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Viscious Circle
Dan Deacon and a group of Baltimore musicians and performers are challenging the way live music is traditionally performed with the Round Robin Tour. The concept is that all of the bands set up in a circle simultaneously, and each will play a few songs before move on to the next artist. The show will go on this way for about three hours.
In addition, there are two nights, the first titled “Eyes Night,” and second, “Feet Night.” Eyes night is devoted to slower more ambient music that is, as the title suggests, interesting to watch. One can easily guess that Feet night is dedicated to faster music that would allow you to dance. Aside from Deacon, the show features Beach House, The Death Set, Video Hippos, and Jana Hunter among many others.
This is the first full-scale tour of its kind and with a lineup like this, it’s turned quite a few heads. We had the chance to chat with Dan Deacon himself about his tour.
Phrequency: First of all, how is the tour going so far?
Dan Deacon: It's been a really beautiful experience. It’s really hard to describe how awesome its been. It’s different from any other tour I've ever been apart of. With the huge number of people all working together its been like a traveling community. It’s just really exciting to see so many motivated people working together. I feel really blessed to be apart of it.
P: How did you come up with the idea of the round-robin style of the tour?
DD: I was on tour with OCDJ and we crossed paths in Tallahassee with Video Hippos and Blood Baby. The show was a house show with no other bands. Since no one wants to open or close the show I suggested we all set up and play at the same time, sort of as a joke. We did it, and it was surprisingly fun. After the show I couldn't stop thinking about how different it was from a normal show and I started planning a much larger one to be the last shows at wham city's first location.
P: Wham City is an art collective that you're a part of down in Baltimore. What kind of things do you guys do?
DD: We have cry baby contests, dry diaper offs and snack breaks.
P: You actually have a degree in electronic music. What inspired you to do that?
DD: It just seemed like a good idea at the time. I was studying composition and disliked working with most of the performance majors that were mainly into playing classics and not new music. Writing for electronics and computers was the best way for me to get ideas out of my head and into peoples ears. I never really thought I would be doing what I'm doing now. I’m slowing making the shift back to composing non-pop based pieces and working on a more diversified body of work again.
P: A lot of your albums besides Spiderman of the Rings are more experimental. What direction are you going in with the next album?
DD: The new record is very percussion based. It’s not as light hearted as SMOTR but I think it still has that uplifting feeling.
P: In regards to the tour, how many rounds do you typically go through before the end of the night?
DD: normally we do 3 rounds, which are a little over an hour each. Sometimes we "jam" at the end and there is a narcissistic encore song or two.
P: Is there a cap, or do you just go until you feel like stopping?
DD: We cap it around 3 hours. Any longer and the audience starts to get exhausted and thins out. We'd rather leave people wanting more than draining them. I think 3 rounds/3 hours is the perfect length.
P: How have people been responding? (is mostly everyone into it, or is there any reluctance?) Have you run into anyone really opposed to the concept of the tour?
DD: The response has been really positive. I haven't heard any one complain about it. People seem really psyched. I was worried about people complaining or only watching a few of the bands but most people are really into it. In Chicago there were 750 people and everyone was going nuts to every band. It was really awesome to watch the crowd run from one of side of the room to the next to freak out to a band that most of them had never heard before.
P: What went into choosing the bands that were playing?
DD: I tried to pick the most self motivated bands in Baltimore, bands that that put back into the scene (book shows, live in show spaces, go to shows, add to the arts community of Baltimore). Beyond that its was finding a group of bands that would compliment and contrast each other well.
P: Was it difficult to explain the concept to them?
DD: Yes. It’s something that becomes entirely clear when its happening but before that its a haze of confusion and worry. Once the show starts the haze becomes purple and we all start setting guitars on fire and we have huge cocks.
P: Your live shows have a lot of audience interaction and movement. Any mishaps ever occur with that?
DD: Last year I was opening up for Adult in New Orleans and in the second song a dude got his foot caught in one of my cables and tore all my gear of the table. I just ended the show there, it was too perfect.
P: I heard there were some technical difficulties on the first night in Boston, has that been happening a lot over the course of the tour, or has it been going pretty smoothly since then?
DD: It's been smooth sailing. That was the first time we ever did it. It was mainly getting the video to work in zone 1.
P: What made you want to split it up into two nights?
DD: I wanted the shows to have a cohesiveness and a momentum to them. The groups are based on what the audience does during that bands music, watches them or moves to them. So that’s why the bands are grouped into EYES and FEET.
P: Has one been more popular than the other?
DD: Both shows seem to received with the same positivity.
P: I heard most or all of the bands are using a vegetable oil powered school bus for the tour. Has that been holding up well?
DD: It’s been running like a dream and its saved us thousands of dollars, and more importantly, it kept that money out of those evil pockets of oil companies.
P: If this goes well, should people expect to see another round robin tour?
