Deer park: An Interview
An interview with Deer park.
Madjestic Kasual’s A Mix and The Premieres series are considered by geniuses and culture heads to be the “best” music mix and song premiere series in the world. They are considered by morons and dunces to be the “worst”. This should speak volumes.
It’s time to do A Mix / The Premieres but for interviews. I ask relevant figures and cultural individuals to respond to questions. Some comply. Introducing An Interview: a text-centric series featuring only the best artistes in the world.
An Interview number 10 is with Deer park.
I’ve been wading through a sense of unreality lately. A perma-grogginess, thought bubbles that burble and pop before full formation, a waking dream-adjacent state where I can’t fly or pet the biggest dog in the world, but can forget words like “filibuster” and compulsively open and close apps I’ve come to resent. My eyes, famously alert, the windows to my famously effervescent cognition, have lost their famous gleam. They’ve taken on the glassy dipshit gaze of the slop fiend. I’m slack-jawed and attractive to horseflies. Dim. It feels like some essential part of me is slowly being siphoned off. It wasn’t always this way. I’m sure it was better than this.
I don’t want to live like this anymore. Which is why I look with much second-hand gratification to the output of New York City-dwelling music artist Deer park, whose birth certificate says Andy Santella. The guy has a work rate that damn near brings a tear to my ossified ducts. He’s a studio fiend and an axe-slanging demon. He’s a renaissance geeze and an Anglophile. He’s a self-identified Gooner (more on that later). He’s an individual whose steady development I’ve followed for a number of years, from functionally anonymous Soundcloud gem generator to an artist with a varied and impressive range of releases, productions and collabs to his name (Deer park).
He’s one of an extensive, cross-pollinated constellation of polyvalent artists who explore and blur and merge disparate musical territories with apparent ease. Similarly oriented folx like boysinblush aka Suzy Sheer, Cranes, i.v. and LUCY make guitar-based music that codes as ‘indie’ or ‘bedroom pop’ in the broadest sense, but seem just as comfortable producing for rappers or making club-geared, Dean Bluntian head nodders. They’re hardly the first-ever musicians to be multidimensional, but something about the ease with which these people wield and alchemise wild ranges of stylistic swag feels novel to me.
This flexibility was on full display at London’s George Tavern, circa 2024. My friends and I had booked Mista park to DJ. He’d never DJ’d. I gave him a frantic, diarrhoeal micro-tutorial minutes before doors, he looked on with nary a speck of soiling pon drawers. The eve wore on, his set approached, his set arrived. Within 10 minutes he was playing out seamlessly, throwing out heads-only dancehall and UK club joints he had no right to be Americanly abreast of. He did this not just competently but with gusto AND gumption. This is certainly not because DJing is easy. It’s because he’s good at music, is what I’m saying.
Don’t take my word for it. Listen to his album on NYC label/kissable lad dispenser Deleted. Listen to his music with Bug Bus Piano, Chanel Beads, Feardorian, Ivy Knight, jackzebra, RXK Nephew, Thomas Thatcher, Zukovstheworld, and most recently with Ecco2k, fakemink and Mechatok. Scope out his secondary Soundcloud, awash with slappers and bangers he has the audacity to downgrade to burner status. Before that, however, read the below. Wisen up. Treat yourself. It’s Deer park: An Interview.
Texture Magazine and Madjestic Kasual bring Deer park to London’s Ormside on August 2nd.
He’ll be joined by Deleted (Lilic, wish, forever fc), 10212, ANTHEM, Shauwdii, Millie Rose Dobree, Able Archer, and myself.
Tickets live soon here.
Deer park: An Interview:
What are you wearing?
Jeans, white tee and beat up margielas that are bursting from the seams cuz I have super wide feet. Drop your NYC cobbler recs in the comments
Cherished memory?
One of my first baseball games I ever went to was a White Sox game with my dad and uncle in summer 2009 when I was still living in Chicago, and Mark Buehrle threw a perfect game which was really special to see live. DeWayne Wise made a crazy catch in the 9th inning where he robbed a home run and then bobbled the ball and caught it with his bare hand. One of the greatest catches of all time and I saw it in person.
Unpleasant memory?
When I was in college and my cat Buganomy escaped our house and climbed a tree 100 feet in the air and we had to get him down by shaking the tree branch and catching him in a tarp
Did you ever decide to remember an arbitrary, mundane moment as a kid? And then you did? And now you do? Describe that moment.
100% yes when I was little I was with my mom driving past my friends house and I saw him playing basketball in his driveway with my other friend, and I remember getting really jealous that they didn’t invite me to play basketball and I remembered the exact brief “screenshot” of their game I saw as we drove by. For some reason that specific image stuck in my head vividly since then. Noah and Danny wherever u are you should’ve invited me
Speak to us of your frequent collaboratester Ivy Knight. How did this come to be?
Ivy is one of my closest homies. We met the summer before she transferred to Bard, where we both went to school. I think we bonded quickly because we are both only children
She’s always been very inspiring to me as a songwriter and she’s an incredible lyricist and wordsmith. I’ve never been very good at that side of making music but I think she has pushed me to get a lot better at it and I feel very lucky to have been able to work with her over the past few years and even luckier to hang out with her and drive around the Hudson Valley with her sometimes too.
