Chosen by Monk
My latest audio-visual treat comes from indie rock quartet Delta Sleep, who are introducing us to a mysterious #FigureInTheDark with this latest taster, which sees band frontman Devin Yüceil combining both his film- and music-making skills into one single, powerful entity:
Talking about the song, Yüceil told me:
This one is loosely based on the film ‘The Neverending Story’. It is also about finding your place in a world where people live in silence, and are afraid to speak out for what is right.
Speaking about the accompanying video, the Emmy Award nominated director and cinematographer added:
Expanding on themes from the song about escapism while facing the darkness of the world. Lane, our protagonist, is paralysed by his dissociation and unable to engage with the world around him. The anxiety reaches a boiling point, and Lane has no choice but to face his own demons.
The video was shot on a day off from tour, in the countryside of West Virginia and it involved renting a hand cranked fork lift from a local hardware store.
Yüceil also spoke in depth about the upcoming album, ‘Blue Garden’, and it’s lyrical themes of despair and resilience amidst global crises, describing it as a personal response to the pervasive sense of helplessness and the struggle to find personal solace amid widespread turmoil:
It feels like there’s a grey cloud over everything that’s always in the back of your mind. There’s this thing happening that’s not right and it’s clouding any sense of joy or happiness and yet we still have to carry on with our normal lives. It’s about not knowing what to do and not knowing how to talk about it.
The polarity between shadows and light play a big part in the themes for this album, both in the lyrics and the music. Musically speaking this feels like our heaviest/darkest album to date, but in other instances it could be our most melodic, light and poppy album. Lyrically the album is very introspective, processing the heaviness and pressures of the world. A mood that is heavily influenced by the ongoing brutal, and seemingly never ending slaughter of the Palestinian people by Israeli forces — casting a shadow of depression, terror and helplessness over the world of today.
Yüceil also elaborated on how his film-making background influenced the feel and sound of the album:
Being a filmmaker/cinematographer I always have to be very aware of shadows and light. Photography is about balancing the interplay between light and dark, and through that balance you can evoke a lot of different emotions. Particularly, the absence of light can generate a lot of mood and depth and contrast to an image. I wanted to explore that in a lyrical sense, trying to transpose those primarily visual themes onto real life, and to look at how they might be relatable within the world of politics, love, mental health, interpersonal relationships, etc.
- ‘Blue Garden’ is due to be released on 11 October via the band’s own Sofa Boy Records.
- Delta Sleep tour the UK with And So I Watch You From Afar in December.