Cover Feature Deaf Havana: ‘In British Music There’s Quite A Strong Uprising’

According to many a broadsheet nowadays, rock music is on its way out. We, however, undoubtedly disagree, and with bands like You Me At Six, Young Guns, We Are The Ocean, Canterbury, Deaf Havana and Lower Than Atlantis creeping up radio playlists and the charts alike, we’re definitely not alone in that thought.

Obviously though, everyone has to start somewhere and in DIY Magazine’s latest cover feature, Sarah Jamieson gets to grips with the bands who are heading up rock’s assault on the mainstream. As promised, we also have full length interviews with each of the bands, and here, we chat to James Veck-Gilodi from Deaf Havana about British music and the support system created by bands.

A lot of UK rock bands have this great mentality of touring together and helping each other out. How important was that sort of support system when you guys were starting out?
It’s definitely been helpful. Bands have helped us out in the past; Young Guns especially. They’ve taken us out on tour and looked after us. It’s definitely important to be in that community. We were friends with Lower Than Atlantis and Young Guns, and we all sort of worked up together. I feel really proud of those two bands in particular because we all came from exactly the same place. We did our first two tours with those two bands, so that helped us out a lot because we had other people to relate to. We were all in the same boat.

What was it like to be touring in the earlier days of the band?
For me, I think it was all fun back then because there was absolutely no pressure. You would literally just go on tour; no one came to see us play but it was a lot of fun. Back then, we just took it for what it was. Now, we take it a bit more seriously and it’s a lot harder, you’ve got more people to please, so there’s more pressure. But, back then, it was just fun really.

Do you think it was those experiences that help you to become the band you are today?
I think so because the more you tour, the more you see what it’s like to actually be in a band. It isn’t as glamourous as people think it is. You do have to put a lot of hard work in to get to where they are. It definitely builds character, and it makes you appreciate things, the more you tour. Our whole new album is basically from experiences of touring as that old band. All of those shows that we did when no one turned up shaped us into this. It certainly gave me enough experience to write an album as honest as the one that we’ve just written. It definitely helped me to write the album.

One of the early shows that we remember you playing was when you appeared alongside Young Guns and The Casino Brawl. What was that like?
That was one of my fondest tours I think. We’d always been friends with Young Guns, so we knew that was going to be fun, but we didn’t know The Casino Brawl but we just got on with them immediately. It was basically just a laugh. It was so much fun. I miss that tour a lot!

Do you think it’s important to take your friends out on the road?
I think it makes it easier, certainly when you’re on tour. You can be away from home and I get pretty homesick and it’s horrible. When you’re surrounded by your friends though, it makes it that much easier.

And how does it feel to be apart of such a talented friendship circle? Does it help inspire you at all?
Yeah, definitely. For me, mainly, if my friends write a great song then I want to try and write a better one. I always feel like I’m competing with them, but in a good way obviously.

You recently supported You Me At Six on their UK tour last October. How important an experience was that for your band?
I think it was very important. I mean, that was a smaller tour for them, but for us, those were the biggest shows we’ve ever played. That was incredible and, as you said, there were people there who already knew who we were, but there was probably a lot of people who were watching us for the first time. That was great. I think to keep that British community together is really important.

Obviously, there are always tales of how tough touring can be, especially in the early days of the band. What was life like back then for you?
I think the hardest part for me. …In the early days, when Ryan was still in the band, I mean, it was hard in the sense that no one came to see us play but we didn’t really take it that seriously, so we would literally just fun. We took it for what it was. But for me, the hardest part was when Ryan left. I never really wanted to be a frontman and I just got shoved into this situation where I had to be a frontman live and that was really hard for me. But, I knew that if I stuck at it and saw it through, it would potentially benefit us more in the long run and it has.

Finally, the British rock music scene is at its strongest in recent years. What’s it like to be right in the middle of it all?
I’m quite proud to be part of it at the moment because there are so many great bands. For me, right now, the best band in the UK are probably Lower Than Atlantis and there’s just a lot of really good music out at the moment. That had gone away for a while because there was so much coming over from America and blah blah blah, but in British music, there’s quite a strong uprising. I’m just proud to be apart of that. Also, thanks to anyone that’s bought our album, downloaded it illegally or just taken the time out of their ay to appreciate it.