Interview: of Montreal vs. Yip Deceiver
Interviewer: Bella Questions: Melissa Nastasi / Bella Photos: Cienna Willis
Last weekend at Webster Hall we had the chance of sitting down with members of an old favorite and a new favorite. Davey Pierce and Nick Dobbratz from of Montreal and Yip Deceiver. The guys gave us a whole new insight on what it takes to put on an oM show, and just what exactly a Yip Deceiver is. Give it a read. It’s a good one!
So how has the tour been treating you so far?
Davey: It’s been really good actually.
Nick: Yeah, it’s been lots of fun.
Davey, you worked on some props for the False Priest tour. Was that something new? Do you plan on doing it in the future?
Davey: I probably will do it in the future. It’s kind of something that fell into my lap. We needed somebody to make these props and I like doing stuff like that. I kind of just took it over.
Everything is different since you joined during Hissing Fauna, how do you keep up with all of the change?
Davey: It’s pretty easy actually. I mean because it’s kind of a natural progression you just sit back and watch it happen basically. You get so caught up in playing the shows and everything and you don’t even realize that everything’s changing so much.
Recently you can tell that the actual band members have been a lot more involved in the theatrics than usual. Is that something you guys plan on doing? Or is that something you enjoy doing?
Davey: I love it personally. I mean like it adds this whole kind of sense that it’s not just two different things going on on stage. Which in the past it has been. It’s been a bunch of people set up playing music while something else is going on in front of them. Whereas now it’s more like the performance lines and the music lines have blurred so much that it’s actually just one big thing.
Nick: I feel like it was a concious decision on this tour ahead of time to do exactly what Davey’s saying. As opposed to having two different things. I enjoy it, I like it. It’s changing every night right now.
When it comes to theatrics is it just David Barnes right now or do you all have a say in it?
Davey: He takes ideas from everybody. It is like Dobby (Nick) was saying. It’s a big evolving kind of thing. If you have an idea you can be like “Hey, what if we did this?”. If it works, it works. If it doesn’t, it doesn’t. And David’s very open to suggestions like if I walk up to him an I go “I really hated this one thing” He’ll be like “Okay, let’s see if we can make it better” It is his thing but he’s definately open to critism which is given.
Nick: And he likes to work with people’s personalities too. Whatever someones comfortable with.
You recently went on tour as Yip Deciever with Sugar & Gold. How was that tour?
Davey: It was great, it was really fucking fun.
Nick: Yeah.
Where did the name Yip Deceiver come from?
Davey: It’s actually, um, it was Clayton. We were actually drunk at a bar at like noon and we were trying to come up with a name for it. And we started making anagrams of my name. Yip Deceiver is what we came up with but we left an ‘A’ out and put an extra ‘I’. It’s a failed anagram of Davey Pierce basically.
How did you two come to working together on this project?
Nick: I joined of Montreal almost a year ago and during the time on the first tour I already heard Davey’s stuff. We kinda just started talking and we shared a lot of the same interests and influences. It inspired each other to keep working on stuff so it just happened.
Speaking of influences, you can tell that Yip Deceiver is very different from Inkwell. What influences do you have in this project that are different from Inkwell?
Davey: It’s pretty much all over. I’ve been listening to a lot of old 80′s and 90′s R&B, actually Dobby’s kind of the one that got me back into it. It does kind of come through in a way. The sounds that they use speak to me so much to me. The Inkwell stuff was kind of worn out of necessity. It was like we own guitars and a drum set and so that’s what we had to work with. And it was also like blatant punk rock, all the crap I used to listen to when I was 12. Getting the rest of that out of there so I can move on.
Yip Deceiver gained a lot of attention, which was mainly positive, for the Coquet Coquette remix. How did to feel to that feedback and that attention?
Davey: I mean obviously I was cool with it but I found just as much negative attention as positive attention. As you will with any remix. “This sucks compared to the orginial” Well it’s like thank you I guess, it’s not suppose to be the fucking orginial. But whatever, it was fun to do. I love the song. It was basically just me in my apartment with a bottle of wine and a drumset. I’d do it again, well, I probably will do it again. But I also did a remix of Sugar & Gold’s “It’s All Over You.” It’s on their new EP, it’s fantastic. Not the remix, but the EP.
Nick: The remix is fantastic. Which actually now that I think about it is one of the moments where we realized that we should be working together. It was kind of something that I written and Davey reproduced it; and it kind of the first thing we worked on together.
Davey: Actually the first thing we worked on we never actually finished. We’ve just been working on it for like a year now.
Davey, you had prior expierience playing two sets in a row with Jamey’s project, James Husband- and then again with Yip Deceiver, who had opened up for of Montreal for a few shows. Do you find playing sets in a row exhausting?
Davey: In some ways. It can be really physically exhausting but at the same time it’s like this is what we do. It’s kind of like we’ve been training our entire lives to do this. It’s so rewarding that it doesn’t really matter how exhausted you are because you can have such a great time doing both things. Especially if they’re so different. Playing with James Husband and playing with of Montreal are two totally different animals. I was on two totally different insturments and it was always fun.
