FROM NEW ALBUM, MIRACLE-LEVEL, OUT MARCH 31st ON JOYFUL NOISE.
DEERHOOF’S FIRST LP ENTIRELY WRITTEN & SUNG IN JAPANESE
Deerhoof today released their tender piano ballad ‘Wedding, March, Flower‘, the latest single previewing the band’s “studio debut” album, Miracle-Level, out March 31st on Joyful Noise Recordings. The love song – sung in Japanese by the band’s Greg Saunier – arrives ahead of Valentine’s Day alongside a video featuring studio footage of its unorthodox creation at No Fun Club, with Saunier on piano and Satomi Matsuzaki on drums.
“I was flirting with my partner Sophie and sent her a video of me humming and playing the piano. Deerhoof was starting to get songs together for our next record. No one had suggested we needed any tender piano ballads, but Sophie convinced me to show it to my bandmates anyway. I was so touched when they were into it,” Saunier explains of its heartfelt, deeply personal inspiration. “The real kicker came when Satomi wrote lyrics. They were in Japanese, so when we first rehearsed it, I wasn’t even sure what I was singing. But Satomi had written a love song about a wedding. Satomi and I ended our marriage over 10 years ago, and it hasn’t always been easy for any of us to keep the band going. Our songs have always been one way that we all process our feelings with each other. Co-writing and performing ‘Wedding March Flower’ with her was really intense.”
ウェディング マーチ フラワー
ェディングマーチ 花たち フラワー
真紅の赤いドレスに緑のグローブはめて
s涙をためる花びら
流れる 流れる
蜂は届ける 囁く言葉
聞こえる
ウェディングマーチ 花たち
足を揃えて歩いてゆこう
生きてこう
僕がずっと傘をさしてあげられるから
‘Wedding March Flower’ (English translation)
WEDDING, MARCH, FLOWER
RED DRESS WITH GREEN GLOVES,
A PETAL FULL OF TEARS
DROPS, DROPS
BEE DELIVERS WHISPER-WORDS
I CAN HEAR.
WEDDING, MARCH, FLOWER
LET’S WALK CLOSELY TOGETHER
LET’S LIVE
I CAN HOLD AN UMBRELLA FOR YOU FOR A LONG TIME
Miracle Level, produced by Mike Bridavasky, is Deerhoof’s first album recorded in a studio and their first featuring lyrics entirely in Japanese. ‘Wedding, March Flower’ follows album singles ‘Sit Down, Let Me Tell You a Story‘ and ‘My Lovely Cat‘. Miracle Level is available for pre-order HERE.Following the release of Miracle-Level, Deerhoof will embark on a North American tour beginning in Toronto, Canada on March 31st and including shows at Brooklyn’s Elsewhere The Hall on April 4th and Los Angeles’ Lodge Room on May 10th; a full itinerary is listed further below and tickets are on-sale now.
| SIT DOWN, LET ME TELL YOU A STORY. We look at the state of the world and think, “It’ll be a miracle if we survive.” But miracles are what humans do as our planet’s most inventive and unpredictable species. Miracle-Level is Deerhoof’s mystical manifesto on creativity and trust, its answer to the artificial industries of deception, coercion, and boredom we’re forced to put up with. Surprisingly, Deerhoof’s 19th album is also their first to be made from beginning to end in a recording studio. Not because they had tired of their anarchic sound, but because they wanted to make themselves uncomfortable – by opening up their secretive DIY methods to someone new. Our research has not turned up many examples of a DIY band waiting 28 years before entrusting one of their records to a producer, but in summer 2022 Deerhoof decided to take a chance. “Seemingly out of nowhere, I was presented with a miracle-level opportunity to produce Deerhoof for two consecutive weeks at No Fun Club in Winnipeg, Manitoba,” says Mike Bridavsky, a total stranger to the band until Joyful Noise founder Karl Hofstetter suggested him. “I began listening through their albums and realised: I have no fucking idea how to make a Deerhoof record. Did anyone? They’d assembled a catalog of thoughtful, wild, and unique records, each different from the one before. I was about to be inserted into a thriving creative organism that’s worked almost exclusively with each other, with unlimited control of every blip and bleep. This was the session I’d been dreaming of for my whole professional life—and I was terrified.” Bridavsky realised he had to build trust—trust that he would safeguard their one-of-a-kind musical personality. “In my first call with Greg, I was relieved that we had an instant rapport. Their biggest concern was dispensing with the months of obsessive tinkering that usually make their albums sound so beautiful and insane. He told me, ‘We don’t