ANCHR's Artist of the Week: Dehd

Photo by Alexa Viscius

I mean, seriously…Can we just get these vaccines moving already!?  Dehd released Flowers of Devotion last summer and I haven’t been able to rock with all the new songs in a live setting yet. Like many others, I was looking forward to their set at Pitchfork Music Festival, but of course the ol’ Rona had to stick her nose in our business and ruin everything.  Luckily, I've seen them once before at an “In The Round” show at Thalia Hall so that’s been able to hold me over for now.  Once live music is back though, I highly recommend checking out their performance if they hit a stage near you. Unless you’re one of those people that doesn’t enjoy dancing, good music, and feeling good. If you identify as such, then please stay away— but even then, Dehd is a great band for anyone since they tend to take serious subjects and place them in fun, groovy melodies.

Dehd is a trio out of the Windy City composed of Jason Balla, Emily Kempf, and Eric McGrady. They have three albums to their name and have also found themselves on “Perez’s Best” annual CD mix for the last two years (if you know, you know).  Balla and Kempf were previously in a romantic relationship during the early years of the band, but thankfully their songwriting partnership didn’t die when the romance did. Instead, they continued to hit us with bangers and keep making the people happy. 

If this is the first time you are ever hearing of Dehd, their album Flowers of Devotion is a great album to start with, but don’t sleep on their self-titled debut or 2019’s Water either. I dare all readers when listening to “Haha” or “Loner” to not groove with the music. It’s just not possible.

Be sure to also check out the amusing music videos that the band has released for their recent singles, and snag your own copy of their newest record here.