Deez Nuts"I'm entertaining my daughter right now, so don’t worry, I don’t have strange tastes,” clarifies JJ Peters. “When I’m not touring, I come to Germany to spend as much time with her as possible.” After kicking off their five-week European tour in nearby Zurich, Deez Nuts will then take soon-to-be-released fourth album Word Is Bond on an epic tour across Canada, the US, New Zealand and Asia, while squeezing in home soil Aussie dates in June.
It seems Word Is Bond was a far easier album for Deez Nuts to create. “Up until [third album] Bout It, I’d written and recorded everything myself,” Peters explains. “Everyone is comfortable in their positions now, so I think it resulted in a more well rounded album in general.” With bandmates Matt Rogers and Alex Salinger hailing from New York, the guys spent a month on Staten Island writing the album together. “We finished it off in Boston at the Brick HitHouse with our friends Shane Frisby and Andrew Neufeld from Comeback Kid. It was actually the first time we’ve worked with a producer.
“He’s our boy, he’s our friend, who also just happens to be one of our favourite writers and musicians. He’d put out ideas and we’d shoot them down if we didn’t like them. ‘Follow me down the rabbit hole,’ he’d say, and some of the things we tried resulted in some of the coolest songs on the album.”
When questions are asked about the provocative quote on Deez Nuts’ website, declaring, “We’re not a bunch of fuckin’ dudes who come from privilege. You can hear this, you can feel this,” Peters takes the chance to set the record straight. “It was taken out of context!” he laughs. “I was trying to say that it’s harder for people to resonate with your music when you’re just writing party songs. With Word Is Bond, we’ve opened up more as a band, and even though we’ve had a certain level of success, it can still be an uphill battle. I think people can feel that intensity through the direction the band is taking now.”
By the looks of the video clip for single, Face This On My Own, the boys are really channelling that intensity hard. Deez Nuts stalk some inner-Melbourne streets gang-style, swigging drinks, setting off flares and punching people up. “Just a quiet day in Brunswick East,” quips Peters. “The fun, theatrical element to the clip just highlights the song’s underlying vibe, which is no matter what I go through, I’ve got all my boys with me.”
Bromance aside, toddler squeals turn the conversation back to the challenge of being a hardcore rocker and a hands-on dad. “It’s difficult, but life has a funny way of working out. It’s hard at times when you’re away for long periods. But, I have to create the best life for my daughter the only way I know how: making music.”
