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Photo Courtesy of The New Deal's Facebook

In April of 2011, electronic music pioneers, The New Deal – a trio consisting of drummer Darren Shearer, bassist Dan Kurtz and keyboard player Jamie Shields – announced that they would be calling it quits after more than a decade together.

Within a 12-year span, the group had managed to play over 900 shows in a seemingly effortless, unplanned and unconventional way. Delivering electronic jazz and break beats, The New Deal has been on a world tour, released nine albums and changed the landscape of their genre through their innovations both musically and professionally.

The band will hit Philadelphia’s Theatre of Living Arts on December 28, Baltimore’s Soundstage on December 29, the Highline Ballroom on December 30 and B.B. King’s on New Year’s Eve before heading off on Jam Cruise on January 9 for their official last show ever.

[FIND ticketing information on The New Deal's official website.]

Photo Courtesy of The New Deal's Facebook

Why does Shearer refer to the band as “being a band” only when they’re on stage? Because they don’t rehearse, they don’t plan sets and it’s only then that they’re able to capture that unique feel.

Headstash Magazine caught up with Shields, covering everything from the obvious “why now” question to what the future holds for the group as individuals.

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Headstash Magazine: You sort of went on a hiatus in October and November and some thought that was the end of The New Deal. So how did you ultimately decide that the end of 2011 would be it for you?

Jamie Shields: Initially, it was going to be at the end of the summer. We actually decided to extend it because we felt that we wanted to wrap it up in kind of a festive New Deal week. We didn’t want to end it at a festival – we didn’t want that to be our last show.

We wanted our last series of shows to be under our control. And our shows in the summer, for the most part, were festivals. I love [festivals], we have a great time with them, but they’re not pure New Deal events. We would be able to say goodbye on our own terms as opposed to a 45-minute set at 8:00 p.m.

HM: The obvious follow-up is why now?

JS: I think it got to a point where The New Deal had been priority number one and top shelf for us for a long time. And we started to notice from various things in our lives that it wasn’t the number one priority anymore.

I write a lot of music for TV and film, I’m a dad with two kids and I’m unbelievably busy with Dragonette, touring around the world, having top-10 singles. Darren is incredibly busy in Toronto with the Riverdale Mission and drumming, and it just wasn’t our focus anymore.

Photo Courtesy of The New Deal

We didn’t want this to be relegated to side-projects. We didn’t want it be become secondary in our lives. [The New Deal] was something that took up a lot of focus and it took up a lot of effort. We didn’t want it to become a 20-gig-a-year act.

[FOLLOW The New Deal on Facebook.]

There are agents and managers and those people need to work. So if you’re playing 20 gigs a year, it’s not going to happen – that’s part time. And The New Deal was never part time. We couldn’t let it be part-time. We wouldn’t know how to handle it part-time.

We have too much respect and love for [The New Deal] for it to become “kicked to the curb” status. We decided it would be best for us, and best for something that we love for it to just stop.

HM: Has it ever felt like it was just too much work?

JS: That’s an interesting question because the two hours that we’re on stage – when we’re a band and making music – is amazing. First of all, we all love each other and we’re all very good friends. I’ve been best friends with Dan since I was 13. But I’ve said it a million times: if I didn’t love my job, I’d fucking hate it. It can be the worst job in the world.

But the two hours that I play on stage with these guys are amazing. It still is. We’ve never had rehearsal or anything like that. It’s always just been this sort of flow of communication between us. The music has always been fantastic and it’s always a rush and it’s always fun, uplifting and energizing.

The other 22 hours of the day suck. Between the bad food, the bad sleep, the travel, the fatigue and the boredom. The band’s seen 900 shows and I’m a big fan of touring, and I was into it for a very long time. We all were into it for a very long time and it wears on you.

Photo Courtesy of The New Deal's Facebook

And if you can’t commit to it – playing 150 shows a year – then there’s no point in trying to develop as an act. The two hours on stage made up for the other 22 hours. But then [performing live] stopped doing it. It’s not because the playing on stage part became less fun, it was that the other 22 hours became worse. Whether it be an airplane or tour bus or car, you’re technically a “professional sitter” for 22 hours.

We have so much going on in other aspects of our lives, that to just put it all on pause for a week or two just doesn’t work anymore. Stopping everything to go on tour just didn’t feel right anymore.

HM: You obviously wanted The New Deal to be a part of your main-project world with a “go big or go home” sort of attitude, so tell me about the upcoming shows. What can we expect this New Year’s and any thoughts about the importance of doing these shows in the City?

JS: Well New Year’s in New York has become a staple for us since the very beginning. We were playing the Wetlands as a New Year’s band a couple times in a row. It’s become familiar and it’s become kind of “home” for us.

We’ve played New York about 200 times out of our 900 shows. We drove from Toronto every week to go play The Wetlands and as a result we developed enough to play New Year’s there. We don’t really think to go anywhere else.

HM: Any reason in particular you chose Jam Cruise as the event to end it all?

