We speak to Dekker about music, personality and artistic intention

The album's out! How have you found the journey to release; do you enjoy putting all of the pieces together and did you enjoy the build up?

Obviously I'm excited to have it out so that people can hear it. I feel like there’s so much energy which goes into making an album that by the time it comes time to release it I'm kind of depleted, and I need some of that energy to come back, so that I can carry on with my life, you know.

I do have people that I work with, but I'm doing most of the stuff myself; I don't have a manager, I don't have a label. I have a little problem with authority, even my own authority; sometimes I can't even follow a set list if I feel too pinned in by it. It can be quite a problem for me.

Because of that I'm not sure if I feel the build up. But I’m excited. I'm not super interested in hype or trends anyway, so that suits me and it sort of suits the music.

Speaking of hype, on Spotify you have 800,000 monthly listeners, which is a fair chunk. It's an interesting kind of position you seem to be occupying; flying under the radar but with a big listenership.

Yeah, it is weird. I was just in conversation with my wife about it because it's perplexing. I feel like I'm in this in-between world somehow. It’s quite a weird thing to have the music land really well on the streaming sites - lots of playlist additions and stuff like that, which just seems to be like a natural resonance that's happening. Yet in the States [Dekker was born in Chicago] nobody but my mom knows me, you know? It's quite a weird thing.

There's an inherent contradiction in Dekker - there always has been - so maybe there's a strange poetry in that juxtaposition.

It's such a strange time for music, with the industry operating in new ways. It feels chaotic and it must be quite strange as a musician to navigate all of that. 

For me, it's good and bad. The map has been just shredded. There is no ‘This is what you need to do in order to make it,’ that just doesn't seem to exist anymore.

I do feel a little like I’m floating in space, sometimes. The stuff that is working, I have no idea how or why! And then the stuff that I'm trying really hard at just falls flat. 

I was just talking to my wife about the hat that I wear as Dekker. When I started it, the world was different, everything was less atomized, chaotic and polarised. It was 2019 when I first donned the hat and it was never intended as being a branding thing. I've been questioning lately if it's coming across that way as opposed to the more honourable intention that I had originally. I wonder if people see that as a cheap move to get attention or something. That kind of grosses me out, because that's not my vibe.

But it just shows how fragmented the world around us is. It's just dissected to the point where I can't make out what it's meant to be.

What was your intention with the hat, early on?

The most honest answer is that there was no intention at first. I got it to serve a purpose in a music video for This Here Island [from the 2020 album Slow Reveal: Chapter One]. I wanted to change the silhouette. Then I went back to it because obviously anybody is gonna feel - well maybe not anybody, but a lot of people feel -  more comfortable obscured onstage. 

So there was a level of comfort, I think that that gave me. Even doing that original video with the hat I could tell the difference in the way that I allowed my body to move when I had my  face buried by it. I felt freer to move.

That's probably the original intent. But I don't think of it so much as something to hide my face as to enhance my being. It's more like a superpower than a shield. 

On that subject, how much is Dekker a character; does the music you release under this name represent just a certain aspect of your creative self?

When I'm writing for different projects, I'll write in a different voice. But when I’m writing as Dekker, it’s just me. I would say it's actually really deeply personal. 

Was this album born of a specific intent; did you have something you wanted to say when you started writing?

This album came from having a challenging couple of years for our family in lots of different ways - there’s been a lot of extreme highs and lows. I think this was me just documenting our life and trying to find where we're actually at. Because there's all these amazing moments and all these horrific moments and it's hard to know. They're so loud, these ups and downs, that the middle gets lost, and actually that's where I feel like most of our lives are. I think this was my effort to try to get a handle on it.

One of the things I love most about the album is how all-encompassing it is of both the ups and the downs. There’s great interplay between some pretty sombre and introspective lyrics and this really bright melodic music. To me, that happiness is maybe more valuable for the darkness present. How consciously did that balance come and was that something that you were aiming for?

Definitely, yeah. That's something actually I’ve aimed for with most of the records; I’ve aimed for a contrast or juxtaposition between really deep introspective, melancholy lyrics set against a really bouncy groove. It's just really interesting to me and I like the absurdity. 

I used to love the absurdity of doing these dance videos on Instagram, where it's like this super melancholic song where if you listen to the lyrics, you're thinking ‘wow this guy is broken,’ and then I'm like trundling along in a silly kind of way. There's something about that which feels like those old school Charlie Brown videos with the really dark jazz in the background and then you have this cute character with the shrugged shoulders. There's something really rich in that for me. That's the kind of mood that I'm usually reaching for.

