OCEANS APART, STATIONS AWAY
A CONVERSATION WITH VIKAS SHARMA & JULIE SUN LEE OF DEADBEAT SUPERHEROES
βIt is hard to believe that I was writing with Spill Magazine in 1999,β said Deadbeat Superheroes member Vikas Sharma who was a writer for this publication at one time. βItβs come full circle.β
Deadbeat Superheroes was formed in 2011 by Vikas Sharma and singer Ayesha Adami, who, at the time, were Toronto-based musicians.Β I recently had the chance to speak with a long time and founding member, Vikas Sharma and Julie Sun Lee who makes her debut as lead vocalist on their newly released EP, Edmonton. The band has an interesting history.
βAyesha, our original lead singer, began writing songs in 2011. I used to run a Starbucks in Davisville, and I ran an open mic night there and we had a lounge upstairs, and we had art exhibits and I was allowed to take down all the corporate stuff down and gave me license to do whatever I wanted. So we had this thing where people would show up and Ayesha would come and she saw me play guitar and she said can we start writing songs? We started writing songs in 2000, and I was playing in my bands and then I stopped playing music for eight years. I ran into her and one of us said, βletβs try this out again?β.Β And so we started writing, and that same year I met M.T. through another friend and I said βhey I am having trouble with a pre-chorus, can you come and help usβ,Β because I knew he played music. Next thing you know we planned on doing a show and we were like what should we call ourselves? Marshall and I are guys, weβre dumb you know. Ayesha, the first thing she threw on the table was Deadbeat Superheroes, and we were like, that sounds better than anything either of us could come up with.β
With the departure of Adami, and the transition to Julie Sun Lee as lead vocalist, the band made a very radical decision.
βWhen Julie joined, what did you want to do? Are we going to play any old songs, and she said βno everythingβs going to be new, everything is going to be fresh but we will keep the name Deadbeat Superheroesβ. We havenβt played any of our old music. Like all that stuff is archived now, we are a fresh new outfit.β
Although Julie Sun Lee has been with the band since 2016, she has stepped up as the lead vocalist and primary lyricist. Was it difficult for her to front a band with the history Deadbeat Superheroes has?
βIt was pretty easy,β Sun Lee said. βI played with them when Ayesha was the lead singer, and it was just so easy to work with everyone. It is a pleasure and I have so much respect for everyone, it just kind of made sense. I remember when they approached me, βare you open to this?β. It was very easy for me to say yes. I didnβt have to think about it.β
EDMONTON ALBUM REVIEW
Which brings the two to talking about their recently released EP, Edmonton. Although Sharma is based in Vancouver, and the band has a history in Toronto, Edmonton seems an interesting title for the EP. βAll those songs were written in 2021 while I was in Vancouver,β said Sharma. βBut if it wasnβt for Edmonton, this record wouldnβt have happened.β
βAll of the best people I know are from Edmonton. Julie, Marshall (M.T. guitarist for the band), Marick (keyboardist) who produced the record, Darren (Vanstone, bassist), all of these people are from Edmonton. That is the Edmonton connection to this record. These people are important to me. Edmontonβs the city in Alberta I like the most. I find the people to be the nicest, everyone in Edmonton is fucking cool. It is a music city, there are a lot of bands who came out of there.β
Julie Lee Sun has brought a lot to the band, besides lyrics and vocals. She adds her own flare with her distinct and beautiful violin playing.
βA lot of it is related to the music I grew up with,β she explained. βItβs very eclectic. What is funny with my violin and how I grew up is that it is very classical heavy but then I spent a lot of my adolescence listening to punk, rock and I went through a huge R & B phase.β
The EP opens with the very emotional song βShangri-Laβ, which was and is a very important song to write.
βI write the music, M.T. might help me here and there and I just let Julie do her thing,β said Sharma.Β When I was thinking about βShangri-La ”, I was thinking about post punk and I wrote it on a telecaster, which has a little hot sound to it. I like the sound and it sounds like all those post-punk bands from the early 80s and it reminded me of that. Julie came up with the lyrics.β
The EP consists of four incredibly strong songs, which then begs the question as to why an EP and not a full album. To date, the band has not released an album, but rather a series of EPs.
βThere was something John Mellencamp said a few years ago, you have to write about 100 songs to get a handful of good tunes. And Deadbeat Superheroes, we always had a roster of about 20 songs or so, and I always thought we would do the best songs. We could do about 10 songs live and feel we were working on our best material. So throughout the years we released two or three of those songs at a time. We never waited until we had enough material to make a full-length album. If you keep working on new material and you donβt want to get too stale, it is better to put out an EP and put out the best four songs you have, right there and right then and move on.β
And in the end, The Deadbeat Superheroes are paving their own road, creating incredible music and enjoying each otherβs company in the process.
βThereβs a reason why there aren’t a lot of problems with this band,β Sharma said. βWe are older. I used to be the youngest person in the band, now Julie is. We are older, we donβt have anything to fight about, or argue about, we are βletβs just do the best we can doβ. And when we get together, it is just a lot of fun.β
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