deaf havana interview
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10/02/2015 Deaf Havana Interview. Figure8Magazine
http://figure8magazine.co.uk/default/deafhavanainterview/ 1/5
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By Shelly Keiley on January 5, 2015
Deaf Havana Interview.
Formed in 2005 in Norfolk, Deaf Havana have had a whirlwind few years that have seen themrelease three studio albums, open for none other than Bruce Springsteen and play sold outheadline tours. The band have had their downsides such as the cancellation of this year’sEuropean tour. Nevertheless this has not held the band back from doing what they do best –thriving in the UK rock scene.
Towards the last few dates of the 2014 UK tour, I found myself in Blackburn’s King Georges Hallfor the evening. There, I spoke to Matthew VeckGilodi (backing vocals and guitar) and ChrisPennells (guitar) about their biggest gigs, song writing and Deaf Havana’s future.
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10/02/2015 Deaf Havana Interview. Figure8Magazine
http://figure8magazine.co.uk/default/deafhavanainterview/ 2/5
How is it going touring with Lonely the Brave and Verses so far?
Matthew: Really good. They’re a great bunch of people as well as great bands so it is always agood laugh to have them around. We are all really enjoying it actually.
Chris: It’s very fun.
Matthew: It is, everyone gets on and there are no big egos about.
I saw that you had the set list competition just before you set out on your current tour.Was it hard to put the control of the set list into someone else’s hands, even thoughthey’re your fans?
Chris: Yeah, I guess. When we first put it out we were obviously quite worried that we would getsome suggestions that wouldn’t fit in or flow well and that we could do logistically.
Matthew: And craft a show out of it as well. That’s the thing, I mean; we don’t just specifically playthe songs that we want to play. Normally you get a feel for it and you learn how some songs gotogether really well and that can create something that would be an hour and twenty minutes long.
Chris: But luckily enough we did find a few that worked quite well.
Matthew: Yes, we had some really good suggestions actually. I mean, some people had producedsome amazing ones, looks wise as well. People had made them against great art work and stufflike that.
Chris: Oliver Beresford’s set list was the best, we felt. So we picked that.
Did you have any weird requests or people not taking it seriously?
Chris: We had a lot of strange cover suggestions.
Why did you decide to do the competition and has the set list been receiving goodfeedback so far on tour?
Chris: I think it was more that we’ve always just picked sets for us essentially. It was nice to have achange. The whole point in us doing this tour was the fact we have always stuck to major cities.The whole point in the tour was, rather than expecting people to come to the music, taking themusic to the people. At the same time, in keeping with that ethos it was about getting a fan tochoose our set list for it as well.
You mention in your documentary English Hearts that you started off playing such smallvenues around the local areas and sleeping in your van. Now that you are playing on alarger scale have there been any moments where it has sunk in that you have really madeit?
Matthew: There have been a couple of surreal ones. For me, one was when we supported Musein Germany. That was a band that I loved as a kid. So, that was just a really odd one. Like ‘ohshit.’
The other was with Bruce Springsteen as well because the guy is like sixty odd and has beendoing music for such a long time and so consistently at such a high level. To share the samestage as him, that was a moment when I was like ‘Christ yeah, this is going somewhere.’
10/02/2015 Deaf Havana Interview. Figure8Magazine
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Can you see yourselves doing that for the rest of your life? Do you want to be doingmusic until you’re about sixty odd?
Both: Yeah.
Matthew: If I look as half as good as he does at thirty, but as he does at sixty, I’ll be impressed.
Chris: I feel sixty.
Matthew: I think I am (laughs).
Chris: Logically, your innards probably are.
How do you feel about the British rock scene becoming more accessible and entering themainstream scene? A few years ago I would never hear bands like Yma6, Deaf Havana orBring Me the Horizon being played on Radio One, let alone appearing high up in thecharts.
Chris: I think it is great, especially with Radio 1 playing such a varied stuff.
Mathew: I mean radio stations do still play a lot of bollocks.
Chris: Yeah there’s been a lot of EDM lately. It’s not even music really.
