QUARANTINE PROFILE: DEYO
We’ve launch a profile series to highlight how artists are spending their time during quarantine. Several times a week we’ll highlight a new artist across the globe and see how they’re keeping busy during COVID-19 lockdowns.
Today we celebrate the 50TH QUARANTINE PROFILE! Thanks so much for following along with us on this lockdown journey and continuing to explore how artists are keeping sane during these crazy times. We’re all in this together and we’re here to highlight it all.
With all that said, super excited to bring you this latest piece featuring Brooklyn Indie artist DEYO (aka Christopher Deyo Braun). He released his debut self-titled album DEYO last year and we’ve been hooked ever since. DEYO brings a lot of different elements of sound to his album, there’s soul, there’s synth, there’s some poppiness… what more could you ask for? We got to chat with DEYO to see what he’s been up to during quarantine, his handy new hardware skills and what’s next for him. Give DEYO a listen below and read on…
Photographer and stylist: Courtney Spitznagel @CourtneySpitz | shot on 35mm film.
Where have you been spending your quarantine?
When the full shutdown happened in March, my girlfriend and I left Brooklyn to spend time with family in Connecticut. We moved back to Brooklyn in May after finding a COVID deal on an art loft that we couldn’t pass up.
How have you been staying busy during quarantine?
The place that I moved into was pretty bare, so I have spent most of the quarantine making it into a home. There have been about 350 trips to the hardware store, so it’d be hard to classify it as an actual quarantine.
Anything new you’ve learned?
I basically became a handyman/carpenter. With the help of the great YouTube library of DIY tutorials, I ended up building a mezzanine bedroom, stairs, shelves, rewired a lot of lighting, added a mini-stage and brought a beautiful old 1940’s stove back to life.
Song (or album) you’ve had on repeat:
I had a good 2-month streak where I was listening to the Dominic Fike album a few times a day. Arthur Russell’s album Iowa Dream has been steadily repeating for the whole year as well.
Something keeping DEYO sane right now: I built a home for my record player and record collection underneath my staircase. It really warms up the space and makes me feel grounded when I drop the needle on a good record
What is keeping you happy?
I’m playing a lot of music and practicing a lot, which always kinda puts my mind at ease. It feels good when you realize that you are getting better at something, even if the change is marginal. In my book, it still counts as leveling up.
What’s the best advice you’ve received during this time?
I made my own deck of Brian Eno’s Oblique Strategies during quarantine using an old label maker. I think my favorite one is "Discover your formulas and abandon them."
What do you hope we take away from this?
I hope that this time helps make our world more conscientious about what we are eating. We’d have a much easier time battling this virus as a species if we ate less food that came wrapped in plastic full of chemicals that we can’t pronounce.
Anything new we should know about that you’re working on?
I’m in the process of writing material for a new album. I have a solid back-catalog of songs, but right now I am just working on a new idea everyday and eventually I’ll come to the realization that there’s a cohesive group of songs in there that I can zone in on and start fine tuning them.