Deify is a rock band based in Seattle, WA comprised of two brothers, Duncan (vocals/guitar) and Jared (drums/percussion) Byargeon. Inspired by AC/DC, Deify delivers a fresh take on rock n roll with a Seattle flare that’s sure to keep you dancing. In the years to come, the band’s live performances have been the driving force behind their success. Playing for some of the most renowned bars and clubs in Seattle, drawing comparisons to Velvet Revolver, Queens of the Stone Age, and Red Hot Chili Peppers. Operating out of their parents’ basement, the band has spent the past decade performing around the greater Pacific Northwest. The band spent the better half of 2018 in the studio to bring their most popular songs to life.
Let rock! This track, which is track 5 on their EP So Far Away - by the way, is a classic rocker! We love everything about this one. The drums banging in heavy, the electric guitars raspy blare, Then you hear those vocals WHOA! Can we say jam session. You can tell they know what they are doing and are seasoned artists in the rock game. And the fact that they both bring something unique being from the same bloodline. They stand out together and individually which is tough with smaller bands. These brothers are the real deal and such a cool cleancut rock band.
Listen to "Missed My Shot" here, and learn more about Deify in our interview below!
Hey Deify. Care to tell our readers a little about yourselves?
Duncan - We grew up on classic rock and a wild mix of other stuff – from Pointer Sisters and ABBA to Tom Petty and Lyle Lovett. My mom put us in piano lessons at an early age, but it was our piano teacher Ken Roberts – and later my guitar teacher Mark Oslund – that really established how fun music could be. Ever since I started performing at piano recitals, I knew I wanted to write songs and perform. My folks got me a guitar when I was 12 and I haven’t looked back. Once guitar lessons started, I dived head first into old school rock n roll and hard rock (AC/DC, Led Zeppelin, Guns n Roses, etc.).
We’ve been a band for a decade now, which is insane to think about. When we first started this band, it was actually all three Byargeon brothers. We wrangled our brilliant, introverted middle-brother to play bass for us. That lasted about six or seven years before he pursued computer science. He’s doing quite well for himself.
Jared - I’m the younger, better looking, and more dapper brother of the band. He knows I’m joking when I say that (even though I’m not). Although, I am jealous that he has such a nice beard. It’s like it’s dipped in finesse or something.
Anyways, when it comes to my relationship with music, I have been drumming for as long as I can remember. I know I started when I was about 3 years old. My mom bought my dad an electric drum set for Christmas, but he barely touched it and I cautiously started tampering on it. Duncan already had a guitar (which he still uses today) and we began jamming in our family’s upstairs bonus room. That soon blossomed into writing our own songs and evolved into what we are today. There was a time where we had piano lessons once a week, but I bailed on that around 6th grade. I can still read music though! I played in my high school jazz band. While jazz is fun to play, it wasn’t where my heart was. My heart was with Deify by that point.
What would you say defines you as a band?
Duncan - I think there are a few things. Number one – the sibling connection. There’s truly something different when we jam together that I haven’t been able to find with any of the other amazing musicians I’ve worked with. We can truly create on the fly and rock out an entire song once we truly get into it.
Number two – it’s that we love a lot of the same artists and were raised on the same music growing up, but have since branched out into very different styles. I think it’s fair to say I’ve explored a lot more rock and blues music, where Jared listens to a lot of R&B and Top-40. He’s also the biggest fan of The Weeknd out of anyone I know.
Jared - That’s tough. I have a hard time answering what specific genre we are because we pull from so many. When it comes down to it, I’d say brotherhood. Like Duncan said, we used to be brotherly-trio. That tightness and emotional connection has remained – if not grown – ever since we started. We’re really close as a group – within our music and our personal relationships. This can be tough though, as even the slightest mistakes we make during jam sessions get to us because we’ve become so good at what we do – we want to make everything picture perfect.
On a separate note, I feel our musical preferences are intertwined like a double-helix. We do branch out into some other genres, yet we come back together and love to jam to a lot of the same bands in the car. This includes AC/DC, Tom Petty, Green Day, Greta Van Fleet, Guns N’ Roses, and many more.
Like I said, we definitely have some of our own preferences. Duncan explores a lot of blues-rock, while I will listen to R&B. I’m a huge fan of the deep subgenre labelled “Storm Ambiance R&B” with artists with a darker vibe like The Weeknd. It’s like angelic voices delivering lyrics from hell. I think our eclectic taste in music, and acceptance of the others’ preferences, gives us the advantage when writing together.
Duncan - I’d literally never heard of that genre until this interview.
Could you tell us a little more about your single “Missed My Shot”?
Duncan - It’s a long story, but I’ll try to be brief. At the end of my senior year, my best friend had one of her best friends visiting the University of Oregon. We hit it off that weekend and I knew there was something special about her. It seemed silly to try and make anything of it, as we lived in different states and she was about to travel Europe for a month. After she left for the weekend we stayed in touch. Post-graduation, I went on a road trip from Seattle to San Francisco to hang out with my friends in Portland, Eugene, Sacramento, and SF.
