The San Francisco metal band Deafheaven is known for its aggressive drum beats, 14-minute-long songs and intense, screaming vocals. So it's no surprise that it's a challenge to bring those songs to the stage.
The Frame recently talked with singer/screamer George Clarke during the band's Converse Rubber Tracks stop at The Echo about how the band keeps the energy up at a concert and how Clarke keeps from blowing out his voice.
Interview Highlights:
How do you keep from losing your voice on tour?:
I think with screaming and aggressive vocals in general, it's like any other type of singing. You have to train your voice. It takes work. When we first started, I'd blow out all the time. Like, our first tours, when we were really young, I'd have to spend days in the van not speaking. But you learn control and I can do ranges and things like that now, whereas before that was sort of difficult for me.
Do you get physically worn out from playing aggressive shows?:
When we're on stage, vocally I don't really get tired, but physically, yeah, absolutely. We play an hour, hour-plus now, and there's not a whole lot of breaks. We have these short interludes between songs, but I like our shows to be as physical as possible and that typically involves a lot of crowd interaction. They are forcing themselves against the stage and they are jumping on the stage and there's stage diving and there's people singing along and there's people reaching up. It's the only time you feel on top of the world. It's cool, and then when the show's done I completely deflate. I'm just, like, slumped over in a corner backstage trying to dry off.
What is the worst show you've ever played?:
A lot of the recent shows that we've played, at least in the last year, have just been phenomenal. But worst shows are also very strong in my memory. We played this festival which is really well-run and cool. It was called "Sound & Fury." It's entirely a hardcore festival. So we were the odd man out going in, but. wow, we played at like 3 p.m. on a Sunday and I was really nervous. So actually, to combat that, I got really drunk. So I'm hammered at 3 p.m. in front of a crowd of people who couldn't care less about us, who know I'm drunk and probably hate me for it. And we're playing and it doesn't sound good and it was, like, just ... I mean, blank stares that turned into a slow walk-away. Like the slow backpedal, and I could feel it. I was looking at my bandmates, like, We've got to get off the stage.
What's the best show you've played?:
On the opposite end of that, great shows ... I mean, we played the El Rey Theatre [in Los Angeles], which was a goal of mine and it sold out and I was more than excited. And there were so many good people and such a beautiful venue. It's either everything doesn't connect and it's total hell, but when it does ... there's no greater high. Again, a cliché, but it's really true.