DEHD play an acoustic set in The Current studio
December 09, 2024
Chicago indie-rock band DEHD are on a bit of a roll. On their most recent album, Poetry, the three-piece band got a little bit more experimental with their sound — something that really came alive as they wrote and recorded songs in a couple of different locations; specifically, in Taos, New Mexico, and on Bainbridge Island in the state of Washington. They also took another new step in bringing a producer into the studio with them. The results proved a bit more creatively satisfying and liberating.
As further evidence of a more free-wheeling DEHD, the three band members — Emily Kempf, Eric McGrady and Jason Balla — recorded a three-song acoustic set of songs while visiting The Current studio, eschewing drums and bass for a couple of acoustic guitars to accompany their vocals. Watch the performances above.
After the set, Kempf and Balla sat down for a conversation with The Current’s Zach McCormick. You can watch that interview below — and just below that, find a full transcript of the interview.
Zach McCormick: Hey, everybody! My name is Zach McCormick, joined by DEHD in studio today, talking about their new album, Poetry. I'm joined by Jason and Emily. Thank you so much for joining us. Let's talk about the last time that we chatted with you, in 2022; you had just released your latest album at that time, Blue Skies, and the lingering effects of the pandemic really kind of had sort of affected the way that you were able to roll that album out, or maybe it's just different now, at this point in 2024, but what's changed since the last time that we chatted with you all, as far as your touring and releasing of a record is concerned?
Jason Balla: I mean, we've just been like back in the world, and we've been like on the road pretty much non stop.
Emily Kempf: I feel like the fans have changed.
Zach McCormick: Yeah!
Emily Kempf: They've there's more of them, and they're really enthusiastic.
Zach McCormick: That's great.
Emily Kempf: And there's, like, multi generations coming to the shows.
Zach McCormick: Oh, cool. So there's people bringing their parents. People are bringing the kids, maybe even potentially.
Emily Kempf: Yeah, the kids.
Jason Balla: Parents, children...
Emily Kempf: Like, first show ever.
Jason Balla: Duo, kind of like,
Zach McCormick: That's sounds so cool.
Emily Kempf: It's cool.
Zach McCormick: That's awesome. Let's talk a little bit about the — speaking of, you know, spending a bunch of time on the road — you all decided to, for your latest album, Poetry, to like, write and record it, rather than, you know, staying home in Chicago, which I think you'd done for previous records. You decided to take it on the road for the album process as well. So you started in Taos, New Mexico. There was a stop in Bainbridge Island in Washington. What was creatively exciting to you about getting out of Chicago at that time to work on Poetry?
Jason Balla: Kind of at the beginning of it all was actually just to make things work logistically, because Emily was living in New Mexico at the time, so it was like the first time we weren't all in the same city. But then it kind of wound up spinning that into just like having an adventure, and then, like, infusing making the record to be a bit of an adventure, rather than just, like, going through the same motions in the same place that we've always been.
Emily Kempf: Yeah, I was kind of, I was thinking about the Clash, and how they, like, went away to write a rock album, and I was like, "Can we do something like that, but, like, free? Like, make it free?"
Zach McCormick: Yeah, totally!
Emily Kempf: So we went to my house in New Mexico, and then we went to our friend's parents' house in Bainbridge Island, and it was just fun to, like, step into the energy of, like, the only job we have is to write so there's no outside distractions. It's like, we eat, we sleep, we write; we sleep, we write, and we were just like, at like, writing summer camp or something.
Zach McCormick: That's awesome. I could also see it would be kind of just cool to, like, have a travel experience that wasn't married to, like, this cycle of touring, where it's like, you know, seeing the back of venues all over the world or whatever, you know?
Jason Balla: Yeah, I was gonna say it's like, we spend so much time in like, a black-painted room, and then that's, like, my vision of what a city is, and I'm like, "I know that four walls pretty well at this point.
Emily Kempf: You're like, "I know this gas station, I know this green room," and that's kind of it.
Jason Balla: Yeah, and there's just, like, a little bit ... Time is different, because, you know, we're always in a rush on tour, and we have to be at the next place, and we have to be at soundcheck or here, or whatever. And, yeah, it was really just like, we took it as it come, and, like, let ourselves be open to, like, when the inspiration would come, and everything was just always set up and on. So anytime an idea would come, whether it be like, three in the morning or right after we had coffee or whatever, we basically only had to stop when we were in Taos at Emily's house, if the — it would run on solar panels — so when the sun went down, you're on like a timer until, like, we ran out of battery, and we're like, "Whoop! The battery's done. We gotta stop for the battery."
