Depswa Interview

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Band Name: Depswa
Interviewed: Jeremy Penick
Interviewer: 
Date: 0000-00-00


Previous Depswa Interviews
Everything has been on the up-and-up for Depswa over the last several years. After honing in on their own style, overcoming extraneous mental barriers and signing with Geffen Records, they toured with Mudvayne and Taproot last fall, shot their first video in Mexico and they?ve recently been confirmed for this summer?s Ozzfest. Calling from the band?s Philadelphia stop on the Trust Company tour, vocalist Jeremy Penick talked to the Gauntlet?s Jay Gorania about Depswa?s forward momentum, their up-coming debut full-length, ?Two Angels And A Dream,? and their collaborations with a crazed, crotch-grabbing musical genius and?Aladdin?




The Gauntlet: Firstly, thanks for allowing the Gauntlet and our readers some of your time.




Jeremy: No problem. When we were Carcinogen we put some of our stuff up there at the Gauntlet. At that time, we didn?t have very much Internet value at all. So that was really cool that you guys were able to hook us up with a little bit of Internet space and help us out.




The Gauntlet: On behalf of Jason, who was responsible for that, thanks. Could you tell me a little bit about Carcinogen? From what I understand, it started out as an instrumental act?




Jeremy: Yea. It was me and two other guys in northern California. It was me on guitar, another guy on bass and another on drums. We didn?t have a singer, so I just started singing. That?s kind of when I started to sing. And we just started making demos.




The Gauntlet: You didn?t even sing before that point?




Jeremy: No. That?s why we were instrumental. I mean, we were looking for singers. I just started doing it because we couldn?t find any singers in our town. Ha! Ha! Then the bass player quit, (so) we got Ryan, who is actually our bass player now. He stuck with me. The drummer: he dropped out and we picked up Gordon. We moved to LA and we stayed with a good friend of mine who I was in a band with before. That was Dan, who?s in the band now as a guitar player. And just eight months ago we hired another guitar player to take my guitar parts so that I could just concentrate on vocals.




The Gauntlet: Do you think that?s made a big difference? Are you now able to fully focus on singing?




Jeremy: Yea. For me, I?m able to connect with the crowd a little more. And I?m really trying to learn to be better at presenting the music and?displaying truth in what we?re doing.




The Gauntlet: Why did you change your name back when you did?




Jeremy: Well, just because the music was changing. Carcinogen just had a connotation of death metal, you know? It wasn?t what we represented. So our first demo as Carcinogen, we called the demo ?Depswa.? And when it came to change our name, we were like, ?What are we going to do?? I said, ?Why don?t we just use Depswa?? Nobody knows what it is. There?s no stigma.




The Gauntlet: Did you choose it due to its relatively unknown meaning or because of the way it sounds? Depswa: that just flows off the tip of my tongue.




Jeremy: When we picked ?Depswa? for the Carcinogen demo, it was just a cool name. Where we got it was from watching the movie ?Medicine Man,? with Sean Connery. He was in a Venezuelan rain forest and there was a Venezuelan aboriginal tribe. And in the tribe there was a medicine man, or a healer, and he was called Depswa. And we thought that was really cool, so we named the demo that. And later on?yea, like you said, it just kind of flows. Also, you wonder what it is. Either that, or when you hear it you know it?s the band.




The Gauntlet: Is ?Medicine Man? the movie where Sean Connery tries to find a cure for cancer?




Jeremy: That's it. And sometimes things come as simple as that. We thought it was perfect because it doesn?t have any stigma. Take a name like Garbage. If I told my Mom I was going to see a band named Garbage, she would think it was some kind of punk band or something. She?d be like, ?Are you sure you want to go see these guys?? Ha! Ha! But with Depswa, you don?t know what it is.




The Gauntlet: There?s another benefit! If parents don?t know what it is, they can?t criticize their kids for listening to it!




Jeremy: Yea! Ha! Ha! You?re right.




The Gauntlet: I found it admirable that you were at a point early on in your career where you were getting a lot of attention, yet you felt as though you were falling into the trap of having to write a certain way to satisfy an already established audience. It?s refreshing to hear that kind of honesty, whereas most bands automatically use the clich?: ?Oh no. Since day one we?ve done this for ourselves. We don?t care about what anyone thinks.? I?ve got to tip my hat to you for acknowledging what actually happens and that you came to a turning point where you realized that you really had to start doing this for yourselves.




