Dehd-ly Serious

Images courtesy of dehd.

Nothing hits as hard or sounds quite as sweet as a summer anthem. 

I recommend having at least one strong and especially relevant one to rally around every year. It’s good for the soul. It has the ability to harness the heat of a moment and preserve the future. A summer anthem is as fleeting as it is forever— as personal and it is communal. It is windows down, volume up. It’s instant nostalgia. It’s a soundtrack to your own personal zeitgeist. You choose it and it chooses you. 

This year, look no further than Dehd’s new album, Poetry. A quirky trio primarily from Chicago, the band continues to prove their mastery of the summer pop song. Perfectly packaged in three minute anthemic jolts, their seemingly simple songs speak masterfully about the complexities of love.

Eric McGrady tends to set the tempo with the cadence and pronounced power of his standup kit, while Emily Kempf and Jason Balla trade vocal lines back and forth. Balla’s cool, nonchalant delivery provides an intriguing foil to Kempf’s bellowed yelp and howl while the electric shimmer of jangled guitars fills the foreground. It’s freak pop for the sunshine kids. It’s innocence and rebellion. It’s bubblegum and cigarettes. It’s love, and loss, and hope, and repeat with a feel good and fuck it all mentality.

We caught up with Balla and Kempf via conference call, to discuss Poetry and the various perspectives associated with that powerful and polarizing word. Balla was at home in Chicago while Kempf was slightly off the grid, valiantly battling for phone reception while running emergency farm errands. But more on that later. 

Ok, so the new album just came out. Congratulations, how has the response been so far?

Jason: It’s been sick. Actually, it's kind of like a funny place that we're at right now, because normally, we put a record out, and we’d either be on tour already, or we'd be like driving. But we don't go on tour until mid-October. So to combat that we did some pop-up, DIY shows. We played one in New York at this park… like a generator show. And then we played at this warehouse back at home. So it's been a really fun and exciting party week. Kind of just being scrappy.

So, the record is named Poetry. I saw that great clip of Tom Waits reading Bukowski on your website — but what was it that prompted that title?

Jason: It kind of started from that. Maybe halfway through writing the record I like found that video and I would basically play it all the time. On our last writing session in Chicago I would play it every time we started writing. It would be like ‘Ok guys, once more around the horn.’ So we did that and then we realized it was this thing that speaks to the larger thing of what the record is about—which is having agency in your life and becoming an active participant in it, opening yourself up to the range of emotions, whether it’s pain or joy or ecstasy or whatever. Just laying over, with the belly is out, ready for whatever comes its way. Emily was like, ‘We should just call it Poetry, which is kind of perfect because it’s like the whole spectrum of life. 

‘Bad Love’ seemed to be a bit of a breakout song for the band, but this album seems to have have the word ‘love’ in almost every song, if not every song. Now, is that a conscious decision? Was that planned?

Jason: I mean, it's just what we write about, I guess. For some reason, this is what resonates. 

Emily: We only know how to write about love. Like Taylor Swift. 

Speaking of— I was questioning whether or not to bring it up, but yeah, it seems like someone else of prominence recently released an album with a reference to poetry in the title. 

Jason: It’s like she’s biting our style, but maybe the algorithm is pointing everyone in this direction. I don't know. I think there's some sort of cosmic trip that everyone's on right now. I mean, maybe this poetry thing as a theme is about people really trying to get in touch with their like feelings again— like a refuge, because the world so fucked up. One of the really nice things about this week, even though it’s weird to be posting stuff in the midst of all the awful things that are going on, it’s nice to know that community and self-expression still exist. It’s like, ‘oh yeah, right, there is some beauty here still.’

Does writing about love get complicated since the two of you dated early on? Or does it make the approaching the topic easier?

Jason: Not really. I mean, we put a record out that was kind of about that. But that was a long time ago at this point. It's actually, its fifth anniversary today. So it seems a lot easier than it was then. 

Emily: It’s more extraordinary to me, personally, that we dated, remained bandmates, and aren’t toxic, or fighting, or weird, or codependent. We just transitioned into being friends, painfully and awkwardly, but eventually it became smooth sailing. And today it’s amazing to me that we are friends and bandmates, and business partners. 

Jason: We had a bickering sibling family phase for awhile, but I think that’s over. 

Emily: Yeah, now we are in loving sibling phase. Not in a gross way. It’s just like, this shit is real. And I think it’s rare. I wouldn’t suggest it to anyone, but I feel that you get one in a lifetime. And this band and Jason was the one. The greater good is the music and the fun that we have and it emanates out and encourages others. There’s a greater purpose. Not like in a saving lives sort of way, but in a way that’s greater than our relationship.

Jason: It’s also a chance to be adults about things. And even some things on this record, which don’t deal with our relationship— like in the song “Forget,” it’s like we’ve had all of these experiences and I shouldn’t just completely write them out of my life like it never happened. It’s all like a cumulative effect of the person I am now. 

