Interview with Deleted Scenes

Deleted Scenes has been making a name for itself in its hometown of DC and elsewhere around the country. Gifted with strong songcraft and a sharp delivery, the band has developed a following while it has developed its own sound. DOA caught up with band member Matt Dowling for his take on music, touring, and the idea that it takes dissatisfaction to fuel artistic creativity.

Delusions of Adequacy: How long have you been together as a band? Did you know one another before you decided to form the band?

Matt Dowling: We’ve been a band for 4 years. Crazy how time flies, but, yes, we got started in late 2005. We played our first show as a 3-piece (Me, Dan and Brian). I don’t have any video or recording of that set, but, if I did, it would probably be very unimpressive, but yet stupendously hilarious.

We did actually know each other before we formed Deleted Scenes. Myself, Dan, and Brian all played in a high school band together that lasted into early college and then dissolved as we sort of went separate ways geographically. That was undoubtedly for the best as we were all very undeveloped in terms of our artistic goals. We had a whole lot to learn about playing original music, and the dissolving of that band, for which we actually had pretty high aspirations for young and extremely naive musicians, was a huge learning experience that I personally cherish a lot.

During college, Dan and I kept in touch, and in the summer of 2003, we decided to do sort of a project recording with our good friend Dominic Campanaro. We called the band/project Fell Off the Face of the Earth. It was just 6 songs, and we never did a live show. However, even today, over 6 years later, I’m still really proud of that recording. After college in the Midwest, I came back to DC with aspirations of making that into a full-fledged band. We tried, but it sort of just didn’t work for whatever reason. We tried a couple drummers, and the chemistry was just never there. That was actually a pretty sad time for me, because I came back thinking “yes, this is what I want to do” and it kinda fizzled without any sort of motion at all. So for a time, Dan and I were doing absolutely nothing musically, and just sort of searching for what to do in general with our lives.

A few months later, Dan started writing some songs on his own. I’d just hang out at his place which was in Hyattsville, MD at that time, just listening to music. Every now and then he’d break out the guitar and show me stuff. Then I started bringing my bass over and started helping him structure his ideas, and sooner or later, we had a set of pop tunes, which, in my opinion, were heavily inspired by Modest Mouse, the Danielson Familie, the Kinks, and the Pixies. That’s what we were listening to a lot in those days. I actually hadn’t heard the Shins at that time, but I came to find out that Dan’s voice had a similar texture to Shins’ frontman James Mercer. As you may or may not know, down the line we started getting a shitload of comparisons to the Shins (one reviewer going so far as to say we were nearly indistinguishable from said band), and I was like “huh?”

Anyway, we said, “let’s get a drummer and start playing!” We called on our old friend Brian, who was in a very active band then, and asked if he could spare some time to play with us. He said sure, we moved into DC, we recorded a 4 song EP, and Brian’s other band broke up maybe 5 months later. Deleted Scenes was in full stride heading into early 2006.

DOA: You’re from DC but your sound somehow is not what people might expect from a DC band. It’s not punk or post-punk. How or where do you fit into what’s happening in DC these days?

Matt: Hmm, well, we certainly have a lot of DC influences. One huge band for us is the Dismemberment Plan, and I feel that’s evident in a lot of places on the LP, and in a couple spots in the EP. Other DC bands that I think we draw some direct lines to are Burning Airlines, Oswego, Beauty Pill, and the Apes. Some people have described a couple of our songs as “Fugazoid,” which I sort of agree with.

I would agree that Dan’s voice isn’t particularly DC-esque. Nonetheless, I feel that we rep DC relatively identifiably. There’s definitely been many places across the country we’ve played where people comment how “fucking DC” we sound (sometimes in a way that’s actually negative towards us…meaning they think we’re straight up copping DC bands). But with our eyes right up against the canvas, so to speak, being here in DC for so long, it’s hard to see the bigger picture. I myself often doubt whether stuff we writing sounds like a band with DC roots. But the more we write, the more I realize that it really is just in our musical veins, despite the fact we have other obvious non-DC influences.

Deleted Scenes shows have a certain “pounding” aspect to them, despite a lot of the ethereal textures to which Dan often gravitates in his playing and singing. Most of the aggressiveness comes from Brian, who hits hard on a “big” sounding drum kit. So after all these years of schizophrenically jumping all over the place stylistically, we find some recurring aspects of our music which combines that aggressiveness with a shoe-gazey style of pop music. For the next record, we’re probably going to use the term “Fu-gaze” as a descriptor of our sound.

