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A Hilton Head institution since its 2000 inception, R&B/Motown/jazz outfit Deas Guyz is probably a familiar name to anyone who’s been to a festival, benefit or wedding in the Lowcountry. Monthly caught up with singer (and teacher) Reggie Deas about the band’s present and future.
Q. Playing in a cover band tends to get kind of a bad rap among musicians — it’s often regarded as the type of gig you work through, rather than flourish in. What’s your perspective?
A. I actually believe that the original music market is saturated — everyone has their stuff out there, and they’re trying to get heard. There are a lot of original artists, and they’re starving. There’s a lot of great music, though, and if you come at it in the right spirit and cover it in the right way, you can make a decent living.
As I see it, there’s nothing wrong with that. That’s all I do, and that’s all I’ve ever done — I’m a copycat artist. (Laughs) If I hear something I enjoy, I try to share it and that’s worked pretty well. But it isn’t just copying: When you cover a song, you have to put your own spin on it. We’re performing other people’s songs, but we’re doing it with our energy and personality. The songs aren’t ours, but we try and make them our own. We’ll do “Shout,” but we’ll do it our way.
Q. How big is your set list? How many songs does the band have in its repertoire?
A. With the amount of music everyone in the band knows ... well, we don’t put everything in the set list. People request things all the time, but we have to limit what we play to things that are appropriate for the audience. If we’re playing a wedding, we have to stick with wedding songs. We can’t do a song about people taking their clothes off, you know? (Laughs)
Q. Deas Guyz are relatively unique among live cover bands in that you’ve actually gone into the studio and released a couple of albums. What led you to take that step?
A. Yeah, we have two albums, and we hope to start working on our third in the near future. And to be honest with you, I don’t really understand how we’ve had success in that area. I don’t know how it happens that people are buying our CDs. We have to pay for studio time, and publishing royalties on the songs we cover on the albums, so the sales don’t make us a great deal of money, but people like ‘em enough to buy ‘em.
It all came about through a partnership with (Bob Masteller at) The Jazz Corner, where we play often. He wanted to make a recording of the band. And merchandising always helps, you know? Anything you can put out there in connection with the band — t-shirts, CDs — helps put you over the top.
Q. What does being a local act mean to you?
A. We love playing for the locals; we try to take care of them. If they have favorite songs, we try to play them. If a shag group comes in, we’ll play shag music. We really value our local followers. And of course, we get people who come in from out of town, too. We cater to both crowds. We’re here to play music the audience wants to hear, so everyone has a good time.
Pop culture obsessive Jeff Giles is a contributor to Rotten Tomatoes and Paste and the editor-in-chief of Popdose.com and Dadnabbit.com.
DEAS GIGS
- July 1-2: Luther Vandross tribute at the Jazz Corner
- July 3: Jazz Corner
- July 7: Montana’s restaurant
- July 10: Jazz Corner
- July 14: Montana’s restaurant
- July 17: Jazz Corner
- July 18: Motown Monday at the Beaufort Water Festival
- July 21: Montana’s restaurant
- July 24: Jazz Corner
- July 28: Montana’s restaurant
- July 31: Jazz Corner
- Aug. 4: Montana’s restaurant
- Aug. 7: Jazz Corner
- Aug. 12: Wild Wing Cafe, Bluffton
- Aug. 14: Jazz Corner
DEAS CDS
Deas Guyz’ CDs, “Live At The Jazz Corner” and “Encore,” are available at the Jazz Corner’s website. Go to www.the jazzcorner.com and click on “Store.”