Jeremy: Years ago when we were Carcinogen, we were writing songs in the vein of artists that we really were influenced by instead of going from what?s inside. So in turn, we were not really being ourselves. We were not really imitating, but we were taking too much influence from bands that we totally admire, which is obviously flattering for those artists. But we figured out that we didn?t sound any different than anyone else and it aint as gratifying (as it could be). We started experimenting with just playing from our insides, our hearts. I sing about personal things that happen in my life, influences and inspiration. And it just felt a hell of a lot better and more gratifying. It ended up that people started saying that we had our own style.




So I think that?s a huge advice to anybody. If you?re going to do any kind of craft, obviously you?ve got to start somewhere and you learn from the people that you admire, but once you get to a certain point, you should try to look inside yourself.




The Gauntlet: When you were starting out as Carcinogen, who were some of the artists that you admired and learned from?




Jeremy: Meshuggah, Slayer, Fear Factory - some really heavy artists. And I was a long time fan of a band called Forbidden. Are you?re familiar with them?




The Gauntlet: Forbidden! I loved those thrashers! (For the benefit of our some of our younger readers, that was actually the original band of Paul Bostaph, the man who went on to join Slayer as Dave Lombardo?s replacement. Bostaph has since departed, making way for drum-god Lombardo to return as a ?temporary? replacement - JG).




Jeremy: Oh yea. I still think Forbidden are a great band! I was a really prog-oriented metal guy.




The Gauntlet: And in terms of singing, did you ever feel that you were emulating someone too much?




Jeremy: No. It was just a combination of influences. (For instance, there was) a little bit of tribal sounding stuff like Soulfly. They were a big influence. I loved the drummer they had at that time.




The Gauntlet: Roy Mayorga: he?s a great drummer and a really nice guy. He?s actually back with Soulfly.




Jeremy: Really? I didn?t know that. That?s cool. I also really liked the progressiveness of Fear Factory and Meshuggah. So it was a combination of everything. And it was definitely audible that we were influenced by these bands. And that?s what I mean by trying to break off and do your own thing.




The Gauntlet: I could see that your style has the potential for attracting fans of various genres of music. I?m a metalhead and I like it. I could also see the nu-metal crowd get into it. And as odd as it may seem, I could see someone who likes completely mainstream music that?s not even guitar oriented listen to it and say, ?That?s pretty cool.?




Jeremy: I think that?s partly because if you pick apart the guitar parts, they?re pretty progressive. The chords are kind of jazzy, but the melody lines are simple. And some of the melodies are fairly singable. So I think that?s the reason why lots of people might give us a chance. I hope they do. Ha! Ha!




The Gauntlet: I don?t mean this in a derogatory way, but I think that those melodies provide a pop sensibility to your overall sound.




Jeremy: Yea. I can see that. It was an evolution. I had screamed my head off to everything before. I was actually very shy about my singing. I mean, I knew I could sing a little bit, but I didn?t know that I could really sing. So I never really did it outside my own home. I never showed even my band mates. When I moved to LA, it was really to get in touch with myself. I just wanted to do the right thing, regardless if anybody liked it or not. And I felt that singing was something I really wanted to do. When I started it, I felt a huge gratification ? singing about things that are real, not constantly about people screwing you over or about hard times in your life. Everyone goes through that. But it seems that a lot of older music that I had was very negative-oriented. This music is more just about real happenings and real stuff in my life, instead of dwelling over the bad things in my life.




The Gauntlet: So you sing about the good and the bad aspects of your life. And I assume that that?s an example of the balance that drives the album?s concept.




Jeremy: Yea. The good and the bad. It?s definitely a balance. That?s what we wanted to represent with the whole album: balance. It?s not completely heavy, (yet) it?s not completely soft. It?s everywhere in between. We don?t want to have any barriers. Every song has been driven by emotion.




The Gauntlet: So, then, the thematic concept of balance corresponds with the music as well as the lyrical content?




Jeremy: Yea. ?Two Angels And A Dream,? the song and title of the album is about one angel up above and one below - and I?m somewhere in between. And which way should I go? The choices that you have to make?at the end of the song it?s saying that I?m happy being in between. Because I believe in nature. That?s the way it happens. There?s balance in nature. If you turn nature one way, sometimes it?ll balance itself out violently, but usually always tries to have balance.




The Gauntlet: Exactly. No one?s a purist whether they like it or not.




Jeremy: Yea, man. Exactly. Nothing is. People or things. I think everything in this universe is involved with opposing forces that have to be there.




