Dehd

Chicago trio Dehd rose out of their city’s D.I.Y. rock scene with members initially splitting their time between multiple groups as the band took shape. Set apart by their direct, stripped-down approach, Dehd’s infectious pop songs came doused in reverb and hit hard with minimal drumming and uncluttered arrangements. Well-received releases and frequent touring grew the band’s fan base, and their sound took on a sharper definition with album’s like 2020′s Flower of Devotion and 2022′s more personally-drawn Blue Skies.
Dehd was formed in 2015 by Chicago musicians Jason Balla and Emily Kempf. The two had recently begun dating and formed the band amid commitments to other groups they were active with — Kempf playing in Vail and Lala Lala when she took up bass and vocal duties in Dehd, and Balla singing and playing guitar in groups Ne-Hi and Earring before doing the same in the new project. They enlisted friend Eric McGrady as the drummer. McGrady, who had never played drums before joining Dehd, brought immediate personality to the band with his simple setup consisting of just a floor tom and snare. This minimal approach followed through to the rest of Dehd’s sound, which found echoey vocal harmonies swimming in straightforward songs that borrowed from both girl group melodrama and the buzzy noise of C-86 bands, the Jesus and Mary Chain, and even hints of the sinister darkness of the Gun Club. Dehd released a self-titled album in 2016 and toured often. In 2017, they followed up with the six-song EP Fire of Love. In the summer of 2017, Balla and Kempf ended their romantic relationship. Rather than split up the band, they channeled the sadness and upheaval of their breakup into new songs for their 2019 album Water. The album was critically adored and the band quickly returned the next year with Flower of Devotion, a new album with heightened production values and a more defined reading of their melancholic, dreamy sound. Flower of Devotion arrived in July of 2020, a time when most touring and live performance was halted due to the COVID-19 pandemic. While waiting to get back on the road, Dehd readied Flower of Devotion Remixed, a companion piece to the album that included remixes from Lala Lala, Miranda Winters, Protomartyr, Freak Heat Waves, and many others. Fourth album Blue Skies arrived in May of 2022. The album pushed the trio’s sound even further with increasingly polished production, subtle experimentation with electronics, and a more emotionally straightforward lyrical approach. ~ Fred Thomas