Zach McCormick: Yeah, that's was that ever, like, frustrating? Do you ever get, like, you were, like, really coming close to an idea, finishing it off, and then beeeeeoooooooo....
Jason Balla: I think it's kind of fun, like...
Emily Kempf: No, it was just like a fun boundary to play within.
Zach McCormick: And then you kind of hang it up at a certain point, yeah.
Emily Kempf: And yeah, but I mean, we had a lot of time, so breaks are invited. But yeah, it was interesting because it was really cold, and we had to, like, chop — we literally were chopping wood to go into — it was heated by wood stove.
Zach McCormick: I was gonna say, let's talk a little bit about your life there. Or it sounds like you're not living there anymore, but like, at one point you were living in this, like, sustainable, like, off-the-grid-style, home, it looks kind of like — they're called Earth Ships, you were saying. They look kind of like Hobbit holes, sort of built into the ground. What was your life like there? Were you farming? Were you raising animals? What were you doing?
Emily Kempf: Yes, exactly. Well, I moved there to learn to build the Earth Ships, which is like a hobbit house, like on a Star Wars planet. That's what I would describe the vibe, but also mixed with, unfortunately, like an HOA in an Airbnb neighborhood. But I went there, like, fresh faced and excited about, like, starting a punk community in the Hobbit houses. But yeah, I ended up buying horses. I had a baby cow, I had chickens. I was like, I was fully homesteading, and learning how to live off grid. And I just wanted to know if I could do it, like, "Can I survive without modern amenities?" And, you know, without like, like, there was no DoorDash, there was no — the town was 20 minutes away, and I did a great job. I did a great job, and I felt really proud of myself. And now I just recently relocated to upstate New York, where I'm trying the homestead thing again, but with, like, a bit of a more vicious winter. So I'm learning a new version, where now my like, it's like ticks and coyotes are like, the predators. And in Taos, it was like coyotes and rattlesnakes.
Zach McCormick: Rattlesnakes and scorpions and that kind of stuff, I would imagine.
Jason Balla: To be fair, there's like, the winter is crazy in Taos too, because we were—
Emily Kempf: The winter is crazy. Yeah, yeah.
Jason Balla: I was sleeping under like, 12 blankets, just like uhhhh!
Emily Kempf: And he's from the Midwest.
Zach McCormick: I was gonna say, they don't tell you about the desert being cold at night, but it's—
Emily Kempf: It was the high desert.
Zach McCormick: High desert, yeah, it makes sense.
Jason Balla: I was, like, running through feet of snow every morning.
Emily Kempf: It was cold, it was cold, but it's like, dry cold, which is different than, like, wet cold, I would say.
Zach McCormick: The lake effect, Chicago, humid, humidity, cold, not the same thing as the desert.
Emily Kempf: It gets in your bones. And, like, because I was off grid, I got used to not having air conditioning and normal heating, and I had to work for my environment. Like, anything I did I had to work for, so it's like, if I wanted to be warm, I had to chop wood. And if I was lazy, I would just, like, go under a sheepskin, which I just was like, I guess I'll buy a sheepskin, because that's what people do on Game of Thrones. I was like, what do the medieval people do? Like, it's like, all the power went out. I'll light candles. And I really went, like, old, olden days.
Zach McCormick: That's awesome.
Jason Balla: We tried to make a beat out of the axe, but it didn't work out.
Zach McCormick: So I was gonna say, what was the interaction when you all showed up then too? Was it like, "OK, this is cool. Wow. You're, like, really doing it out here." Or did you adjust as, you know, a Chicago city, fellow to the, like, the natural splendor, were you enjoying it?
Jason Balla: I'm pretty malleable and flexible.
Emily Kempf: Jason's unlike anyone, anywhere. Yeah, he could sleep on the ground with nothing and be fine.
Jason Balla: But, yeah, no, it was wonderful. We had a little mobile studio I've been building over the years. And so I was able to just, like, we just set up camp, and it was pretty much just, like, we know how to make music, so we just kind of hunkered down.
Zach McCormick: What songs on the record were kind of developed in that sort of initial phase there, if you can remember, like, kind of maybe the style that you were writing?