The two of us hung out while I was staying with my friend Emily in San Francisco. After hanging out all day, I got back to Em’s house and couldn’t stop thinking about her. Lying in bed, I literally wrote out all the lyrics in my Notes app and air guitared the chord progression. I stayed up all night writing the song. When I got back to Seattle I showed Jared and we jammed on it for a bit. It’s been one of our most popular live songs ever since. Now, three years later, it’s finally out to the public!
Oh! And the gal that swept me off my feet now lives in Seattle and we’ve been dating nearly three-and-a-half years!
Jared - Duncan would be of better help answering this since he wrote the lyrics, but to me this song has different meanings on how you look at it. It can have a bit of a comedic twist woven within it depending on how you view the main character in the story. If the main character views this missed opportunity as a short-term relationship, it’s quite comical. On the other hand, if it truly resonates with you it can be too real and quite sad because instead of being a romance, it’s about the girl or guy who missed their shot of being with someone who was really good for them.
I can’t relate to the sad version because I took my shot and I’ve been with the same girl since my senior year of high school.
Break the song down for us, who contributed what to the song? Do you usually write together or separately?
Duncan - I wrote all the lyrics, melody, and guitar work. The intro is interesting, as we accidentally threw a 9-bar measure into the intro during pre-production – which made it difficult to execute in the studio. The guitar parts flew together when I was trying to create the chord progression for the lyrics/melody.
Most songs begin with me and an acoustic guitar. I write a majority of the guitars, lyrics, and melody and bring them to Jared to arrange. Other times, I have a cool riff and we’ll just jam on it and see where the song takes us. In these cases, I take the structure and progressions we’ve laid out and write lyrics/melody to them, before bringing them back to Jared. It’s a fairly iterative process.
Jared has an amazing sense of rhythm and is able to spice up ANYTHING I bring to him. It’s truly uncanny. Even if I’m on the fence about something, I’ll see what he adds in. 9 times out of 10 he’ll do something that breathes new life into the song and inspires changes in music/melody.
Jared - For this song Duncan did most of the writing. He came to me with the melody, partial riffs, and the lyrics. Once he has the bare bones and structure, I’ll start adding the spice. Duncan doesn’t give himself enough credit. I’ve worked with some people on music at school and it’s painful. Not only do we not click but writing just doesn’t come naturally to them, which makes it hard to collaborate.
Songwriting isn’t for everyone and you have to start somehow. I even look back at some of our early works and say, “holy shit that’s awful,” but that is only because of the progress we’ve made since then – especially when it came to evolving our sound in the studio. Luckily Duncan is fantastic at not only writing, but singing and guitar playing. He’s got the whole package which is rarer than a Statavarius.
Typically, the first quarter of a song’s production is done separately. After that we will jam out to the riff and create verses, choruses, etc. If not in that order, a song will be completely molded from something we jam out of scratch together later to be composed separately.
Who are a few of your musical influences who have helped shaped your band to where you are today in the music industry?
Duncan - Geez this is so tough. Early on – about 10 years ago – it was Green Day, Avenged Sevenfold, Alice in Chains, and darker/angsty rock. Now, I’m much more into blues and blues rock. ZZ Ward has been my favorite artist for years now – though that may not come through in our band material. It’s a lot of AC/DC, Guns n Roses, Led Zeppelin, and Slash feat. Myles Kennedy and the Conspirators. Tom Petty has been the biggest influence on me the entire time. I just love his story telling.
What surprised me – upon the release of the EP – was people saying they hear a lot of Queens of the Stone Age and Velvet Revolver. The former surprises me a bit, as it’s not a band I’ve listened to very much.
Jared - Tough question honestly. I wish I could just blurt out an answer. The first full song I ever learned on drums was “Welcome Home” by Coheed and Cambria, but I wouldn’t label them as an influence. For drumming, I’d put Green Day, Avenged Sevenfold (RIP to The Rev), Three Days Grace (for all them open-handed drummers out there), Bon Jovi (before he went country). For vocals, The Weeknd. He’s helped me be more comfortable singing in front of others.
Could you ever swap band positions? Why or why not?
Duncan - No way. Jared is the best drummer around. He’s been at it since he was three years old. I would love to play drums, but I can’t get my hands and my feet to work together outside of a standard 4/4 rock beat.
Jared - Could we? Yes. Would I want to? HELL NAH! I can’t play guitar to save my life. Let’s keep Duncan on that please.
What can we hope to see in 2019 for Deify?
Duncan - We have a ton of content coming, which I’m really excited about. We’re going to be releasing our debut full-length album later this year, and we’re in the process of booking a tour. It’s early stages, but it’ll likely be happening late summer.
Jared - I am amped to show you all what’s to come. We are releasing our first full-length and professionally recorded album later this year. Right now, other than our album release, we’re prepping for a tour this summer. No specifics yet, but hopefully mid to late summer. It’s pretty cool to say you’ve been on tour, so I’m hoping check that off my bucket list.
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