Interview Deez Nuts

Artiest: Deez Nuts

Geïnterviewden: zanger JJ Peters en gitarist Matt Rogers

Interview afgenomen op: Groezrock

Label: Century Media Records

Op het Meerhoutse festival stonden de mannen van Deez Nuts op de Impericon Stage, maar Festivalblog had de gelegenheid om twee uitzonderlijke mannen van de band te trotseren voor hun optreden met de hardcore band Terror, namelijk de zanger JJ Peters en de gitarist Matt Rogers.

Hi! Welcome to the interview with Festivalblog.

JJ: Hi, my name is JJ.

Matt: And I’m Matt. Nice to meet you!

Well, thank you. How was the show today for you?

JJ: The show was amazing!

Matt: Yes, incredible.

JJ: Very well organized and overwhelming. We’re doing quite some festivals and shows on this tour but today was a huge event that we could play. It was very good.

Okay, was the show from Groezrock that different from the other shows or festivals that you’ve played in Belgium?

Matt: The last time we’ve played Belgium, was Graspop. No, wait, that wasn’t the last time. But well the last time that we’ve played on a festival here. It was sick.

Well, besides that, can you tell me something about Deez Nuts? What’s the history about this band?

JJ: I’ve started with the band, it was like a joke. I wrote two songs with the last couple of bucks that I had at that time. I’ve recorded them. Somebody liked the sound of the songs and wrote to a record label and they wanted to put out an album. And then we all met along the way, we became friends and we’ve started the band. It’s been a serious thing like the last 4 or 5 years now. That’s basically where we are now.

What does Deez Nuts mean for you? Where do you find your inspiration for the lyrics?

JJ: The inspiration is just ‘having a good time’. The inspiration is that a lot of the bands in hardcore have ‘their message’ or whatever. Some have positive messages, others bad and another have religion as the highest factor, or something else. Some see their music for the things that need to be spread out there in the world. Music is really a good way to express that. But we just see the band as a way of having a good time with friends and family. We just want to party, we're trying to be a heavy party band. That’s more important for us than all the negative things in life.

Are there any bands that have some influences on your music?

Matt: Sure, tons of it. Madball, E-Town Concrete, H2O and a lot of hiphop.

Well, can you tell me something about the influences of hiphop in your music style?

JJ: Biggie is my favorite (d.i. Notorious B.I.G.). If you listen to our music you can see and hear how important hiphop is for us. I have a lot of rhymes and lines for rappers, that’s my way to play and sing my music. I take those lines and put them into my music so everybody can hear them. That’s the way that I show respect for the rappers and hiphoppers in the world. You can hear through our music what we like in hiphop and rap.

Are there any guest vocals in your albums?

Matt: Yeah, we’ve got Freddie from Madball and Danny Diablo from Skarhead. And we’ve got John from On Broken Wings.

JJ: We’ve also got Sam Carter from Architects and Andrew from Comeback Kid...

Matt: Oh yeah, good God, it has been insane over the last couple of years.

How do you think about the differences and similarities of the hardcore nowadays?

Matt: Everything is doing good, it’s going sometimes up and down. It has some cycles and you see things come and go.

JJ: I think there are also a few bands that we have some influences of, but there’s not any band that sounds like us. We have our different sound of creativity and music. We think we made our own sounds in the hardcore scene. That’s something that is very hard to do, but we are very passionate about it. At the same time we borrow elements from other bands.

Well, you’ve toured a lot in Europe. What’s the favorite festival that you’ve ever played?

Matt and JJ in choir: With Full Force, definitely.

Yes, I thought so.

Matt: We’ve played mainstage and that was so sick!

How many people where there for Deez Nuts?

JJ: Like 50.000. I never saw so much people at one time. That was incredible!

What do you think about Groezrock?

JJ: Well, it’s very huge and amazing bands are playing here. Everybody’s taking care of someone here, it’s been good here. We have also our family and friends here, like the bands we are friends with and people that we’ve met on tour. It’s really a family atmosphere here.

Well, maybe this is a very personal question. But you have many tattoos all over your body. What’s the most important tattoo?

Matt: Well, recently I had a baby girl, she’s 6 months old, so that’s my favorite tattoo.

JJ: Well, I never really thought about that. I would say my statue of liberty, because I love that more than anything.

A different question maybe, what’s the craziest thing a fan ever gave to you?

Matt: Herpes! (laughs) No no, I’m just kidding. I never had anything. Maybe some toys or something.

JJ: Well, we got a lot of paintings, but that’s not weird or anything. There are some incredible things in there. If someone gives me that, that’s just very cool.

Will we find them on your wall?

JJ: I gave them all to my mom. Because she loves them.

That’s very sweet of you! Can you describe Deez Nuts in 3 words?

Matt: Suck our dick.

Haha. 

JJ: (laughs). I don’t know. Maybe, Fans. Body.

Matt: Horny.

JJ: (laughs)

Well, thank you for this interview, hope you have fun on stage with Terror!