Jason Balla: The environment was really cozy, obviously. And like, everything, like, kind of soft and warm, like the adobe walls and everything, it all had, like everything was kind of like all the edges were rolled off, and it kind of like, I think led us to writing a little bit more sensitive material. So like, "Alien," was part of that set.
Emily Kempf: "Dist B."
Jason Balla: "Dist B" was written there, "Pure Gold" was written there. That might be, there might be one or two other ones.
Emily Kempf: Like the softer, like I was leaning into soft voice; quiet, soft, winter voice Emily. Because I'm more known for, like, the loud—
Zach McCormick: Belting, yeah, totally. You're like, "I can show my other side."
Emily Kempf: I was just like, why not? You know, we're five records in, and it was try some stuff out.
Jason Balla: And "Hard to Love," also.
Emily Kempf: "Hard to Love," yeah. "Hard to Love" was written in Taos prior to the boys getting there, and then they — I sent it to them a while back, and they were like, "We got to do this song in DEHD," and so we reinvented it for DEHD. And they convinced me. Jason was like, "This is the best song!" And he, like, loves the song. I was like, Are you sure? And then it became born—
Zach McCormick: "Hard to Love" is really cool, there's kind of almost like country harmony to it. There's like a rockabilly element to it, too. I don't know; it's really cool. I dig it as well.
Emily Kempf: I'm a Southern girl, so that's, like, my southern roots are coming out a little bit.
Jason Balla: I feel like you can really hear the desert in that song; especially, like, the first version I heard, is just of this voice memo, which, in my mind's eye, I picture you just like sitting in the desert with like a little acoustic guitar.
Emily Kempf: I literally was, yeah.
Zach McCormick: That's awesome.
Emily Kempf: I write like one guitar song every, like, four years, because I'm really bad at guitar! "Flying" was the last guitar song that I wrote.
Zach McCormick: I think of that region of the Southwest as kind of having, sort of like an alien quality to it, too; the desert feels like the surface of another planet.
Emily Kempf: I mean, literally, there's aliens there.
Zach McCormick: I was gonna say there's also alien encounters. Did you have any creepy kind of alien encounters while you were living there?
Emily Kempf: I mean, I lived on a road called Lemuria, which is lifebeing, and like, the developer of that community was, like, states that he, like, got the plans for these houses from the aliens.
Zach McCormick: Oh, wow. OK, cool. So it's like that. That's awesome.
Emily Kempf: And it's like, "Well, maybe he did, I don't know. Who am I to say?"
Zach McCormick: Well, that's great. Let's talk about kind of next stop on the trip, which is this Bainbridge Island in Washington. You're going from the desert to this lush kind of Pacific Northwest coastal region. What was the difference there? You know, from working in, from working at the last spot, like, what was the differences that you found while working in Seattle creatively? Or just like, what songs kind of came out from that session?
Jason Balla: The environment definitely was, like, colder and like, starker. I mean, we're on this, on the Puget Sound, and so, or I guess maybe on a bay.
Emily Kempf: It was like a misty lake.
Zach McCormick: Cool.
Emily Kempf: Moss everywhere. Stones. Green.
Jason Balla: Yeah. There's a kind of this, like, elemental — because the tide you're watching come in and out every day, and you're just like, part of this. It's very like, you're aware of the sort of greatness of the earth that's operating.
Zach McCormick: Cool, I can see that.
Jason Balla: And so there was a little bit of that; like "Necklace" kind of shows up in that song a little bit.
Emily Kempf: "Mood Ring."
Jason Balla: We wrote "Mood Ring" there as well. We were kind of recording in this really echoey attic above a garage. So there was, like, this huge pitched roof, and that's like, where all the clappy reverb, like, actually comes from, is like this acoustic—
Zach McCormick: Recording it live.
Jason Balla: ... where it's just literally the room, you know?
Zach McCormick: That's awesome.
Jason Balla: So yeah, there was a lot of that. And then my best friend, whose partner, his parents own the house. He came and stayed with us to basically chaperone us—
Zach McCormick: Yeah, of course, yeah, yeah.
Jason Balla:b ...but he wound up, like, cooking his home, cooked meals every night—
Zach McCormick: That sounds lovely. Yeah, yeah!
Jason Balla: ...and it was just, like, really nice. So we just would work all day, and then we would get a text from him, he's like, "Time for dinner?"
Zach McCormick: Yeah, yeah!
Emily Kempf: Yeah. And it was like—
Zach McCormick: "Come on down, I made pasta!"
