Q&A: Deer Tick on its Current Album Tour for Emotional Contracts
The Providence-based band is on a tour across the United States that will finish with two late-November homecoming shows at the Columbus Theatre.
Deer Tick band members Ian O’Neil, John McCauley, Christopher Ryan and Dennis Ryan. Photo by CJ Harvey.
Deer Tick is back on a fall tour. The band’s final two shows – their homecoming – will be at the Columbus Theatre over Thanksgiving weekend, Nov. 24 and 25 at 8 p.m. We sat down with two members of the band, John McCauley and Ian O’Neil, at Durk’s Bar-B-Q in Providence to chat about the new album and tour. deertickmusic.com
Jamie: What is the meaning behind the name of the album Emotional Contracts?
John: Originally, the title came to us as a joke. We were imagining a scenario where we could pick a different band name. The Hit Men would be funny if we all dressed up like Prohibition-era gangsters with tommy guns, and suits and all that. That’s when we came up with Contracts, like contract killing. Even though that name was originally a joke, when it came time to actually name the record, that joke of a name seemed appropriate. There was a little bit of truth to it that could be applied to what we just recorded.
Ian: It stuck with us. We had a bunch of different working titles. That one made sense with the songs and material and it just kept sticking around.
I was thinking about it from a serious standpoint, and the emotions that come into play with the songs.
John: Like most things with Deer Tick, it starts as a joke that’s deadly serious.
Was there a specific inspiration behind this album?
John: I think it’s this period in our lives. We’re all within four years of each other. Dennis is the youngest, Ian is next, I’m a year older than Ian, and Chris is a year older than me.
Ian: We’re all in striking distance of middle age and we’re all forming families. We’re forming our permanent relationships that we’ll hopefully have for the rest of our lives. Not to be boring, but the aging process and extricating yourself from your youthful, reckless self into someone more stable.
I like how you promo things. When you released the album, you actually posted a video of John releasing it by throwing it into the ocean [laughs].
Ian: At the Ocean Mist too! We participate in social media, just because that’s where people are living, and we have to meet people where they are. John likes to have fun with it.
John: My approach to making content for social media is basically to embarrass myself one way or another, or make an ass of myself. I’m not doing it unless someone is going to pepper spray me. If we’re going to up the ante, we need a stun gun [or taser] for the next one.
Deer Tick band members John McCauley, Christopher Ryan and Ian O’Neil jam out at an Ocean Mist show. Photo by Chris Mongeau.
You started this album during the pandemic. John had just moved to Providence, and you were all finally back in the same city.
John: We actually started writing and demoing all these songs in late winter or spring 2020, and then all of a sudden, the world stopped. We had a little studio in Nashville, in my backyard. Our show in Austin got canceled and we didn’t know what to do. At that point, if felt like, in two weeks, when this blows over…. And then all our lives started shifting. I moved to upstate New York. Chris was living in Nashville. We were separated for that first year of the pandemic. We decided to put the project on hold. I didn’t want to make a remotely recorded album. Then we started back up again after I moved back to Providence.
You released one song, “If she could see me now,” and that was good.
Ian: That was from live at Fort Adams.
John: We were like we should do at least a little something for this live record.
I know you practiced in Providence together, but was it recorded here or elsewhere?
Ian: We recorded with Dave Fridmann. He’s a great producer with the Flaming Lips and Spoon. We went to Cassadaga, New York, to record at Tarbox Road Studios. He was a big part of the record.
Photo by Chris Mongeau.
How long did it take to record it?
John: We tracked for about two weeks, and then mixed for two weeks. Two weeks recording, two weeks of mixing. It got delayed and we had to reschedule things. We went to the Bahamas to play a private show, and Dennis is the safest out of all of us. He didn’t take his mask off once at the airport, and he got Covid. The day before we were supposed to leave to go to Western New York, Dennis texted a picture to everyone of his positive test. That pushed everything back.
Once we got it in the can, it was another nine or ten months. We finished mixing last September. It was released in June. All those months in between, having to wait again. We just had to wait. I’ve done this before and I know you don’t just get to put it out. I was surprised by my emotional reaction.
You had an Emotional Contract and it was delayed [laughs]. There’s a lot more of the band sharing vocals on this album and a lot more guests on it too. Is there more collaboration than usual?
Ian: There was more collaboration with the songwriting. John had the idea on the song “Forgiving Ties” to mix our vocals into one song. We called in a lot of favors for friends to sing on the record. Courtney Marie Andrews, Vanessa Carlton, Kam Franklin (from The Suffers in Houston), Angela Miller, Sheree Smith and Steve Poltz.
John: Other guest musicians I think are worth mentioning: our friend, Skye Steele. He did some great string arrangements with a few players from New York. Steve Berlin from Los Lobos plays saxophone. Robby Crowell plays a little saxophone too. Dave Fridmann and his son, Jon. Dave programmed some synth strings and Jon played a bunch of wind instruments. Other than that, all the guitars and keyboards are played by Deer Tick members. “The Real Thing” is credited to all four of us.
