News

AMSTERDAM – With the release of their eponymous debut album, American indie pop band Darwin Deez closes off a difficult period. Frontman Darwin Smith thinks it’s time for a writing break. “To figure out what I want”, he says.

At the end of 2009, Darwin Deez released debut single Constellations. Second single Radar Detector, released in April, became a modest hit in the UK. It took singer/guitarist Smith quite some time and effort to collect the ten songs that make up the debut album. “I need a couple of things to come together”, Smith explains, “A guitar, a musical figure, a rhythm, a concept, and some concrete words. If I can get all those things together, then the song comes out in like twenty minutes.”

That sounds much simpler than it is: if one of the above mentioned elements is missing, the song collapses. Moreover, Smith is so self-critical that new material doesn’t come out easily. Smith: “There is never any pressure other than my own. The pressure that comes from myself was always so much that it would even stop me from finishing anything that I thought was less than perfect. I'm really critical about the stuff that I write. It ends up making my output much smaller.”

Smith’s output won’t benefit from the writing break he has planned. “I'm taking a break from writing and I'm just experiencing my life, for a change”, he says. “Although I would love to be able to write a really good song right now. I just don’t know if I have any ideas. Really the satisfaction comes from the creation. The fun part is just watching things come out.”

That being an artist is about more than creating, Smith considers to be a bonus. “Other people enjoying it with me, and the fact that I can spend my time and energy promoting the music, and that I can earn money from the music, is all the icing on the cake. That's really fun, but none of that compares to the feeling of self-worth that I get from writing something that I know is good.”

Darwin Deez was released on April 12th through Lucky Number.

Interview: Lucas van Eck
Text: Tom Springveld

Comments