Bill Deasy seems like he’s got it all together, but just like the rest of us, he’s still a work in progress. A familiar name in Pittsburgh music, Bill’s western Pennsylvania meets Laurel Canyon sound feels like running into an old friend and spending the rest of the day together catching up.
Bill recently spoke with WYEP's Joey Spehar.
What’s your musical history up to this point?
It started with Elvis. Presley, not Costello. I became aware of him when I was a child of six or seven, and awareness shifted quickly into obsession. Every week my dad would buy me a different Elvis “single” at a store in Penn Hills called Grants and I would spend my afternoons after school listening, rocking, memorizing. His music, especially those early recordings from the Sun Sessions and the mid-1950s, seeped into my blood and changed me forever.
A few years later, I got my first guitar and I was off to the races. My older brother had great taste in music which came in handy as I found my own musical path. Artists like Crosby, Stills and Nash, Jackson Browne, and Neil Young were the professors at a university I didn’t even know I was attending. The Tower of Song as Leonard Cohen called it. I studied their songwriting, their harmony, their overall vibe. As I shuffled awkwardly through my teen years I started writing songs of my own. In college, the songwriting continued and I started playing in bars and feeling the thrill of the connection with an audience.
In the late 80s, early 90s I kicked around Pittsburgh’s open stages when not obsessively recording demos on a Tascam 4-track in my parents basement. I eventually crossed paths with Clarks guitarist Rob James at a club called Graffiti. Rob took me under his wing, introduced me to his bandmates and the Pittsburgh music scene at large, and soon I had a band of my own. Shiloh became the Bill Deasy Band which featured a carousel of lead guitar players, the last of whom was Dave Brown.
As the Bill Deasy Band fizzled, Dave and I — sensing a once-in-a-lifetime type musical connection — sought out more musicians and formed The Gathering Field. Our first record came out in 1994. WYEP played several songs from it which was massive and so encouraging. Then the big rock station in Pittsburgh, WDVE, got a hold of the song that became the title track for our second release, "Lost in America," and it kind of clicked in in the collective consciousness, at least in Pittsburgh.
We “blew up” — started selling out our shows, touring all over, and signed with Atlantic Records. Though it never quite became the dream scenario (i.e. five-star Rolling Stone reviews, endless arena tours) it was an awesome adventure. We toured steadily for several years, getting that musical tightness and power that can only come that way… and had so many incredible experiences. Gathering Field ran its course, and I veered into professional songwriting, trying to get Nashville “cuts.”
Biggest breaks in that phase were the theme for Good Morning America I wrote and performed and which ran for over four years. A few country artists (Martina McBride, Billy Ray Cyrus) also recorded songs I wrote. At this time I was equally focused on a solo career. My first record then was "Good Day No Rain" which featured a song called “Blue Sky Grey” which WYEP, once again, played the hell out of! Since then I have continued writing, recording, and performing as a solo artist and The Gathering Field has reconvened and plays a few shows a year.
How do you describe your sound?
Western Pennsylvania meets Lauren Canyon. (just made that up) I have heard it called “Coffeehouse Rock” which I’m not sure how I feel about.
Tell us more about the song "Work In Progress." What inspired you to write it and what does it mean to you?
The broad inspiration for this song is the place in which I find myself as a human being these days. Humbled by some failures and still trying to figure things out. Learning and growing, falling and getting back up. This internal phase coincided with a construction project at our house which was slow but steady. Each day would bring incremental changes and new elements. But the success of the whole thing depended on their being a “firm foundation.”
So the broad (yet sort of spiritual) and the mundane converged to inspire the song. The whole construction motif is kind of funny because I am pretty much the least handy person I know!
What was the first album that really changed your life?
After the Elvis stuff of my early childhood, the record that really got its hooks in me was that first Crosby, Stills & Nash with them sitting on the porch. "Suite: Judy Blue Eyes" in particular rocked my world. I also remember diving deep into the Neil Young collection, "Decade" and Bruce Springsteen’s "Nebraska."
Who are some other Pittsburgh artists you think more people should listen to?
Buffalo Rose impress me a lot with their high level of passion and artistry, their songs and their voices. Their commitment. That’s what really comes through. I love seeing younger bands aggressively pursuing a life doing what they love.
Any other super interesting things about you we should know?
I could have mentioned that the first concert I attended was Elvis at the Civic Arena, his last New Year’s Eve on earth. I was in the fifth grade and when the lights went down and the theme from 2001 began, I honestly think I started to levitate. At least that’s how it felt!
Bill Deasy's Annual Boxing Day Show takes place at Club Cafe on Dec. 26.
