RealSoundsOK: Muertos Q&A

Your name:

DeAnna Avis, singer and guitarist for Muertos.

Where are you from?

Chelmsford, Essex, via California with a dash of Mexico

Name of band:

Muertos.

Who else is in your band?

The lovely Marc Crane on guitar/vox and the dashing Tom Lewis on drums/percussion.

How would you describe yourselves and your music?

Like a fucked up spaghetti western Tarantino film.

Who are your main influences musically?

PJ Harvey, Nick Cave, Yeah Yeah Yeahs, Black Rebel Motorcycle Club, Black Angels, Brian Jonestown Massacre, The Raveonettes, Ennio Morricone, The Cramps etc…

What do you hope to achieve in music?

To make a song and video as beautiful and deranged as PJ Harvey's C'mon Billy – the one where she was described as a “sadomasochistic dominatrix in blood-red dress." Then I can die happy.

What has been the highlight of your career so far, and why?

Every gig becomes a new the highlight - the best thing is vibing off the crowd at each gig, we love the energy and it's nothing without the audience… playing with other cool bands such as the Sly Persuaders, Wonk Unit, riding around in a van and recording a video with Bleech, basically we are always having a good time, even when things go tits up - if we're not then check our pulse!

And what’s the moment you want to forget? When we turned up to play one of our first ever shows and there was no drumkit. We had to improvise stomping the floor and got the audience to bang on plastic chairs. It still managed to work in some kind of way…

If you had to pick just one of your songs to represent your music, what would it be and why? Our song ‘Cruel’. Its got the Muertos concoction of melodic soundscapes and haunting sounds that concludes in an explosion of feedback and gritty distortion. We want to take people on a wild ride.

Where can we listen to it?

You will have to come to one of our shows to hear Cruel live… in the meantime you can hear us on http://muertos.bandcamp.com/releases