feat. Deep Sea Peach Tree
Introducing Deep Sea Peach Tree.
The New York based group made up of Kristof Denis, Andrew Dell Isola, and Zack Pockrose makes extremely comforting music. While their sound is clearly influenced by surf, garage, shoegaze, and jazz to name a few, it is totally singular and unique. Their music is very textured and layered, so much so that it’s easy to get wrapped up in the warm washes of reverbed guitar and slinky bass lines and miss out on some fantastic guitar licks and arpeggios.
Their 2017 debut album “Vaguely Navy” which, believe it or not, is NOT a clever reference to Miles Davis’ jazz touchstone “Kind of Blue”, sounds like the work of a band with a fully formed vision. Across the album’s 10 songs, the band transitions seamlessly from ethereal guitar interludes to uptempo jams, all helmed by Kritof’s introspective and melancholy vocals. The various singles and EPs that have followed all bring something new to the table, while continuing to stay deep in the pocket. The Busker team had the opportunity to speak with Kristof to learn more about the band and what’s in store for them this year.
Q: How did Deep Sea Peach Tree come to be?
When I was around 10 years old I got really into playing guitar and always wanted to be in a band one day. I always figured I would just be a guitar player ‘cause I was way too shy to sing or be the center of attention at that point. I continued to play but over the years I started to get really into surfing and entering contests (yes, in New York) and that took over for a while as what I thought I wanted to do with my life. It wasn’t until I moved to a new high school and my new friends invited me to be in their band “We Ride Bikes”. I wrote a handful of songs and even sang on a couple with them but my role was as a second guitarist. I found myself craving more control over certain songs and ideas which there wasn’t always room or time for given my friend Jeff wrote a majority of the music and led the band. My friend Adam and I (who played bass in We Ride Bikes) decided to start our own project near the end of high school called “Disco Cream”. He played the drums and I wrote the songs, played guitar through a bass amp and sang. I decided I would have to get comfortable singing if I wanted to properly represent my own songs. We went to college together and eventually picked up a third member John who played bass, as well as changed our name to Deep Sea Peach Tree, originally a song title on the first Disco Cream EP. The lineup has changed a few times over the years, but I’ve remained the primary songwriter, gaining help from new members like my friend Andrew who’s become a central part of the band.
Q: Who are your biggest musical influences?
The original idea I had for songwriting and influences was to rip off jazz standards and artists like Dave Brubeck and Wes Montgomery and mix it in a blender with sounds of artists like Homeshake, Haruomi Hosono, Ty Segall, The Pixies, Porches, The Breeders, The Beach Boys and lots more. I’ve since expanded on that a bit but still love all those artists.
Q: What’s it like playing surf in New York? What’s the community like?
Although I love being a surfer who grew up in New York city and the specificity and obscureness that brings, sometimes it can honestly be challenging. While there is a surf scene in Rockaway Beach and even within the city itself, stats show that most of our listeners come out of southern California where we haven’t been able to play except for one show there in 2018. We do have some loyal fans in the New York who come out to shows and listen to our music, but it’s somewhat of a separate entity from the surf scene itself. There’s nothing wrong with that at all though. At the end of the day it’s music and it’s about how it sounds - people who like it, like it, and people who don’t, don’t regardless of their connection to surf culture or the surrounding geography.
Q: How important is your gear to your sound?
At the beginning gear was really important to me, and I tried to perfect every sound and pedal to make sure it captured exactly what I wanted but lately I’ve been more inclined to search for the beauty in the songwriting itself and stay away from overproducing or saturating everything in reverb. That being said, I love my Fender Mustang and my twin reverb amp which make it easy to not need to pour on FX.
Q: You have a lot of jazz influences in your music, are any of you trained jazz musicians?
Honestly not really any of us. I took jazz guitar lessons when I was younger and even classical guitar too, but I really just had the most fun learning jazz standards on my own and toying around with all the chords and rhythms I discovered from them.
Q: What’s the story behind the cover art for “Certain Thoughts”?
So the picture of the house burning is actually an old photo of Andrew’s childhood house in Boston where he grew up. It was taken long before he was born but it felt special somehow. We decided to go with it cause it could be interpreted many ways. “Burning the house down” “facing tragedy” “death or loss” and the whole idea behind the song is introspection on the universe and all the certain types of thoughts we have throughout life. The song will also will be on our upcoming album where all the singles will be black and white and specific to each song and the album cover will be colorful and universally vague in meaning.
Q: What’s next for y’all?
Next up, we have a song coming out June 17th, then our second full length album “Certain Thoughts”, July 8th. We’ve already released the first two singles, but it’s taken us way too long to get it all done with covid and other life interruptions. We hope to play some more on the west coast and east coast outside of New York as well. We already have some more music we’re excited to release after the album which will be a bit more of a return to our original sound.