DEERPEOPLE hail from the quaint streets of Stilllwater, OK, where they have been playing reckless keggers and barroom brew-ha-has since way back in late 2008. Stradling the gory, unkempt leopard-print line between cult heros and local pariahs. Down-home, grass-roots Okie-fried musicians who, like biscuits and gravy, are so unhealthy yet so, so good for what ails ye.
Functioning as part indie-band, part mini-tribe of misfits and hoodlums, the band is the embodiment of its own private mythology. An elaborate fabled universe dreamed up by the band members under mysterious and dubious circumstances (the details of which have since been lost to the ages), a fictional (?) realm inhabited by lovelorn space cadets who crashed to earth and began to explore the alien green planet, assigning bonehead names and meanings to the creatures which flourished in the streams and valleys.
This is the primordial soup that inspired singer and keyboard player Brennan Barnes' lyrical tapestries, and orchestrates the band's often Fellini-esque stage performances. Aesthetically located about 5 miles down the road from the Rocky Horror Picture Show and just a stone's throw from the Lawrence Welk variety hour. They are borne of boredom and BS.
In 2010, DEERPEOPLE hand-assembled 500 copies of its first self-titled EP on CD, all of which were gone with the wind in no time flat. The production was professional, swaths of Brennan's synth oscillations, Julian Shen's ethereal viola strains and miscellaneous electronic warblings, Jordan Bayhylle's bouncy conga and disco rhythms peppered by guitarist Alex Larrea's massive feedback solos and skillfully-placed micro-noodles, and the alternately jammy or urgently game-faced bass meandering's of Mr. Derek Moore. Hints of leather and musk, vanilla bean, pine, and golden raisin (sultana) light up the EP's scented candle.
In 2012, the "Explorgasm" EP was released on 10" vinyl. DEERPEOPLE collaborated with local artists The Drama Dept to put on a limited-run theatrical stage show to accompany the record release events in Tulsa and Oklahoma City, and to breathe physical life into the characters and themes of the DEERPEOPLE mythology, via a wild of menagerie costumed dancers, lighting and fine-art hoopla.
The Explorgasm events were one moment in time, but the "Explorgasm" EP itself is a calculated departure from the first record, a deepening of musical breadth, an opening-up of more loose ends and organic possibilities. More mature versatile song arrangements, more layers of multi-rhythmic sonic tapestries, and a more refined sense of vision. Tropical flavors somewhat akin to banana, pineapple, and mango can be tasted in this record, as can be notes of honey, sage, and cran-apple.
DEERPEOPLE has played many of the usual haunts in the eclectic Midwestern live music circuit. Dallas, KC, Denver. Austin, Washington, DC, St. Louis. Nebraska. Though DEERPEOPLE are special to Okies, and extra special to us Stillwater folks in particular, their fans can be littered throughout the various corners of the globe. Finland, Switzerland, Germany. Fans who are not Okies but somehow happened upon the DEERPEOPLE by other means, and who cannot let the band get out of their bewildered brain pan.