>> Deaf Poets are a garage rock band from Miami, FL. While that's not the musical norm where they're from, Sean Wouters (Lead Vocals/Guitar) and Nico Espinosa (Vocals/Percussion) never let that stop them from creating in their own way. Having just released their stunning album, titled Lost In Magic City, the dynamic duo is an act that needs to be on your radar. Read our interview with the duo below, and be sure to pick up a copy of the album if you haven't already.
How long have you guys been making music together?
Nico: In Sean's room while we were recording the album, I was sitting there thinking, we’ve been making music in this room for thirteen or fourteen years. We were thirteen when we started playing together in different projects. We finished the record there, we’re already writing the new one, and it feels like it’s just a circle. We’ve been going on and off with different bands for a while we know each other so well.
And I’m sure your writing styles have evolved together since you’ve been together so long.
Sean: Our influences consistently change. Nico loves Kendrick, I love My Morning Jacket. Our influences always vary but when it goes back to what we really love and our roots it’s always gonna be classic rock, Led Zeppelin, Nirvana, all those kinds of sounds and tones that’s what we’re trying to do.
Your song "Celestine" is really gripping. What were your favorite parts about shooting the video for the song?
Nico: We worked with two guys actually in New York called Dogs of Passion, two Russian dudes that came to the states to do music videos and they got in contact with us and they had this whole concept. We tweaked it a little and it was really fun, and it looks like it was big budget but it was one camera and a couple lights
Sean: It was very DIY, but it worked out perfectly, the special effects were cool too.
Tell us about your latest single, "King (Don't Matter)."
Sean: It’s one of the most recent songs we ended up writing when we were finishing up the album. We wrote them about a month and a half before we did the finalization of it so it was the last addition to the album. It's kind of like a nostalgic heavy rock and roll song, reminiscent of bands were into like Nirvana and so on.
How do those two songs represent the full project?
Nico: It’s actually a good representation of what the whole album is. There’s probably "Celestine" and one more song that’s slow, and everything else is kind of fast paced, just like "King (Don’t Matter)." We figured it’s good contrast - we release something slow and something fast so you can get an idea of what we do.
Do you guys have a favorite track off the record?
Sean: For me, "King (Don’t Matter)" for sure.
Nico: For me I have to say "Eighty Eight" is one of my favorite tracks. "Are You DP", the first song, is one of my favorite tracks too. I love playing it live more than anything.
Sean: The whole album has a very live feel and that’s what we’re trying to capture, a very massive big sound but also a live feel to it.
Did you make a point of maintain that live feeling while recording?
Sean: Simplicity was what we were trying to get with it. We felt like with our last album we had, not necessarily overproduced it, but we put a lot of pieces in it and with this one we wanted to represent what we do live exactly in the recording. So that was the main direction - to have a heavy rock and roll album that once we played it live, it sounds exactly like that.
Nico: We wanted to have the live feel to it and have imperfections, they were welcome. If we were off beat, it’s rock and roll it doesn’t matter! It’s not meant to be perfect and that’s what we really like about it.
Sean: We wanted to go back to our roots, how we started music. There was a point in our projects where we were looking to perfect certain things, it has to be this it has to be that, but when we first started music it was just playing some rock and roll. It’s the same thing at this point, with this album we wanted to do that exact kind of thing.
You guys have personal touches on the record, but I really like the personal touches you have with the merch for this tour, too.
For anyone who doesn’t know your band yet what would you want them to know about you?
You guys have personal touches on the record, but I really like the personal touches you have with the merch for this tour, too.
Sean: I think that’s essentially what it is, we really wanted to be completely behind every little piece of the band.
Nico: I guess we worked retail for so long that we already had an idea of how to market it. Everything that we do - the shirts and the crop tops and everything - we make everything ourselves. It has our own hand finish to it.
Sean: Easy thing is that we’re a rock band and deafpoets.net is our new website. Nico made it and it has everything - all of our social media pages, our new youtube page - everything that’s on it is exactly who we are.
Nico: We’re just two dudes who like playing music, two childhood friends doing what we love. Come to a show, have a beer with us! And we just want to thank anyone who helped us and our team behind the scenes.
- Interview by Kate Russell
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