The album is incredibly cohesive sonically. Are you a big advocate of the album as an art form?

I'm a big lover of the album as an art form, and I think I've gotten it closer to right with this one than with any other Dekker record so far. Now that I've sat on it myself for a few months, I see the weak spots and I’m kind of ready to do the next one and learn from these mistakes. 

I probably wouldn't say that I'm an advocate of it just because the world moves at a different pace and it’s not for me to try to argue with how other people consume music. That feels like a hill that would be wasted energy trying to climb. I don't mind how people consume it - I'm not anti-Spotify, pro-Bandcamp only. But I love records, and I feel like this record feels good to me. It’s my favourite Dekker, and I haven't said that with each one.

How did you find the sequencing of the record?

I didn't get through many drafts of this one, actually. I kind of knew pretty early on I wanted to start with Today and I wanted to end with Let's Turn Over the Leaf. This one kind of put itself together more naturally than in the past.

I still think about ‘Side A’ and ‘Side B’ and having a strong start, middle and end. I think that’s quite a cool way to look at it even if it's not being consumed like that.

The track Change the Chord feels like the point in the album where things turn more hopeful. Did you have that arc in mind?

I think you're right to sniff out a little bit of a mood change after that song. That was the intention, but it’s difficult to achieve with Dekker songs because every song is imbued with both sides, so it's not as clean as that. 

It was difficult to place Change the Chord. Because it’s this electric guitar track. My drummer and I recorded it quite delicately, as it could quite easily turn into an indie rock sort of thing and we had to kind of hold it tightly to make sure that it stayed in this indie folk lane that I think we're probably in. It is actually track one of side B. That’s an intentional thing.

The lyrics on the album are often quite unsparing in their directness and in their vulnerability. Have you ever found yourself pulling back from lyrics that are too intense?

No, I want that! I feel like there's not enough of that in the world, about ourselves. There's a lot of raw language spoken online about how much we like this side and don’t like that side or whatever, but there isn't a whole lot - in my experience - of really true, open words from ourselves. I don't want to offend anyone. But making someone feel awkward due to my honesty or openness I think I'm becoming okay with, actually.

Because I don't understand social boundaries the way a lot of other people do, I can be quite blunt and open about these deeply personal things. Sometimes I have to clear lyrics and social media posts with my wife, like ‘Hey can you double-check me here because this feels really good to me and that actually makes me feel like maybe I've done something weird,’ just to make sure I'm not crossing a line. 

Looking at the writing process, did writing these songs bring any revelations, or did revelations unlock the songs?

I think it's too soon for revelations. When I write, I'm writing more with my body than my mind. I'm following the mood of the moment. I'll have my guitar out and I'll find a melody that feels like the mood that I'm in until there's a sympathetic resonance or something. And then like I'll just start humming and making noises until a couple of words come out. And usually that's really revealing.

Then I just follow the thread, but it's not something that I'm thinking about, I’m following this intuition. It can be a couple of years before I really know what that was. 

I admire your social media; you're always in all of these lovely natural spots in Nottingham. What does Nottingham give you creatively as an artist?

It's provided a feeling of home for me. Having grown up in a family that moved a lot to having now been in Nottingham for a third of my life, it sounds pretty basic, but actually Nottingham really feels like home now. It really, really does feel like home, which is strange, I think for an American to be saying that.

There is a warm vibe here in Nottingham, though I stick out like a Grandpa in the music scene.

How are you feeling about the tour? Are you feeling positive about road testing the new material?

I'm definitely feeling positive about the new material. I’m never apprehensive about playing shows, but it takes a lot out of me, as I do most of the organising alone.

I love playing shows a lot. I'm looking forward to both the Europe shows and the UK shows for different reasons. In Europe, I'm doing some of them solo and some as a trio, and playing venues of all sizes in many cities, so it's quite a cool tour to launch a record with. 

Then coming to the UK, it's just gonna be me and my drummer. We get on like a house on fire, so it’s always like a good hang. We've been playing together for years. We can kind of speak without speaking, you know, and so it's always a cool vibe.

You’re playing Rough Trade Nottingham on 9th November, supported by Charlotte Carpenter. You must be looking forward to your hometown gig?

It's gonna be great. I mean, it's Rough Trade… I love that place. It's quite intimate and an interesting venue, and I'm looking forward to it a lot.

And you get to sleep in your own bed afterwards!

That's a winner, definitely.

@dekker.brookln