Written by: Oliver Heffron
Miami indie outfit Deux Visages may be new to the party, but they’re already making heads turn. The band’s shimmering meld of indie, shoegaze, garage, and surf rock balances infectious accessibility with analog imperfection, delivering ear-catching melodies and spirited instrumental performances that beg to be seen live. With only two singles under the belt, “Cheetah” and “Tethered,” Deux Visages already manifest the potential for mainstream success, combining satisfying songs and polished production with homemade spontaneity.
As they prepared to perform at the III Points Festival in Miami, the members of Deux Visages caught up with NUANCE to discuss the band’s origin, finding their sound, and adjusting to their sudden success.
Photo Credit: Jimmy Fontaine
Consisting of Daphney Homono on lead vocals, Antoine Lappin on drums, Jack Chiu on guitar, and Tony Jouvin on bass, the group of Miami indie rockers define their sound as an amalgamation of their influences, finding a sweet spot in the middle of the group’s tastes. While each member has their own preferences, Deux Visages is most influenced by 90s indie bands like The Strokes and The Yeah Yeah Yeahs and contemporary indie acts like Momma.
Homono explains how expressing this combination of styles creates a new sound: “I just think a beautiful thing about our sound is that we all have such different music tastes, so it all combines into this unique and cohesive sound. I would say a lot of our songs are cohesive in the sense that we all have a good way of bringing all of our styles together.”
Deux Visages started with just a singer and drummer when Lappin DM’d his high-school classmate Homono to start a band. After going through a few different lineups through the years as they searched for the right members to complete the band, Deux Visages found their final form with Chiu on guitar and Jouvin on drums. The chemistry was apparent from their first song, “Cheetah,” introducing Deux Visages to the world with an indie rock bang. “This lineup hadn’t recorded anything yet,” Chiu remembers. “When I joined the band, we just had the bones of the song,” Jouvin adds.
Photo Credit: Jimmy Fontaine
As they got to writing “Cheetah,” Chiu explains how he was ecstatic to realize the song was perfect for a riff that’d been ringing in his head for years: “I’ve actually had that riff for years and years…the intro riff, I’ve been playing with it on an acoustic and I still have voicemails of it, and it’s funny because I could see it evolve slowly. It’s kind of cool. After every year it’d be slightly different and then every year I would forget how it sounded the year before and then it kind of just turned into this.”
Homono discusses how “Cheetah” reflects the difficult experience of trying to leave someone you still have feelings for. “I always feel like in relationships it’s very hard to be the one to leave because you love somebody so much…no matter what happens or what the other person does you can’t really leave because you love them so much.”
With only one single released and a handful of other songs to perform, Deux Visages started to gain a local buzz as they toured their home state of Florida. Homono discusses how they found the best reception in smaller towns and cities upstate: “In Central Florida, including like Tampa and Orlando, there are always good shows to be had there just because they’re all college towns and will have people they like to come out to show up for music.”
Photo Credit: Jimmy Fontaine
While recording their debut, “Cheetah,” the Chiu discovered a different riff that would eventually turn into their second single and Atlantic debut, “Tethered.” Lappin remembers how they put the track together: “Jack came up with the riff, and as soon as I heard that riff, it captivated me, and I really liked it. I came up with the drums and all that. And then once Daphne put her lyrics on it, and a little “ahh-aa-ahh” going into the chorus. I immediately fell in love with the song.”
Chiu expands on how Homono’s spontaneous “ahh-aa-ahh” was a spark of inspiration in the studio: “She did it one time like it was like a fluke almost. And we stopped playing and we were like yo do it again. And I think we did it like six times seven times. Like literally just that part in a row.Yeah, we’re like that has to be in the song like I don’t even I don’t even think the lyrics or none of that shit was done at that point. It was just like y’all that had to be in there.”
Describing the lyrical approach “Tethered,” Homono explains how she aimed to contemplate relationships as a struggle between a healthy desire and addictive necessity: “I wanted the lyrics to tie into codependency and being in that situation where you don’t know if you’re just stuck to that person because you’re comfortable and you love them or because it’s something that’s really good for you so it follows the struggle between that.”
Photo Credit: Jimmy Fontaine
While the band had “Tethered” ready soon after their first single, they waited to release the track as their major-label debut with Atlantic Records. Reflecting on the day they got signed, August 17 of this year, Jouvin explains what made the date especially memorable: “I think I only remember the date when we got signed because we all got matching tattoos that day.” Explaining that it came about primarily because they were recording in a half-dedicated space to a tattoo shop with a charismatic owner, the band proudly now wears matching star tattoos.
As they prepare to perform their biggest show yet at the III Points Festival in their hometown, Miami, the band is brimming with excitement and slight disbelief to appear on the same lineup as Iggy Pop and Skrillex.
Homono discusses how realizing one of her favorite artists will perform on the same stage as her is particularly surreal: “We’re playing the same stage as the girl from Crystal Castles Alice glass…I think we’re like maybe like two slots behind her which is absolutely insane. I grew up listening to Crystal Castles and to say like, ‘Oh yeah, I’m gonna I’m standing where she is gonna stand later on today,’ is gonna be fucking crazy. It feels like an honor honestly, that we’re super lucky to be able to play that.”
Photo Credit: Jimmy Fontaine
After the III Points Festival, Deux Visages will support indie pioneers Julie on a sold-out tour through the East Coast, including a stop at the historic Bowery Ballroom in New York. Lappin explains why the Bowery, in particular, is so exciting for the band to perform. “Knowing that we’re sharing the stage with Julie at such an iconic place is insane…The Strokes, Coldplay, Lady Gaga… It’s insane that we’re playing in the same places as those people.”
Reflecting on how the band has changed since he first sent that DM to Homono in high school, Lappin discusses how the band has found an identity in its ability to change organically: “The band has slowly changed its sound throughout the time and I hope it keeps changing throughout the band’s lifespan. I feel like that’s what makes a band kind of cool. It’s like a living organism that’s always in constant change.” With the rest of the band’s career in front of them, Deux Visages is a band to watch as they progress.