JS: Jam Cruise had been decided so we could have a party where everybody involved with The New Deal including our crew and anybody they would be bringing in for a couple of days could hang out together. That’s something we really don’t get to do on tour. Often times we travel separately. It just gives us a chance to hang out together one last time.

HM: Is there any sort of symbolic reference you’re alluding to as you play your final show out into the sea?

JS: Well there’s no symbolic reference necessarily, but the fact that we’re on a moving boat that isn’t “tied down” is sort of a [symbolic] thing.

I will say that The New Deal never made any promises. We never made promises to record labels, to ourselves about what to do and what not to do – and we never made any promises to our fans in terms of what they could expect.

Everything was kind of done in a “shambolic” way. We used to kind of shamble on stage, with no setlist, not knowing what we wanted to start with and then we kind of melted faces and walked away. We never talked about it or made a plan.

Our first concert ever became our first record – everything was improvised. It was like we were traveling and floating in space. Everything with The New Deal was done last minute, as the polite term would be “organically,” but really it was just chaotic. And not chaotic like arguments and fighting, but “oh there’s a live show that sounds good, let’s make this our record.”

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We were living proof of improvising at the moment. Time to go make a record? Ok let’s make a record. But how do we make it? Let’s just improvise it. It was never planned.

There’s not a plan for the future. Who knows? We never promised anybody that we would be purely an instrumental band or a vocal band. And that’s the way we approached it on stage: just keep jamming and we’re going to make it happen.

And it would happen and we’d say, “Ok it happened.”

HM: You mentioned being friends with Dan since you two were 13 years old. How have you maintained a sense of individuality while being part of a collective – as friends and a band – for so long?

JS: Well one of the ways that was possible is that the sound of the band together is a perfect distillation of our three musical personalities. You know it’s The New Deal the minute you hear the keys or the drumming or bass.

Photo Courtesy of The New Deal's Facebook

So it’s one of those things where everybody’s able to step up and have an equal role in the sound and in the aural presentation of what goes on. But nobody’s stepping up to the front. Everyone just steps back, assumes their spot and you’re going to be heard and understood. It becomes a perfect three-headed attack.

HM: You technically weren’t a band when you played your first gig together, right?

JS: We were just three guys playing together because we liked playing together. We played at some crappy acid-jazz bar and we said, “You know what? Fuck this. Let’s go play at a real concert venue because it’s kind of neat what we’re doing.”

We did play our first concert before we were really ever a band. A typical New Deal decision. We had a 30-minute instrumental session and decided we sounded pretty good.

That guy who did sound for us when we played our first show became our soundman and has been to this day. Shambolic! The pure distillation of The New Deal ethic. This beautiful pure thing came out of thin air and we realized we had to keep going because it seems to be working.

HM: So your ritual is really to not have one?

JS: Exactly. We’ve always gotten made fun of by our friends, like The Disco Biscuits, Umphrey’s McGee and the other bands. They make fun of us in a loving way and joke because we show up three minutes before a show. The other bands are there practicing, and we walk into the venue, we pour ourselves a drink and we go on stage. We don’t want to intellectualize something that isn’t intellectual.

HM: Will you continue to stay on the musical path after The New Deal or are there different paths calling your names?

JS: Oh, I’m a lifer. Someone referred to me as a “lifer” when I was about 22, and they were right. We’re all lifers, and we’re all remaining in the music business. There’s no other job for me in the world except music.

Photo Courtesy of The New Deal's Facebook

My life is music. I have my family, of course, but it’s a tie. Being a professional musician is really just an extension of my personal life.

HM: Now that there’s nothing to lose, any last words you want to put out there? Anything you would have done differently?

JS: I don’t think there’s anything I would do over again in this particular phase in my music career. It played exactly as it should. The decisions we made were based on the decisions of how The New Deal exists. And any other decisions we would have made would not have been “New Deal-esque.”

HM: Let’s take a quick break from all the seriousness, and lighten up this bittersweet symphony . . . Canadian or American bacon?

JS: Canadian… all the way.

HM: Rick James or Ron Paul?

JS: Rick James without a doubt. Hands down. There’s no choice. I mean, you tell me who’s funkier? Their drumming is probably equal in quality but Rick James’ bass playing is probably way better.

HM: You have all of our support here at Headstash and we wish you the best of luck on your future shows as well as your future plans after The New Deal.

JS: Thank you. They’re going to be fun shows. They’ll be bittersweet, but they’ll be fun.

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These guys have no regrets. They wouldn’t change a single thing about how they played out their musical career. It’s actually inspiring to see The New Deal break up knowing they’re not looking back in anger or sorrow.

It’s a necessary step needed to be taken in order to preserve what they believed in so strongly: if it’s not working then don’t do it.

So if you’re excited about the upcoming shows and wondering what to expect, I’d say do what The New Deal does and expect nothing and get everything in return.

 

 

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The New Deal will end their 12-year career with dates in Philadelphia, Baltimore and New York City before sailing off on Jam Cruise for their last show. For ticketing information and show times, check out their official website.