want to do our usual aggro control-freak thing. We’re going for bare-minimum production that doesn’t push the listener around.’” Nor was this to be the only departure from standard operating procedure. The band emailed Bridavsky the music they’d been listening to for inspiration: Rosalía, Meridian Brothers, Les Freres Michot, Ngola Ritmos, Mozart opera. It occurred to them that none of this was in English. Satomi decided that she’d like to forsake the language of “the world’s policeman” and write Miracle-Level’s lyrics entirely in her native tongue. After months of paring their demos down to Deerhoofian nuggets of melodic, harmonic, and rhythmic gold, Deerhoof spent their final pre-recording week in a rehearsal room near John’s house in Minneapolis. There, just before Bridavsky’s 42nd birthday, he met Deerhoof face to face for the first time. “They sat me down and performed the entire album from beginning to end. I knew we were about to make an amazing record. We went back to John’s where he prepared the most delightful fresh-baked pizza and apple pie followed by an a capella rendition of ‘Happy Birthday,’ We hadn’t even made it to the studio yet, and this was already one of the best sessions I’d ever been a part of.” Arriving in Winnipeg the next day, Deerhoof picked out guitars, drums and amps from the studio’s collection, Satomi chose the room where she most liked the sound of her voice, and Greg selected which of the studio’s three pianos he preferred for the album’s piano ballads. Five days later, they had finished tracking Miracle-Level a day ahead of schedule. The fateful moment for mixing had arrived. “We’d reached a level of mutual trust where the band was comfortable with me mixing alone. I’d send them away and when I felt a mix was ready, I’d call them back into the control room to listen. The look of excitement and accomplishment on everyone’s faces is something I’ll never forget. Satomi, Ed, John and Greg tried something different on this record, and the result is Deerhoof at their most sparse and vulnerable.” The brave record they walked out with at the end of two weeks is often unexpectedly sotto voce, a drama term referring to emphasis attained by lowering one’s voice. Miracle-Level is an avant-garde, anti-fascist carnival, its spicy surprises whispered conspiratorially, and lit by candlelight. Sit down, let me tell you a story celebrating the infinite small wonders of existence… the miracles that spontaneously present themselves when we’re not distracted by the tribalism and manipulation of our death-driven masters… the miracles that Artificial Intelligence will never replicate. Deerhoof speak in a secret code in which hooks abound, genre is nonexistent, and magic ever awaits us. Tour Dates: Mar 31st | Toronto, ON – Wavelength Winter Festival @ TD Music Hall Apr 1st | Montreal, QC – La Sala Rossa Apr 2nd | Greenfield, MA – Hawks and Reed Performing Arts Center Apr 4th | Brooklyn, NY – Elsewhere The Hall Apr 5th | Philadelphia, PA – Underground Arts Apr 6th | Providence, RI – Columbus Theatre May 4th | Seattle, WA – Neumos May 5th | Portland, OR – Aladdin Theater May 7th | Sacramento, CA – Harlow’s May 8th | San Francisco, CA – Great American Music Hall May 10th | Los Angeles, CA – Lodge Room May 12th | Salt Lake City, UT – Kilby Court Block Party @ Utah State Fairpark May 13th | Boise, ID – Treefort Music Hall July 7th | Des Moines, IA – 80-35 Fest July 8th | St. Paul, MN – Turf Club July 11th | Louisville, KY – Zanzabar July 12th | Grand Rapids, MI – Pyramid Scheme July 14th | Chicago, IL – Lincoln Hall  Deerhoof on Bandcamp Deerhoof on Twitter Deerhoof on Instagram |
@thebristolnomad / @bristolnomad_gigphotography
Role: Photographer / Reviewer / Interviewer
Chief, the one that bugs the team for team for their reviews and images. Creator and founder of The Bristol Gig Guide. Can usually be found swamped in admin or getting cramp kneeling at the front of a gig.
Available for: Gig Shoots, Gig Reviews, Photo Shoots, Album and Single cover shoots, Videography work, Interviews and Touring
First attended gig: Republica, circa 1996.
First gig shot: Hands Off Gretel, at The Louisiana!
Dream gig: Huge metalhead and my ultimate dream gig would be shooting my heroes Slipknot at a huge stadium gig, or as festival headliners. And to experience shooting a headline tour outside the UK