Speak of your relationship to Deleted label. Speak freely, as if no one’s listening. Feel free to dish liberally and incriminatingly. Feel free even to lie.
Deleted took all my money and I am in tremendous debt to them. They own 400% of my masters, so I pay them every time my music is streamed. The more you listen to my music, the more money I owe them. Please stop listening to my music.
Most undeniable song by a cancelled artist?
‘Kinski Assassin’ by Ariel Pink was first thing that came to mind
On your first night in London circa 2024, your immediate priority was to seek out the Emirates Stadium. You’re a certified gooner, heehee. Speak to me of your love for Arsenal? How, as an American, did this come to be? Favourite heritage player? Favourite current player?
hahahahah still haven’t been to a match yet but hoping to this fall. Tbh I started playing the FIFA video games as a little kid before I started actually following the Prem. I think when I was like 11 or 12 I picked Arsenal as my favorite team in the games because I thought they had a cool logo and then learned all the players from there. I know a lot of Brits would call me a fake fan for that but i dont care I watch every match. My favorite player at that time was Aaron Ramsey. Was super pissed when they sold him to Juventus, he didn’t score a ton of goals but when he did they were always bangers
My favorite player now is Kai Havertz
You have a real affinity for Bri’ish dancehall. Biggest slow whine anthem?
‘Wine & Stop’ by Popcaan. I guess he’s Jamaican not British. It’s funny that he wears a Vancouver Canucks hat in the music video
Most underrated going rn?
This guy DJ Biros I see on my instagram reels all the time who DJs in a corner shop in London Please check him out I beg of you his instagram is @djbirosuk
Most overrated going rn?
Matcha 👎
Most appropriately rated going rn?
Viral Dubai Chocolate
You work at da XL studios. Describe your role? Who’ve you been in the studio with? Tips on studio etiquette as an engineer? Do’s, Don’ts?
I’m very very very lucky to work as a recording engineer for XL Recordings. Not sure how much I want to intersect the Deer park project with my professional career outside of it— but happy to give some advice. I think the most valuable trait in an engineer besides obviously knowing how to use all the gear is being able to read the room. Does the artist you’re working with want privacy or are they more down to receive feedback on the fly? Are they gonna get mad if you’re noodling on a guitar in the back while they’re trying to write a bass line? Do your research ahead of time, be alert and friendly and be able to pick up on social cues. Make people comfortable. Vibes and feng shui are important. Never delete anything. Light incense. Buy lamps. Avoid overhead lighting at all costs.
You have to wear one brand for the rest of your life. What?
Diesel
Craziest thang you’ve ever had in your mouth?
Pause. Um this isn’t that crazy but my friend Sabine made me try escargot for the first time the other day. I’m not super experienced in terms of my palate so that was pretty crazy. Didn’t like it at all. Apologies to my French brethren
Something people think is good that’s actually fucking shit?
Escargot
What is your relationship to Dean Blunt's music? It's clear from your music that he's a big influence. How did you first come across him, what are your favourite projects of his? How does listening to his stuff make you feel?
I actually found Hype Williams and his work with Inga Copeland first and that remains my favorite art of his. I think I was drawn to the vagueness of his sound— his lyrics are very simple and open to interpretation which to me allows the listener to attach their own meaning to it. It’s like the same mindset that the first abstract painters shared
Who’s playing you in your biopic?
I don’t really know any actors that look like me. Maybe like Joseph Gordon Levitt or something more off vibes than appearance
Whose biopic are you starring in?
Eminem
Goated deep-browsing Wikipedia page?
Screenshot of your IG For You page?
Closest thing to a guilty pleasure you have?
The album Camp by Childish Gambino
Assemble your dream music supergroup.
Hope Sandoval, James Ferraro, Zaytoven, Beethoven, Robert Pollard
Launched by NASA in 1977, both Voyager spacecraft carry a ‘golden record’ — a 12” gold-plated phonograph containing sounds and images selected to portray the diversity of life and culture on Earth. The record features images and a variety of natural sounds, such as thunder, birds, musical selections from different cultures and eras, and spoken greetings in 55 languages. I find this quite moving. What are you including on your golden record? 5 thangs or more.
I remember watching a Vsauce video about that. You forgot to mention that there’s two naked people on the golden record
The song “Coconut Grove” by The Lovin’ Spoonful
The song “A Horse With No Name” by America
An engraving of a smiley face
A recording of the sound of a wooden baseball bat freaking crushing a baseball into orbit
An Interview Segment: 5-10-15-20-25-30-35-40-45-50-55-60-65, etc.
Pitchfork The Music That Made You question format but it’s Madjestic Kasual. Songs/albums from every fifth year of your life that defined your life at that point. 5-10-15-20-25-30-35-40-45-50-55-60-65, etc.
5: Spongebob Squarepants Production Music - ‘What Shall We Do With The Drunken Sailor’
10: R.E.M. - ‘Shiny Happy People’
15: Childish Gambino - ‘Because the Internet’
20: Bladee - ‘Lovestory’
25 (Im 24 let it slide): Hype Williams - ‘The Throning’
Deer park: An Interview.
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