Emily Kempf: It was like being a teenager and going to, like, your friend's fancy parents' lake house—
Zach McCormick: Totally.
Emily Kempf: ...and you're like, "This is so nice." Like, "They have a drink fridge in the garage, and, like, the floors, the floors are heated. You're just like, wow.
Zach McCormick: "We're gonna watch R-rated movies later. It's gonna be rad!"
Jason Balla: Yeah, the house where there's no rules.
Zach McCormick: Yeah, yeah. Exactly.
Emily Kempf: Yeah, and there was like, no parents. It was like, no parents.
Zach McCormick: And your friends, you know, you're trying to just keep the place from burning down. But it's not like, you know...
Jason Balla: Yeah, basically.
Zach McCormick: Yeah. DEHD's not really known for trashing, you know...
Emily Kempf: Absolutely not.
Jason Balla: Yeah.
Zach McCormick: Anyways...
Jason Balla: Give us one more record, then...
Zach McCormick: There you go. So from there, where did the journey take you? I heard that you would sort of return home to Chicago after that, but was there anything that kind of happened on the trip back home at that point?
Jason Balla: We've been kind of retracing those steps literally over the last couple days—
Zach McCormick: Yeah!
Jason Balla: ...as we've driven from Seattle to here, and so I've been re, I've been re-experiencing this trauma.
Zach McCormick: Oh no! It's a tough part of the drive.
Emily Kempf: I wasn't there. I wasn't there.
Jason Balla: Me and Eric, we, you know, we had been gone for like, about a month writing all these songs, and we were like, we were really ready to get home. We were about to go to England to go on tour with Dry Cleaning, and so we were like, "Let's just do it in one drive," like, "We can do 30 hours."
Emily Kempf: From Seattle to Chicago.
Zach McCormick: "We're tough guys. Let's do it. Yeah, it'll be fine."
Jason Balla: I mean, we love, we love a long ride.
Zach McCormick: They're road dogs. Yeah.
Emily Kempf: They're, yeah.
Jason Balla: So we were driving, and it's, at about, like 12 hours in, it's a crazy winter storm. They closed the highway down. So then instead of stop, we're like, "We'll just go through the mountains." So we did the mountains for four hours, listening to Buck Meek's Candle just like, on repeat, literally, for like hours. And then right when we got out of it, like, the weather cleared up, like my car, literally, the van the whole time was just like drifting, like, for four hours. I'm just like, all attention—
Zach McCormick: Spooky! White-knuckling the entire way.
Jason Balla: Yeah. We get out of it all. It's beautiful. We find this gas station, we fill up, and we're like, "I think we could do it." We're feeling really good.
Emily Kempf: At 12 hours!
Jason Balla: Well, at this point, it's maybe we're 17 hours in or something, and we're like, "OK, cool—"
Emily Kempf: It's like 17 more.
Jason Balla: "I think we can do it." Like, we're feeling really good. And you're kind of at that point where it's like, two in the morning. You can't get a hotel anymore.
Zach McCormick: You're like, "Damned if I do, damned if I don't."
Jason Balla: Yeah, so then I'm bombing the hill at 80 miles an hour. I hit a deer and it just flies off into space. And we thought we were OK, but as we drove for another hour—
Emily Kempf: They did not get out of the car.
Jason Balla: I turned the brights on, and then all of a sudden, one of them was shooting into the sky. And I was like, "Perhaps we've, like, sustained some damage here." Car broke down in the middle of, in the middle of the wilderness, and then we were stuck out there for a couple hours, and then someone rescued us, basically.
Zach McCormick: Thank goodness, wow.
Jason Balla: We were stuck there for five days.
Emily Kempf: They were in like, this small—
Jason Balla: Really small town called Forsyth [in Montana].
Emily Kempf: Almost invisible town, yeah.
Jason Balla: ...at the Sundowner Inn.
Zach McCormick: Oh, there you go.
Jason Balla: Shout out, John. And then he was actually, he wound up being our ultimate savior, because there was no way to leave the town, and we had to go to England. So he drove us 90 miles to the nearest town that had a rental car agency.
Zach McCormick: Awesome.
Emily Kempf: And it was such a small town, like, you guys, like, what'd you do? You like, left the hotel and like—
Jason Balla: Immediately upon leaving the motel room door, a guy was sweeping up the street, and he said, "I heard about the deer." We hadn't been outside for more than two minutes.
Emily Kempf: So funny!
Zach McCormick: Like, "Well, you're new in town."