You two alternate vocals throughout your songs. Do you guys write the parts that you sing?

Jason: Yeah pretty much. I would say this is actually the first record where we've ever even dared make any comments on it. And that was literally like 10 words collectively across the whole record where I’d be like, ‘you could do better on this line’ or ‘what if it we just said this here.’ We never do that. Usually it’s just like ‘that's your fucking zone over there. This is my zone. We don’t try to influence it. But I think that just speaks to where we are creatively as a three piece, too. Eric doesn't say much, but when he does speak it's like really wise, and you know it's important. So I think everyone at least feels empowered now to say their opinion. But yeah, we keep it really separate, as far as Emily's writing about her things. I'm writing about my things, and that's kind of what it is.

I couldn’t find much history about the beginnings of the band. I mean, I just found out that DEHD is an acronym.

Jason: I heard that on the radio, and it was blowing my mind because I didn't think anyone knew about this. Somehow it got leaked.

So you both had bands with ‘dream’ in the name? Had you guys known each other forever? Was Dehd a side project that became a larger thing?

Jason: Basically what happened is I had an old band and I met Emily at a show. We were playing this show in town for her band that was coming through. She lived in Atlanta at the time, and then we kind of became friends. I kind of already knew her drummer or something like that, and they wound up moving to Chicago. And then we I guess we probably started dating or started writing some songs, and then we wanted to go on a trip. So I made up the Dream Eagle name just for that one trip. So we made a cassette, and one half is her songs. One half is mine, and then they’re joined by two songs that we wrote together. Which are basically the first two Dehd songs. We just did a tour so that we could go on a road trip and like pay for it. And then when we got back from the trip, asked Eric to be in the band. And then the band changed its name to Dehd. Maybe we play those 2 songs still, I can't remember. I have it the tape somewhere.

The radio is obviously a terrible barometer on the state of music, but there are some good college stations that keep things interesting. And I remember hearing you guys on the radio and being pleasantly surprised. It was perfect summer anthem music. Do you remember the first time you heard your song on the radio, or coming out of some stranger’s car, or something like that?

Jason: Dude. It's crazy, actually, cause I was riding my bike. And I mean, this is not the first time, but it was like pretty crazy because these people drove up next to me. I got a red light, and they were playing a song and then they looked over at me, and then they were like, ‘that's fucking him.’ They were like hanging out the window and screaming at me. I was like, ‘I gotta turn left. I gotta get out of here.’ Which is kind of insane. I think the coolest thing probably was like being in a coffee shop on tour, and then hearing a song come on. You're like on tour and you're hungover and trying to get like a latte. 

You guys do a lot of difficult things consistently well. Song titles and album titles rarely have more than two words and you’re able to compose anthemic pop songs about love. Lots of them. How do you succeed where others fail? Is it attitude?

Jason: Yeah, well, I think probably the top most reason is that we're writing from real experience and feelings rather than like this conceptual thing like, ‘Oh, wouldn't it be interesting if I talked about this?’ So already we're closer to it in a way that we can talk to people on a level where they actually recognize themselves in the music and their experiences. Because it's coming from a genuine place. It’s not hypothetical or programmed to punch all the buttons. Some of that stuff is like ‘if I hit this button I get this sugar treat.’ And I mean some of that music is really good, because it's just like ‘Whoa! My head's spinning from all the sugar.’ But hopefully, there's like more to chew on in our stuff. We don't really write songs that way. We don't write music by strumming on an acoustic guitar or playing it on a piano first. It happens from us making the music and a lot of it is tying different riffs together and stuff like that. So it winds up being a little bit more of a journey rather than just like a formula.

Jason: Em, you’re back!

Emily: Hi guys. I'm at a weed store parking lot. I'm just like having, like a massive panic attack driving around like a maniac. 

Were you tattooing today?

Emily: No, no, I'm in Taos. I have a lot of animals… livestock and today’s traumatic situation is that I have a baby calf, and his roof leaked, and he got all wet last night. So I've been trying to build a roof. I was like, I have to get home for this interview, but it's a 30 min drive and I was getting all this shit for the fucking cow. I was trying to do all the right things, but you know it's just how it is out here. Everything's far away and there’s no service, and everyone’s really slow. So I just have to think differently, and I just forget what it’s like going from the city to the rural. It's a different vibe. I feel like I’m picking up my coolness like the cool jacket that you put on when you're out and about in the city, or at shows. It's like a learned behavior. It's a vibe that completely goes away when I'm here because I'm just around horses and ranch people who don't even know it. I've been here 3 days, so I'm back in ranch mode, and so I have to like, go back into cool mode, you know?

So is it your farm? Do you work on someone else’s farm?

