Photo Credit: Josh Hight
London-based three-piece, deary have announced their debut full-length album Birding due out April 3 via Bella Union. Helmed by Rebecca "Dottie" Cockram (guitar, vocals), Ben Easton (guitar) and Harry Catchpole (drums), the band met and formed in 2020 over a shared love of Cocteau Twins, Slowdive, and MBV. The band wears these influences on their sleeve with the self-produced album’s dreamy shoegaze beauty and trip-hop beats, incorporating their modern touch to make something unique their own. The result is a collection that washes over listeners as they explore their own life experiences in the context of the modern world and through religious iconography, dealing with innocence, grief, mental health, nature and the human experience.
Dottie’s ethereal vocals soar over jagged guitar, battling a wall of heavy drums on lead single “Seabird”. Propelled by Harry’s Portishead-esque backbeats, the track sonically resembles a wide open sky, with layer upon layer of guitar chords echoing to the heavens. “With the whole bird theme, there was also a direct nod to religious iconography—the majesty of feeling insignificant in the wider world,” says Ben. ““Seabird” is like a fable, a story of this person pleading to a bird and asking, ‘When does it get better?’ We wanted to recreate that kind of majesty, feeling insignificant to the wider world. It is the perfect introduction to the rest of the record in that regard.”
Watch / Share: “Seabird” Video
Birding aims to draw attention to the direct impact humans have on the world around us, whether that be nature, or ourselves. The importance of protecting the inner child or someone more vulnerable, holding hands, learning from past mistakes. “I was writing the record in one of the worst periods of my life,” Ben shares. “I was not in a good space at all. Our last EP, Aurelia, was about transition, and how it's cool to change. And Birding is, ‘Oh no, I‘ve made some really disruptive life decisions.’ The album came from an isolated, almost hopeless space, and you can hear that in parts of the record. But there are also moments that are very self-loving and meditative, and a bit more uplifting.” Across 11 tracks that run the gamut from ocean-deep shoegaze riffs to cloud-light sprinkles of ethereal indie, Birding is the sound of a band who have definitively found their groove.
“Our last EP was us trying to be deary,” says Ben, ‘and this album is us being deary.”
Coming off a UK #1 (Vinyl Singles Chart) with their debut single “Fairground", the band has supported Slowdive and Cranes and worked with the likes of Saint Etienne, The Murder Capital and Emma Anderson (Lush). deary have announced a number of UK and EU live shows to follow the album’s release. Tour dates here.
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