In terms of how we fit into the very present of DC, I really have no idea. Obviously, there are some big bands in DC like Le Loup, Jukebox the Ghost, These United States, The Points and Middle Distance Runner, all of whom we respect and dig. We just don’t have a ton of artistic connection with those bands. These have sort of been the names that have identified DC on a national scale, and the combination of all these bands is representative of indie rock in general. It’s a big mix of a whole bunch of stuff that generally hinges upon being catchy while demonstrating good taste, which obviously isn’t a bad thing. At the same time though, big attention in music I think generally boils down to (for better or for worse) narrowness/identifiability. There are some young bucks coming up like True Womanhood, Hume, and Laughing Man, and Imperial China with whom I think we do share a sort of “Fu-gazey” connection. I’m excited about that. People in DC like to complain about how “lame” the music scene has become. In some sense, it does suck that DC isn’t pumping out huge bands and doesn’t have a really identifiable scene, but I will tell you that there will always be great bands in DC, a lot of whom won’t get a ton of notice. It took quite a while for many people, even many DC people, to start giving a shit about obviously great bands like Q and not U and the Dismemberment Plan. Could DC be doing better musically right now? No question about it. Although, I do believe though that things are on the up and up.

DOA: You’ve had some recent tours (and/or mini-tours). Where have you been? Have you discovered any cities’ music scenes that surprised you?

Matt: We’ve been all around the US. I think some lesser publicized hot spots/gems in the country are Greenville, NC, Denver, CO, Lawrence, KS, and Houston, TX

DOA: Do some songs always seem to get more of a reaction from the crowd? If so, why do you think that is?

Matt: I think so. “Mortal Sin” always gets a big reaction because it’s sort of loud and intense. “Fake IDs” and “Ithaca” tend to do pretty well as sort of intense pop songs. Yeah, I guess just the more intense stuff gets the best crowd reactions. That’s where the band as a whole shines the most, and I think we’ve continued to move in that direction the more we write.

DOA: What’s the hardest part of being on the road?

Matt: Not being able to pay bills at home, and having employers garner more and more resentment towards you.

DOA: Do you write any new material when you’re on the road?

Matt: Never as a group. Individually, we might generate some ideas for when we get back home, but the writing process for us is just too draining to undertake while on the road.

DOA: Do you have a standard process for developing a song (e.g., start with guitar, everyone else adds parts) or does each have its own idiosycratic birthing process?

Matt: Generally Dan or myself will come up with an idea that consists of instrumentation (usually guitar or keyboard) and a melody (and sometimes a Fruity Loops beat). From there Dan starts working on lyrical ideas, and once he has a nugget that he likes, we structure and build the song into something that can be presented to the whole band. Then the band will play through some initial structure approximately 50 times, all of which will sound terrible. Most likely at that point, we’ll question whether to keep the song at all, and people will be generally pissed off at each other. Then, we’ll let it sit, and come back to stuff down the line. If there’s something there that makes us say “hey, this is actually kinda sweet,” it usually ends up becoming a song.

Of course, stuff never happens in the EXACT same way, but in general that’s how it happens. Timescale-wise, I think the key word is “long.” It just takes us a long time to write. We’ve had songs that have consisted of a whole year between introduction of the song, and the actual playing through the whole song in a coherent fashion in a practice.

DOA: When you write a song like “Fake IDs,” which is instantly appealing yet also in an odd time signature, do you do that intentionally to create tension in the song or does it just work out that way?

Matt: No, odd time signatures are never intentional for us. I think we grew up listening to stuff that made us think odd time signatures are general cooler than 4/4, but anything that becomes a full song for us is something that works for us. That is, we think the song is first and foremost a good song, and secondly, does something interesting or has some appreciable level of artistic merit.

DOA: You have one EP and one album recorded so far. What differences would you draw between the two in terms of composition, the recording process, and the promotion process? How have you grown or changed from the one to the other?

