Nightseeker's 'Deaner' keener to make your metal dreams come true
Credit to Author: Stuart Derdeyn| Date: Fri, 17 Jan 2020 17:00:54 +0000
When: Jan. 24, 8 p.m.
Where: The WISE Hall, 1882 Adanac St.
Tickets and info: $25 at ticketweb.ca, Red Cat Records, Zulu
Paul Spence is co-creator of the hit 2002 indie mockumentary FUBAR. The film, based on the lives of lifelong low-achieving Alberta headbangers Terry (David Lawrence) and Dean “Deaner” Murdoch (Spence), spawned both a sequel, FUBAR 2, and a spin-off Viceland TV series titled FUBAR Age of Computer.
It also gave the world Nightseeker.
A real-life band fronted by a fictional character, the group led by bass-playing singer Deaner is on tour supporting its latest concept album. Titled 3069: A Space Sex Odyssey, the album about needing to insure the future of humankind by impregnating the universal Goddess with rock is out on Royal Mountain Records. To say this recording is a far cry from other label acts such as Orville Peck, Alvvays or Calpurnia is understatement.
But as Deaner explained on the phone from Montreal, Nightseeker has always been about standing out from the crowd. He took time to talk to Postmedia about the band and its coming tour.
Q: Following the fires in Fort McMurray and the loss of your home, instrument and more that was portrayed in FUBAR Age of Computer, it looks like you can’t keep a good Deaner down?
Deaner: When your bass gets burned up, it might be seen as a sign to stop. But I’ve got a hard head about things and there wasn’t no way I was going to do anything after that but keep on given’r. That’s what it’s all about.
Q: 3069 sounds like a lot of classic northern European concept albums from the ’80s. Was it hard to complete?
A: I like that you used the word concept because it’s like a story, right. The listener who really digs music and focuses on the lyrics will understand how it starts with a guy who experiences a cataclysmic event in his world who is all alone but then ends up having to fight the Dragon Slayer, but he needs help and his buddies come along (which is the band) and then meets this woman who is the Queen of the Universe and everything works out in the end. All the songs tell a chapter of that story if you listen to them.
Q: What motivates your writing process, penning a catchy track like With Love on the Line?
A: Is it a tune I want to crank on a Saturday night before I head out with my buddies to give’r? If the song meets that test, then we keep it. If it doesn’t, me and the band get back to work and keep at it until we know that the song really can give’r and just give it all we got.
Q: Nightseeker is a long way from the garage duo you formed in FUBAR. What was your musical development?
A: I began in a band called Quicksand, but that name was taken so we became Quakesand, and things were going pretty good. But the other three guys were all bricklayers, and one day on the job the scaffolding collapsed when she was a real windy day and they all had various band injuries and I couldn’t wait a year or more for them all to get better. They did, which is good. Then my band in Calgary got hit by lightning and I lost the whole band that night, too, but I was OK. Something about having no testicles seems to make you immune from all those damages, I guess.
Q: What can fans hope to hear in the set?
A: Some old classics, for sure. Out of respect, we don’t play Whale Hunter anymore, after Terry got married to — I don’t want to say it — the person he married. Mostly, it’s the new album because that’s what everyone wants to hear us play. Most of the crowd is always super wasted, so we usually play about an hour to an hour and a half and then keep give’n it with the fans.
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