ANCHR's Artist of the Day: Sincere Engineer
What happens when you don’t get into dental school? You put out a pop punk record. Or at least that seems to be Deanna Belos’ (AKA Sincere Engineer) approach. In 2017 she put out Rhombithian, an introverted yet vibrant album about trying to surpass disaster. A sort of goofy ambition undercuts most tracks, like in ‘Corn Dog Sonnet No. 7,’ her ode to dealing with depression ("It's been a few days, I took a shower/watched some TV, fed a sunflower/I'm still learning how to be.”) Her brand of punk is punchy and earnest, as she growls through melodic riffs her lyrics keep a tender charm. It takes a lot to make your own screw ups the focal point of your music. Her songs about feeling like shit tend to have an off-kilter sense of humor, on ‘Ceramic Tile,’ a promise that this is the last hangover, Belos sings “I welcome forehead kisses from the floor.” Recording with a full band adds fast paced drumming and heavier hooks to her severely catchy tracks. With her raspy voice as an anchor she spits out references to Lake Michigan and creates anthems for the most anxious Midwesterners. Belos takes a gutsy and earnest approach to confronting your past and figuring out how to maybe do better (“I'm running late again, I'm gonna explain why in all the texts I send.”) But she has fun with it. Her latest music video for ‘Dragged Across The Finish Line’ features the band wearing literal trash cans over their bodies while training for a marathon, if that gives you a sense of Sincere Engineer’s style. It doesn’t seem like Sincere Engineer are waking up on the bathroom floor so much these days, just trying to finish the race on their own time. Maybe we’re all garbage people just trying to get through it. Corn dogs and all.