The Gauntlet: You?ve played with many prominent acts, such as Danzig, Rob Zombie, Stone Sour, Down, Nickelback and Sevendust. Considering this in conjunction with the fact that you once had reservations about exploring your melodic vocal potential, I assume there was point at which you had stage fright.




Jeremy: Oh yea. I always hid behind the guitar before. I just stood there and sang. I couldn?t really connect with people. And even before that, when I first started, I used to have real bad stage fright! Now I?m over all that and I?m trying to connect with the crowd more and display the songs a little more to what they are. Emotionally, I?m trying to convey it.




But I came from a really heavy background. Everything was screaming and (that) was kind of like a crutch for me, you know? And when I started singing, I thought I?d let people see that softer side of me. (At) the time, I was maybe not mature (enough to pursue that).




The Gauntlet: Was it the case where a young heavy music fan views all other forms of music as being ?wimpy?? I went through a spell of that when I was younger.




Jeremy: Yea. Maybe something like that. When you get older, you really want to gratify yourself to understand the true meaning of what life is. And I think I had to go through that. To really be able to advance myself, I had to break through those barriers.




The Gauntlet: You?ll soon be shooting your first video. It?s going to be in Mexico, right?




Jeremy: Actually, we shot the video already. It?s done and it?s supposed to be the first single, but things are always subject to change. That?s what I?ve learned about this business.




The Gauntlet: Tell me about the video. What song is it for?




Jeremy: ?This time.? It?s based around a bullfight and it has us playing in a bullring. ?I want to hurt you but I don?t know why,? is the first line of the song. So it kind of relates a little bit to a bullfight. It?s kind of a senseless thing where people love it. And why do we love it?




The Gauntlet: We, as in all people, inherently have a sadistic side.




Jeremy: Yea. It?s definitely a bit of a primal instinct. It?s probably inbred in all of us in some way or form.




The Gauntlet: When are you expecting the album?s release date?




Jeremy: I?m expecting it probably (at the) beginning of May. But I can?t promise anything.




The Gauntlet: Like you said, you never know what to expect in this business.




Jeremy: You can say that again. Ha! Ha! I know that we?re a go for Ozzfest, and it should be out before that.




The Gauntlet: Congrats on the Ozzfest slot. As far as touring goes, are there any other specific plans in the works?




Jeremy: Thanks. I think we?ll be going out with Coal after this tour. But for right now, Trust Company?s a great band, Blindside?s just AMAZING, and there?s another band from Australia/New Zealand called Pacifier. They?re pretty good.




The Gauntlet: Tell me about the guest musicians that you brought on board for the recording of ?Two Angels And A Dream.?




Jeremy: Actually, I collaborated with a guy on ?This Time.? I had written the song, but I had a friendship where I met this guy in the studio while we were recording who had just recorded his new album in the same studio. I was working on ?This Time? and I pretty much had it done, but it just wasn?t feeling right. I knew he was a great writer, so I asked him what he could do. He wrote some of the lyrics with me and we put it together. And with the contrast in the song, it?s really cool.




And it?s Brad Kane. He actually was the singing voice for Disney?s ?Aladdin.? He doesn?t like to talk about it anymore, but we keep bringing it up. Ha! Ha!




The Gauntlet: And tell me about the involvement of Igor Khoroshev, a one-time contributing keyboardist for Yes?




Jeremy: Oh yea! Igor! He was a friend of our engineer, Mike Plotnikoff. He was just a crazy guy. He was telling us stories about Yes. Like, it was the first time they met the producer before recording, and before he even met this guy, he went up and totally just grabbed his balls and said, ?Hello, my name is Igor.? This guy is just off the wall, but his background is amazing. He grew up in the Soviet Union, I think. Anyway, he was pretty much bred for music. They give these aptitude tests and found out he was, like, a musical guy. At three, or something, they put him in music school and the guy can play something like 25 instruments fluently! He was a total mastermind by the time he got out of high school. He?s just a musical genius. And Mike was talking about him and we thought, ?Just bring him in. Give him a chance and see if he wants to do it.? And he loved the music. He said that it was brilliant. And the strings that he put behind the music are just amazing. I think he?s doing movies and stuff right now.




The Gauntlet: When you were working with him yourselves, were there any wild antics?




Jeremy: He just conducts himself differently. He came in talking to my guitar player like he knew him forever. ?This must be Dan?s friend.? And it wasn?t. And I?m going, ?Who is that, Dan?? He goes, ?I don?t know, man?!?? So he was crazy, but he was a nice guy and it was great to be able to work with him.