Jason Balla: You could walk across it in about 10 minutes. Yeah, it was a very small place.
Emily Kempf: And I was not there. I'm posh, so I flew from all these places; like, I wasn't in the car for any of this road trip. I was flying.
Zach McCormick: Sounds like you didn't miss much.
Emily Kempf: I would have never, like, "Yeah, let's keep going." I would be like, "We have to stop!" So it was like, boys' adventure.
Zach McCormick: Yeah, yeah!
Emily Kempf: And they didn't even, you guys didn't even tell me. Like, their communication skills are so — it's how our versions are so different, because, like, I didn't even know they'd hit a deer until, like, I don't know, like, days later, like, "Oh yeah." I'm like, "What??" If I was there, I would have been texting everyone I know, like, "Oh my god. We just hit a deer!" Like, sent pictures and like—
Zach McCormick: Yeah, totally. That is the kind of the classic Midwestern like, "Oh yeah, yeah, I hit a deer over the weekend."
Emily Kempf: Yeah.
Zach McCormick: It's, no, it's just something happened.
Emily Kempf: Burying the lede, like, times 1000.
Zach McCormick: Absolutely. So you made it back to Chicago. You're finishing the writing process. You're developing the rest of Poetry there, and you're also working with an outside producer for the first time in your friend, I believe the name is Ziyad Asrar.
Jason Balla: Ziyad Asrar.
Zach McCormick: From the band, Whitney. So what did he bring to the album? And why did you decide for the first time to work with an outside producer after kind of going fully DIY producing the records yourself up until this point?
Jason Balla: Like me and Ziyad have like always gotten along over the years, but always kind of just colliding with each other wherever we were. But I knew that I, like, really appreciate his music tastes, and he also gets, like, doing the really nice stuff that Whitney does, but also, like, being trashy.
Zach McCormick: Totally!
Jason Balla: He loves punk music and everything. So I kind of had a hunch that we would work really well together. And we did one song together, "Eggshells." I recorded everything at our space, and then I just sent him the songs to mix, and me and him mixed it together. And then it was kind of enough proof in the pudding that we could just get it going. And so it was really a wonderful experience. Like, he brought like, a really matched energy, I think, to me, because normally I'm like, losing my mind in there, like, running the board and trying to perform. And—
Zach McCormick: Yeah, it's really hard to do both at the same time.
Jason Balla: Like two parts of your brain, like, split down the middle.
Zach McCormick: Yeah.
Emily Kempf: And Jason got to be more of a, lean into his performer more and have more fun. And then we had this extra person, which, like, kind of made us all, you know, when like, you're with family, and there's like an outsider, and then you're like, all more polite suddenly because—
Zach McCormick: Totally, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
Emily Kempf: Like, it made like, the vibe be a little bit more—
Zach McCormick: "We have an observer—
Emily Kempf: ...polite.
Zach McCormick: “... we have to be on our best behavior right now."
Emily Kempf: And like, because I struggle with recording, so it was helpful to have an outsider sort of help calm me down, where Jason didn't have to do it the whole time, like, if I was struggling with something, so it made all of our experiences funner. And then Ziyad and Jason were just like, in the studio for hours, and we would leave and come back, and they would be like, they've created their own language. There's like an invisible gremlin in the corner that they've talked to, like they—
Zach McCormick: Secret handshakes, yeah, yeah, yeah.
Emily Kempf: Yeah.
Jason Balla: We were doing like, 14-hour days for 14 days in a row.
Zach McCormick: Wow!
Jason Balla: So I was with him a lot.
Emily Kempf: They would talk in Peaky Blinders accents. Like, the whole time, they were talking and, like—
Zach McCormick: Incredible.
Emily Kempf: It was so funny.
Jason Balla: My nickname was Tommy Pockets.
Zach McCormick: I love it. I love it.
Jason Balla: I always wanted to get everything, the drum. I'm like, "Just scooch the drums a little bit."
Zach McCormick: Yeah, "Just, just a little bit."
Emily Kempf: It just, it felt like Ziyad brought joy into the room and helped sustain the joy. So like, I'm excited for the next record if we choose to work with him again, because it's just gonna be really fun.
Jason Balla: And we don't really collaborate with anyone. So it was, like, kind of a big jump to include anyone's opinion in anything, because we are so insular in our way of doing things.
Emily Kempf: Yeah, and we just, like, know ourselves enough and know what we like, but yeah, so it was a big leap to—
Zach McCormick: Absolutely, trust somebody else a little bit.