Nick: For me it has a time limit. It got to a certain point on the last tour where I felt like I couldn’t do it anymore. But for the most part it’s not like you have a slightly different role so you make due.
What do you find most rewarding about it?
Davey: For me it’s just like, it is the thing we’ve been working towards. To be on stage with all these people that are my best friends. There are all these kinds of personal jokes that you don’t want to say during the set. I look over at Dobby and fucking crack up. There’s one thing that he does that makes me laugh or it’s Clayton or Thayer or Dottie. It’s rewarding because every night I get to do the thing that I’ve always wanted to do.
Nick: That’s true, I forget that sometimes.
Davey: It is actually really easy to forget that sometimes. Like when you wake up and you’re just like “I just wanna get a job and wear a tie”
You have those moments?
Davey: Every once in a while. The grass is always greener sometimes. Where it’s just like I wouldn’t mind being home. We haven’t really been home for more than two weeks in the past seven months now?
Nick: Yeah.
Davey: So I wouldn’t mind being home for a year but at the same time if I’m home for more than week I get really tired of being home.
What’s in the future for Yip Deceiver?
Davey: We’re working on a full length right now actually. Hopefully it’ll come out October-ish?
Nick: That’s what we’re shooting for, yeah.
Davey: We’re doing a video for a song called Get Strict starting in May. There’s gonna be all sorts of nice little surprise guest stars. It’ll be a big dance video.
Dance video? Will you guys be dancing?
Davey: There will probably be a little bit of us dancing in it, yeah.
Nick: There will be a lot of other people dancing in it too.
Davey: Mostly other people dancing in it.
New York has always been a great crowd for you guys. But, truthfully, what is your favorite city to play in?
Davey: Surprisingly, Mobile Alabama has very recently taken that spot. Just blew everyone outside of the water. They’re insane down there, they’re amazing. The crowds are so into it. They’re having so much, they’re just so nice. It’s incredible actually.
False Priest did great on both the CMJ and Billboard charts. How did it feel as a band to do that great?
Davey: It felt really good. Where were we when we got the CMJ thing? Was that Stockholm?
Nick: Yeah, I think so.
Davey: I’m pretty sure it was Stockholm. It was like “We’re number one on the CMJ charts!” And it was kind of this weird feeling. It was like, well we’re not even really home and no one knows what CMJ is over where. But it feels really cool to know that you’re doing something that people really want to hear. I guess that’s kind of the ultimate goal, is to have an audience that’ll listen to your insane ramblings for the most part.
One last question, is it blackmail domination or black male domination?
Davey: Blackmail.
Nick: What do you want it to be?
Davey: Yeah, that’s a good point too.
Davey: There are teams now. It is a very polarizing issue.
Nick: Blackmail or black male?
Davey: Yeah.
Nick: -chuckles-
Davey: I’m on Team Blackmail. But at the same time he(Nick) has a point, it’s whatever you want it to be. It doesn’t really matter too much.
Davey: I love it personally. I mean like it adds this whole kind of sense that it’s not just two different things going on on stage. Which in the past it has been. It’s been a bunch of people set up playing music while something else is going on in front of them. Whereas now it’s more like the performance lines and the music lines have blurred so much that it’s actually just one big thing.
Nick: I feel like it was a concious decision on this tour ahead of time to do exactly what Davey’s saying. As opposed to having two different things. I enjoy it, I like it. It’s changing every night right now.
When it comes to theatrics is it just David Barnes right now or do you all have a say in it?
Davey: He takes ideas from everybody. It is like Dobby (Nick) was saying. It’s a big evolving kind of thing. If you have an idea you can be like “Hey, what if we did this?”. If it works, it works. If it doesn’t, it doesn’t. And David’s very open to suggestions like if I walk up to him an I go “I really hated this one thing” He’ll be like “Okay, let’s see if we can make it better” It is his thing but he’s definately open to critism which is given.
Nick: And he likes to work with people’s personalities too. Whatever someones comfortable with.
You recently went on tour as Yip Deciever with Sugar & Gold. How was that tour?
Davey: It was great, it was really fucking fun.
Nick: Yeah.
Where did the name Yip Deceiver come from?
Davey: It’s actually, um, it was Clayton. We were actually drunk at a bar at like noon and we were trying to come up with a name for it. And we started making anagrams of my name. Yip Deceiver is what we came up with but we left an ‘A’ out and put an extra ‘I’. It’s a failed anagram of Davey Pierce basically.
How did you two come to working together on this project?
Nick: I joined of Montreal almost a year ago and during the time on the first tour I already heard Davey’s stuff. We kinda just started talking and we shared a lot of the same interests and influences. It inspired each other to keep working on stuff so it just happened.
Speaking of influences, you can tell that Yip Deceiver is very different from Inkwell. What influences do you have in this project that are different from Inkwell?
