When Deafheaven stepped out onto their Coachella stage this year, the amount of heads they turned with their music was beyond impressive. Blogs named the San Franciscans among the highlights of the huge festival, but for frontman George Clarke, the experience was initially hard to swallow.
“It was weird,” he admits. “It was cool [though]. We’re sort of an odd band out on the bill, but we closed on Sunday night and we had a crowd and it sounded good – it looked cool. It was pretty overwhelming experience, overall. Obviously a massive festival and lots of celebrities and all that kind of stuff. I would do it again!”
It won’t be long before Australians are able to get a dose of what the rest of the world has been experiencing of course, with Deafheaven confirmed to perform at the Sydney Opera House as part of VIVID Live this year, not to mention a run of headline shows taking place throughout June.
With 2015’s New Bermuda taking the band to a whole new level of acclaim, Clarke is enthusiastic about the idea of bringing their latest collection of material out to Australia for the first time.
“We’ll be playing a lot of the newer material, which I’m excited about.” he says. “I think It goes over well in a live setting and I think that audiences should expect a very loud and intense show. I like people to leave feeling like they have some sort of experience – and that’s all you can ask for. At the Opera House too? I mean, it’s crazy. I laughed when we got that offer. I was like, “Really?”, because it’s pretty mindblowing. I can’t wait. I’m really, really excited. Something I’ve been thinking about for like months and months, at this point.”
“I feel very confident playing this material live.” he continues. “I think that it sounds really good live. There’s a couple we just need to jump through, but we’ve been touring a lot of it so far and at this point, it’s just very comfortable. I think people will be happy about the way it sounds, in comparison to the record.”
Known for their dynamic live presence and the way in which their recorded arrangements often take on new elements of texture and punch when delivered on stage, Clarke talks us through the way the New Bermuda material has already been forming within this atmosphere. Whether the band is continuing to tighten up as a live unit and fall ever more in sync with each other, or whether they’re leaving room open for experimentation live, Deafheaven have definitely gotten their unique performance formula down pat.
“There’s just so many different moving parts happening all the tim,e that we do have to stay pretty locked in with each other,” Clarke says. “I think a lot of the time, we are playing what is exactly on the record but you know, the music leads itself to where we can improvise too. I think over the course of just playing shows, that would happen here and there. You’ll hear it if you come out to a show; there’s little things we change and just make it a little bit more interesting for the listener and for us as well.”
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Deafheaven tour Australia in June – check out the tour dates below!
Grab your tickets via Handsome Tours.
June 2nd | Joan Sutherland Theatre, @ The Sydney Opera House
June 3rd | Corner Hotel, Melbourne
June 4th | Crowbar, Brisbane
June 6th | Rosemount Hotel, Perth
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