Emily Kempf: Release some of the reins.
Zach McCormick: Yeah, totally. But also sometimes bringing in an outside perspective can kind of give you, like, a better idea of what it is that you want to create—
Emily Kempf: Exactly.
Zach McCormick: ...to have someone, kind of sharing and helping sharpen that. You did the same thing with the music videos this time around, bringing in an outsider as well too. What was that experience like? I love the video.
Emily Kempf: It was relaxing.
Zach McCormick: Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Emily Kempf: Because usually, it's like Jason in the production and audio; I'm like that with the visual and music videos, right? I produce it all, and I like, love doing it, but it was really cool to just show up and be a kid—
Zach McCormick: Totally.
Emily Kempf: ...you know, in the back of the van, rather than, like, driving the car. And our friend Glamhag is so good at everything, and we knew, like, this is the person, and they knocked out the park. And of course, Alex Grelle is always the star of all of our videos.
Zach McCormick: Yeah, totally!
Emily Kempf: It was just easy, and we didn't really even give any input. We were just like, "Do whatever you want."
Jason Balla: Yeah. And like, Glam had been in a bunch of our music videos as well. So, like—
Zach McCormick: Totally.
Jason Balla: We already, it's like, just a natural, like, we already are—
Emily Kempf: We're already a friend fam.
Jason Balla: ...in the same world and language, like, just run with it.
Zach McCormick: You're expanding the DIY, but like, not that wide. You know, it's still, it's still part of the family. It's still part of the connective tissue of your community. It's just, you know, bringing in an extra personnel by a little bit.
Jason Balla: As things, like, go along, it's just, we're always trying to, like, include our friends who we admire. So it's like giving everyone a chance in a platform in some other little pocket.
Emily Kempf: Exactly. Yeah.
Zach McCormick: Let's talk about developing some of the different sounds on the record. Because one of the things that I really think is like your superpower in this band is your incredible way that you weave your vocal melodies and harmonies together. And, you know, like punk rock music, sometimes it can be seen as, like, vocals are an afterthought, or, if not an afterthought, at least, like, something that you're not supposed to try that hard at. You're supposed to just, like, sound good and be cool and not worry about it. Like, do you develop your vocals? Is it something where you two are, like, talking about this a lot? Are you just jamming together, working out ideas back and forth? How do you two build these really cool vocal parts?
Emily Kempf: Honestly, it's kind of like two kids, like, talking over each other.
Zach McCormick: That's great.
Emily Kempf: And like the two of us, just like we're very intuitive with music. I feel like we come from intuitive places. And so we both are just intuiting harmonies and stuff. And harmonies is definitely a skill set of mine. Like, I love harmonizing. So, yeah, we just, we just start, and that's how we write all the songs, just like instrumentally as well. Like we just start playing, and then we follow whoever has a lead, and then if they drop off, we follow the next person, and we just — and then the song is formed that way, but the vocals are very, like, Jason will start singing, and then I'll either start harmonizing, or if I have a lead part, I'll just jump in with it, and then he will step back, and we just kind of listen to each other. Yeah.
Jason Balla: Yeah, I think our just awareness has gotten more fine tuned over the years of being able to listen with other person is doing while you're also putting your own idea, and then being able to make, like, a quick judgment, like, "That one's better," or, like, "Actually, mine's better. I'm gonna keep yelling it over her."
Emily Kempf: Yeah.
Zach McCormick: Yeah, totally!
Emily Kempf: Yeah. And it works out, yeah. It works out. Like, we are able to share the spotlight, I guess. And that, I think, is a rare quality that not everybody can do. And also, like, I feel like our voices are —I didn't know this at first, but having been in the band a while and hearing feedback — it's like, I didn't know people thought, like, it's ungendered in a way—
Zach McCormick: Yeah, totally!
Emily Kempf: ...because people think like, I'm Jason and Jason's me, like, because I guess the register is lower and higher, I don't—
Zach McCormick: I guess, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
Emily Kempf: ...I don't understand what it is, because I'm too close to the source, but—
Jason Balla: I screwed that up even in mixing, where I was like, "Oh, can you turn out that harmony that Emily did?" And when we soloed it, I'm like, "Oh, that's me."
