A MORE MATURE DEER TICK
John McCauley is speaking softy. The frontman for the indie rock band Deer Tick is trying to preserve his singing voice, a sign of maturity, while talking about the band’s evolving maturation.
He isn’t speaking on non-show days during the group’s tour, which comes to the Heights Theater on Friday, and he’s resigned himself to the vocal routines of most other professional singers.
“It’s just funny. I do these vocal warmups and (expletive) I never did before,” said the 31-year-old singer for the Rhode Island-based band. “I’m still young enough to think it’s lame, but I’m old enough to understand there’s a necessity.”
The approach is not unlike the one Deer Tick is taking with the music on its latest records, “Deer Tick Vol. 1” and “Deer Tick Vol. 2,” which are the not group’s first two records, nor are they compilations. The band, which plays the Heights Theater on Friday, collected gentler ballads in “Vol. 1” and tempo rock songs on “Vol. 2.” McCauley said it showcases the group’s ability and dual affinities for earnest, acoustic sounds and screaming jaunts on favorites like, “Let’s All Go to the Bar.”
Deer Tick has always been able to vacillate between heart-felt, lyric-driven songs and raucous party-themed tracks while staying in character — that is, true to the complex personalities of the band that was never shy about heartbreak or its enthusiasm toward shaking it off with one too many rounds at the bar.
But, said McCauley, this time things felt different.
“For some reason, it felt like this would be a record that would make or break us, in away,” he said. “Like we had to prove to ourselves that wewere capable of being the same band, even though everybody’s grown up. Growing pains, I guess.”
These growing pains almost caused the singer to walk away from the band after his life took a sharp turn from the infamous indulgences that pervaded its touring reputation.
In 2013, Deer Tick released “Negativity,” its last album before the double-set this year. McCauley married singer Vanessa Carlton that same year, and in 2015, she gave birth to their daughter, Sidney. He spent most of Sidney’s first year at home in Nashville, embracing fatherhood and occasionally picking up a mandolin.
The time away from the band gave McCauley space to ask himself if Deer Tick was still the right place for him.
“I think it was more like we had not tried to do a record in so long, for us. We just wanted to be careful about how we went about doing it,” McCauley said.
The intention paid off, and the band is experiencing the upside of responsibility on this tour.
“It feels more like work, in a goodway, instead of an invitation to a party,” McCauley said. “We really wanted this tour to be a real showcase of the work that we’ve done over the years. It’s all kind of thought out — the instrumentation, and especially the acoustic set.”
Even though McCauley is drinking less and showing up when expected, this iteration of Deer Tick is anything but straight-laced do-gooders.
“Deer Tick without beer is, I don’t know… it just doesn’t work,” he said with a laugh. But this is a band with a new perspective. “We’ve all become way more thoughtful about the things that we put into the band. I think we can mature into something that sticks around for a long time.” DEER TICK When: 8 p.m. Friday Where: The Heights Theater, 339 W. 19th Information: $24-$48; 214-272-8346, heightstheater.com
THE BAND DEER TI CK I NCLUDES VOCALIST J OHN MCCAULEY, GUITARIST I AN O’NEAL, BASSIST CHRIS RYAN AND DRUMMER DENNIS RYAN.