Davey: It’s pretty much all over. I’ve been listening to a lot of old 80′s and 90′s R&B, actually Dobby’s kind of the one that got me back into it. It does kind of come through in a way. The sounds that they use speak to me so much to me. The Inkwell stuff was kind of worn out of necessity. It was like we own guitars and a drum set and so that’s what we had to work with. And it was also like blatant punk rock, all the crap I used to listen to when I was 12. Getting the rest of that out of there so I can move on.
Yip Deceiver gained a lot of attention, which was mainly positive, for the Coquet Coquette remix. How did to feel to that feedback and that attention?
Davey: I mean obviously I was cool with it but I found just as much negative attention as positive attention. As you will with any remix. “This sucks compared to the orginial” Well it’s like thank you I guess, it’s not suppose to be the fucking orginial. But whatever, it was fun to do. I love the song. It was basically just me in my apartment with a bottle of wine and a drumset. I’d do it again, well, I probably will do it again. But I also did a remix of Sugar & Gold’s “It’s All Over You.” It’s on their new EP, it’s fantastic. Not the remix, but the EP.
Nick: The remix is fantastic. Which actually now that I think about it is one of the moments where we realized that we should be working together. It was kind of something that I written and Davey reproduced it; and it kind of the first thing we worked on together.
Davey: Actually the first thing we worked on we never actually finished. We’ve just been working on it for like a year now.
Davey, you had prior expierience playing two sets in a row with Jamey’s project, James Husband- and then again with Yip Deceiver, who had opened up for of Montreal for a few shows. Do you find playing sets in a row exhausting?
Davey: In some ways. It can be really physically exhausting but at the same time it’s like this is what we do. It’s kind of like we’ve been training our entire lives to do this. It’s so rewarding that it doesn’t really matter how exhausted you are because you can have such a great time doing both things. Especially if they’re so different. Playing with James Husband and playing with of Montreal are two totally different animals. I was on two totally different insturments and it was always fun.
Nick: For me it has a time limit. It got to a certain point on the last tour where I felt like I couldn’t do it anymore. But for the most part it’s not like you have a slightly different role so you make due.
What do you find most rewarding about it?
Davey: For me it’s just like, it is the thing we’ve been working towards. To be on stage with all these people that are my best friends. There are all these kinds of personal jokes that you don’t want to say during the set. I look over at Dobby and fucking crack up. There’s one thing that he does that makes me laugh or it’s Clayton or Thayer or Dottie. It’s rewarding because every night I get to do the thing that I’ve always wanted to do.
Nick: That’s true, I forget that sometimes.
Davey: It is actually really easy to forget that sometimes. Like when you wake up and you’re just like “I just wanna get a job and wear a tie”
You have those moments?
Davey: Every once in a while. The grass is always greener sometimes. Where it’s just like I wouldn’t mind being home. We haven’t really been home for more than two weeks in the past seven months now?
Nick: Yeah.
Davey: So I wouldn’t mind being home for a year but at the same time if I’m home for more than week I get really tired of being home.
What’s in the future for Yip Deceiver?
Davey: We’re working on a full length right now actually. Hopefully it’ll come out October-ish?
Nick: That’s what we’re shooting for, yeah.
Davey: We’re doing a video for a song called Get Strict starting in May. There’s gonna be all sorts of nice little surprise guest stars. It’ll be a big dance video.
Dance video? Will you guys be dancing?
Davey: There will probably be a little bit of us dancing in it, yeah.
Nick: There will be a lot of other people dancing in it too.
Davey: Mostly other people dancing in it.
New York has always been a great crowd for you guys. But, truthfully, what is your favorite city to play in?
Davey: Surprisingly, Mobile Alabama has very recently taken that spot. Just blew everyone outside of the water. They’re insane down there, they’re amazing. The crowds are so into it. They’re having so much, they’re just so nice. It’s incredible actually.
False Priest did great on both the CMJ and Billboard charts. How did it feel as a band to do that great?
Davey: It felt really good. Where were we when we got the CMJ thing? Was that Stockholm?
Nick: Yeah, I think so.
Davey: I’m pretty sure it was Stockholm. It was like “We’re number one on the CMJ charts!” And it was kind of this weird feeling. It was like, well we’re not even really home and no one knows what CMJ is over where. But it feels really cool to know that you’re doing something that people really want to hear. I guess that’s kind of the ultimate goal, is to have an audience that’ll listen to your insane ramblings for the most part.
One last question, is it blackmail domination or black male domination?
Davey: Blackmail.
Nick: What do you want it to be?
Davey: Yeah, that’s a good point too.
Davey: There are teams now. It is a very polarizing issue.
Nick: Blackmail or black male?
Davey: Yeah.
Nick: -chuckles-
Davey: I’m on Team Blackmail. But at the same time he(Nick) has a point, it’s whatever you want it to be. It doesn’t really matter too much.
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