Deep State is a Greenbrier Valley area band that treats its listeners to an eclectic mix of rock,
blues, jazz, fusion, “with a little bit of an edge.” The band is comprised of local music scene veterans Josh
Adamo on drums; Nathan Seldomridge – guitar and vocals; Dan Freeman – bass and vocals;
Patrick Calvert – keyboards; and Josh Baldwin – guitar and vocals. I recently chatted with Josh
Baldwin about Deep State and their creative process.
How does Deep State create their music?
Josh: We draw a lot of inspiration from a variety of genres—rock, post-rock, jam, jazz, funk, and even
chicken-picking’ cosmic country. Those influences come out in our improvisation for sure. We believe that
you have to practice improvisation so that the whole band is functioning as one organism, as opposed to
say jazz or blues, where the rhythm section holds it down and people take turns soling. Don’t get me
wrong, I love that, too. But this band, when we are at our best, is searching for something completely new
at every moment. When we find it, and the audience feels it, too, there is nothing better.
When we go in, a lot of times, we’ll just practice jamming. After a gig, we’ll go in and we won’t play
anything that we know. We’ll start playing just anything: ideas we’ve had, ideas that pop up out of
nowhere, and we’ll just start working through those. Doing that for a couple of years now, we’ve all
learned each others’ tendencies, and language. Our shows have gotten a lot better over the years because we’ve kind of practiced jamming together and we think we know where everyone’s going to go. We play off each other really, really well.
What can listeners expect from a Deep State show?
Josh: A lot of times in our shows, we’ll bring our own lights and we’ll control the lights somewhat with
the music, just by using our feet. We really try to produce a show as best as we can when we play. We play primarily, like 90 percent plus, originals. We’ve played enough over the last couple of years that people are starting to recognize those originals. A large portion of our catalog is all original music.
Was there a particular musical influence for you personally?
Josh: I learned to play guitar in late middle school from my uncle who was a celebrated flat picker out of
the Charlottesville area. I grew up learning a lot of bluegrass on acoustic guitar.
Do you have any advice from aspiring musicians?
Josh: I would encourage any young musicians to try to listen to as much music as possible, in a variety of
genres. Don’t just listen to what you think is the “style” of music that you play. That will get you stuck in a
box and only mimicking others in that genre. Sometimes I’ll pick up a guitar and play along with, say
Japanese jazz, and find a whole world of melodies and grooves open up. If you are starting out as a musician or any sort of artist, I would read Rick Rubin’s new book, The
Creative Act: a Way of Being.
What is one thing you want people to know about Deep State?
Josh: A large majority of our shows are original music. Lyrically they range from serious and nostalgic to silly and ridiculous. My personal lyric writing style is a little more impressionistic, where I think Nathan’s is far more lyrical, more in the singer-songwriter style. And frankly better…haha!
You can see Deep State live at their next show on February 24 at The Wild Bean. Also, if you’re looking for a short spring road trip, you can see them in Huntington on April 20 at Loopy Fest, a one day psychedelic music and arts festival. If you want to listen to this jamming, original band in the meantime, check out some of their videos on YouTube (Deep State). Visit their website at: deepstatemusic.band.