Matt: Well, the EP was recorded quite quickly, and the production was relatively cut-and-dry. In that case, we thought those songs were just going to be a demo to give to clubs so we could start playing shows. Thus, we didn’t have a huge motivation to gouge our eyeballs out over every little part….which is probably a good thing. Once we got it recorded, we did, in fact, start getting it to venues and started playing shows. The idea of “releasing” it was sort of unfathomable to us at the time. However, people seemed to like it, and after a year of playing shows off of it, our friends Raul and Miguel convinced us to let them release it on their label Echelon Productions. It wasn’t a crazy big time release or anything….just us friends getting together and doing all the things that needed to be done to have it be considered an actual “release.” We also, did our first big tour at that time, so that was nice.

With the LP, it took a looooooonnnnnngggg time to record it. Really over 1 year from start to finish, then another 4 months to get it released. The producer for the record, L. Skell, is a perfectionist, I would say, and we’re pretty picky ourselves. So that combination made for a lot of micro-analysis of what we liked and didn’t like. Luckily, we all felt like we did the best job we could on the record. Once it was done, we had enough traction in DC to get a review from nearly all the local press, and a lot of it was very positive. From there, we did a record release tour and started get a good number of national write-ups. For the actual release date, our newfound label, What Delicate Recordings, helped mail out about 100 promo copies. Then around SXSW time, we got the Pitchfork review, and then for our next big tour a couple months later, we brought on a PR firm to work with us.

In sum, the EP and the LP were recorded very differently, but the promotional process was relatively the same. We just had a lot more name recognition going into the LP promo, and that helped persuade people to actually go to the links we sent, and hit “play.” Another point is that, I think with whatever you do, the more you do it, the better you get at it. I think the songs, the booking, our live performances, the promo, etc were all on a different level than the EP because we simply had done so much of those things since the EP.

DOA: What kinds of things have inspired the lyrics of Deleted Scenes songs?

Matt: Religion, Relationships, Drugs, Drinking, Dreams

DOA: Is music the sole creative outlet for each of you?

Matt: Dan and Scheffey are pretty into the art of words and both write creatively….poetry, short stories, etc. I dabble in drawing and painting…..Brian plays lazertag.

DOA: What’s upcoming for Deleted Scenes — recording again? Touring again?

Matt: Yes, hopefully beginning the recording process in late 09 and getting out another record in mid-late 2010. We’ll continue touring here and there while working on the record, although not as much as late last year and the first half of 09. Of course, once the next record comes out we’ll tour extensively.

DOA: What would it take for you to quit your day jobs or careers to do music full-time?

Matt: Winning the lottery, or robbing a bank and not getting caught, or some rich guy deciding to just give us a shitload of money for no apparent reason. In a perfect world, we’d be doing nothing but music for sure. Who wouldn’t? But, we have been doing this for a while, and have even met a number of indie rock musicians that some might consider “famous” who still work day jobs. Indie rock is just not a particularly lucrative endeavor monetarily. The reason is because indie rock, still to this day, does not get the big time, mass media exposure when compared to rap, R&B, country and of course shitty radio rock. Also, the indie rock market happens to be massively flooded. That equates to not much money available to spread around.

Nonetheless, the struggle can definitely be a great thing. It’s no secret that when bands get huge and break that elusive barrier from rags to riches that their creativity tends to suffer. I believe that’s because satisfaction devours creativity. The most creative people are also the most dissatisfied people, at least in my experience. We’re hoping that our day jobs continue to dissatisfy us to the point of writing the perfect record. If we do that, then will quit our day-jobs touring off said record, and we would be immensely satisfied. And, as a result, our next record would automatically suck and we’d get really depressed. Then, maybe the following record will be good again.

Also, more to the point of the question, I think we all feel like we’re at least pretty close to doing music full-time….meaning the amount of hours we put in probably equates to a full-time job. We just happen to have 2nd full-time jobs as well.

DOA: If there were one TV show whose soundtrack you could be a part of, what show would that be and why?

Matt: Hmm, well, The Wire is done now, but it really would have been sweet to get on song on that show because it kicked ass. Despite it’s current non-existence, I will still say the Wire. They might do another season….c’mon. There were a number episodes centered around this “Hamsterdam” experiment by the Baltimore police (Season 3), and there was this one scene where the character Bubbles is walking around in Hamsterdam, just taking it all in….the drugs, crime, and general mayhem, and I was thinking “Damn, it would be sweet if ‘Mortal Sin’ could be playing during this!”