Ian: That one came together with the four of us in the band together. That was a new approach and it took the weight off.
Photo by Chris Mongeau.
That track, I was trying to decipher the meaning of it. Obviously, there is some hint of depression, and coming out of it. Can you personally speak about that?
John: It’s something I’ve dealt with since adolescence. I had some kind of breaking point. I was kind of quiet about it. A few years ago, I was in a really bad way. It’s never been in the press before. Without going into too much detail, I did end up going into a rehab facility. It was before COVID, so that’s how bad it was.
I feel like it’s also about coming into a new life with kids and marriage and getting through that period of putting the rock star life behind you somewhat…
Ian: I think that really informed the record, even “The Real Thing.” A couple more songs on the record I feel like are facing down that part of your life, like the breaking point.
What has it been to tour as a band again? You’ve been all of the country. It seems like you have been having a blast.
Ian: We had a pleasurable time opening for Jason Isbell in June. It was a cushy gig, and we just had to open. Truth be told, we haven’t really done a full scale headlining tour until this upcoming one in October. This is our national tour for that record.
And you end it in Providence at the Columbus Theatre. I noticed you usually end it big or start it in Rhode Island.
John: If the timing works out, it’s always fun to end here. You have the whole tour under your belt and you are greased up and playing really well. On the flip side sometimes we’ll start here but we’ll do the Ocean Mist. So if it’s a shit show, it’s appropriate.
Ian: It feels appropriate to do the shows around Thanksgiving because it feels like a family affair. Everyone’s family and friends are coming to the show.
Obviously, you all live near each other and that is a newer development. Well, in the past you lived close, but how has that changed how you work together?
John: We just get to play together with so much more frequency than we are used to.
Ian: It’s great. We get to work together. We have a lot of stuff we need to do, for example, if we want to record a cover to promote the tour, we can just jump in the studio and work on a project together. We moved our studio from Nashville to Warwick during the pandemic. It’s a professional studio in that it has a control room, a performance room. John had it built out to be a professional studio. We will constantly be acquiring gear until its up to the utmost standards but right now it works well for us.
Photo by Chris Mongeau.
I mean it is a feat, you’ve been around twenty years and you’re still together. For a band, that’s epic. How do you make it work in your relationship?
John: Everyone feels their value in this band and we try to make it a point that everyone’s voice is heard and opinions are welcomed. When I need to be a leader and make a tough decision, I will, but that’s really only because I started the band, not because I want to be the leader.
I know that you had so many tracks you could have put on this album and you had to whittle it down and make hard decisions. It does seem like everyone has an equal share in it and all your voices are heard.
Ian: Our mission has always been to make sure the best stuff ends up on the record. That doesn’t always mean we’ve been successful. We have made some very questionable decisions. In the past, more feelings would have been hurt than today, based on cutting someone’s song. But if someone feels really strongly about something, then we listen to them.
Was there one you felt really strongly about that you wanted to include?
Ian: Most of us came down to this being the record fairly quickly, just by making difficult decisions along the way. We were like we could put out a twelve-song record but the more we got down to it…
John: If we could fit the twelve songs we originally wanted onto one piece of vinyl without sacrificing sound quality, it probably would have been a twelve-song record. It ended up being ten. We didn’t want to do a multiple LP package. We felt like ten was a nice number.
Ian: We also looked at records like Bruce Springsteen’s Born in the USA. Those are ten songs that sound like the record. It makes for a strong album that doesn’t let up. That kind of record was the record I really wanted to make; one that didn’t stop or didn’t veer off voice.
What will your upcoming tour involve and where are you going?
Ian: We are fortunate to be able to travel in a bus so it’s an easy lifestyle. At this age, traveling in a van for six weeks would be pretty grueling. We got day rooms in a hotel to shower and do whatever you got to do. The bus just becomes a home for us and the crew. It’s a lovely experience when you get to coast throughout the United States. On the tour, we’re going to showcase this new album.
John: It’s going to be pretty lean and trim. It will just be the four of us. No frills. Pretty straightforward. We want to do our thing and do it as well as we possibly can. We’re going to have a special guest at the Columbus. It’s Tommy Stinson who will be the opener for both Columbus shows.
I imagine you get to try good food all over the country from your tour bus. But what do you think of the food here in Providence and at Durk’s?
John: I love the food at Durk’s. My first job, I was a busboy at Sticky Fingers on Douglas Avenue. I loved their food. I can’t remember if it was any good, but that was my introduction to barbecue. I could walk to work. I grew up two blocks away. Having a place in Providence where they do barbecue ribs really well [Durk’s] is awesome.
Ian: Providence is a gem of a city when it comes to the restaurant scene.
John: I really missed the food here, the whole time I was living in Nashville, which was twelve years. Every time I’d visit, I’d try to hit every single restaurant.
Is there anything else you would like people to know about your new album?
Ian: The album became what it became in the studio.
John: We just wanted to make a lean, mean rock and roll record, which forever reason, is not so common these days. I hope we succeeded and I hope people continue to be interested in it until whatever we do next.
