In Conversation: Deeper

Exploring the Chicago post-punk group's vital new LP...

Chicago post-punk indie quartet Deeper are on a continuing journey of creativity and inspiration.

The quartet released their self-titled debut album two years ago, and last month saw the release of ‘Auto-Pain’, an absorbing album project representing a majestic step forward in their adventures. During the recording of the album Mike Clawson, their bassist, left the band and a friend joined in his place.

Clash linked up with guitarist/songwriter Nic Gohl, guitarist/bassist Drew McBride, drummer Shiraz Bhatti and bassist Kevin Fairbairn as they were finding themselves en route to Austin, Texas. Although the industry showcase had been cancelled, some unofficial gigs looked set to go ahead, as numerous bands had already arrived when news of the cancellation broke.

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Making ‘Auto-Pain’ has been a “labour of love”, and the process is a creative departure from their debut. Rather than recording song batches over the course of a year, with lots of different sounds, Deeper wanted consistency and depth this time. “The new record is more of a fully formed vision of what we wanted to go for,” explains McBride. “The themes that we wanted to tackle but also just feeling more comfortable about how to take the risks that we wanted to.”

“We felt much more comfortable playing with each other, we felt easier about taking risks,” Gohl says. “A lot of the songs started off as what we would call textures. We were writing little noise sections or ambient interludes and playing those little bits. We were having so much fun that we ended up expanding them into larger sections until we had another song done.”

Having songs figured out beforehand allowed Deeper the luxury of trying out more ideas in the studio, they became more creative. “Having fully realised the idea, we wanted to tackle elements of depression, anxiety,” he continues. “Music brings you through that whole process of trying to evolve as a human, dealing with those common feelings.”

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Delving into the topic of coping mechanisms was part of their ambition. The album title comes from the concept of a “soma” pill as it appears in Aldous Huxley’s ‘Brave New World’. Questioning if numbing the senses is the right approach, Deeper promote the idea of letting a range of emotion out and point to the complexity of drug-taking.

“Some people are numbing themselves on different medications,” McBride says. “You end up taking this concoction of medicines to try and make yourself feel better, but instead you feel a million different things at once. It’s how we landed on the concept of feeling everything. You take something to control the symptoms of being manic and something else to control the symptoms of being depressed. But instead of normalising it, you end up feeling completely different. It’s just getting by, that’s what we’re trying to dig into.” 

But Deeper’s search for purpose does not end there. “We figured out how to portray these emotions musically, feelings of depression and anxiety in our music,” Bhatti explains. “Not just the lyrics but delve into that, the nuance of everyday, not being able to achieve goals and just being stuck in the same routine or just the feeling of Chicago in the winter time, it’s cold and grey for months at the time, we have the most energy when it’s a little warmer and sunnier.” 

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External factors impact emotions and mental health. They can provoke or instigate a unique emotion, more authentic than what would have occurred in a sunny, warm climate. Chicago influences Deeper’s sound and atmospherics. “You dig into what you’re feeling a bit more,” Fairbairn says. “In Miami we were commenting on how the culture of being in this warm weather and feeling relaxed shapes your perception of a lot of things. Being somewhere that has colder, rougher winters where it gets grey in the winter, you become more introspective in a way that you wouldn’t be if you lived somewhere else. You probably make better records when it’s cold.”

Lyrically, ‘Auto-Pain’ tackles a darker spectrum. Gohl feels everything gets worse and worse, “We’re living in a dystopian future,” he insists. “It’s hard to get yourself out of that feeling. I think we just wanted to speak of the healing process and that’s what we have tried to get through. We’ve definitely evolved and come back to each other.”

The final track ‘Warm’ acts as an epilogue, while ‘The Knife’, the track before, is about making mistakes, falling into the same patterns and being unable to break from the things that hold you back. “In the latter part of the song it gets heavier, breaking from that cycle and reaching the other side,” McBride reflects. “It’s like the moment after you get pissed off and yell at somebody when you think about it. I think those are the moments that make us feel most human, so you’ve gotta sometimes let these things out.”

Deeper want to keep on pushing forward their message, they are keen grow and develop as a band. Having quit their day jobs, they need more touring to move to the next level. Still finding themselves in a leap of faith period, they hope this will prove sustainable longer term. “I feel really good about this one,” Gohl insists. “It’s hard when you pour effort into a piece of art or a record, you can come out not really trusting it. But we’ve grown with this record, we like our art and we wanna keep on making it better. I think that’s all you can really hope for.” 

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'Auto-Pain' is out now.

Words: Susan Hansen

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