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| Press photo by Kassy Balli, courtesy of the band |
It’s a Wednesday night at Cake Shop and after the mellow acts that began the evening, A Deer A Horse rumbles the house with a tune-up that jolts everyone to full alertness, projecting glimpses of the thunder to come. The three-piece band is the classic power trio formation, with Rebecca Satellite on guitar, Angela Philips on bass and Dylan Teggart on drums. Both Philips and Satellite take on vocals.
The opening number is a dragging andante in pace and swamp thick with bass notes that slide like molasses and pierce like needles. Guitar riffs spiral upward in anger before flattening out to a jaded grunginess. Unpredictable rhythms guided by drums that tear ferociously through walls of apathy blend a police siren guitar and droning bass. The sound is beyond loud; it is so bursting that when the song ends, there is a hole in the air where the sonic boom came crashing through.
The second piece rockets us back to 1985 with its playful FM radio rock feel. Satellite’s vocals are a yo-yo with a steel cord: they yank and plunge and shoot with a juicy tenor boyishness complemented by the frenzy of Philips’ high-pitched harmonies. Diary entry lyrics and tank-heavy beats cement together the desperation of the third number, with Satellite’s voice gliding over the luminescent gray chorus, a seabird over treacherous waters. Catchy riffs stick in my veins, the lyrics plaster the walls of my skull: “What if I was someone you loved?” Lunatic drums and a pleading guitar scratch at the door to the soul, begging to be let in and curl up in the darkest corner.
Their next song carries the raw sensation of punk tempered with the emotive intellect of later classic rock. Metal influence seeps into the guillotine-lusty aesthetic of the closing number. Gothic color inserts itself into the chime of Satellite’s voice and the erupting harmony between all corners of this musical triangle. The song grows so dense and rollicking in its stadium rock glory that it is almost too big for Cake Shop. (Almost.) A threatening guitar solo reaches the sky and cracks it open and as quickly as it rose, it all falls and their set is over.
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| Press photo, courtesy of the band |
I reached out to A Deer A Horse before the show, after hearing their song “Bloodbath” on SoundCloud. I asked if Satellite and Philips would be interested in talking about their music and they were happy to do an email interview. I sent them the questions and they collaborated on the answers. Below is the rather humorous interview.
HJ: Tell me a little about yourself. Where are you from? How did you become passionate about music?
ADAH: Rebecca (guitar/vocals) was born in England and moved to St. Louis when she was 9, Angela (bass/vocals) is from Dallas, and Dylan (drums/verbal abuse) is secretly Canadian. We each picked up our instruments in our pre-teen years and have been making musical noises ever since.
HJ: How and when did A Deer A Horse start? What provoked you to form a band?
ADAH: Rebecca and Angela started playing music together in 2011 after we both graduated from Sarah Lawrence. At college, we both thought the other was an asshole, but we re-met after graduation through a mutual friend and discovered that we were in fact kindred assholes! We played around NYC with various drummers for a few years until finally settling on our Dylan, after we all left a different five-piece band we were playing with.
HJ: Who are your biggest influences?
ADAH: We have a hilarious and surprising track record of hating each other’s biggest influences, but we have a lot of crossover with bands like Queens of the Stone Age, Black Sabbath, Alice in Chains, X, David Bowie, The Beatles, Earth Wind and Fire, Fugazi, and most importantly Michael McDonald.
HJ: What in your life inspires your music?
ADAH: Anger, disappointment, uncertainty, snacks, and lots o' pent up energy. Also Robert Goulet.
HJ: What is your favorite song to play at gigs and why?
ADAH: Usually it’s whatever tune is the newest. Most recently it’s been “Once or Twice". We like to think we're improving upon ourselves with each new song, so new songs represent a challenge for us to overcome.
HJ:What is your favorite song that you’ve recorded and why?
ADAH: We just had a blast recording four new demos with our buddies over at Spaceman Sound. Tom and Alex from Spaceman really know how to treat a band right.
HJ: What's next for your band? Any news you’d like to share?
ADAH: We are in the process of writing and demoing songs that will end up on an upcoming full length. We have a host of little weekend jaunts to various northeast cities planned, the next one being June 23 in Philly at Tralfamadore. In terms of NYC shows, we are playing Aviv on June 26 with Slothrust and Mal Blum, Berlin on June 30 with the Bones of J.R. Jones, and July 16 at Le Poisson Rouge with The Veldt and American Anymen. We also have a pending trip to Maui to shoot our much anticipated 2017 swimsuit calendar.
Listen to the song that got me into their music here, and keep an ear out for the new stuff to come!
