Joburg rockers Deity’s Muse have been in the game longer than most – 14 whole years to be exact. Literally a band of brothers, they are made up of 2 sets of siblings and even though their youngest member is only 22, there is a definite nostalgic sound and feel to their music. Staying true to the early 2000s that played host to their inception, their alternative rock sound has travelled with them across the country, an international tour, countless stages at many festivals, and 4 releases to date.
These days they are grafting on their 5th offering, a full studio album called “Convergence”. Taking the very popular crowd funding route, the album was made possible by a rather successful IndieGogo campaign. Now 2 years in the making, fans and pledgers will be happy to know that they are just about ready to go into post-production, with the last bit of tracking being finalised at the moment. “We should be finished, I reckon, in about two weeks,” lead vocalist Wayne Boucher says with a relieved sigh.
They have pooled all their resources into making this release what they describe as “our best work yet” and when you’ve been in the industry for this long, there are a lot of connections and friendships formed to draw from. “Our friend Ashley Lane has the best drum room we found out in Klerksdorp, which is about 2 hours away from Joburg,” Sashan Pillay (drummer) says, with the younger Boucher brother Alvin quickly adding, “Nah it’s longer than that. I think it’s the longest place in the world to drive to.”
“All there is is hairdressers, beauticians and a vetkoek city,” Pillay continues, before adding, “But there’s this beautiful drum room. You sit there, and it’s like listening to recorded mixed drums live.” This dedication to finding the best possible space for their sound is admirable, especially given that there is so much technology one could use for quick fixes. Klerksdorp certainly isn’t the furthest this album has travelled though.
As a band, they have admired Australian heavy weights Dead Letter Circus for most of their lives and careers. After touring with them in 2013 when the band visited South Africa, a friendship was formed that again, has proved very useful down the line. Guitarist Clint Vincent has been working tirelessly on this album, with countless raw files being sent back and forth. The time zone difference naturally adds to the mission. “That’s why it’s taken us so long, ’cause you have that lag. We would send the files over to Vinnie, then we go to bed. We wake up, then he sends us files back, he’s in bed. We work on more stuff, and the whole cycle repeats itself over and over and over,” Wayne Boucher explains. There aren’t many bands who can say they’ve worked with their biggest idols, and it’s one testament to sticking things out for this long, proving that dedication does indeed eventually pay off.
Naturally, as one grows, your music will morph in some ways, so given the time they have given to this project a lot of the songs have undergone changes which in turn pushes the release date along even further. “We’ve learnt to simplify the writing process a lot,” Pillay explains. “Vinnie’s taught us to listen, and it’s been a very rewarding experience. And the cool thing about it is that the songs, for us, have stood the test of time because we still love the shit out of these songs. We’ve recorded the album probably three times technically, but we still love these songs,” Wayne Boucher explains.
They’ve also taken on tremendous growth on an individual base, each member working harder than ever to up their own skills. “When we started writing it we automatically said we wanted to do something we’ve never done before. So we kind of had to rewire our brains to write this album. That first phase was pretty frustrating ’cause your brain wants to do stuff your body can’t do yet so we had to relearn a whole bunch of stuff. I’d been doing a whole bunch of singing lessons, Sashan’s being doing a whole lot of stuff to step out of his comfort zone, all of us really, We’re far better musicians than we were two years ago,” Wayne Boucher admits.
A big part of this journey has been the breaking down of egos, and it comes through strongly in the lyrics of this album too. Working with a producer, having to relearn these things, and dealing with criticism in a constructive way has forced each band member to let go of his ego, and take on a humble attitude in order to create this album. “This journey of life is about learning and how to cope with this soul that you are, and parts of you have to die to give rise to new parts. You can’t be dragging the same horse and expecting new results,” Wayne Boucher explains.
What the results of all their hard work will be remains to be seen. From everything they have said, this album seems to be the culmination of everything that has happened in the past 14 years. From member changes, to societal influences, to simply growing older and as they mentioned, letting your ego go – all of these things will no doubt influence the final product in a huge way. But placing so much on one body of work is a risky move, and if the first single off this album, ‘Satellites’ is anything to go by, I’m not convinced that this will be the big break they are hoping for. That said, it’s clear that they have longevity in the scene, and many loyal fans to encourage them onwards, so who knows what we may see from them in the next 14 years.
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