Deerhoof's Ed Rodriguez: The New Gay Interview

Ed Rodriguez (far right) can't read the writing on the wall.

The San Francisco trio of Deerhoof — Satomi Matsuzaki, John Dieterich and Greg Saunier— have recently added a new member to their mix. Ed Rodriguez, the band's new guitar player, was nice enough to give TNG some time to explain his enigmatic band. They're not enigmatic in the noir sense, though, but more in the six-year old child "what the hell is going on their head" sense of the word. Pairing classic rock guitars with lyrics that could be written by the Cylon hybrid, Deerhoof are fun to listen to but hard to pin down.

Their newest album, Offend Maggie, ratchets up the accessibility a little bit... However, that's a like saying that one Jackson Pollack painting is organized in comparison to the other one. You look at it and you enjoy it, but the chances of really understanding it are slim to none.

Check out the full interview, along with a Deerhoof mixtape, below the fold.

Deerhoof play Sunday at the 9:30 Club. $15.

The New Gay Zack: First Question: Who's Maggie and why is she offended?

Ed Rodriguez: While were doing the record it turned into a long process of trying to find balance between different aspects of the music. This eventually took the form of this masculine/feminine balance sort of thing. There was a lot of struggle between all four of us in trying to find a balance, even with the artwork, with anything. Maggie just happened to be the feminine side, and the offense was just another part of it.

TNG: How is it being the new guy in the band? Does your voice or opinion count as much as everyone else's?

ER: Jon and I have been best friends for 15 years, we've been playing together for 15 years... I came in right away with material, and those guys are so open and excited for collaboration, pretty much every aspect of everything is incredibly group oriented. You could bring song in completely done, but everyone would have ideas for it and feel really open. Everyone's really good about separating art from the artist. You could bring something in and they could be like, 'I don't like this at all' and not worry about you bursting into tears. Everyone was open and welcoming and excited about there being a new voice.

TNG: Why get a new member now? What are you contributing?

ER: They just really, really wanted a change, especially in live situations. I know John really well and [when deerhoof is a] trio there's this real element of danger to it. John was doing so much by himself, covering so much ground. I could see him struggling sometimes. He was playing multiple guitar parts and all these insane reworkings of what was bascally music for four people. If something happened to him the whole thing would fall apart. It was this teetering on the edge sort of thing. We all have an element of danger in our playing, where it's still really raw, but now with me in the band everyone can relax more and there are more things that can happen.

TNG: Your last show in DC featured this great prop called Electric Rainbow Machine. Is it coming back? Do you have anything else special planned for the show?

ER: We just can't have that. Logistically it doesn't work out. Touring has gotten so rough, the cost of gas and everything, we had been trying to keep ticket costs down and avoid ticket master. It's been cutting into everything. The live situation basically the four of us, no bells and whistles. It's kind of stripped down. I think whats different about the live situation now is that this is the first time ever that all of the songs we're writing could be played before the band went into the studio, so the album actually sounds like if you were sitting in front of the band. This is going to be the first time the live show will be a realistic experience. We agonized over every overdub. We thought 'a shaker would be great here, but no once can play that live so it's not going to be on the record."

TNG: It seems like you've been moving toward a new sound for a while. Your last album Friend Opportunity had shorter and more accessible songs. How much is Offend Maggie a step in this direction?

ER: The band has gotten a lot better at just trimming the fat from songs, which helps scale down size.Everything is constantly reworked. If any of us are not feeling engaged in the song then it's obvious that no one else could be. These guys have just gotten better at being Deerhoof. The melodies are stronger, the things that have always been there and been present for the band's whole lifetime have just gotten a lot more defined. What is considered the Deerhoof melody is definitely stronger, It's not a conscious decision, I think all three of [the other members] are really unique... They're all weirdos... Them being themselves has connected with more people. It's one of those things like when you have a friend who just has no idea how weird they are...

TNG: I have friends like that...

ER: What they think is normal is so far from normal you don't even want to tell them. They're going to screw it up anyway.

TNG: Your lyrics are so crazy too. Do they actually mean anything?

ER: 90 to 95 percent of the lyrics are all written by Satomi. We're working on the record and Satomi hides away for days and days, really just sitting at table with paper and figuring out all the lyrics. Pretty much everything does have a story and does have meaning. We're lucky that we know Satomi, we're lucky that she'll go though and talk about each song with us and tell us what it means. We can get into it and know what she is thinking. It can be different than what it meant to us when we read it... it can have different meanings to different people....Who's to say that what it's supposed to mean to us is any better than what you got out of it? That's part of the whole reason for leaving the edges blurred, its so much more interesting than saying 'This is what the song is about."

TNG: So you're not going to tell me what"Kidz Are So Small" is about?

ER: I have no idea! there certain things that I know the story behind, but that's not one of them. A lot of the songs are things that she just sang out of theb lue before the songs were even written.

TNG: So she's at home saying "Ring, ring, I haven't got a butler" than writes a song about it?

ER: She and Greg are married, so they're together all the time. He's especially aware of these moments and how terrific they are. Satomi is constantly cracking all of us up...she is so hilarious. "Dog on a Sidewalk" was getting down and singing to a dog on a sidewalk... A lot are spontaneous things, especially thing on the new record are her sitting down and really figuring out what the songs mean to her.

TNG: One final Satomi question: A her hands as expressive in daily conversation as they are when she's on stage? They're very mesmerizing.

ER: I've never really thought about that, but she's a great dancer and she uses her whole body. She gets really physical, especially when she's being funny. She has a knack for doing a pose or little gesture that will floor you.

TNG: Does she have any background in dance?

ER: She just moves really well, she really thinks about it. She does that stuff in practice. To her, certain songs have a different physical feeling. I don't catch a lot of things that she does because I'm playing, but is see footage of the show, and it's striking. She has all the little physical games she would play with people growing up in Japan. They had a million "rubbing your head and patting your stomach" games, weird little physical tests that worked their way into her physical vocabulary. I think onstage she has this otherworldly feel to her. When people see her backstage dancing, I think they find it surprising. It really gets everyone in a great mood. People will come in and see her, they're faces light up and they run over to dance with her.

TNG: I read a quote somewhere online from one of your band members saying that Deerhoof was basically moving in the direction of children's music. Do you think this is true?

ER: Greg is really big on that. I think for him it's really present in his writing. Satomi as well. They try to get a good song across with simplicity too, so anybody could just go over to the piano and pock the song out on their own. There's a lot of technical ability that's present, but I think it's not very often that it comes across as being tricky. It may be something that's rough to play, but it still comes across that its not as hard as it might be. I think that's what everyone wants. No matter what's happening and no matter how at the edge of our ability we might be playing, it still comes across as simple and easy and you could go home and pock it out yourself. TNG