Emily Kempf: Because sometimes, yeah, like, our voices are like, like coins, I don't know; it's like something mystical about it. And I love that it's interesting in that way, where it's not about a girl or a boy, or like a lead singer. It's just like two voices creating art, and it makes me feel good as a band that we don't have — like, our identities aren't as important as, like, the stuff we're making, or something.
Zach McCormick: You're trying to make it as good as possible, regardless of who's, like, lead on a particular track.
Jason Balla: Yeah, sure.
Zach McCormick: Or whatever that means.
Jason Balla: Just serve the songs the best.
Emily Kempf: Yeah, basically what is best for the song.
Zach McCormick: Totally.
Emily Kempf: Like what words and what sounds, and and we're both really free about experimenting with stuff. And like, we don't have fear around like jumping, like trying to do something weird or different. We all — me, Eric and Jason — all give each other space to, like, be bad, or something.
Zach McCormick: Yeah, totally. Yeah, yeah, yeah, try stuff out, be playful, maybe would be a good example of that.
Emily Kempf: Yeah, I feel like it's a mark of a good writer if you are able to allow yourself to be really shitty, you know, in quotes, because it's all relative—
Zach McCormick: Yeah.
Emily Kempf: ...because that's how you are really good is like, being able to be bad.
Zach McCormick: You have to trust your instincts at every kind of level, be them more playful versus more, you know, like, "This is the one." Yeah, totally.
Jason Balla: And just like, yeah, there's, I'm never self-conscious trying something.
Emily Kempf: Yeah, that's it. There's no self-consciousness, really, which is rare for me. I don't like ... like, I'll do it in front of them. But like, I, if I'm by myself — if I'm anywhere else, I have to feel completely alone to try stuff or even sing at all, really.
Zach McCormick: So it shows the comfort you've had with this band now—
Emily Kempf: Yeah.
Zach McCormick: ... after this many records and stuff.
Jason Balla: Yeah, exactly.
Zach McCormick: Let's talk about a little bit about kind of preserving one of the other qualities that I think is so cool about your records: There's this element of, like, space and dynamics to them, where, you know, I'm sure, as you've gone throughout your career, the impetus to, like, add extra layers to your albums, or, like, add extra players, extra sounds, thicken the mixes up, might be there, but you all have had this great ability to just keep, like, balance quiet moments, you know, the mixes aren't cluttered, the melodies are really clean. Like, is that an intentional thing that you work on to try to kind of keep that element of space in there?
Jason Balla: Yeah, I think there's, like, an idea of, like, I guess, like, kind of what you're saying, like, the melodies are clean. It's like this, like, pure melody thing. And I think we just, like, have a natural sense of certain, like, really simple melodies that, like, kind of can stand on their own. So rather than like, you know, adding too much distraction, it's like, it's nice just to distill it down to these, like pure things. And because we are so vocally driven, I think it's like, kind of a big important part for us is, like to live that and then build around it a little bit. And the guitar, I guess, is kind of the other—
Emily Kempf: Yeah, I feel like the guitar is like the other ... well, yeah, I think it's just like our personal preference. And also, we both know how to write a pop song, and—
Zach McCormick: Totally!
Emily Kempf: ... and so we, we know what we're doing, in a sense, but we also, yeah, the sense of purity around like, like a house that has good bones, we just, like, know how to stick with the good bones, and you don't need that much frill. And I think it's, yeah, I think it's also an art to be able to be like, a song is really good, if you take all the trappings away, and it's still stands on its own. Like, whether it's just the words or a simple melody. Like, we kind of stay in that lane.
Jason Balla: That's why I like doing the acoustic stuff, actually.
Zach McCormick: I was gonna say, this session today, kind of giving a different feel of the songs that you would do in the acoustic style versions of the sessions.
Emily Kempf: It's a great, it's a great test of, like, is this a song to withstand the ages?
Zach McCormick: Yeah, totally. Ideas?
Jason Balla: I have, like, a memory —actually, we were talking about Twin Peaks earlier, but I used to tour with them a lot, and we were, like, all sitting around a campfire, and like, you know, the guitar is just getting passed around or whatever. And like, when it was my turn, I'm like, "I don't have any, like..."
Zach McCormick: Ideas?
Jason Balla: ... songs that I can play on the like, everything would be, like, a weird lead line or something. And that was kind of something that's always been in my mind, of like, "Oh, can the song be played at, like, a campfire or something in the most simple way?" And which I think when we're at it, that's when we have something.
Emily Kempf: That's cool.
