Music Feature: Deja Voodoo.

There’s a fine history of bands that have come from television shows. There’s the Monkees and… well, I can’t think of any others. But now, Deja Voodoo can join that fine company.

They’re a four-piece that sprung from the dubious well that is Back Of The Y, a hit New Zealand show that involves sketches, satire and personal injury. The Brag sat down with guitarist/vocalist Matt Heath and bassist/vocalist Chris Stapp for some beverages and a chat at the Clare Hotel in Sydney.

How did Back Of The Y come about? ‘We wanted to make a show which is kind of like The Young Ones and The Goodies, and all the shows we used to watch as kids,’ says Chris. ‘We’re pretty high on really shit jokes. You could argue a lot of it’s really weak. A lot of it’s people slipping on banana peels – all the comedy standards. People getting hurt’s a big one, of course.’

‘It’s shot on Handycams, and the crew is just a bunch of our mates. There’s a lot of stunts and stuff,’ continues Chris. But despite the dodginess of the production values – or perhaps because of that – the show has scored itself a legion of dedicated fans. The show has ‘a pretty huge following over there,’ says Matt. ‘New Zealand television has had nothing like that ever, so they almost get nationalistic about it.’

Deja Voodoo were originally the house band on the show that most of the band members perform in, produce and write for. ‘We needed a band on the TV show, so it looked like Letterman,’ says Matt. ‘So we formed a band just to mime.’ But then, slowly but surely, the band developed into a full blown rock ‘n’ roll force, independent of Back Of The Y. ‘The band on the TV show is, like, three dudes dressed stupidly, miming to a 15 second tune. [But] one thing we’ve done in the last year and half is get really good at playing.’

What kind of fans do they get? ‘We call them Backies. They seem to be mainly teenage boys. We go down well at university gigs,’ says Matt. He tells of a show in Lincoln University in Dunedin. ‘It’s a farmer’s university. I’ve never seen uglier people in my life. They were all in-bred. Our audience was just the lowest of humanity. One guy wore a ribcage of meat on his head. One girl was standing behind him eating raw meat off a stick…’ He laughs. ‘Lovely people though.’

How hard was it to convince the Backies that the band could justify the leap from television mentalists to on-stage rock ‘n’ rollers? ‘The really hardcore Backie fans would’ve been just as happy if we were really shit,’ says Matt. ‘In fact, they thought it was selling out when we got really good.’ Chris continues: ‘We used to be mighty shit. We’d be quite hopeless [performing live], and we’ve have to give up half-way between songs. But we’ve kind of got our shit together now.’

Matt tells me that ‘the more bogan the audience is, the better we go down.’ But it’s not just carnivorous retards and bogans who love the band. They’ve come to be loved because of their Sabbath-esque rock ‘n’ roll and electrically awesome live shows.

They’ve released the first single from their album Brown Sabbath, called Beers. It’s been described by mates I’ve asked as both retarded and fun. Matt’s happy with that description. ‘There’s a thin line between retarded and awesome.’

Deja Voodoo are definitely awesome, and certainly retarded. Their album Brown Sabbath is out now through Liberation Music. Look out for an Aussie tour soon.

(Originally published in The Brag).