Jack, Eric and Gillespie make up Deism, a sludge metal band from Lancaster, Calif. With Jack on guitar and vocals, Eric on bass and Gillespie on drums, Deism has been creating music since June of 2021.
Eric and Jack have known each other since preschool. Jack started playing guitar during his freshman year of high school, about five years ago. Eric decided to pick up the bass about a year and a half ago, inspired by his brother who is a singer-songwriter, and from there they began their search for a drummer.
Jack asked his mother’s friend — a member of the band Sloppy Titty Freaks — if he knew any drummers. He ended up getting in contact with Gillespie, who has been drumming for five years, and Deism was born.
Since then, Deism has been writing music, recording songs, and playing shows. They are currently in the process of recording their debut album, writing new songs and continuing to expand their sound.
“By far our best songs are when we all happen to be on the same page,” Jack said. “We write a lot of songs where one of us, mostly me, just kind of pushes an idea. I’m like, ‘Guys, please,” and ya know, it just doesn’t really click. Then sometimes, we just push something forward and the rest of us just add the pieces to make it whole. That’s when it works best.”
Jack writes most of the lyrics for the band — although he says he doesn’t.
“I keep saying I don’t really write lyrics, because like, I just go on stage and just say some shit, and like half the time it’s consistent with what I’ve said in the song before,” Jack said. “But I’ve been getting better about writing lyrics, I’m trying to hone in on what we want to talk about. Like, shit that actually matters. It’s hard to write about shit that I care about.”
Jack’s metal vocals are primarily self-taught. He learned to scream from singing along to musicians like Phil Anselmo from Pantera and Chris Cornell from Soundgarden.
Shane, a member of the local band Sunwick, also gave Jack a lot of tips for vocals that he utilizes when on stage.
“A lot of metal bands right now are doing very technical, precise screams, and I like those, but I want to push it until I break a little more and make it a little more visceral,” said Jack. “Maybe I’ll hurt myself a little bit, but that’s kind of part of the show.”
Deism has been working tirelessly on their debut album, with Jack doing all of the recording and engineering himself.
“The whole journey right now is, I wanted to be our own sound engineer because I don’t like working with other people,” said Jack. “I wanted to control as much of the creative things as possible so that we can go through it and decide, ‘What do we like? What do we not like? Do we wanna add anything? Blah blah blah.’ I’ve gone through a lot of extra effort to teach myself how to be a studio engineer, so we’re working on making the album as authentic to us as possible.”
The album is taking a bit to be released due to all the extra work the band is putting in. However, Deism does have a motivation tool to ensure the album is completed as soon as possible.
“We have this bag of Cheetos, and it expires April 19, which is nine days from now,” Eric said. “Our plan is, when the album is finally finished, we’re gonna get together and we’re gonna eat this entire bag of Cheetos. So, the longer we take, the more expired it’s gonna be. It’s a motivator.”
Deism plays shows mainly in the Lancaster area. There are about three venues in the area that the band frequents, including The Britisher, Transplants Brewing Company and Cold Crush.
“Performing live is just a different experience,” said Eric. “There’s this immediate feedback that you get when there’s people there and you’re just like, ‘Oh, they like the music!’ Even if they don’t like the music, when you play alone, it’s not the same. It’s just cool having that kind of experience and putting yourself out there.”
Gillespie added, “I like the crowd energy, but I also really like sharing music with other people. I feel like I take a lot of the elements from the music that I like and I incorporate it into our music, so it’s like I’m getting to make people listen to the music that I like.”
Deism has a few shows coming in the near future, including a show on May 21 at The Britisher in Lancaster, and on April 30 at Impulse Music Co. in Santa Clarita. According to Deism, the band has played a few shows in the Santa Clarita Valley area before and have had great experiences.
“The energy that Santa Clarita brought was fucking crazy,” Jack said. “A bunch of fuckin pent up rage just all coming out.”
The next show at Impulse Music Co. will be “Rottenfest,” a metal/hardcore mini festival featuring Deism, Sunwick, I Sleep Naked and Sawza — bands mainly from the Antelope Valley area. Tickets will be available for purchase online or at the door.
In the future, Deism hopes to expand their reach throughout Los Angeles County through shows and new music. The band plans to release demo versions of new songs on their Soundcloud leading up to the debut album’s completion.
You can stay up to date with shows, releases, and more on Deism’s Instagram. You can listen to their first single, “It’s All Your Fault,” on Spotify or Apple Music.
Watch the full interview here!