Words by Art Jefferson
Photography by Katie Burdon, Mélia Beaudoin, Chino Moya and courtesy of deep tan

Whilst 2020 was a bleak and impacting year for many people around the globe, especially for musicians, there were bands who continued to push forward, recording incredible songs to release to the world. London’s deep tan are one of those groups whose tracks not only provide that desperately needed groove, but also cover a variety of topics touching on current sociological issues.

The trio comprised of singer/guitarist Wafah, bassist Celeste and drummer Lucy, made their debut with the hypnotic single ‘Air’ back in 2019. Building on a sound of atmospheric pop and lush indie, their follow-up track ‘Shimmer’ was just as gorgeous and pristine, further expanding sonically from their initial entry. However, by the next release the band decided to scale back and deliver raw and groove-pumping post-punk with their tune ‘Constant Inconsistencies’. Still preserving the entrancing element harking back to day one, their new sound allowed for the art of body moving all the while delivering content hardly covered in music, i.e. their record ‘deepfake’, which addresses issues surrounding consent and deepfake technology in pornography. And while their cut ‘camelot’ on the surface would seem to be a drinking anthem, the song delves much deeper covering the act of coping during rough times.

deep tan will release their debut EP creeping speedwells this coming June. Whilst everyone are in hopes of a better summer than the previous one, this record will surely be that bright light of a seemingly long distanced tunnel.

Can you talk about the origins of the band? How did you all meet and when did you decide to form a group?

Celeste – So Wafah and I were already friends and living together when Wafah was looking to put together a band. I already played bass so that was just a natural fit, and we met Lucy the drummer through mutual friends.

There has been a shift in sound from your earlier releases to now. Those initial records like ‘Air’ had an indie meets electronic pop feel, whereas the more recent work is a bit more stripped back and raw, which I love. What motivated you to lean more in a spacious, post-punk direction?

Celeste – So the first track the band released, ‘Air’, was a song that was built kind of as a result of studio sessions before the band was playing live. As the band came together and was playing live more, we found that the songs we enjoyed playing the most in a live setting were the ones that were darker and more driving. So it was just a natural progression that the more we wrote together, the more the sound had a post-punk, more angular sound as a result.

It’s interesting because ‘Shimmer, which plays in that earlier vein of sound, was released along with ‘Constant Inconsistencies’, which flaunts your current post-punk instrumentation. What made you decide to feature those two songs together as a double A-side?

Celeste – So initially ‘Shimmer’ was meant to be released just as a stand alone track. But then our record label asked if we had a B-side that we could include as a part of the release. So we decided that it would be a fun challenge to set up the task of working out what the other side of the coin of ‘Shimmer’ would be. So we wrote a new track from scratch and that was ‘constantly consistencies’. Our label ended up liking it so much that they turned the release into a double A-side, which was a nice surprise for us.

The topic of deepfake technology is quite a controversial one, especially considering how it has been used for manipulation. I love that you have touched on that topic in your song ‘deepfake’. You sing about the minds of creeps throughout the track. Can you talk about the inspiration behind the tune?

Celeste – ‘deepfake’ was inspired by an incident in which our friend Jessica Winter, who’s another musician whose work you should definitely check out. She found out that her face had been used in an internet porn deep fake video. At the time we were writing the song that was just an instrumental at that stage. The atmosphere of the song was quite dark and unsettling and it seemed to match the mood of the subject perfectly, so that was the inspiration behind ‘deep fake’.

With your latest record ‘camelot’, you delve into the idea of a group of people creating one last blast of a night before being evicted from their home. So many people have dealt with that very stress of being forced out of their housing. Can you shed some insight behind writing this track?

Celeste – ‘camelot’ is mainly a drinking song but given that it was written and recorded in 2020, and the fact that 2020 was a year that had so many housing crisis happen for so many people, it just felt like it made sense to work an element of that into the mix. And what do we do when we have a stressful situation for a lot of us? We drink.

Your debut EP creeping speedwells is landing this June. Can you talk a bit about the title of the EP? Also, aside from post-punk, I’ve read that musically you’re delving into aspects of psych and even more experimental sonics. What was the creative process like when recording the EP?

Celeste – So creeping speedwells is named after a type of garden weed. Weeds which after the year 2020, we have a new found respect for in terms of their resilience – being able to thrive in harsh conditions. So that’s a little bit of background on the name. As far as aspects of psych and experiential are concerned, in the last year one of the silver linings about the world having become a lot more quiet is that we’ve had a lot more time than ever really to do so many deep dives on so many of our influences. We spent a lot of time listening through back catalogues of Can and Cluster and Neu!, and so many other sounds that have aspects of which have found themselves in the new tracks, which have been interesting.

Finally, I’ve asked a number of artists how they have coped over the past year in terms of the pandemic. How have all of you been maintaining during these times?

Wafah – Well last year 2020 we have been coping by writing a lot and writing is therapy so that helped quite a bit.

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