The Upbeat Sounds of The Deadbeat Beat

Band: The Deadbeat Beat

Members: Alexander Glendening—guitar, vocals; Maria Nuccilli—drums, vocals; Joshua Gillis—guitar, bass

The skinny: Shimmery surf punk trio The Deadbeat Beat was founded after guitarist and lead singer Alex Glendening and drummer Maria Nuccilli moved to a bungalow on Pearson Street. After painting the walls in “island colors” (vivid orange and turquoise), and collecting varied folk instruments (Glendening prefers the mountain dulcimer, while Nuccilli has a baritone ukulele), the pair formed a practice space in their basement. Glendening and Nuccilli, who have been friends since eighth grade, have played in various rock groups, both with and without each other as band mates. Their house became a favored hangout for other musician friends, and when the two of them jammed with bassist and guitarist Josh Gillis of Flat Rock, something clicked.

Ferndale Patch: How did the band get started?

Alex Glendening: Maria and I were in a band called The Decks, and by late 2009 it had come to a standstill. We were living together in Ferndale, and we started writing songs for a new band. Josh would always come over and hang out with us, and we all just started playing songs together.

Ferndale Patch: What was your first show?

Glendening: Our first show was in early 2010 at the Magic Stick, opening for Best Coast. But our first show before our first “official” show was in the basement of a house in Ferndale, on Leroy Street.

Maria Nuccilli: We played at too. That was our third show, I think.

Ferndale Patch: What made you want to move to Ferndale?

Nuccilli: Well, we were both living in apartments in Detroit, and the problem with that was there was no basement, no spot to practice in. We could have moved to Woodbridge, but the houses there are so giant, we would have needed a bajillion roommates. And we didn't have time to get a million roommates. Ferndale was our best choice because we could afford it, the houses have basements, and you know, easy access to freeways.

Glendening: Also, there's coffee you can walk to. And I love seeing how many dogs are out walking all the time. I go on a lot of walks just to cop some time with other people's dogs.

Nuccilli: It seemed we had a lot of older friends, who at a similar time in their lives, moved to Ferndale.

Glendening: And they generally liked it and recommended it, so we thought we'd give it a try.

Ferndale Patch: What's your favorite place to play in Ferndale?

Nuccilli: Well... it was The Leroy Street house. It's some people we knew who had their own record label, and they put on some shows there last summer.

Glendening: Until they had a noise complaint. It was really cool when they were doing shows, there was free pizza and beer, they had a game room, and got really cool bands to play. They got Colleen Green to play there, and she's all famous now. She's from L.A.

Nuccilli: And it was within walking distance.

Ferndale Patch: What other memorable shows have you played?

Nuccilli: When we played the DIY Fest last September; that was a lot of fun. Since we live on Pearson, we're close to The () and , where DIY happens. There was a backline at the gig, so we just had to bring our guitars, and I brought some cymbals and a snare drum. We were just like, “oh my gosh, if we drive, we're not going to find parking,” so we just decided to run down Woodward, carrying everything. That was really funny.

Glendening: We all had these giant bags and guitar cases.

Nuccilli: The crosswalk, if you're walking to the WAB, is kind of far away, because it's diagonal. You have to backtrack. And we were kind of in a time crunch, so we just ran across Woodward, carrying all that stuff. Thankfully we didn't drop anything or get run over.

Ferndale Patch: How would you describe your sound?

Glendening: Our record kind of sounds like a punk band recording a Petula Clark record.

Joshua Gillis: There's a lot of emphasis on the melodies, the vocals.

Nuccilli: I feel like we're pretty beat heavy, percussive without having an overload of percussion.

Glendening: We don't have congas.

Gillis: Well, not yet.

Glendening: We have not yet found a place for congas in our music. Or the inverted crash cymbal.

Ferndale Patch: What are your main influences?

Nuccilli: We have a wide variety of influences... that's like, the most general statement ever.

Gillis: I would say this, you guys really love and respect old music, but I feel like I've learned a lot about punk music from being around you both. Not that you guys are like “Josh, listen to this album” necessarily. Just seeing what you guys listen to influences what I do. I just try to let you guys go for it, and try to throw some frosting on top.

Nuccilli: We're like... surf pop garage punk. And big beat. We sometimes get people who actually describe us as big beat, because that's what we listed our genre as on MySpace. But if you take a look at us, it's pretty obvious we're not techno.

Ferndale Patch: Do you still have a MySpace page?

Nuccilli: We have one. It crashes my computer all the time.

Glendening: And we have a Bandcamp. And a Blogspot. Bandcamp is this website, it's a really easy way for bands to upload their music so that anyone can access it.

Nuccilli: It's pretty user friendly. You just upload the songs, and you can set how much to charge them for, or have them be free.

Glendening: It's all the good parts of MySpace music, without the terrible.

Nuccilli: Without having to “friend” people or having to do fake networking. So for the tape we just put out, Bandcamp allowed us to print up download cards. So you know, you can get the mp3s with each tape. So that way you have it on your computer, too.

Ferndale Patch: Your first album, When I Talk to You, was released earlier this year on cassette tape. Why did you choose this format?

Glendening: It's a physical format. It's more official than mp3s. And it's easy.

Nuccilli: You don't have to wait for the vinyl to be pressed, which is cool. It's cheap. And, most of my friends can listen to it in their cars. Most of my friends have old cars.

Glendening: Our friend Zak Frieling, from Kommie Kilpatrick, released it. He has an all-tape label, Gold Tapes. He's put out tapes by a bunch of local bands, including The Kickstand Band and The Hard Lessons.

Ferndale Patch: Where else would you like to play?

Glendening: I'd really like to play a show at . I love New York Bagel. That would be the best smelling show ever.

Gillis: There's no limit to where we could play. Just because it's Walgreen's, why not?

Hear the band: at deadbeatbeat.bandcamp.com, and check out their blog at thedeadbeatbeat.blogspot.com.