Rettsounds - They're Coming to America

If you’ve been paying attention to anything I’ve written here in the past year, you’ll know that Melbourne’s Deaf Wish get me very gooey in the gotchies. Their subtle way of going from sweetly aching to violently gushing has delivered many blows to my metaphysical bread basket. When word got out a few months ago that they were coming to my country to throw down in a live setting, I got so wrapped up in learning all the words to their songs that it totally slipped my mind to maybe interview them. You know, to "promote" the shows and bring a few souls to the gigs we're so lucky they're doing. Luckily, I managed to squeeze in a last minute chat with the dudes and dudettes who make up the band prior to their landing in this poo hole of a land.

VICE: What are you looking forward to the most when you get to the US?
Sarah Hardiman (guitar): I hope to see some cool stars and look forward to meeting the locals. Jensen Tjhung (guitar): For me personally, the Deaf Wish tour is only a bridge towards what will be a deeper journey into fiction, science, and science fiction. Just yesterday I received a gift. It was my dog's first tooth on a chain, and today I wear it around my neck. I shall let it guide me. I have a strong feeling that as the others return home I will find myself following the ghost of Deets through the Southwest boneyard and heading east toward Chickasaw land.
Nick Pratt (bass): I have to say shopping and probably feeling like I'm on the set of a TV show the whole time.
Daniel Twomey (drums): Just getting to play again. We haven't had a show since Madrid in May, so I am itching to play.

More importantly, do you have any pets? Who's taking care of them?
NP: Shout outs to my fluffy friend Mavis Crunchie Von Winkle! Be good for mum.
DT: Well, I've got two children. Does that count? They will be taking care of the cat so I've got that base covered.
JT: I lost my dog Foot Foot in the bust-up. February. But part of her is coming with me—refer to question one.

It seems Deaf Wish have been around for a while now, but, compared to some other bands from your country, we don't hear much about you here in the States. Why you think that is? You guys don't care?
JT: Of course we care. The story of the band is long and getting a bit tiresome. Someone came, someone left, someone came, someone else left—these days we focus on just trying to be in the same room. If we get three weeks together in Australia, we can make an album. If we get three weeks in the States, we do a tour, and so on. It is perhaps to our detriment, but once the album is finished, there is no strategy, there is no game. We just send it off to the plant and we release it on our own label as soon as it gets back. I've seen our friends sit on a record for two years or more, tour, gain momentum, hit the media, and release it when they're peaking and BAM! Everything comes together. I'm afraid I just don't have that patience. I want it out there on the street as soon as its done. Eventually people hear our stuff, though I’m not interested in marketing. Or at least I'm not that good at it. I don’t want to shove it in front of people. I respect the people who find their music on their own.
NP: The tyranny of distance didn't stop the Cavilier, so why should it stop me? The band doesn't exist in any traditional sense. I live in Perth, Jensen and Daniel live in Melbourne, and Sarah lives in London. With this line up we have only played 23 shows, 20 of them this year in Europe. It's a wonder we do anything at all.

Deaf Wish has really been busting it out this year as far as touring goes. How do you keep it fresh when you’re playing a string of shows in a row?
JT: We hit some good form playing that many shows in a row. On the stretch from Prague to Marseille, they got wilder and wilder. Bologna was the best. We played on rape juice in Slovenia. Woke up in a shipping container. There was a flat show towards the end when Sarah had broken ribs. We had seven people in a six-seat van. Thoughts of punching to the head were popular, but private. The hospitality was first class. The squats and hosts all cooked the best food for us—I could have cried. I think that—honestly—had a lot to do with our general well being outside of the psychosis. We ate well.
DT: We don't play the same set. We try to be as responsive to each other as we can and we try to make sure that each show is happening that night—right there, on stage. It means that you are going to have shit shows and great ones. But I would rather play a string of crap shows with one cracker on the end than get up every night and play the same set.

The one thing that keeps me coming back to the Deaf Wish vinyl is the sound; you always feel like everything is about to crumble. What are your studio sessions like?
JT: First album: Splicing all the samples together to make the album seem longer.
Second album: Off our faces the whole time in a freezing cold warehouse. Feeling ugly; sounding ugly.
Third album: Vision of Christ
DT: All have been memorable, but our approach to recording was really formed with the first album. Just slam it into tape. If the song isn't finished then finish it. There is a really great work ethic in Deaf Wish. We all have faith. We all believe that it is going to work, and even if it comes together miraculously, somehow it does work. I think the sound in our records really does capture the feeling of that creative process.
SH: Mercy was written in three rehearsals and recorded in one night at the end of that same week. The ́moment́ is a big part of the Deaf Wish approach. The ́mistakeś are as real and valuable as anything else. Sometimes over-laboring on a project can diminish its authenticity, so this session was much like our first session in 2007—lots of beer and a reel to reel!
NP: The shows have been like the recording sessions—ragged and chaotic. We try and open up the portal and let everybody in. At one show in an apartment in Berlin, Tjhung tried to walk through a wall. He could’ve I reckon. The vibe was intense.

I'm really loving the video for "Make It Hurt." What was the motivation behind it?
NP: Act like an idiot in front of a camera for a few minutes? Sure, I'm up for that.

What kind of jobs do you guys have that you can just pick up and tour all over the world for most of the year?
JT: Unload the truck, unload the crate. Build a stand. Swear a lot. Come back three days later, pack down the stand. Load the truck. Swear a lot.

Any plans for when you get back home?
JT: I’m never coming home.

Deaf Wish US Tour Dates:

9/30/11 Brooklyn, NY with Home Blitz, Straight Arrows and PC Worship at Death By Audio
10/1/11 Brooklyn NY with Lieutenant and Kicking Spit at Bruar Falls
10/2/11 Cleveland Ohio with Easy Action at Now That’s Class
10/3/11 Detroit, Mi at Lager House