Digging Deeper with Chicago's Deeper
Ian from WLUW sat down with Shiraz, Kevin, Drew, and Nic from Deeper to discuss their European tour, Malört Slushies, and a Deeper billboard.
Interview Transcript:
Ian
Hi, this is Ian Keller, I'm here with Deeper at Thalia Hall. Can you guys just introduce yourselves for the camera real quick?
Shiraz
Hi, I'm Shiraz
Kevin
Hi, I'm Kevin.
Drew
Hello, I'm Drew.
Nic
I'm Nic.
Ian
Thank you guys so much for taking the time to speak with us. We really appreciate it. So Aly was able to speak to you guys at Pitchfork this year, but since then, you guys have been on tour a lot, and you've released your newest record Careful! How's tour been so far?
Shiraz
So great. Feeling young and nimble after five weeks now.
Ian
So you guys have like… this is like the last show of the US leg, and you're going to Europe next week, right? Are you guys excited? Nervous? Where are you guys most excited to go?
Shiraz
I'm just pumped to be on the road with my dogs again. Especially overseas.
Drew
Stamina is high after the US shows. So yeah, feeling really good. I'm excited to play London because we're playing Pitchfork London. But we had a really great time in Copenhagen last time. So Copenhagen will be cool, and Berlin. Yeah, Berlin is starting the tour off, which would be cool. And yeah, closing it with playing in Cologne with US Girls who we really love. So that'll be cool, too.
Ian
So how do you guys feel coming back to Chicago after… you played Pitchfork and then you went all across the US and into Canada. Coming back to Chicago, how does it feel to kind of be home for a minute?
Nic
It's the best city in the world. And we missed it.
Kevin
It's really funny to play shows for a month where you know like three people in every city, and then we're gonna play a show where we know like, 80 people here. Yeah, we have, like 80 people here. So it's, it's just like a whole different rhythm to the show. Yeah, but I don't know, it's gonna be fun.
Shiraz
Us Chicagoans don't realize how many Chicago stans there are out on the road. People just love talking about Chicago out there and I got Chicago pride baby.
Drew
It's funny how many Chicagoans have spread out all over the country, and so everyone wants to come up just like "Oh man, Chicago!" Like always wanting to talk about it and stuff. So it's been really great. Like, feels like little slices of home everywhere we've been.
Ian
That's awesome. Do you guys have a favorite venue or favorite state that you went to this tour, any special moments that stood out to you?
Nic
Salt Lake City, baby! Yeah, I liked Salt Lake. I don't know. It's cool. I got groped by an old man. Not gonna say where. Yeah, it was crazy. It was a good one.
Kevin
We had a really good time at Lodge Room in Los Angeles. It's really great place that treat us well, and Mississippi Studios in Portland. That was a great place, like right away. The vibe was really great. And yeah, it makes for makes for a good show. Those are the venues that stand out to me.
Drew
Also, Baltimore. Yeah. Baltimore was amazing. Everyone was very excited, which was, which is really special. Yeah, I think that kind of rounds off the the really, really notable ones. But like, honestly, almost all of them were total hits. So it was really great.
Ian
So have you noticed this tour, any differences between this tour and previous tours that you guys have been on? Kind of just growing as a band, maybe? how it's different from previous tours?
Drew
Yeah, well, it's our first full US run, you know, we've done headline tours in just parts of the country and things like that, but you know, doing it all in one fell swoop, I feel like I don't know, showed us that we're like capable of kind of stepping up to the next level. People were just like, so excited, and I think especially releasing our previous record in the pandemic, you know, it's taken some time for that to find people. And so on this tour, I feel like we brought a lot of those people out for the first time, which was really cool and seeing them get into Careful! as well was really special.
Kevin
We had more people at this tour asking us to play our cover of Bennington than any of us ever thought would happen. We're not going to play it, sorry.
Ian
You've retired it for now?
Kevin
We've only played it like twice, maybe ever, and once was at like the release show for the single that it was on. So it's not really a song we're looking to play. We don't really play covers. I think people were like asking for because they didn't know it was a cover, and they thought it was just one of our songs or something, or they thought maybe we'll play it. We don't, we don't really play it.
Ian
That's funny. So when you guys were creating this latest record Careful! were there any inspirations that you guys may have had that kind of came out of nowhere? And you're like, it was an unexpected inspiration, maybe.
Nic
I felt zero inspiration during the whole writing of the record. A dark black hole. A big mass of negative energy.
