NY Rock Interview with Tom Barman
June 1999The Belgium alternative rock group dEUS originated as a bohemian cover band playing Violent Femmes and Velvet Underground classics in the early ’90s. Eventually, they began writing and recording their own crazed eclectic music, in the vein of some of their favorite artists such as Captain Beefheart, Tom Waits, and John Coltrane. Despite changes in personnel and various run-ins with their record label over the years, dEUS continues to land on its feet. Current line-up comprises founding member Tom Barman (vocals, guitar), Danny Mommens (bass), Julle De Borgher (drums), Klaas Janzoons (violin) and Craig Ward (guitar, vocals). Like his friend, Placebo frontman Brian Moloko, dEUS frontman Tom Barman is a graduate of drama and film school. It’s not surprising then that the band’s new album, The Ideal Crash, reminds one more of film noir than pop music. Given the band’s artistic flair for presentation, it’s also not surprising that they design their own artwork and direct their own videos.
NYROCK: You seem to be obsessed with painting a dark picture in your songs, smoke filled bars, obscure characters that have a morbid outlook...
TOM: It's one of my personality streaks, I guess, but what happened last year wasn't exactly bound to turn me into a happy-go-lucky guy...
NYROCK: I take it 1998 wasn't a very good year for you then?
TOM: 1998 was almost a nightmare. Everything – and I mean everything – that could go wrong went wrong. No matter if it was in music or in my private life. The album just didn't seem to go anywhere. It was really difficult. We kept changing and changing and just never seemed to be able to finish it. On top of it all, I was always busy falling for the wrong women. To claim that it wasn't a good year would be the understatement of the year.
NYROCK: Is that where the rather melancholic mood of The Ideal Crash comes from?
TOM: I wouldn't just call it melancholic or gloomy, I think The Ideal Crash has a lot of different moods. I prefer to see it as a trip that leads you through a multitude of moods. It seems to grab you and it doesn't just let you go, or slip away. I think that's the charm of it, and I can only hope that a lot of people might fall for that charm.
NYROCK: It certainly has a lot of charm, but it's not what I'd really call a commercial album...
TOM: Why not? I think it's easier... [more] accessible than our last album, and a lot of people agree with me. OK, some don't, but I think it depends on how you interpret it, on your personal taste. It depends what you're looking for in a pop album, what you think pop is. I don't think that an album is uncommercial and won't sell just because it's dark and has some rather gloomy elements in it.
NYROCK: A lot of people say you're avant-garde and compare you to the Velvet Underground...
TOM: Avant-garde? I'd never call us or our music avant-garde. No, definitely not. Maybe we're slightly extravagant, but I think we're well within the range that is pop. Yes, I think we're definitely to be seen in the context of pop.
NYROCK: It's rather strange; in Belgium, Holland and France you're very popular. A couple of years ago dEUS and Placebo sold out the Astoria theater in London, but somehow it seems to be difficult for your music to expand to other countries.
TOM: I know and it bothers me. Our concerts and tours are sold out, but somehow we don't seem to sell enough albums anywhere else. I don't think that's something we mess up; I think the record company messes up there. They're not very supportive abroad. We don't get enough promotion. I think it's their job to take care of the airplay, the marketing and the promotion. It can't be that we're popular in the Benelux countries and once we cross the border – zap – nothing happens.
NYROCK: You had a major line-up change too, and it's rumored that you were responsible for kicking a couple of people out of the band...
TOM: It's nothing I enjoyed. It's also nothing I wanted to do, but it had to be done. Some of our band members had daytime jobs and played in as much as seven other bands. We just didn't get any work done. You could never reach anybody. There wasn't a chance to rehearse. I tried to get along, but two years ago I just had enough.
NYROCK: For a while you were considered the "weirdoes" of the music scene and you seemed to enjoy it...
TOM: Yeah, but to be honest, when we started out all that weirdo theater was something for the press, especially the British press. You have no clue how shallow they can be. For example, if you like museums, you're labeled art-rock. If you read certain books, you're an intellectual. It's absolutely stupid.
NYROCK: Sometimes it even seemed to get you more attention than your music.
TOM: That's unfortunately true. The media concentrate on the weirdo part and completely overlooked the fact that we had some great tunes on our first two albums. Nobody ever gave a damn that we had a couple of great pop songs, or the fact that we always tried to write pop songs.
NYROCK: Speaking of songs, was it a clever move to use "Instant Street" as the first single release? A six-minute song doesn't seem to be the ideal choice, especially since you mentioned the problem of getting enough airplay earlier on.
TOM: God, isn't that shallow? To mock a song because of its length? I recently came across a survey that said that people today only listen to an album approximately 1.2 times before they buy a new one. You can't understand an album when you do that, especially not our album. You can't expect that an album works when you only listen to it once. You have to invest some time. You need time to see the different layers, the different shades. If you still don't like The Ideal Crash after you invested enough time, I don't have a problem with it, but as long as people are not willing to invest some time to listen to it – well, I simply can't accept that. We worked for more than eight months on that album. It's only fair that people give it a chance and listen to it.
NYROCK: I wasn't mocking "Instant Street" or The Ideal Crash. In fact, I rather like the album, but a couple of minutes ago you complained about the lack of airplay, and it's a fact that most radio stations won't play rather long songs.
TOM: But that's exactly the same as people who give new albums just a brief listening. Formatted radio, formatted ideas, formatted music, pre-cooked TV dinners, it's shallow. I've always seen artists as non-conformists. Otherwise, there wouldn't be any development in art.
NYROCK: You're also pretty famous for your video clips and movies. I heard you were doing one for a big German car manufacturer. When can we expect that?
TOM: Never! They're absolutely crazy. They promised me that I could do whatever I wanted, complete artistic freedom, that was why I agreed. I even showed the damned car three times, but when they saw it, they didn't want it. They didn't even want to cover the costs. I'm suing them now for breach of contract.
