Often seen walking in Bolton Hill with his family and with an engaging smile, Dan Deacon is a notable composer and performer of electronic music. With five solo albums and nearly 30 credits for television and film scores, Dan also has collaborated with symphony orchestras and chamber groups, including the Baltimore Symphony and Kronos Quartet. Deacon recently composed the music for New York City Ballet’s Mystic Familiar, choreographed by Justin Peck.
Deacon graciously granted The Bulletin an interview, presented here with light edits.
How do you describe yourself? You are known as a composer, recording artist, and performer. You work in film and television scoring. You even performed the National Anthem at an Orioles game. It is quite a resume!
I’m a composer. I like writing music and performing it. I’m mostly interested in computer music. I make largely electronic music for my albums but work extensively as a composer in film and television, and, more recently, in ballet and concert music. Working in film and ballet gives me more opportunities to write music that wouldn’t fit into my catalog of albums.
What inspires you?
Texture. The texture of sounds and the combinations of sounds to make new sounds are core to my process. I think most of my work starts there.
In my performance practice, I’ve been pretty fixated on finding ways to explore making the performance centered on the audience.
How did you get into the music business, and what drew you to your current oeuvre?
In high school, I was the right kind of nerd to get into MIDI keyboard computer music, the alternative rock band They Might Be Giants, and Ska music. In college, I discovered composers like Xenakis and Stockhausen (pioneers in electronic music) while also getting into noise music and bands like Lightning Bolt. I got into minimalism and Fluxus, which I think had the longest-lasting impact on my compositional style and performance ideology.
I studied composition and production in college and graduate school at the Conservatory of Music at SUNY Purchase, NY. I moved to Baltimore in 2004 and lived in the Copy Cat Building. My friends who moved here with me and I hosted shows and parties at the Copy Cat Building and around town for several years.
I toured the DIY music scene for years before finding a larger audience in 2007, and it’s sort of oddly evolved since then.
You perform across the country and internationally. What is it like to be on the road?
It’s evolved a lot over the 20-plus years that I’ve been touring. I used to tour solo by Greyhound bus. Then I bought a school bus and converted it into a waste vegetable oil-fueled RV that I used for longer North American tours. I’m 44 now. I try to tour only one weekend a month, rather than 8 to 12-week tours. I’ve been lucky to have such great collaborators here in Baltimore that I get to travel with on these tours.
You and your family live in Bolton Hill. What drew you to the neighborhood? When did you move here?
We moved to Bolton Hill in 2018 from Mount Vernon. Being able to enjoy the trees and parks, while still being in the heart of the city, was a major reason for our move.
Aren’t you a partner in the Mount Royal Tavern? What drew you to that investment? It is such a cornerstone of the neighborhood, and I think you were part of the group that saved it.
I’ve loved the tavern since I moved to Baltimore in 2004. When I heard it was being sold, a small group of us pooled together to buy it and do our best to keep it unchanged, since we love it as it is. The last thing we wanted was for another long-lasting iconic location to close or be transformed into something soulless or watered down.
Terms in the mortgage required some infrastructure improvements to be made, but other than that, we’ve tried to honor the Tavern’s long-lasting vibe. Chloe and the rest of the staff are amazing. My co-owners/partners share the same love for the bar as I do.
Where can we see you perform next?
I’m playing at the Pier Six Pavilion on May 28 with Future Islands and Ed Schrader’s Music Beat. (He also has live dates scheduled over the coming weeks in New Orleans, Philadelphia, Saratoga Springs, NY, Brooklyn and Portland, ME. For more on his music, go to DanDeacon.com.)
–Sallye Perrin
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