Some bands take a while to filter through into your consciousness. Into that place where all your favourite music lives. Not so with DEHD. One listen to their single ‘Loner’ from their 2020 breakout record Flower of Devotion was enough for me. That album is just sublime, hit song after hit song. How do you follow that up though? Hold my beer say DEHD as they gleefully launched Blue Skies on the world in 2022. One listen to ‘Bad Love’ from the album will convert you in a second. Again, it’s the perfect album. Now, the band had releases prior to this which are also worthy of your attention, 2019’s Water is a beauty. How does a band keep that momentum going with the weight of expectation hanging over them.
DEHD are Jason Balla (guitar), Emily Kempf (bass/keyboards), and Eric McGrady (drums). As a unit they couldn’t be tighter, having recorded and produced all their albums to date. They create a mix of surf rock, shoegaze and heart wrenching balladeering. Their lyrics are sung direct from their collective heart, being honest and direct at every turn. Sometimes the heartbreak is palpable but what is always constant is the optimism. On this, the bands press release has this to say.
“Across fourteen songs, DEHD throw themselves against the question of what it means to hope, knowing all too well that things end and hearts can break. “You can’t beat death, but you can beat death in life,” wrote Charles Bukowski and upon listening to this album it’s obvious the band has chosen to attempt the latter.”
This time the band have added Ziyad Asrar (of Whitney) to their gang to lend another perspective to the recording process. This is their first time collaborating with someone out with the band and the process has definitely paid off. Let’s dive into the album and see what DEHD have on offer for us.
It’s straight in to a good ol’ DEHD bop with ‘Dog Days’. In its opening two lines it perfectly demonstrates that underlying thread of hope and joy in DEHD’s music. “Everyone I know is breaking hearts tonight. Everyone I know is bleeding, but I know we’ll be alright” It has that propulsive dynamic that the best of their songs possess. Balla fronts this one vocally but Kempf is on hand to lend her considerable talents. I’ve said in a previous blog that I view her vocal as the bands secret weapon. It’s truly unique and special and long may it serve her.
That secret weapon comes into play on ’Hard to Love’ next. Kempf leads the way with her tale of a summer romance. This is a lush sounding track, it’s mostly in the lower register which lends it a certain darkness.
That darkness seems to leak into the intro for ‘Mood Ring’. Kempf’s fuzzed out bass seemingly taking us into garage punk territory. It’s all just a smoke screen though as soon it blossoms into a gorgeous love song. It’s a two hander with both Balla and Kempf trading vocal lines with a focus on the contrast in their styles. Balla’s laid back drawl against Kempf’s acrobatic, pacy melody.
‘Necklace’ leans into that chilled out Balla vibe and delivers a track that’s as cool as a cucumber. “Pressure for connection when we’re not together. Necklace banging on my chest I cross it for protection” opines our narrator, with a longing for home and the love that lies there. Is this a cry for help or a catharsis of sorts. Could be both, all I know is it’s a great song.
All three band mates team up vocally on ‘Alien’. A song that Kempf says “is about me being otherworldly, an artist of light, an angel, an alien or maybe some sort of faerie creature and wanting to find someone like me in this world, someone of my kind.” The overlapping vocals, including McGrady this time, are an absolute treat for the ears. If ever three voices belonged together it’s DEHD.
‘Light On’ starts off low key. A skipping drum beat from McGrady and walking bassline from Kempf is completed by Balla’s typical understated guitar and vocals. Again, the production is so lush and luxurious sounding, something that really suits DEHD’s sound. What gets me is how they make something so impactful with so little in the mix. This is the level of songwriting and musicianship we are dealing with.
Those heady days when you begin a relationship where you’re consumed by that person is explored on ‘Pure Gold’. There’s some amazing lyrics in here like “Easy, breezy, ooo ya, we laugh so freely” or “I accept you as you is. Friend or lover. I don’t care as long as we’re together”. It’s a great example of the optimistic romanticism that typifies DEHD’s music. It’s something that is sadly missing in a lot of todays music. We need more DEHD’s.
Kempf’s muted performance on ‘Dist B’ next tells a story in and of itself. The song was written by her for her bandmates who helped her through a tough time she had with her mental health. It’s absolutely testament to that optimistic thread DEHD weave through everything that although the majority of the lyrics here are brutally honest and taken right from her heart Kempf chooses to end the song with this couplet. “Yes! I’m feeling love. I’m looking up.”
‘So Good’ almost never made the album. Balla had been crashing at McGrady’s place after a breakup left him between places. He would hear him humming the song around the house so they knew it had to be on here. Thank goodness they did. It’s a storming pop number that whips along at a great pace. It’s pretty special when the verses are just as catchy as the chorus!
I mentioned earlier how Kempf’s voice is DEHD’s secret weapon. Well, each member has their moment to really shine on this album. ‘Don’t Look Down’ is Balla’s. This is a perfect pop song. He uses his guitar parts to the max. Just listen to both riffs in the chorus. Angelic and soaring in and out the melodies they create. That’s just genius to me. Couple that with his most direct and powerful vocal performance to date and you have an impeccable song.
After one perfect moment we come to another, this albums centre point and brightest star. ‘Knife’ see’s Kempf taking a swipe at the patriarchy in what she says is “the closest thing to a political song that I’ll probably ever write”. It’s a beautifully measured delivery in the verses that simply blossoms into the most raw and honest declaration of love in the choruses. This song is all Emily and is an incredibly important moment in DEHD’s canon.
‘Shake’ tackles that balance of people’s expectations of us weighed up against our own need to be our true selves. The sparse guitar riff is augmented by a busier drum part from McGrady that just instinctively fills up the space. Minimalism paying dividends once again.
The band took a new approach when writing ‘Magician’. They swapped around the instruments for this one. Balla recounts “This song started with me on drums and Eric on bass. We’d bounce around the room playing different instruments, dreaming up different ideas. Approaching things from a new place felt so fresh, like the energy we had when we first started out writing together.” That freedom they felt in that process translates so well into the finished song. You can really hear that the bass and drums were the backbone that everything else was draped around,
The album closes with the bitter sweet ‘Forget’. Whilst the song is led by Balla’s mournful vocal and guitar, the band support with their backing vocals too. That explosive chorus floors me every time. It’s like they’re singing through the static of confusion that you feel after a relationship ends.
In Poetry DEHD have made a seismic shift in how they approach their songwriting, how they view the recording process and they sound even more in love with it all than ever. The songs are buoyant and full of life. The lyrics ripped wholesale from their lives and shared in these songs forever. Whilst the track listing is fourteen songs long, at a pacy 41 minutes in length it never outstays its welcome. What it delivers is tales of longing, heartache and self-determinism. All through a lens of love and hope. There’s a lesson there for all of us I feel.
DEHD’s fifth album, Poetry is out now on Fat Possum Records on a wide variety of coloured vinyl, cassette and CD. Head over to DEHD’s Bandcamp to check it out.
You can follow DEHD on social media here…
Photo Credits
Griffin Lotz
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