Interview: Sincere Engineer’s Deanna Belos - ‘Cheap Grills’ and getting to know one of our faves
Corn dog-loving punks Sincere Engineer are one of our most loved bands right now. With successful shows at Slam Dunk and Sad Summer festivals, and the release of four banging singles, the Chicago-based band has generated a ton of hype. Their third album, Cheap Grills, and one of my favourites of the year, set to drop this Friday on Hopeless Records.
I first came across Sincere Engineer thanks to Spotify recommendations and loved the mixture of self-deprecating humour with classic punk tones. When launching The Scene, they were at the top of my list to talk to, but I never imaged it would happen this quickly! We reached out earlier this summer, and to my shock and excitment, we were able to get time with front woman and all-around creative force, Deanna Belos, during a brief break in the band's jam-packed summer as they prepared to make their Lollapalooza debut.
In our interview with Deanna, we chatted about what to expect from Cheap Grills, what exactly makes a ‘Corn Dog Circle Pit,’ her DIY videos for the band, and the transition to full-time musician.
Hi Deanna, thanks for taking some time to speak to us today. You’ve had quite the packed summer so far, how has it been for you?
It’s been flying by. We did Slam Dunk Festival back in May and then we did Sad Summer Fest over here in the States. We just got home from Sad Summer Fest a couple days ago and then we’ve got Lollapalooza next week. We also put out some singles for the new record. So yeah it’s been flying but fun.
Have you found any difference between playing UK festivals like Slam Dunk compared to US ones like Sad Summer Fest, or have they been rather similar experiences for you?
They're pretty similar. Though we haven't played a ton of festivals, so I don't have a lot of experience to compare. But both were super fun and it’s nice to meet fans from all over.
Slam Dunk was more surprising for us as we played right when it opened and didn’t know what to expect. There were a ton of people there, and we just weren't expecting that. It was super nice and we were very grateful.
I’ve seen at festivals in the past you have had a ‘Corn Dog Circle Pit’. For the sake of our UK audience, can you explain corn dogs and what makes a ‘Corn Dog Circle Pit’ different from an average circle pit?
Sure, so a corn dog it's a hotdog wrapped in cornbread on a stick. It's carnival food here. At Riot Fest there’s always a corn dog vendor by the main stage. Some fans, all of their own, started an event on Facebook for a ‘Corn Dog Circle Pit’ in reference to our song “Corn Dog Sonnet No. 7”.
Everybody was skipping around with corn dogs. It was awesome; it was very funny and it made me cry.
Cheap Grills cover
Your third album Cheap Grills is coming up; how does it differ from your previous releases?
We worked with a new producer, Mike Sapone (Taking Back Sunday, The Front Bottoms, Mayday Parade) for this one. We're all older now and everybody brought their best game. My writing and my singing has gotten better. I think it's gonna be everybody's new favourite.
The last record we did during the pandemic; we had to go in shifts to record. This time was definitely different. We didn't even do it in Chicago. We took a trip out to Massachusetts and spent two weeks together in this weird church thing that got converted into a recording studio, called Ghost Hit Recording. Working with them was super awesome. It was cool to kind of be isolated in a different way, from the rest of the world. We all just stayed in the house for two weeks and made a record.
With only two weeks to make the record, did that change any of your writing or prep processes?
The writing process is mostly the same. I usually write the songs and then once I have 12 to 14 of them I’ll show the producer. Then we’ll do some pre-production with the band.
For this record, we only had two weeks to record so we had to know what we were doing before we got onsite. I think, you can get caught up with the really small details if you got all the time in the world. It would have been cool to have a little more time because we were going for 12-hour days. But it was super fun.
With the vinyl release of Cheap Grills, one of the variants is the “Steak & Sauce" version with an image of a steak on the actual vinyl. It looks like you’re finding any chance to have fun with it.
Yeah, I'm kind of a goofy person in real life. The last two records were definitely not. So it was cool to dive into that a little bit. The songs are still serious, more serious than ever, but then again the whole world is kind of a joke.
I think we can see your sense of humour come out in some of the videos you’ve made where they’re more playful in contrast to the serious lyrics.
Yeah, totally. It's the combination of thoughts versus actions. Where you have depression and anxiety, but still can be goofy.
I’ve made most of our videos. We’ve had two professionally made, but all the videos for this record I’ve made myself. I go kind of crazy when I come up with an idea. Then immediately I get anybody that I'm going to need for help while the ideas are flowing and within a week it's done. I like to make sure they’re DIY but still cool visually.
For the new song, “Recluse In The Making”, I made in The Sims. I knew what the story was going to be in my head. So I played the game for maybe a total of 20 hours and then just clipped parts that I needed.
Alongside the album release, what’s the rest of your year looking like?
A lot. We’ve got another single and video “Landline” coming out. We're going to tour towards the end of the year. We’ve got special in-store acoustic performances to celebrate the release. We're doing Austin City Limits in Texas. It’s busy!
You’ve had quite the full year already. Have you had much time for things outside of music?
I’ve had some time between festivals for myself. But I’ve not really had time for other hobbies. I was just talking with my partner about how we make these plans every summer and we’ve gone cycling and kayaking maybe once. It’s hard, there’s only so many weekends in the summer. Time just goes by too fast.
Correct me if I am wrong, but I think I saw that you recently quit your job to focus fully on music?
Yeah, I was fortunate enough to be able to work during COVID, so that was cool. But I did quit last year to focus on finishing up the writing of this third record. I knew that it was gonna be crazy, with going to Europe twice and all that.
It was actually pretty rough not having that work in my schedule. I’d been working 6am to 2pm, so always knew I needed to be up early. Having that out of my schedule threw me off; I was staying up later and later. And there was the time constraint to getting the music stuff done when I got home. But then once that work time wasn't there, I sometimes put things off and then the days passed so fast. So that was a weird time. But it was a transition, I've gotten better at it now.
After the album release, can we expect another UK tour?
Yeah, we currently don't have anything in the books. But ideally we'd like to get back there. Maybe next year? We just did two European tours within six months of each other, so it was kind of a lot. It was very fun. There’s a lot of logistics, and it’s super expensive.
But we had a great time and we were talking about how we want to go back really bad. So I just think it's just a matter of time. But we definitely want to get back as soon as possible.
Outside of the music, we know you have a pretty fun and engaged fanbase. While we wait for the next UK tour, how else can fans follow along and be part of the fun?
It's kind of not new anymore but I have a Discord page for the band. It's a free open invitation for anyone to join. It’s been nice to see people on it sharing when they’re going to shows and making plans to meetup. It’s nice seeing people making friends through it.
Big thanks to Deanna from Sincere Engineer for taking the time to chat with us. Catch them at their upcoming US headline tour and stay tuned for Cheap Grills out on 22 September.
