Deep Sea Arcade

By John Bones on January 21, 2011 in Arts

Deep Sea Arcade sound like The Zombies throwing a beach party for Portishead. Their music is ‘Blue Velvet’ with ‘Clockwork Orange’ flashes.

Led by vocalist Nic McKenzie and bassist Nick Weaver, the band combine ‘60s beat and psychedelic rock with ‘90s ‘Madchester’ and trip-hop.  The pair, friends since high school in Sydney, penned dozens of songs and experimented with every sort of sound in their bedroom before finding their perfect counterparts in drummer Carlos Adura and guitarists Simon Relf and Tim Chamberlain.

On the surface they are many things, but it’s what lurks beneath that makes this band so exciting.

During the month The Beast caught up with Deep Sea Arcade’s Nick Weaver…

Deep Sea Arcade in a sentence is… A smoking cauldron of fizzy rock-broth.

First memory of music… When I was a toddler my parents took me to Hyde Park to see Tchaikovsky’s 1812 Overture. At the climax of the piece they fired a row of really loud cannons in time to the music. I remember being completely in awe.

First album you bought… The Top Gun soundtrack when I was seven.

Song that gives you goosebumps… Needle and the Damage Done by Neil Young.

Fave driving album/s… Harvest by Neil Young in the daytime and Endtroducing by DJ Shadow at night.

A Deep Sea Arcade highlight… Playing at Secret Garden Festival last year and having twenty crowd members crash the stage wearing animal costumes. Secret Garden is a great new festival by the way (www.secretgardenfestival.com.au).

If you could pick a supergroup its members would be… Levon Helm (The Band), John Bonham (Led Zeppelin), Horsemouth Wallace, Al Jackson Jr. (Booker T. & the M.G.’s), Buddy Miles (Band of Gypsys), John Densmore (The Doors), Dave Grohl (Nirvana, Foo Fighters) and Mitch Mitchell (The Jimi Hendrix Experience). I would call it ‘Drumsplosion’.

Sydney bands giving you the good tingles at the moment… Fishing (www.myspace.com/fishinggg).

Fave Sydney venue… Goodgod (55 Liverpool Street, Chinatown – www.goodgodgoodgod.com).

Band or genre that gives you an ice-cream headache… Snow Patrol.

If you bowed to corporate sponsorship it would be to advertise… Dog food.

Your dream bill for a night (Deep Sea Arcade included of course)… Maybe U2 supporting us. And they wouldn’t be allowed to go on our huge revolving octopus stage. They would have a much smaller one.

An unknown Deep Sea Arcade fact… We all have webbed penises.

What next for Deep Sea Arcade… All February we’ll be doing an east coast co-headline tour with New Zealand band Surf City. Lots of beach shows!

Deep Sea Arcade will be playing a free gig at the Beach Road Hotel on Wednesday, February 9. To find out more about Deep Sea Arcade visit www.myspace.com/deepseaarcade or www.facebook.com/deepseaarcade.