Divine Rapture

Indie rock deity, electronica wizard, filmmaker and journalist – is there anything Tom Barman isn’t good at? The answer it seems is no. You’d hate him if he wasn’t so damn nice.

“Good morning Roisin!” he booms at the very unrock-like hour of 9.30 am. The Deus frontman is naturally chatty, enthusing about his various projects and cracking jokes throughout our conversation. He’s currently rehearsing in Antwerp in preparation for the band’s upcoming slew of European dates in support of latest confection, Vantage Point.
“We wanted to make something that would be fun to play live,” Tom states discussing the vision for the album. Indeed the record is not without its stadiumesque moments, a case in point being the anthemic opening track ‘When She Comes Down’.
The slick confection also features highly polished punk-funk hybrids and dark cinematic soundscapes. The patchiness of Pocket Revolution fades in comparison to its gloss – no chinks in the armour here.
“There was a bit more focus this time around,” he resumes. “Pocket Revolution happened at a very difficult time for the band. People were leaving and there wasn’t a lot of stability. Vantage Point was made in our own studio with a solid line-up and we were all well in to it.”
The album features a guest appearance by Elbow’s Guy Garvey on the beguiling ‘Disappearance Of Maria Schneider’.
“I was happy with the song but I wasn’t happy with my vocal,” Tom explains. “I called Guy up three days before the end of the record. He said ‘Tommy, I’d love to but I’m in the studio with Massive Attack.’ I’d given up on it but on Thursday night he called and said he had three free hours in the Massive Attack studio, so he did it and sent it to us.”
Elaborating on the title’s reference to the iconic actress he says, “I’m a big movie fan, I just used her as a symbol for beauty and the unattainable, an eternal muse.”
2003 saw the release of Tom’s first film Any Way The Wind Blows. Any plans for a follow-up?
“Deus is definitely the priority but I’m writing a treatment for a couple of films,” he reveals.
Surprisingly the film buff has not yet seen the Oscar-winning Once which features Frames pal Glen Hansard.
“It only screened at a couple of festivals in Belgium, but I’ll definitely make a point of seeing it soon.”
Rumours of the two collaborating have been circulating for years.
“There’s been talk of it for a long time now so it’s definitely going to happen. With Guy from Elbow it came from chatting in a bar one night. One day the opportunity was there and we grabbed it. It’ll be the same with Glen.”
Tom laughs recalling a previous botched attempt at a live collaboration.
“Two years ago we were playing Electric Picnic. He called me two days before and asked did I want to join him on stage,” he recalls. “But he’d missed out on one important thing, which was we weren’t playing on the same day! But the intentions are good, so I’m sure it will happen.”
A more successful collaboration was with The Knife’s Karin Dreijer Andersson who guests on ‘Slow’.
“The song was originally called ‘Martina’ because it had a Tricky kind of vibe and Martina Topley-Bird used to be the singer with Tricky back in the ‘90s. I thought it would be cheesy to ask Martina. It needed something more dramatic so I asked Karin. She did a very special performance. She’s a very special lady.”
Another string to Mr Barman’s bow is his broadcast journalism skills. Earlier this year Belgian television programme Spraakmakers invited him to interview Nick Cave. The result elicited much gushing praise.
“The programme makers invite people from different disciplines to interview other people from the same discipline,” he explains. “When they asked me to interview Nick I didn’t have to think too long about it! I’d done some other interviews in the past too; JJ Cale, Will Oldham and David Lynch.”
Interviewing the iconic director must have been nerve-racking for a movie buff?
“Yes, but he was very nice and very courteous and interested in what I was doing too.”
There’s also the small matter of successful side-project Magnus.
“Some of the things I’ve done with Magnus have ever so discretely infiltrated Deus,” he muses. “It’s not like we’re going to start making electronic-based dance music but there’s a kind of grooviness in Vantage Point, like in ‘The Architect’. I’m not saying we won’t do another Magnus album but it’s not going to happen soon.”
Barman reveals his next creative output will be the sixth Deus album, which may be ready to roll in 2009.
“That’s the idea, sometimes I exaggerate in my enthusiasm though,” he laughs. “We’re not talking the first half of next year, but the second half should be do-able.”