There’s no question when it comes the originality and overall infectious aura of cool that springs from a band like Deerhoof. They’re the filet of the music menu. During October, the release month of their latest album “Offend Maggie,” Deerhoof played to a packed house at the Metro in Chicago. All four members—John Dieterich, Satomi Matsuzaki, Greg Saunier and Ed Rodriguez—continue to raise the bar of melodic creativity with new tracks like “The Tears of Music and Love” and “Fresh Born.”  Their concert made quite the impression in the Wrigleyville area of Chicago—a happy break from tired catalogue jukebox tracks that seem to ooze out of every bar in that area. Writer Nelson Carvajal sits down with Deerhoof and talks about their improvisational background, quest for continual creativity and those awful “indie” references.

Boosh Magazine: Jazz. That’s what pops into mind when I think of Deerhoof; Very improvisational. To keep up that spontaneity while performing on the road—is there something special you do to give your songs that wonderful sound of them being created on the spot?

Deerhoof: As far as concerts, everybody in the band improvises. What we mostly prepare for is finding out how to play the songs. Getting it so we really understand it so that it’s completely in our being, totally coded. A lot of times playing live, if things happen, like the snare drum breaks or a string breaks, you can use these opportunities to be creative. It’s always something I’ve loved about the band, the feeling that at any moment we can take it in a new direction.

Put it this way: we put a lot of effort into putting notes together. Finding the exact right timings and distances between notes to make something that makes all of our eyes light up. Once all four of us realize, “Yes, this is right!” that’s how we know. It’s right.

Not that there couldn’t be a million other “rights.” There are and we’re always discovering new ones, even on tour, as the songs are always changing. All of us are very meticulous. I’ll leave it that. (Laughs).

BM: Well Deerhoof’s first album was “The Man, The King, The Girl” and now their latest is “Offend Maggie” (which came out in early October)—would you say your sound has grown in any way?

DH: It’s definitely changed. Whether or not it’s grown—I guess I don’t know. I feel like ultimately with any sort of artistic expression is that it’s trying to take whatever tools you have available and express something from deep inside with whatever it is. There’s a surface difference—a great surface difference between the way “The Man, The King, The Girl” sounds like on the surface and with the way “Offend Maggie” sounds like. In terms of actual “content of ideas” and things like that, I think it’s different. But I think there are more similarities than differences.

BM: When listening to your songs back to back on my iPod I couldn’t tell you what songs were from what album. With other bands you could always tell: Oh that’s early whoever or new whoever. Not the case with Deerhoof. Those songs sound like they’re all in the same “room” together.

DH: It’s funny. I wonder about that term “growth.” I would say yes we’re growing as human beings or whatever and we’re changing but that isn’t to imply that it isn’t necessarily anymore relevant. You know I think it’s just so easy for people to disregard or write off the early stuff. It’s just a different expression from some of the same people [who were in Deerhoof].  Like you said: They (the songs) are all in a “room” together, having a conversation.

BM: And I’m not trying to say that you guys are predictable…

DH: No, I understand.  There’s been some writing on this album (“Offend Maggie”) and one of the undertones that I sensed is that people say that there’s something recognizable in the core of it that’s unmistakably “the band.”  And I think in a lot of contexts that remark would be a put down so I think that people making these comments are now trying to not make it a put down.  Which I think is interesting.  It’s just noticeable on this album.

BM: And you did music for the film “Dedication” starring Billy Crudup? How did that come about?

DH: Long before filming for “Dedication” had even begun we received an email from our publicist who said that this guy Justin Theroux (the director) was a big fan of Deerhoof. She was like, “Well do you guys want to get in touch with him?” And we were like “Sure! We’d love to.” We were all fans of the film “Mulholland Drive” (which Justin starred in) and in particular his performance—it was amazing. So then we arranged a meeting with him set for the next time we’d be in New York. We got together (with him) and immediately hit it off.  During one of our following meetings, he brought up that he had this idea for a movie and that he was also hoping to make it. Having never worked with any film director or filmmakers, for us it was so hazy and we were like, “Yeah, 

sure. It’ll happen. Someday…right.” That kind of thing. Then one day he (Theroux) called and said, “I have something to send you.” It was basically the first cut of the movie (“Dedication”). (Theroux) then said: “Do you have any ideas?”

Which, to us, was just amazing. We sent him like a million ideas; basically stuff we had around that we thought would be interesting in the movie. At the same time we were generating ideas and things we could write (for the movie). We went back and forth for a while and then eventually (Theroux) came out (to Oakland) and just stayed with us for a few days. Our building landlord had an empty apartment that he let (Theroux) stay in. Later, Theroux asked us to perform a bunch of music that the film’s music composer had put together. The idea was that our songs would integrate with the film’s existing musical score more. A very interesting experience, we had never done anything like that before. The closest thing we had done to that before was composing music to a Harry Smith movie (“Heaven and Earth Magic”), which we performed live with it at the San Francisco Film Festival.

BM: A friend of mine referred to Deerhoof as “indie darlings.”  Does that kind of categorization or label serve as a compliment to the band or does it make you guys say “Oh, crap”?

DH: The first time anyone used that on us, I think was when “Reveille” came out—and I believe it got a good review on Pitchfork or something—but basically with other reviews someone used the word “indie”—and I was really turned off. From where I was coming from musically, the word “indie” doesn’t mean anything or define a certain genre. I’m still not sure what it means. Coming from a background of improvised music, I didn’t listen to any of the bands we were all of sudden being compared to and the ones that I did know about, to be honest, I wasn’t interested in. I felt like we were sort of miscast. But at this point I have no feeling toward the term. It’s irrelevant.

Ultimately what people connect with, or don’t connect with, is the music. We’re lucky in the sense that we have fans that don’t expect anything specific from us. Other than being creative. You would think it would be an obvious assumption but that’s not the case always. A lot of times fans just want bands to churn out something pretty much like what they did before. So I think we’re lucky in that our fans expect us to grow and continue to change.

BM: So what’s in Deerhoof’s iPod?

DH: It’s probably like yours; a little bit of everything. One of the nice things about being on tour is that you get to play songs you like in between bands playing on stage. It’s like having people over your house and listening to your favorite music.

BM: In the future, what happens to Deerhoof? I mean do you turn into a big orchestra or something?

DH: It’s a good question. For me, it would be for everyone in the band to continue to be creative in whatever context. I feel that the band has had an incredible longevity already.

BM: Well you have a huge following. The word “persistent” comes to mind with your fans. They really seek you out.

DH: Well especially with this tour, people are coming out to our shows already incredibly happy. It’s a big group thing you know? I don’t know how to describe it. We’ve been playing some venues that really are just too big for us and it looks like we’re dwarfed by the room but the audience is just so amazing that (the venue size) just doesn’t matter. The fans are just so positive. And creative.

BM: So they’re in that “room” with you then.

DH: (smile) Yeah.

DEERHOOF WEBSITE: http://deerhoof.killrockstars.com/

DEERHOOF MYSPACE: http://www.myspace.com/deerhoof