Deaf Poets' new EP, 'Change & Bloom,' will be released June 15. (Image credit: Natalia Borges)
Today, Guitar World has gotten together with Deaf Poets to premiere a new music video, "Change & Bloom." It's the title track from their new EP, which will be released June 15 via WaxRomantix Records. You can check it out below.
Deaf Poets is a Brooklyn-via-Miami Beach duo featuring Sean Wouters (guitar, vocals) and Nico E.P. (drums, backing vocals). With their distortion-soaked guitars and hard-hitting drums, their sound incorporates Seventies classic rock, Eighties punk and Nineties grunge. When these guys perform live, they create a wall of sound so massive that it's hard to believe they're only a two-piece.
"We really wanted a big sound with tons of mids in the guitar," Wouters (lead vocals, guitar). "We tried to make it loud and ferocious so it feels live. We approached Change & Bloom the same way we did [2017's] Lost in Magic City but with more experience. For tone, I experimented with a bunch of pedals and amps. I used a '61 Fender Bassman through a 2x12 cab. For overdubs I used an old Fender Tweed Princeton; it still has the original 8-inch speaker, which is super-broken-in.
"I ran everything through a modded Echoplex I found in 2012, then through a few different dirt and fuzz pedals my buddy in Japan made. All the reverb is a combination of the Echoplex plus the cloud from the Strymon Big Sky. The green Sovtek muff is responsible for all the saturated sustain. For guitars I used a Gretsch Black Penguin with some custom-made pickups. For overdubs and leads I used a weird modded Gibson SG I’ve had forever."
"We shot the majority of the video on one cold and wet Sunday around New York City," adds Nicolas Espinosa (Nico E.P.). "The first scene of the video was also the first shoot of the day around Tribeca. As we walked to the alley to set up, I saw this weird package on the floor and immediately picked it up. What followed was a high-pitched scream of excitement as I realized I just found a dispensary bag from Nevada with roughly 3 grams of marijuana. We immediately knew it was going to be a great day due to such a good omen. It was right then and there that we had the idea of shooting a scene where Sean hands me over a joint with the bud we found. Big shout out to the person who dropped the bag and made our shoot and video more memorable."
Change & Bloom was recorded and produced by the band, mixed by Collin Dupuis (Black Keys, JEFF the Brotherhood, Cage the Elephant) and mastered by Jim Diamond (the White Stripes.)
Damian is Editor-in-Chief of Guitar World magazine. In past lives, he was GW’s managing editor and online managing editor. He's written liner notes for major-label releases, including Stevie Ray Vaughan's 'The Complete Epic Recordings Collection' (Sony Legacy) and has interviewed everyone from Yngwie Malmsteen to Kevin Bacon (with a few memorable Eric Clapton chats thrown into the mix). Damian, a former member of Brooklyn's The Gas House Gorillas, was the sole guitarist in Mister Neutron, a trio that toured the U.S. and released three albums. He now plays in two NYC-area bands.
