Deeper and Dehd In Conversation for Talkhouse, Both on tour in the EU / UK!
Deeper and Dehd sat down before our 10 Year show at Thalia Hall and recorded a conversation for The Talkhouse. Click through to read in full and catch both bands out on the road this Fall!
Nic Gohl: Jason, should we start with the band that we both shared in early 2012?
Jason Balla: The pre-Deeper Dehd band.
Nic: What did James call the band originally?
Jason: Freeway Minds, after a Kurt Vile song. [Laughs.]
Nic: Also, he didn’t tell any of us that it was gonna be called that. I remember we saw a flyer for the show, and one of us was like, “Who’s Freeway Minds?”
Jason: That was 2011, I think? It was kind of the first band that we were in, and then it broke apart and turned into Ne-Hi and Deeper and Dehd later on.
Nic: There was a band called Summer Triangle Love Family that was precursor to some Deeper — there was Nancy Drews, and then Deeper.
Jason: I still have that tape. Hot fire.
Nic: So those are the early days. We kind of met through going to parties in college.
Jason: Where we also played some of our first house shows — maybe my first house show at my house.
Emily Kempf: OK, how did everyone else come into the web?
Nic: Well, fast-forward to now: I saw [Emily] play with Jason’s other band Earring at Cafe Moustache.
Emily: SUPERMAGICAL [playing with] Earring — that’s how I met Jason.
Shiraz Bhatti: My first time meeting you was when Ne-Hi and Nancy Drews played that DIY spot in Logan [Square].
Emily: It was one of the most epic DIY shows. Everyone was crowd surfing, and it was like a weird office space. It was a rager.
Dehd on Tour
09.28 - Chicago, IL @ Revolution Octoberfest %
10.02 - Nürnberg, DE @ Z Bau (festival)
10.03 - Offenbach, DE @ Hafen 2
10.04 - Chemnitz, DE @ Lokomov
10.06 - Jena, DE @ Trafo
10.07 - Bamberg, DE @ Pizzini
10.08 - Berlin, DE @ Musik und Frieden *
10.09 - Hamburg, DE @ Molotow Musikclub *
10.11 - Rotterdam, NL @ Rotown *
10.14 - Cologne, DE @ MTC *
10.15 - Paris, FR @ La Boule Noire *
10.16 - London, UK @ The Dome Tufnell Park *
10.17 - Manchester, UK @ Eagle Inn
10.18 - Leeds, UK @ Brudenell Social Club *
10.19 - Oxford, UK @ Ritual Union *
10.20 - Cardiff, UK @ SWN Festival
10.22 - London, UK @ Rough Trade East (In Store)
10.23 - Brighton, UK @ The Prince Albert
* w/ @twinpeaksdudes
% w/ Parquet Courts
Deeper on Tour
10.18 - Rotterdam, NL @ Left of The Dial Festival
10.19 - London, UK @ Shacklewell Arms
10.20 - Norwich, UK @ Wild Paths Festival
10.21 - Glasgow, UK @ Broadcast
10.22 - Leeds, UK @ Superfriendz
10.24 - Bristol, UK @ Crofters Right
10.25 - Ipswich, UK @ Smokehouse
10.26 - Lille, FR @ La Malterie
10.27 - Ghent, BE @ Kinky Star
10.28 - Paris, FR @ Supersonic
Love is everyday magic. That’s the impression you get listening to Water, the new album by Chicago trio Dehd. Veterans of Chicago’s increasingly fruitful DIY scene Jason Balla ( Ne-Hi and Earring) Emily Kempf (Vail and formerly with Lala Lala) and drummer Eric McGrady share a strange and inexplicable chemistry. Love rises up into the atmosphere like steam off a summer sidewalk and makes you wild. Love breaks your heart and you consider yourself lucky for it. Like water itself, it surrounds us, it supports us; it’s what we’re made of. It takes the shape of its container. The music is hazy and reverb-drenched, a scuzzy and hyped-up take on surf rock that could only come from the Third Coast. It’s all animated by the red-lining feel-good spirit of the Velvet Underground’s Loaded and the breezy melodicism of C86-era indie rock, with a dash of the Cramps’ spooky-hop bop courtesy of McGrady’s locomotive drumming.It’s a clear-eyed look at the wild nature of everyday life that’s been spun up in sugary sweet melodies and scratched-crystal sounds. More than anything, it’s the embodiment of Dehd’s m.o. from the start: As Kempf puts it, “Work with what you have and make it magical.”
Even the tightest relationships are susceptible to unexpected change. “Run”, a new single from Chicago’s Deeper, examines what happens when we’re forced to confront the reality of these relationships and find the courage to walk away for the better. It’s not easy to abandon that image of who we thought we were, but it’s the leap into the unknown that’s the first step to self-actualizing. At first the song wrestles with identity amidst uncertainty, but as it progresses, a confidence emerges that has become the driving force for where Deeper is headed. Backed by an astutely scientific cover of the John Maus rarity “Bennington”, Deeper sheds the searching bottled up in previous material, carving out an ambit distinctly their own. Brisk, pointed and efficient, and no note wasted, “Run” b/w “Bennington” a new 7 Inch out in October 2019 sets the stage for the Chicago trio’s sophomore LP.
*This Item is Pre Order - Ships on or before October 4th 2019
Limited to a one time pressing of 500 copies on translucent red vinyl.
The debut album from Chicago based Deeper. Origins of the project date back to 2014 where the band has made their mark locally supporting like minded acts Omni, Protomartyr, Chris Cohen & fellow Chicago powerhouses Whitney & Ne-Hi. Fresh off official after show appearances at Pitchfork & Lollapalooza the band is poised to jump out wide with this debut record. 9 tracks channel the anxiety and uneasiness of modern life in this pit of endless internet, chiming post punk rave ups with pointed "of the times" lyrics & gorgeous ambient interludes woven in.