Deaf Havana

Coming atcha straight outta Sunny Hunny and King’s Lynn, have been together since their college days back in the mid noughties. Two of their tracks have been Zane Lowe’s Hottest Record In the World, they’ve supported Bruce Springsteen and Muse, and their brand new album has just come out, All These Countless Nights to rave reviews. We spoke to Matt, Deaf Havana’s axe wielder about the return of cassettes, Brixton Academy and being mates with your fellow band members.

How do you feel with your new album having just been released?

Incredibly excited to be fair. It’s been ages since we released anything, and it seems like we’ve had this album ready forever.

You’re not a band that’s known for sitting still - is there anything new to expect on the album?

There’s a lot of it that will be familiar to everyone. The songs are still written the same way, and I don’t think that James knows how to write any other way! The lyrics are always going to be personal, but musically it’s a lot more expansive that we’ve done in the past. We’ve been unafraid to try new things, and for me, it’s the first album that really flows and takes you on a journey rather than just being a collection of songs. It’s not all the same pace, and I like that about it.

Another surprise on the album are some of the formats you’re releasing. Cassette is a brave move?

Yeah, and it was one of those things where we could do it and we thought “why not?” The album’s being released in a few formats, and we’ve got a couple of vinyl versions too, including a nice limited edition red vinyl. We’ve already had people saying that they’ll buy a cassette for their car, so there’s still some people around that have them.

Are the band excited to be going out on tour again soon?

Yeah, it’s been a long time since we did a proper UK run of dates, and we’re looking forward to playing the new stuff live. We’re only out on tour in the UK for around a week, but it’ll be great to dust off the cobwebs. We start on 17th February in Manchester, and finishes in London a week later, and of course we’re coming to Norwich on the 23rd so it’ll be good to see the Norfolk crowd.

Who are you bringing with you on your UK tour?

We’ve got a couple of bands. One is Dinosaur Pile Up, and opening for us is a band called Dead. DPU are signed to our record label, and we really like them, and a couple of the guys in Deaf Havana know the guys in Dead, so we asked if they’d like to come out with us, and everything worked out in the end. It’s a nice package all round I think.

Are there any venues that you’d really like to play one day?

Realistically we’d love to be able to put a headline show on at Brixton Academy. That would be awesome. It’s a great venue, and it’s one of the ones we loved going to see shows at when we were growing up, so to come back as a performer rather than a punter would be awesome.

And what about countries you’ve not been to yet?

We’d really like to go out and play Central and South America one day. They’ve got a big rock scene there, and the audience will be very different. It’s somewhere we’ve always wanted to go.

Has the band changed much since you joined in 2012?

Yes it has, quite a lot actually. For one thing we’ve all grown up a lot, so our attitudes have changed, which is quite interesting. Musically we’ve changed too though. As we’ve been together such a long time, our musical tastes have grown up with us, and that in turn comes out in the music. We’ve also grown a lot tighter as a band.

So you still get along OK then?

Oh yeah, if anything we get on a lot better than we used to. We’re all good friends, and we never tend to fall out. If we have a problem we talk it out. It would be so easy to get annoyed with each other, so we talk things out. Even when we’re not touring, we’re hanging out as much as we can, and to be honest, if we got to the stage that we’re not good friends, we’d probably start looking at how we can continue as a band.

The new album does reflect that, and seems a bit more polished. Was that intentional?

Of course, this time around we worked with a really good producer who took the demo of every song that James wrote and really broke them down and worked on them to make them the best they could be, whereas before we never really changed much from the first version we heard to the version that went on to the album, so for us, working with a producer who could bring out the best in us was really important.

Who was your biggest inspiration to pick up a guitar and start playing?

There’s a couple really - the first would have to be John Frusciante from the Red Hot Chilli Peppers. They were one of the first bands I got into, and his guitar playing blew me away. I loved how scrappy they were, as they had to be well thought out to be played that way. Second would be Johnny Marr from The Smiths. His style is completely the opposite, being very pretty and precise.

Are there any bands or artists in general that have had a big effect on you?

Yeah, Bruce Springsteen is one. He changed the way I listened to songs and the way they were supposed to be written, and another would be Kings Of Leon, with the big choruses to sing along to.

So are there any bands you’d jump at the chance of touring with?

The Kings of Leon would be a great tour to be on. We’d love to do an arena tour with those guys. They have a huge following, and our style would suit theirs very well.

Would you say you prefer the bigger venues to the smaller ones then?

The both have their plus points, and I enjoy them both but in different ways. The bigger shows can seem a little surreal to be playing to that many people, but the sea of faces is amazing. The only downside is that it’s not as easy to connect with the crowd as they’re so far away. The smaller shows make it much easier to connect with the audience, and we can feed from their energy. It’s a lot easier when you can see everyone is having a great time.

Deaf Havana play at the LCR on 23rd February. Tickets are available from ueatickets.ticketabc.com