Zach McCormick: Absolutely, totally. And, you know, I kind of think of this, like sort of preserving that element of quiet or that response as being something that, you know, with the Pixies, who were really good at over the years, and you all just recently covered "Mr. Grieves," back in October, for a cool — was this like a one-off Halloween type of thing? How'd you find your way to that song? And, like, what was fun to you about recording it?
Jason Balla: It's actually like we were asked to record it for this TV show, The Great.
Zach McCormick: Oh, cool, yeah, totally.
Jason Balla: Yeah, yeah.
Zach McCormick: I'm a fan.
Jason Balla: It's a, yeah, it's a cool show. And that director is really cool. And so it felt really exciting to be asked. They only include one modern piece of music each episode. So that was, like, this song.
Emily Kempf: It was a very unhinged scene. It was also my first time experiencing someone giving me notes about what I do.
Zach McCormick: Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah.
Emily Kempf: And I was like, I handled it interestingly, but not — they don't know, they don't know that. Jason, had to like—
Zach McCormick: Totally, totally, totally.
Emily Kempf: ...be like, "It's OK." But because I'm used to, like, in this band, I do whatever I want, and everybody's encouraging and like, we'll critique each other every now and then. But it's never like, "Can you make it sound more deranged?" It's like, "What do you mean?"
Zach McCormick: Totally, totally.
Jason Balla: Back to our, like, we don't collaborate with people.
Zach McCormick: Yeah, yeah, exactly, exactly.
Emily Kempf: Oh, but yeah, we did a good job. We would probably would have never covered that song had they not asked us to, so.
Jason Balla: But it was a really neat way to, like, get in the mind of someone else's music, because I don't really know how to play anyone else's songs or anything like that.
Emily Kempf: Yeah.
Zach McCormick: I was gonna say, I don't—
Emily Kempf: I dislike covering.
Zach McCormick: ... you do covers every now and then, but it's not something that I've seen you all do a whole bunch. So I was kind of curious as to the story behind that one.
Jason Balla: Really fun. And there's, like, a little bit less of, you know, there's always this, when you're writing your own music, this element of yourself that's in it, and you're like, "Well, this is my idea," and, like, are self conscious about it, maybe, where, like, with this, like, the song was written already, so like, all I have to do is have fun in recording a new version of it. So there was a, it was a real lightness and fun aspect of it, I think, in making it, which I think comes across. There's lots of like, I was just like, "I'm gonna make a weird sound here." You're like—
Zach McCormick: Yeah, totally.
Jason Balla: Yeah.
Emily Kempf: I had the opposite experience, because I'm like, "It has to be better than the original." Like, that's how I think about it. And I'm like, competitive. I'm like, I have to be cooler, and it has to be different and but also cool and original and like, also like, relate, and, yeah.
Zach McCormick: So you're wrapping up the fall tour of the States in just a couple of days here with three days at Thalia Hall in Chicago, and then you're gonna do some, see some, you know, Europe stuff in early 2025, but what else is kind of on the horizon that you're excited about working towards? Just has been energizing you creatively, anything out there in the world?
Jason Balla: I mean, this has kind of been our first opportunity to play the new record and the new songs for people live. And it's been really infectious, I think, of just like, a really overwhelmingly positive and exciting. So more shows, I think.
Emily Kempf: I'm excited to tour more.
Jason Balla: Yeah.
Emily Kempf: And like, write. I'm excited to, like, spend the next year touring and writing for whatever it comes next. And then in my personal life, I'm, like, homesteading and like doing horse stuff, and so I'm excited to get more into the horse world.
Zach McCormick: Awesome. Well, thank you so much, DEHD, for joining me in the studio. New album Poetry is out now. It's fantastic. Your acoustic session as well sounded great. We're so grateful for you joining us here at The Current. Thanks for your time.
Emily Kempf: Thanks for having us.
Songs Performed
00:00:00 Dog Days
00:03:10 Light On
00:06:15 Mood Ring
All songs from DEHD’s 2024 album, Poetry, available on Fat Possum Records.
Musicians
Jason Balla – guitar, vocals
Emily Kempf – vocals
Eric McGrady – guitar, vocals
Credits
Guests – DEHD
Host – Zach McCormick
Producer – Derrick Stevens
Video – Aaron Ankrum
Audio – Eric Xu Romani
Camera Operators – D’Vir Rudin, Aaron Ankrum
Graphics – Natalia Toledo
Digital Producer – Luke Taylor
External Link
DEHD – official site