DD: I'll be doing tours like this until I die.
P: If the Baltimore music scene and the Philly music scene got in a fight, who would win?
DD: It would be like phase cancellation.
In addition, there are two nights, the first titled “Eyes Night,” and second, “Feet Night.” Eyes night is devoted to slower more ambient music that is, as the title suggests, interesting to watch. One can easily guess that Feet night is dedicated to faster music that would allow you to dance. Aside from Deacon, the show features Beach House, The Death Set, Video Hippos, and Jana Hunter among many others.
This is the first full-scale tour of its kind and with a lineup like this, it’s turned quite a few heads. We had the chance to chat with Dan Deacon himself about his tour.
Phrequency: First of all, how is the tour going so far?
Dan Deacon: It's been a really beautiful experience. It’s really hard to describe how awesome its been. It’s different from any other tour I've ever been apart of. With the huge number of people all working together its been like a traveling community. It’s just really exciting to see so many motivated people working together. I feel really blessed to be apart of it.
P: How did you come up with the idea of the round-robin style of the tour?
DD: I was on tour with OCDJ and we crossed paths in Tallahassee with Video Hippos and Blood Baby. The show was a house show with no other bands. Since no one wants to open or close the show I suggested we all set up and play at the same time, sort of as a joke. We did it, and it was surprisingly fun. After the show I couldn't stop thinking about how different it was from a normal show and I started planning a much larger one to be the last shows at wham city's first location.
P: Wham City is an art collective that you're a part of down in Baltimore. What kind of things do you guys do?
DD: We have cry baby contests, dry diaper offs and snack breaks.
P: You actually have a degree in electronic music. What inspired you to do that?
DD: It just seemed like a good idea at the time. I was studying composition and disliked working with most of the performance majors that were mainly into playing classics and not new music. Writing for electronics and computers was the best way for me to get ideas out of my head and into peoples ears. I never really thought I would be doing what I'm doing now. I’m slowing making the shift back to composing non-pop based pieces and working on a more diversified body of work again.
P: A lot of your albums besides Spiderman of the Rings are more experimental. What direction are you going in with the next album?
DD: The new record is very percussion based. It’s not as light hearted as SMOTR but I think it still has that uplifting feeling.
P: In regards to the tour, how many rounds do you typically go through before the end of the night?
DD: normally we do 3 rounds, which are a little over an hour each. Sometimes we "jam" at the end and there is a narcissistic encore song or two.
P: Is there a cap, or do you just go until you feel like stopping?
DD: We cap it around 3 hours. Any longer and the audience starts to get exhausted and thins out. We'd rather leave people wanting more than draining them. I think 3 rounds/3 hours is the perfect length.
P: How have people been responding? (is mostly everyone into it, or is there any reluctance?) Have you run into anyone really opposed to the concept of the tour?
DD: The response has been really positive. I haven't heard any one complain about it. People seem really psyched. I was worried about people complaining or only watching a few of the bands but most people are really into it. In Chicago there were 750 people and everyone was going nuts to every band. It was really awesome to watch the crowd run from one of side of the room to the next to freak out to a band that most of them had never heard before.
P: What went into choosing the bands that were playing?
DD: I tried to pick the most self motivated bands in Baltimore, bands that that put back into the scene (book shows, live in show spaces, go to shows, add to the arts community of Baltimore). Beyond that its was finding a group of bands that would compliment and contrast each other well.
P: Was it difficult to explain the concept to them?
DD: Yes. It’s something that becomes entirely clear when its happening but before that its a haze of confusion and worry. Once the show starts the haze becomes purple and we all start setting guitars on fire and we have huge cocks.
P: Your live shows have a lot of audience interaction and movement. Any mishaps ever occur with that?
DD: Last year I was opening up for Adult in New Orleans and in the second song a dude got his foot caught in one of my cables and tore all my gear of the table. I just ended the show there, it was too perfect.
P: I heard there were some technical difficulties on the first night in Boston, has that been happening a lot over the course of the tour, or has it been going pretty smoothly since then?
DD: It's been smooth sailing. That was the first time we ever did it. It was mainly getting the video to work in zone 1.
P: What made you want to split it up into two nights?
DD: I wanted the shows to have a cohesiveness and a momentum to them. The groups are based on what the audience does during that bands music, watches them or moves to them. So that’s why the bands are grouped into EYES and FEET.
P: Has one been more popular than the other?
DD: Both shows seem to received with the same positivity.
P: I heard most or all of the bands are using a vegetable oil powered school bus for the tour. Has that been holding up well?
DD: It’s been running like a dream and its saved us thousands of dollars, and more importantly, it kept that money out of those evil pockets of oil companies.
P: If this goes well, should people expect to see another round robin tour?
DD: I'll be doing tours like this until I die.
P: If the Baltimore music scene and the Philly music scene got in a fight, who would win?
DD: It would be like phase cancellation.