Matthew: Disclosure are alright but that’s clever house music. The problem is with house music,you hear a bit that’s pretty good and then there’s just five minutes that is just noise for people onketamine.
Chris: But yeah, obviously it is not only just our kind of music, there has been an uprising in musiclike indie as well on Radio One and other stations. I think it is good.
Matthew: It’s healthy to have diversity. You don’t get people turning on the radio and just hearingthe same song over and over again.
Are there any plans to reschedule the European tour that you cancelled or is it too early totell?
Chris: It is still too early to tell.
Matthew: We haven’t made any solid plans yet.
Chris: Yeah, it needs to make sense when we go back.
Matthew: We will be back; it should be next year as well. It’s just such a shame that we couldn’t doit. We were all gutted about it because it sold really well in some of the venues. It’s always good togo around Europe. Everyone has been very understanding, so that’s one thing I’m really pleasedabout because it’s easy to become bitter and jaded and be like, ‘fuck this band.’
How do you feel about the future of touring for bands and do you have any advice forpeople wanting to start bands?
Chris: I’d say just play as many shows as you can. I think that’s where and certainly how we’ve gotto where we are today and where the main bulk of the work is. It is put into touring and playingyour music on the road. There’s obviously a lot of other stuff that happens doesn’t include that butthe bulk of it lies in working your arse off on tour.
Is that due to album sales nowadays?
Both: Yes
Matthew: To earn money and be viable business it’s horrible to have to talk about music like thatbut yeah, you draw it in from touring and merchandise.
Chris: Bands did used to see more money out of records. They used to tour to support an albumrelease but it’s almost like now that you’re releasing an album just for an excuse to be able to goand tour. So it has completely flipped on its head over the past few years.
Matthew: Yeah, I mean, look at 1975. They have rocketed right up and they have played 195shows this year or something like that. It’s mad.
You are a band well known for your personal lyrics across your albums, be it aboutgrowing up, losing friends and alcohol fuelled touring. What song is most sentimental to
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you and why?
Matthew: Well mine will always be ‘Mildred’ because I wrote that one with James but all the lyricsare mine. It is about my best friend and when I thought I was never going to see him again, forvarious reasons. Luckily we are all still best mates now and hang out all the time. So, that songwill always be very special to me.
Chris: One that always hits home for me is ‘Times Change’, which we actually play on this tour. It’sabout Ryan leaving the band.
The band has changed its sound quite a bit since Ryan Mellor left post ‘Meet Me Halfway,At Least’. Was it hard to change the live sound when performing at gigs? Why did youdecide to make the decision to not get another singer?
Chris: When it happened we could have easily gone one way and we did have a discussion withanother guy about him joining the band.
Matthew: We had some professional photos done as well with him.
Chris: James had written a couple of songs that we just put out as demos. We decided it wouldprobably be a better way to go forward. The song writing was a lot better that way. The lyric thatJames was coming out with…it was just a no brainer really. We do still play a couple of the oldsongs.
Matthew: I think it took a while to get to that point. Once I and Max got added to the band I thinkthat helped a bit. We could just flesh out songs where there would have been little gaps. We justtook a different approach to it all.
In 2013 you did an unplugged acoustic tour. In terms of live performances andatmosphere is there much difference between electric sets and acoustic sets? Do youhave a preference?
Matthew: There’s a huge difference yeah. They’re so different I don’t know if I can choose.Actually I definitelyprefer when we play full electric sets because there’s more energy.
Chris: It was REALLY good to change it up.
Matthew: I loved it because it was so quiet and everyone was so respectful. It was really nice todo something that different actually.
Can we expect any new music from the band in the near future? Are there any newprojects on the horizon?
Chris: James and Max have got their tour in January and then we are just writing.
Matthew: Yes, solidly working on writing. We probably won’t tour again until this time next year.
Chris: This is basically it for now for ‘Old Souls.’
Matthew: Fans probably have a long time to wait unfortunately. But, I mean once we have thingsin place we will get singles out as soon as we can.
Words By Shelly Keily.
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