MMP 001: Deepset

Deepset, perhaps one of the most well-known post rock bands in today’s indie circuit, started as The Deepset Joy and covered beautiful songs such as Gloria from the 90s emo heroes, Mineral. Long since their humble beginning in the early 2000’s, the band has developed music more akin to influences from Explosion in the Sky and Mono, yet remain distinct and significantly original. This brief interview was conducted through e-mail correspondence between Dean (Papakerma Records) and bassist Asshad, sometime in late March 2009, which was upon their return from a successful tour in Manila, the Philippines. Read on.

1. How did Deepset get together to begin with?

Lothfi and Hafiza and myself had known each other since college time. We went to the same local university and I’ve known Azman since secondary school. Azman always spent his weekend with us while he was studying a bit far from the rest. We gathered for quite sometime, our interests seemed to take place and then we started playing music together.

2. When you first started, post rock wasn’t the most commercially viable genre, at least in Malaysia and perhaps even in South East Asia region. What inspired you to pursue this sort of stuff?

Well, refreshing back to 2000, we have Damn Dirty Ape as our local act and they managed to put themselves out there, not to be carried away with those feasible genre. We grew up with many good bands around, we have references to listen and look out for. Inspiration can be so apparent and yet, it's cathartic. We have no limitation in order to deliver our music. Passion is a major undertake, it pursues us till now.

3. You are signed to Kitty Wu Records from Singapore. How did you end up on the label and why didn’t you sign to a local label instead? Tell us what sort of contract you are having with Kitty Wu, is it on exclusive term or are you free to put out the next releases on different label?

We had an exceptional deal and basically they are quite permissive. Well, we hold up a good offer, and I must say they are very lenient towards the contract. We have tonnes of outstanding local labels here; it's just that every band has its right to choose their options. For upcoming releases, we are free to sign with different label, as for now, we are more than happy to reside under them.

4. Have you ever considered adding vocals to the mix? Something like a guest featuring on your record i.e. singing, reciting poem, etc. Looking back were they anything you wanted to change on the last record?

Not now, but once, we considered to feed in a sampler of an old man reciting a charm line. The ideas can be varied, for a while we would focus on improving our current groundwork. Yes, looking back on our last record, we wish to have a few piece chamber orchestras to back us up. But, lack of budget, we only had a minimal set.

5. You guys just got back from participating a festival in Manila and prior to that a gig in Singapore, could you share with us what was the experience like and what's next we could expect from the band?

We love Singapore and Manila. We played for a weekend session in Singapore called Indie Indeed coordinated by Esplanade and Kitty Wu and a few days after that, A*Fest Manila at two different venues coordinated by Kindassault Records. We met good people, new friends, good musicians and proper sets on stage. We were a bit nervous because that was our first time performing in front of outsiders. They cheered and greeted us with solid words. We feel good that we could share our good time with them. Now, we are in a songwriting schedule, we spend our times writing new songs and steadily compile those for our upcoming release. Other than that, we'll be working on background music for a documentary by Fatul Rahman (indie film maker) and we plan to play for more shows.

E-mail: deepsetan@gmail.com

Myspace: http://www.myspace.com/deepbeep

Facebook: Deepset

Bookings: Arif (Personal Manager/Booking Agent)

HP: +6012 632 73 69 E-mail: arif.ramly@gmail.com