Very few times I get to preview shows with my friends and bands that I love listening to on a day-to-day basis, viagra order so this is a rare treat. On Friday, cure August 23, The Middle East Downstairs plays host to what I’m considering one of the shows of the summer, and probably the best way to close out what has been a great summer for Boston music: the Field Effect, The Deep North, the Susan Constant, and Velah. Up in our first round of previews: Rebecca Frank and Nick Twohig of The Deep North.

The Deep North’s self-titled debut EP blends soulful, piano-tinged pop rock with much darker, heavier tones, from the bouncy “Slow Down, Stay Willing,” to the 7-minute, shifting opus that is “Silent Film Star.” Coming off of a great set at the 2013 Rock N’ Roll Rumble, and having just finished a successful Indiegogo funding campaign for their next record, The Deep North are poised for even bigger and better things in the rest of 2013.

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So, I know I’ve heard some of your new songs, but I don’t know what they’re called…

Nick: We don’t either!

I remember you telling me that, you were like, “this one’s called ‘Deep North One.’”

Rebecca: We still call “Wake Up,” “DN1,” I’m like, “guys it has a name now!”
Nick: We wrote it on a setlist recently, and I went, “what?”
Rebecca: I get superstitious sometimes. So I took demos they send me from the room and said “this song’s called ‘Butterflies and Raindrops;’” and then we recorded it and we’ve been calling it “Butterflies” ever since. So we at least have code names for everything…but they don’t have actual actual names.
Nick: And I think that’s more for album title stuff too, because I mean it doesn’t matter to the general public probably, but you want the album title to reflect the spirit of recording, the vibe of the studio.

What title did you want?

Rebecca: We threw around a couple names; I don’t really remember what I wanted.
Nick: What was that one we almost went with?
Rebecca: We were going to name it Atlantica, but we thought, that’s too close to Transatlanticism.
Nick: For whatever reason the last track, “Silent Film Star,” we thought, people are probably thinking for radio stuff, they’ll go with the single, and after that, especially for a band like us just coming out, since that was our first thing, no one had ever heard of us, so we thought we might as well make it 7 minutes long.
Rebecca: You were the first person to specifically mention that song in any kind of review, actually.

Really?

Rebecca: I think it was from the Rumble? And I was so excited ‘cuz no one ever said anything about it, they all go to “Wake Up” or something.

I mean, that’s a great song, Marotta mentioned it in his blog a few times.

Rebecca: There was like a tiny sentence in his post about the other three bands that played, like “yeah they were all good but back to the point.” He didn’t say anything to us after the set, he just did it. I was so scared because I was thinking, is the press gonna rip us apart since we’re a brand new band? At that point in time, when we played the Rumble, we had only played twelve shows.
Nick: The Rumble was our thirteenth show ever.
Rebecca: Nick had played the Rumble before, and he had said “my band got awful reviews.” But we ended up getting great reviews from everyone, so that was like, holy shit, that was awesome. He’s genuinely nice and he doesn’t have to be: like nice to new bands like us who he doesn’t know. He never knew any of us before that, and he was very very supportive in any way he can be, which is really cool.

Well while we’re on the subject of Marotta, you guys were in Alternative Press and you were in the Phoenix; how does it feel being highlighted like that on such a… well, the Phoenix was more regional and it’s a really well-known name, but AP…I mean it’s AP. Like you said, you formed late last year –

Rebecca: We’re almost to the one year anniversary of our first show. It was Christmas Eve, and I wasn’t home, I was at my parents’ house. I went back to my apartment to get some clothes or something, and it was in the mail, and I opened it up and I just freaked out, called Nick, because I promised I’d call him first. We submitted it in like, September, before the EP was actually up online, so from the time the record came out, November 13th, we were in AP December 24th.
Nick: I was shopping for last minute Christmas presents at Target with my girlfriend, and I’m in line when Rebecca calls me, and she just says this very quiet “Nick…” and I’m thinking “oh god, what happened, like what’s going on, because it was a tone of like, I think, on your end, more shock than anything.
Rebecca: It was definitely an excellent Christmas present. I wanted to get an extra copy, just to have, and I ended up framing one of them. Now, the Phoenix, I was actually laughing when we were in there, ‘cuz we were talking about reaching out to people that we had connections with. The only people that responded and gave us coverage were Marotta and AP…pretty lucky. Initially, Marotta didn’t respond.
Nick: Of course, ‘cuz he’s the music editor of the Phoenix, I didn’t even expect a response.Rebecca: I think he responded back like, “cool man I’ll listen to it,” but Nick didn’t answer him, and a few months later he was like “OK thanks!” so it bumped the email chain to the top, and THEN he listened, and then he said “oh hey, wanna be in the class of 2013?” I was laughing to myself there.

Sounds like you played that right.

Nick: I would love to admit that it was totally strategically planned out and absolutely Machavelian, but it was more like, I think I realized and came across the email saying thanks and I was like “oh shit, better respond.”

Did you think you would get the response that you did for your Indiegogo campaign so quickly? You guys got it like, that (snaps fingers like a tool).

Rebecca: We sort of figured it out, ‘cuz I knew that $5,000 wasn’t really a crazy amount, because I used to work in the music industry, and bands that were on our site would be doing it all the time, it was always like $10,000, so it sort of felt like $5,000 was right in the middle.
Nick: At the same time though, it was a little awkward for us because I don’t think we knew how much of that coverage and press that we were lucky enough to get, like how much did that really mean?
Rebecca: We got off to a really strong start. We were expecting the first day or two to get a bunch of donations and then it would stop for a while until the last push, but we went 9 days straight getting donations.
Nick: I think there were only 3 or 4 days total that we didn’t get a donation.

So, I understand this record is much more collaborative, everyone’s on the same page?

Rebecca: The Deep North, 2.0.
Nick: We’ll just put a bunch of random symbols on the cover, and it’ll just be “symbols.”

Would you say being kind of all from the same area has influenced you guys? I mean you were around the same scene, going to similar and the same shows.

Nick: There’s the benefit of a cultural memory for us, just in terms of the fact that we all kind of grew up around the same stuff: there’s a frame of reference that’s important.
Rebecca: And also just knowing how the Boston music scene works, like we knew which venues were good, etc. I think both of us separately knew Anngelle Wood from things in the past.
Nick: Yeah, it’s definitely helped since we’re all from the same kind of scene, and learning from mistakes you made in old bands. For example, with Anngelle, knowing that she’s the one you want to get your music to.

What’s the weirdest cover you’ve been asked to record for that perk from the Indiegogo campaign?

Nick: think the most off the beaten path one, Mick from Interrobang immediately requested “Oh ! You Pretty Things” by David Bowie. It’s one of those songs that I was like, at first, “how are we going to do this?” and then you kind of sit with it for a second and you go “this is going to be perfect, this is going to be amazing.”

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Check out The Deep North at the Middle East on August 23 with The Field Effect, The Susan Constant, and Velah, and download their first single, “Voices,” off their upcoming fall LP. Stay tuned for installment number 2 of this stacked show preview.