Emily: No, it's mine! [Laughs] I swear I didn't mean for it to become this.  With our other interview that we just did, the cow was in the house, and I had just gotten him. It's just a baby. Jason, I'm sorry that my animals take over every interview. In was sitting there with the baby cow, and like 3 dogs and I was just taking a nap with all these animals in a pile and then woke up to do the interview. And then the cow was like peeing on my sheepskin rug… Anyways, I love rock and roll. What’s what was the last question you answered Jason?

I was told that you were a tattoo artist, so I was going to ask about that. But this really through me for a loop.

Emily: Yes, that’s another…another life. I started tattooing when I was like 33 or so and I was going through this process of I'm in my thirties. I've been touring and being a punk and doing whatever I want for this like whole time. Am I wrong? Should I do it like normal people do? I had this like freak out where I tried to quit music and art, but Dehd was still there in the background. I tried to get an office job. I bought office people clothes, and I like went through this really weird time. It lasted about nine months I think. Then Dehd started being a little bit more of a vibe and then tattooing snuck into my life, and that allowed me to afford being a DIY touring musician for a little longer. I've always been an artist, but I never thought to myself, ‘I'm gonna become a tattoo artist.’ It felt accidental. I was just doing stick and pokes horrifically on people at parties— a horror scenario now that I know stuff like proper sanitation. So I do that. And I tour. And now the livestock and the farm shit and off-grid started two years ago when I moved to Taos. So ranch girl life is like this other thing that I'm balancing and also did not mean to be become. Like, I had one dog when I moved to Taos. Now I have 3 dogs, 2 horses, a cow, 4 chickens.

Jason: I thought your chickens died.

Emily: Jason. I got off the plane, I went to a farm and bought four more on the way home from the airport. From a farm where honestly there were 20 children who all looked the same. I was like, ‘damn, there's like a hundred chickens and a hundred children and there's no adults anywhere. Am I on a fucking cult farm right now?

What's your take on the theme of poetry on the album?

Emily: Honestly, I kind of look at as an after thought. Which is actually how I look at most of my songwriting and drawings. They're always really honest, and I think I know what's going on when I write them or make them. And then later, it’s like this secret message from future me somehow was coming through. Or as if I knew something that conscious me wasn't aware of yet. But we kind of have this theme going that was not intentional, but, the first album was self-titled. Then it was, what was it Fire of Love. And then Water, and then Blue Skies. Am I skipping one? It's like fire, water, sky.

Jason: We were kind of trying to do the elemental thing.

Emily: Oh and Flower of Devotion was earth. We weren’t like ‘okay, this year we gotta do air.’ The title would come up, and it'd be like, ‘Wow, this fits in with our weird little world.’ Dehd has this weird world that we kind of attune ourselves to. It’s like a separate entity from the three of us. So Poetry to me was like the esoteric, spiritual element.

Yeah, I mean, the idea of poetry as an abstract entity is great, but there is another side to it. Like I used to date a poet, and she would… talk… in meter… and speak… in phrasing… all the time.

Emily: Hold on, she was talking stanza like at you. Like in bed she'd be like ‘art thou?!’ [Laughs] Yeah, well, poetry is kind of tricky. It could become insufferable very quickly. I'm in a poetry club, which I just joined because it felt terrifying to me. We have a prompt, and then we'll sit around and read our shit out loud, and then everyone sort of compliments and critiques it. It's like I write songs, and I'm a writer. But I don't think of myself as a poet, even though I'm poetic. So I'm in a room with real poets and I feel like it's not worthy.

What are the notes you got?

Emily: They’re all nice to me, I think it’s just in my mind, but I might like actually suck because the poem I wrote is about going to the same stall every time at a venue. Anyways, yeah, poetry is weird. I feel insecure about it as a concept for myself. But I know that I'm extremely poetic and lyrical. What is the difference between poetry and lyrics, maybe a level of annoyingness or something? The poets I like are old school like Rumi and the other guy, Hafez. It's all love stuff, like, ‘Oh, my God,, how did you think of that?’ But not like Shakespeare.

Jason: Not to be your ex-girlfriend right now, but there's this Leonard Cohen poem that I think is really sick. It’s goes:

• You go your way.

• I'll go your way, too.

Emily: So love that. 

Jason: It's not like crazy flowery, or conceptual, but it's just so smart and says so much more, which I think is like what we try to do in songs. It’s like, say these little things, or these little condensed things and you can pull all the other stuff out.

Emily: Yeah, pack the most power in one relatable, funny sentence that either either makes you laugh or cry. You're feeling something strong. And it's confusing. I can't believe I made it onto this interview. This just made my day. I was literally having a panic attack. I was like this sucks. I wanna break this.

Sorry that that that happened. You know, it wasn't life or death, or anything. You know, you gotta take care of the cow first. You know what I mean?