Four, we thought that we had finished and mastered the album, then we went on tour and brought it with us and listened in the car and realized that we weren’t happy with the way it sounded. In that case, we changed a lot of things, removing as much as we could stand (the first version was too full and too muddy sounding) and also just trying to come up with better mixes and a clearer sound. We also ended up going through about a million different orders, which is pretty common for us.

Filed under avant-garde art-rock