“Income inequality, basement spiders, and bad sushi” really creep them out.
Catching a DEEP CREEP show is like stumbling across the best Halloween party you didn’t know about. Everyone’s gone all-in on their costumes, the dance floor is full of weirdos shivering and shaking, and no matter how much you drink, your red Solo cup stays full to the brim. The band’s been around only about a year, but its show at Capitol Hill Block Party filled the Cha Cha Lounge and then some. Clearly, DEEP CREEP is the ghost everyone’s hunting for.
“We haven’t done many shows because we want it to be special when we do,” says guitarist Brian Yeager.
Deep Creep’s story began when Yeager and bassist Derek Fudesco met while working at Easy Street Records in Queen Anne. Soon drummer Jeff Alvarez started jamming with them. When vocalist Andrea Zollo hopped on board, the “skies seemed to part,” according to Alvarez.
Zollo adds the perfect amount of spunk to the group, spooking the crowd with her cat eyes, dark fringe, and growling vocals. “[Being in DEEP CREEP] is a lot like that [1985] movie Just One of the Guys starring Joyce Hyser,” says Zollo. “It’s awesome.”
She’s the leather-clad powerhouse at center stage, but she isn’t the sole focus, the band says. It’s clear this group has put their individual egos aside for the benefit of a holistic sound. “We do what’s best for the song, and we’re really very critical. Getting this record done took a year,” Yeager says.
This meticulousness paid off. The band’s self-titled album, released last week, gets under your skin. DEEP CREEP is gritty garage, twangy surf, and even post-punk at times, but it’s consistently driving, danceable, and wonderfully weird.
The band cites influences like DEVO and Talking Heads, contextualizing their love of energetic guitar and bass interplay beneath spoken vocals, as on the track, “Bees in the Basement.” Still, Yeager says they don’t strive to fit a category. “[Putting us in a genre] is one of those nasty things [that requires] you ask what does ‘punk’ mean to you? Is it D.O.A. or Black Flag or the Buzzcocks?” Yeager says. “We just want to make good music.”
For Deep Creep, good music is as much about the song as about the intention behind it. “Derek and I decided when we started the band that we wanted to put good stuff into the world . . . I spent all my teenage years playing serious music about dark shit, but as I got older I realized how much I loved making people smile and dance,” says Yeager.
So the band writes love songs. They usually start the process with Fudesco and Yeager sending recorded ideas back and forth on their smart phones. “We tell each other, ‘No gloves on this one— if it’s bad, it’s bad,’ ” Yeager says. “For us it starts with the music, not the feelings.”
Feelings come in when Zollo and Fudesco, who are romantic partners, add lyrics. “Some of my favorite stuff we do is songs they’ve collaborated on . . . Their solo stuff is great, but what they do together is always, like, ‘Yes,’ ” Yeager says.
The track “Move a Little” is a perfect example of the killer love songs they write together. Zollo sings “And in the kitchen, where we’re kissin’/Hot mouth, cold sweating/You’re not staying long and I don’t dance right/Great song, can we move a little?” while the band pulsates underneath. It’s a little quirky, a little sexy, and totally DEEP CREEP.
Though romantics, DEEP CREEP is also into all things shiver-inducing. Their social-media accounts alone are a walk through a haunted house: fangs, spiders, and jack-o’-lanterns surround show announcements and member bios. But according to Alvarez, it’s things like “income inequality, basement spiders, and bad sushi” that really creep them out.
Still, all that creepy can’t cover up how likable they are. As Alvarez says, “The best thing about DEEP CREEP is [this] record we’re really proud of and [the] love between the four of us.”
4:30 p.m. Sat., Sept. 5, #NeverTamed Stage.
music@seattleweekly.com