Ian
So it all came from inside your head?
Nic
Yeah, yeah.
Ian
So you guys did a collaboration with Parsons, before the release of this latest album, and you guys had a Deeper meal with a hot dog and Malort slushie. It was an interesting collab, and it was really Chicago. So what inspired the collaboration? How did that kind of come to be?
Nic
We just really like hot dogs, and… I don't really like Malort. Sue me. But Kevin really liked Malort. You like Malort? I just feel like we were kind of just throwing you guys a bone on that one. So we made a drink with that.
Drew
Charity project?
Nic
[Laughs] Charity Project! Yeah. And I mean, I don't know. It was just kind of a cool thing. Shout out Land and Sea, you know, they hooked it up. And then they gave us a big ol' billboard. So that was kind of cool, too.
Ian
What was it like to see you guys on a billboard?
Nic
I you know, I just wish there was a little bit more photoshopping of me. I wanted to chad jaw. Give me a better filter on that b.
Kevin
But I live right by it. So I walked by it, maybe like every day for the first two weeks it was up. And so it was funny to be able to kind of ignore it as you walked by, you know.
Ian
You got to get used to seeing yourself on the billboard a little bit.
Kevin
I was like "Ehhh that's still there, I guess." Yeah.
Ian
That's interesting. So the latest album, it came with a spray paint stencil inside the packaging. What was the idea behind that, and have you guys seen it stencilled anywhere around the city?
Kevin
No, no, we haven't at all. Yeah.
Shiraz
Yeah, there might be one outside of Rainbow Room that someone might have done. But some people DM us their stencil spots and we're stoked to see it and we just love guerilla marketing and breaking the law. I think more people need to break laws, especially that one. That's a stupid law.
Nic
Yeah, we like to break laws, just reiterating that. Also, like if anybody has that stencil, and they want to like climb to the top of our billboard and spray paint it, I would thoroughly enjoy that too. So…
Ian
Get on it!
Nic
Do it. Get arrested. We'll not pay your bail, but we'll give you a free T shirt.
Ian
That's good marketing. So I've got some rapid fire questions to end off the segment for us today. Guys can answer however many [of you] you guys are feeling. So what's your favorite song off the new album?
Nic
Every night? No. Airplane Air. Fuck. I don't know, pass
Drew
Bite.
Kevin
Airplane Air.
Shiraz
Fame.
Nic
Oh, that's a good one.
Ian
Good choices. My favorites also Airplane Air. What's one thing that you can't live without on tour?
Kevin
My Theragun.
Nic
My pink pen from Denver.
Drew
Mine's my electric toothbrush.
Nic
Yeah, this motherfucker brushes his teeth like 10 times a day I feel like he's gonna have like..
Kevin
I'm wearing the enamel off yeah.
Kevin
The van. I need the van. I need the steering wheel. Yeah.
Ian
What is one thing that you learned on this tour? Any lessons?
Shiraz
I learned how to micro nap.
Nic
I'm stupid I didn't learn shit.
Drew
I don't know if I learned anything either. Honestly.
Ian
Learn anything about yourselves maybe?
Kevin
I feel like if you caught us in a different mood we could have said something poignent.
Drew
I yeah, I guess like stamina wise, I guess like just having the stamina to just… late nights early mornings like for five weeks straight again, again, again, again.
Nic
You know we learned we learned like, no matter how fast you drive or how slow you drive you're pretty much getting to the same spot at the same time so, let's not be nuts on the road, okay people? We got a bunch of rec drivers out there recreational drivers were professional drivers. Kevin's studying for his CDL right now he clocked in about I don't know 7000 miles on this tour if not more. Bros got legs a steel over here eyes of steel too. I also learned how much you know, snoring one person can take after a while.
Ian
Who is an what's an artist or song that you guys have on repeat right now.
Nic
Wherever You Are Tonight by Accessory. Yeah, shout out Jason, he's probably gonna hear it in the next room.
Drew
It's not just one song, the Jason Balla catalog. The guitarist of Dehd, Jason, oh and singner. Yeah. Oh, Accessory. All of his solo stuff is incredible. So really everything he releases.
Ian
Alright, and my last question for you guys, what is your go to karaoke song?
Nic
Mine's Changes by Ozzie Osborn.
Drew
It's really good. Heroes by David Bowie.
Kevin
I don't really like doing karaoke.
Shiraz
I'm still in search for mine.
Ian
I haven't found mine yet either. So thank you guys so much for your time. We really appreciate it.