Designed by Lucas Long. Photo by Alexa Viscius, courtesy of Dehd
Listening through Dehd’s Flower of Devotion for the first time makes you as indecisive as you’ll ever be, likely choosing a new favorite 10 seconds into each track as they come. It doesn’t get easier to choose once you’ve become more familiar — if anything it gets even more difficult. Emily Kempf sells you on every second with the depth and tact of her supposedly tactless (or so she claims) tossing around of her voice, which she didn’t find until she was 23. You can get lost in not caring who is singing what as Jason Balla’s voice blends in with hers in this genderless pool of sound. All the while, Eric McGrady’s half-drum kit keeps you swimming in it.
You could read into it, but that doesn’t seem to have been the intention. Dehd’s more about doing what feels good and what’s fun, whatever will make them laugh or whatever will give the highest return of good times and positive vibes throughout their community in Chicago.
The Zoom chat with Jason and Emily further confirmed their easy breezy-ness about it all. It can be easy to get caught up in the Meaning of every little piece; what the colors mean and the intention behind a certain bit of a video. Sometimes it just is what it is, just because it is… and that’s such a relief to be reminded of. I loved Dehd before but I love them even more now that I know that they made this record with the playfulness, wandering confidence, and curiosity it’s seeping with.
I feel like the confidence that has kind of grown with you guys is so clear, it comes through in every part of the record in the vocals and in the production in everything — like it’s so clear. But I’m wondering what makes you feel vulnerable?
Emily: what makes us feel vulnerable in general?
Individually or as a band, whichever.
Jason: Probably still singing, haha.
E: I don’t know, I have to think about it…
Haha, that’s ok… this question makes you feel vulnerable.
E: Yeah, all I can think of is that like, [my appearance], which is not a great answer. There’s certain angles and photographers are always below us and it sometimes annoys me and I’m like, why can’t they not be just shooting up at our weird bodies.
This is the point at which I had the perfect opportunity to not make it weird about saying how stunning she is.
I mean, that’s a very fair way to feel, just putting yourself physically in front of people is very vulnerable, so it’s not a weird answer!
E: I guess it’s just body image stuff that I’m trying to work through. And being on stage definitely has helped me work through that.
Right, like just being up in front of people has made you more comfortable
E: Yeah
While we’re on the topic of being in front of people, I honestly hadn’t really explored your videos until recently just because I didn’t feel the need to go beyond the record? But they’re all so amazing — and obviously there’s a lot of thought that goes into them, but I’m wondering how deep I should really dig into the “Loner” video? How much of it is just meant to be straight up humor and how much of it is meant to be symbolic… also, how closely are the humor and meaning intertwined with each other?
E: (laughs) it’s definitely not to be dove into too deeply. I don’t think anything we do visually should be dove into too deeply. It’s mostly for humor and also just like, this seems cool let’s do it! And then everyone being like, “Yay.” That’s kinda the vibe usually — “Is this fun? Let’s do it.”
‘Cause I could have gone in and explored all the symbols and stuff, like you have created something that could be dissected, but it also makes sense that you didn’t have that intention at all going into it cause it is very fun too.
J: The element of humor is something that’s cool, and I think not taking some things too seriously is really helpful. You don’t want those super self-serious musicians where it’s just like, boo-riinggg. Like, have a little fun with it too!
For more photos and the full feature, check out Issue 9 available to order now
