dEUS - Belgian-style guitar rock

For it being the tail end of a German November, the cold air doesn't cut at our faces but rather gives us a break, almost caressing us. We're in Cologne, in front of the Live Music Hall, a simple, rectangular warehouse space, comfortable and roomy. It seems like the simplest thing in the world, we think, yet you could count venues like this in Italy on one hand. In a few hours, Deus will be performing here, proving they're still a solid war machine on stage, even though some of the aggression and stray-dog spirit have been lost both on the grooves of "Vantage Point" and on the brand new "Keep You Close".

We enter from the back, dodging burly stage technicians on break who shoot us puzzled looks. This is clearly their kingdom. And to their eyes, we're just intimidated passing guests who'll be gone within the hour. In the meantime we'll have interviewed Tom Barman, trying to "take the temperature" of the band's leader maximo - a man who, through ups and downs and frequent risks of splitting up, has been a leading protagonist of the alternative scene over the last twenty years. We're curious to understand why, right when dEUS seemed destined to become "his" own vehicle with worthy musicians simply following his lead, he instead took a step back, describing "Keep You Close" as the first dEUS album written in a truly collective way.

These and other curiosities, however, will remain just that. The tour manager, with the falsely apologetic but professional air of someone who's made this kind of announcement a thousand times, tells us that Tom simply can't make it. Yesterday was a rough day of travel, and now he's sleeping. We barely have time to cross out half the questions from our carefully prepared list when Stéphane Misseghers walks into the little room they've set us up in. Short hair, computer-nerd glasses, visibly thin, he's the polar opposite of the archetypal rock drummer. But he seems wide awake and clear-headed about the "new" dEUS.

In hindsight, tightness and intimacy seem to be the main traits of "Keep You Close". Is that the unexpected result of a process that started out feeling its way in the dark, or was it a specific goal that guided the recording sessions?

Stéphane Misseghers: What we had in mind was changing the environment, the mood of the songs. Because we all feel that "Vantage Point" sounded too cold compared to our intentions. Despite some good reactions, especially from Italy, pretty much everywhere else the reaction to how the album sounded was: "What is this?". For us it was a very dark record, and this time we wanted a lighter sound, more dynamic and less compressed. It took a lot of time - almost three years to write and record. And then another two months to master it, because we couldn't find the right solution. We tried working with Bob Ludwig, who's an authority in the field, but even though he liked it, he'd turned it into the record of an American college rock band. The exact opposite of the warmer sound we were aiming for.

Only nine tracks... and in some ways there seems to be a common thread running through them, almost as if it were a concept album.

We'd started out with the idea of a small, well-defined universe made up of a dozen songs. Then we ended up with thirty-five of them! We thought about a double album, with a poppier side and a more experimental one, but there wasn't enough time to work on it. At that point we recorded about twenty tracks, but cut it down to nine because we wanted an album that expressed one very specific mood, rather than just a sequence of songs. In that sense, I think "Keep You Close" is different from every other dEUS record.

Tom said that never before has he felt so close to the image of dEUS he'd had in mind for years. A statement of humility, since "Keep You Close" is a record conceived in a truly collective way, and it's no longer just him behind every single idea.What's changed?

When you're dealing with three new musicians, habits inevitably change. We've introduced a new sound within the dEUS universe. I, for instance, am a much more rhythmic drummer than my predecessor. The point is that a synergy has formed that's led to a new kind of approach. Before, Tom would start a song by torturing a guitar; now that's no longer the case. We're all very creative, we love playing together, and there's no friction or arguments. From what I know, in the past there certainly used to be.

What were you listening to during the recording sessions?

Not much. Precisely because back when we made "Vantage Point" our listening habits ended up influencing the work, this time we made a conscious decision not to fixate on anything! Maybe the only conscious influence was Max Roach And His Orchestra, in some parts of "Dark Sets In".

Two adjectives for Greg Dulli, who sings on that song.

Ah, Greg is a hugely fun person, and he's got one of the best rock voices of his generation. We're so happy to have had him on the record, in a completely unexpected way, too. We were about to mix "Dark Sets In" when Tom realized he wanted to add a more aggressive voice.

We'd had the idea for a while of having a guest on the record, but we hadn't found the right person to ask. Then Tom runs into Greg at a bar in Antwerp, after a Twilight Singers show. He says hi and asks him: "Why don't you come by the studio and sing something for us?" He replies: "Sure!" We all thought it was a joke, but the next day he actually showed up, and it was fantastic.

You have a very devoted audience in Italy, where you often come to play. Do you remember anything in particular?

Italy... is a beautiful place. I remember in particular one time in Rome, we played in a huge park (Villa Ada, ed.), we felt surrounded by a forest. And then near Bologna... Ferrara, right! We played in the square with the castle, at sunset, in front of loads of people. One of the most beautiful places in the universe for a concert!

Speaking of the live shows: how many songs do you prepare for a tour, and what criteria do you use to choose them, given how substantial your catalogue has become?

Well, dEUS are on their sixth album, and when you put together a live show you have to be careful to please everyone. We've got a pool of thirty-five, forty songs, from which we pull out twenty to twenty-three. Changing it up every night if possible, because we don't want to become one of those bands that plays the same set every time. That would get unsettling, like in that film... "Groundhog Day", where the main character relives the same day over and over with small differences. Lately we've had some trouble mixing the older material with the new stuff, because especially the songs from "Worst Case Scenario" have a totally different mood from what we're doing now.

The new songs are darker and more emotional, and Tom went so deep on a personal level in the lyrics that he almost struggles to sing the new songs back to back. It's almost like confessing himself every night in front of two thousand people. Well, tough luck for him, he should have seen that coming...

Time to say goodbye, take a few photos, and chat a bit about Italy with bassist Alan Gevaert too, and then it's time to go. This time we actually see the burly stage technicians at work. And a still-sleepy Tom Barman pops out from a door.

Hi Tom. Nice to meet you anyway.

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