Aussie hardcore/ hip hop outfit Deez Nuts have established themselves as a party band, but with the upcoming release of their fourth studio album, 'Word Is Bond', vocalist JJ Peters says they have taken a more mature approach to their music.
"It wasn't so much a conscious decision to put an end to the party band thing or anything like that because that was never a conscious decision to become a party band," he explains. "It was just more the fact that I write about what's going on in my life at the time, and I've been having pretty much a non-stop party for the better part of the last few years, so that was just what I wrote about.
"But I'm at a different point in my life now, I'm a father now and just entering a different part of my life. I've been going through a lot of heavy things recently so that's what I'm reflecting on and drawing from more for my lyrics so as a result the music's more aggressive and more heavy as well. So the music's just maturing, but also we're just growing up as people so obviously that's going to be reflected in the music if you're writing honest music."
For JJ, the biggest catalyst for the change in his life and hence his music was the birth of his daughter, a moment he says changed his life forever. "It's just the thing where as soon as you have that person in your life, everything you do from that point onwards, you're no longer thinking about yourself solely; everything you do is because you're doing it for them and you put them ahead of everything else, so obviously it's going to shift gears in your life completely, for the better."
Produced by Comeback Kid's Andrew Neufeld, 'Word Is Bond' sees Deez Nuts come into their own as a serious band, relying less on guest collaborators and focussed on making an album that shows the group can be about more than beers, blunts and the occasional nut joke.
"In the past, especially with our last album, the whole album was littered with guest spots and guest guitar solos and guest-whatever-we-could-get because we wanted to make it more like a rap album in the way we wanted to get a guest on nearly every track. But this time we wanted to pull it back and make it more an album about Deez Nuts and only really put in those guest spots where we felt it was really necessary and trimmed it back a little bit, but we were really happy with everyone we got on."
As a sign of the band's burgeoning maturity, 'Word Is Bond' also marks the first time Deez Nuts have finished writing, recording and producing an album on time, without the usual last minute rush to meet deadlines.
"For the first time I think ever in the history of recording music for this band everything was done," JJ says with a laugh, "not ahead of time, but it was done on time, so everything's been good to go for about a month now. Usually in the past we've always pushed it right up to the last minute to get evening delivered on time and to make production but this time around we were a little more prepared and got everything done as we should have."
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Due for release in Australia in April, Deez Nuts will premiere 'Word Is Bond' throughout an extensive European tour with Californian hardcore punks, Stick To Your Guns, who will also be launching their new album simultaneously. Chatting to JJ prior to the announcement of their national tour, he kept quiet about roaming the country with with fellow hard hitters Antagonist A.D, Relentless and Earth Caller in June.
"We've got the European tour with Stick To Your Guns, we're both launching albums in Europe on that tour, then following that we've got bunch of touring throughout the rest of the year and Australia is obviously on the cards, we just haven't quite announced that yet, but that'll be getting announced in the coming weeks and we'll hopefully be doing North America and we've already got more European festival shows and a bunch of other stuff coming, so we're pretty much planning to tour this album as extensively as we possibly can once it's released."
'Word Is Bond' is out 24 April.
Deez Nuts Tour Dates
Thurs 4 June – The Brightside (Brisbane)Fri 5 June – The Bald Faced Stag (Sydney)
Sat 6 June – Red Rattler (Sydney)
Sun 7 June – Magpies (Canberra)
Tues 9 June – HQ (Perth)
Wed 10 June – Amplifier Bar (Perth)
Thurs 11 June – Fowlers Live (Adelaide)
Fri 12 June – Arrows (Melbourne)
Sat 13 June – Corner Hotel (Melbourne)
