Band Of The Week #127 - Dead
This week’s Artist Of The Week is Chicago based band Dehd, who have just released their new album ‘Flower Of Devotion’. As a flow up from their debut ‘Water’, it sees the band push themselves forward with a sharper sound with a big emotions attached. They took a moment to talk to us about the album.
Hello Dehd, how are you? So your album is out soon - how are you feeling about it?
We're excited! With everything going on right now it's a bit of a mixed bag, but excitement is definitely in the mix too. First we were in the la la land of quarantine life and then with the BLM movement picking up steam again our attention has been a bit away from the music, but the record coming out is starting to feel real!
It is titled ‘Flower of Devotion’ - is there a certain meaning behind that?
It's sort of just about the beginnings of new growth. When you find care and confidence for and in yourself, for us it was on the other side of personal struggles, it was like the flower in our own spiritual garden starting to bloom.
How does this album differ from your 2019 release ‘Water’?
Water was all about the scrap and getting the energy on the tape. In Flower of Devotion we really took the time to explore both in the writing process and the studio. We were messing around with drum machines new ideas with arrangement and then really took our time to bottle it all up in the studio. We wanted to make a record that you could live inside. Something textural.
What are the key themes and influences on the album?
There's grief, isolation, introspection, haha humor, joy and an aim at the complexity of life. Also those super evangelical billboard that you see hear in the states along rural highways condemning you to hell.
Do you have a favorite lyric on the album? If so, which one and why?
I think for me personally, it's "The month, the month, the month, it's never ending." It's not very poetic, but I feel like the rhythm of saying it exactly expresses the way I felt when writing it. It's the tumbling sense of dread, that's so overwhelming all you can do to react to is is say it's name.
Once the album is out there, what's next on the horizon?
I wish I could say touring, but we won't be doing any of that until next year. But I'd wager we'll put this covid lockdown to use and start writing more, maybe even recording. Up until this point we've done it all pretty much ourselves so it's kinda nice to know we can make something whenever we want.