Owning Your Own Airline Q & A: Nick Weaver from Deep Sea Arcade
It’s a while since we heard new music from Deep Sea Arcade, but the Sydney psychedelic outfit fronted by Nicolas McKenzie and Nick Weaver are about to hit the road in support of their new single. Learning To Fly is the first taste of Deep Sea Arcade since their highly acclaimed 2012 debut album ‘Outlands’ and is also apparently the lead single from their sophomore album, set for release in early 2017. Before they begin their tour we asked the band’s guitarist Nick Weaver how Deep Sea Arcade would operate their very own airline and the amount of pyrotechnics to expect at their upcoming shows!
Which band member would most likely be the captain of the aircraft?
Probably Nic, everyone in a band knows you don’t tell the lead singer they can’t be the captain of the aircraft…
Which band member would most likely be the air hostess that flirts with passengers?
That Nick Weaver guy. He’s always batting his eyelids at everyone, makes me sick!
What would be the airline’s ultimate snack pack to get passengers through a long haul flight?
Fresh tomato with basil and bocconcini (for that gourmet touch) on a bed of trail mix (for increased reflexes and stamina).
What would the airline uniforms looks like?
If you had to change the two current styles of “brace positions” to a type a dance, what would you instruct passengers to start doing if the plane was going down?
People’s lives are on the line here. Obviously it would need to be the ‘Safety Dance’ by Men Without Hats.
Which famous musicians would feature in your aircraft safety demonstration video?
Britney would be doing the demo with the crazed voice of Ozzie Osbourne narrating!
If one band member were to become a member of the mile-high club, who would it be?
Definitely Geoff! We can’t take him anywhere without women and men of all walks of life literally throwing themselves at him. If we were on a plane and a steward or stewardess caught a glimpse of that twinkle in Geoff’s eye, there’d be no stopping them. You’d be hearing screams of “Geoff! GEOOFF!” over the intercom between weather announcements…
If you happen to encounter a snake on your plane, which band member would be brave enough to tackle it in true Samuel L. Jackson style?
I think Geoff would definitely be the guy for that. He’s just always been fearless, y’know? One time there was a really big spider in my house and the first person I thought of was Geoff. I just called him and said, “Hey Geoff, there’s a spider in my house and I think my mum has gone out” and Geoff was really calm and just came over with a few really basic tools.
Before I knew it he had totally tamed this spider and it was his new pet and they just went home together. There are a lot of good Geoff stories…
For the uninitiated, how do you describe Deep Sea Arcade’s sound and live shows?
I’ve been thinking a lot about how you can play in a band for years and never hear yourself live the way an audience will. You can watch footage but even then it’s not the same thing. So essentially I have no idea what we sound like, but I know it feels nice when we do it! If you come to a show please let me know what it was like…
We love how your new single Learning To Fly adds a slight electronic twist to your signature sound. What was the inspiration behind the track?
That song came about from writing music for a film, fortunately they thought it was too ‘weird’ which meant we could use the song for the band! The inspiration came from the score of ‘Contempt’ by Jean Luc Goddard in coming up with that string part. The idea was always to meld that with a very insistent soul-type of rhythm section which is something that’s consistent with a lot of the stuff on this upcoming record.
Lastly, what are three things people should know about your upcoming single launch shows?
- We’re going to play lots of new stuff and some old stuff for when you get sick of the new stuff.
- Pyrotechnics-wise we’re going to be stepping things up as well…breaching a lot of fire codes!
- Something crazy always happens when Geoff’s around!
Deep Sea Arcade ‘The Learning To Fly Tour’ Dates
FRI 2 DEC
Woolly Mammoth, Brisbane
THURS 8 DEC
Oxford Art Factory, Sydney
SAT 10 DEC
Howler, Melbourne
FRI 16 DEC
Jive, Adelaide
SAT 17 DEC
Jack Rabbit Slims, Perth
Get Tickets HERE