Deja Voodo: Still Better Than That Wayne Anderson Guy
Deja Voodoo, world famous in New Zealand for their rude and obnoxious yet humorous behavior. Other than music, these guys spend their spare time smoking, drinking, making movies and changing their kids' nappies. Deja Voodoo are best known for songs such as Can't Do What I Wanna Do (With You 'Cause You Weren't Born In The 80's), I Do P And I'm Alright and Buy Me A Beer.
When I asked Matt Heath (bass) to sum up Deja Voodoo in one sentence, he simply replied, "Deja Voodoo are good". In many fans' eyes, that could well be the understatement of the century. For the past four to five years these guys have been rousing their crowds with their blatant lack of consideration for other bands such as Morning Wood and Something For Kate. During the Big Day Out of 2003 a dispute over beer broke out with Something For Kate and created a lasting grudge between the bands, leading to the creation of the Beer's lyric, "I would give you one of my beers/but I've only got six". So how did Deja Voodoo come together? Deja Voodoo began as the fictional house band for their self-created show Back Of The Y Masterpiece Television. The 15 seconds of mimed music these hard rockers played at the start of each episode was enough to score them a nationwide orientation tour. But first they had to become a real band, so after a week of intensive song learning and writing the band were ready to roll. So what influences them when writing music? "Needing something to play at our gigs and put on our albums", says Matt. It seems that the Something for Kate grudge wasn't the only thing that happened at BDO 2003. Halfway through their set, the band ran out of songs to play and were forced to repeat certain numbers. Deja Voodoo have just made their first movie, The Devil Dared Me To. If you've seen Back Of The Y, then you will recognize most of the characters. The Devil Dared Me To is about a Kiwi lad's dreams of greatness. Randy Campbell's dream is as big as the stunts his not-so-death-defying father died attempting. Young Randy Campbell yearns to be New Zealand's greatest living stuntman, much to the disgust of his aunt and uncle who understand that the petrol running in Randy's veins is bound to ignite one day. They embark on a mission to save Randy and break his descendants' long legacy of fiery and fatal confrontations with the Grim Reaper. What's next for Deja Voodoo then? They are currently in London performing their deadly acts to fans just as rude and obnoxious as themselves- Brits- and that's as far as they are willing to look into the future.