Hi, everyone! I recently got to chat with Jason Balla, frontman of the Chicago-based punk trio Dehd. The group consists of him, Emily Kempf, and drummer Eric McGrady. Since their creation in 2014, they have released one studio album and a variety of singles along the way. I’ve been fond of a lot of their music, and I was really happy to reach out to him. When he’s not working with Dehd, Balla has dabbled in many different projects based out of Chicago. This includes NE-HI, Lala Lala, and Earring. With NE-HI, he had the opportunity to perform at the well-renowned Pitchfork Music Festival. In addition to his side bands, Balla has also gained traction in Chicago through his collaborations with Twin Peaks and Jamila Woods. With Dehd dropping a new album in early May and going on tour to promote it, I was glad I could chat with Jason before he and the band hit the road.
bazzreviews: Which artists or albums made you want to start a music career?
Jason Balla: Damn, I don’t know. I think what made me want to start playing music was Joan of Arc. I knew this guy who worked for my dad, and he gave me this big pile of records. There were a few Joan of Arc albums in there, and that was the stuff that first resonated with me. The fact that the band is from Chicago is something that means a lot to me, too.
br: How did you meet the other members that formed Dehd?
J.B.: Both Eric and Emily are from parts of Georgia, and came to Chicago for different reasons. When Eric first got here, he was hanging out with this group of people through a friend of mine. I think I either met him at a house party where he was guarding the kegs or at a Harry Potter movie premiere. We kind of hit it off from there. When I first started getting into the DIY scene in Chicago, there was this house called Animal Kingdom. It was fundamental to my development as a musician, and Eric was always around to support me. I met Emily when she was in a band from Atlanta. They toured a lot, and we happened to play a few shows with them. Soon after that, she moved to Chicago. After that, we started writing a few songs and went on a small tour together. It’s been like that ever since.
br: I’ve seen that you’re involved with a variety of Chicago bands, including NE-HI, Earring, Lala Lala and Vail. How did you meet all of the members in those groups?
J.B.: I’m in NE-HI, and Emily used to be in Lala Lala. Emily had a series of female-oriented concerts called Cool Girl Shows, and most of them were all ages. It was just giving females and first-time performers a chance to have a few live shows, which was pretty cool. Lillie [West] from Lala Lala played one of her first ever shows for Cool Girl, and Emily encouraged her to start her own band. Emily ended up joining and was in it for quite a while. Vail is just her solo project which I got in on. Earring was actually my bedroom project that ended up becoming a band with Alex [Otake], the drummer from NE-HI. I also got a few people who I knew moving up through the city to join it, too.
br: Going back to your band commitments, do you ever find it difficult to stay involved in so many genres and projects?
J.B.: It can be kind of stressful sometimes. You only have so much time, and keeping your motivations with everything is tough. You just need to tell the people you’re involved with how much time you’re willing to spend, almost draw some imaginary lines. I also do sound for other bands on the side, so I go on tour with other bands. I can say that I will go for only a couple months out of the year to do that, so I might have to turn down a job or two so I can do a Dehd tour. Emily’s in the same boat as I am because she also has a tattoo shop in Chicago. We can both pick and choose when we want to make a little extra money on the side.
br: Can you describe how you go about making a song?
J.B.: Dehd’s really fun to make songs for. 90% of the music we write now is pretty spontaneous. When we practice, we don’t really have fully written songs to rehearse. We get random ideas from something like tuning a guitar. While we’re doing that, I might come up with a riff or Emily will jam along on the bass. I’ll start singing quietly into a mic, and before you know it, we’re all playing along. I might also have an idea that will become a song in about five to ten minutes. It’s a bit hard to describe in words, but the writing process happens pretty naturally for us. That’s why we’ve stuck with it through some harder times. Not every idea is going to be awesome, so you just have to give it a shot. You might strike out, but it doesn’t matter.
br: What do you value more, lyricism or production value and instrumentation?
J.B.: I guess I’ve been getting more into words lately, but the melody and mood of the chords is what does it for me. Eric is such a great drummer that his grooves add so much to a song, too.
br: You seem to like working with a lot of prominent musicians from Chicago. Not only NE-HI’s song with Jamila Woods, but I saw you’ve done sound work for Twin Peaks- do you have any other dream collaborations?
J.B.: I respect a lot of artists and their art, but it’s hard for me to picture which artists that could work well with Dehd. If you know the band Flasher, they’re amazing. We went on tour with last summer, and they became great friends of ours. All six of us got really close because we all drove in the same van. On the last night of their tour, it was their record release show in their hometown, D.C. Everyone there reps them hard. After the tour, we ended up doing a collab song together called “Fire of Love”. It ended up being a lot of fun, so I guess making a Dehd/Flasher EP or some weirdo s--t in the future would be pretty cool.
br: Do you have any projects in the work for Dehd?
J.B.: Yeah, we’re putting out a record May 10th. While we’re working on another new project right now, this record is going to be called Water. We made it over a year ago, and we feel as if it’s ready to be released. We’re touring for almost the rest of the year, and heading out to Europe for the first time. I’m giddy about that opportunity because I haven’t been there to play music yet.
br: Can you tell me a little bit more about what this new record has in store?
J.B.: Well, when we started making the record, Emily and I were going out for a couple years, and the process for writing this record took place during our breakup. It’s going to be more of a record about relationships and different perspectives on love. It was a tough time in our personal lives, and it’s an interesting take on where we both were after the breakup.
br: What goals do you have for the future?
J.B.: I just want to write the best songs I’m capable of making. I want to capture what we want to sound like to the best of my ability on this new record that I mentioned a little while ago. Hearing music and seeing it live are two completely different experiences for the listener, so we just want to fuse our recorded medium into what we do at live shows a little bit better.
Thanks again to Jason for his time on this interview. Make sure you try and go see a Dehd show near you, because they're going all over the place! They have a really great sound that's really captured my attention, and I think you'll feel the same way once you listen to them. Thanks again for reading this article, and more great stuff is coming your way soon!
To hear some of Dehd's music, go to https://dehdforever.bandcamp.com/
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