MELBOURNE, Australia. May 31st, 2021 // Out June 4th, ‘Dea’ is the first release from multi-instrumentalist Joe Terror’s forthcoming sixth full-length album; ‘Queen of Smiles, Blues & the Devil’ – set for release in late 2021. An ode to vilified women throughout history, ‘Dea’ features the powerful spoken word vocals of singer-songwriter Hollie Joyce, who collaborated with Terror on both the lyrical and conceptual elements of the track.
Recorded in isolation during the strict Melbourne lockdown of 2020, Terror and Joyce were forced to complete their corresponding parts – Terror on all instruments, and Joyce on vocals – from their separate home studios, trading ideas over the internet without physical interaction. Instead of the lack of in-person contact acting as a hindrance, Joyce and Terror were empowered to vivify the track with their own volitional comprehension of its impassioned namesake.
Sonically, ‘Dea’ blends elements of psych, garage, punk and progressive rock; with distorted riffs, haunting vocals and explosive drums which build ferociously, propelling the track forward at full steam. In Terror’s own words:
“For ‘Dea’, I had planned on making a groove heavy instrumental rock track, because at the time I was listening to a lot of heavy rock music. I wanted, more or less, to capture the kind of essence that Lobby Loyde or Civic push out but funk up the rhythm section and take away the seriousness that tends to come with bashing away. I suppose I was trying to make rock songs that were more fun and dance friendly than I would normally make, but it still came out pretty intense once Hollie was done with it.”
Featured throughout are Joyce’s powerfully poetic lyrics, which read like an ancient mythological fable told through the defiant lense of punk rock. Belting out dark soliloquies with deep visceral conviction, Joyce illuminates the perils (and resilience) of women from ancient Rome to the modern day, matching the tension-soaked soundscape with emancipated declarations. Speaking on the writing process, Joyce remarks:
“I recorded a lot of backing vocals as I thought the track was going to be a fully instrumental piece with vocal embellishments, but towards the end, Terror asked if I wanted to incorporate spoken word into the mix. While I hadn’t done this in my music before, I thought it would work really well for ‘Dea’, and so the track as it stands was born.”
Inspired by the concept of Terror’s forthcoming album ‘Queen of Smiles, Blues and the Devil’, Joyce’s research during the song-writing process led her down a rabbit hole of powerful female figures in mythology and religion, and the inevitable demonization in which they faced at the hands of the patriarchy. The accompanying visuals, in which Joyce stands atop a pile of naked men, is both a statement of sacred rebellion and a tribute to the women who have conquered in the battle against women’s oppression throughout the ages. In Joyce’s own words:
“The men are naked because I wanted to address the historical objectification of women through role reversal. They are contorted because I wanted it to look like a piece of art resembling Greek and Roman mythology. I liked the idea of creating a scene that challenged the classic roman renaissance aesthetic, displaying men holding me up in an abstract way which is exposed and vulnerable, rather than one of worship.”
The single launch for Dea will take place at The Old Bar Fitzroy on Friday the 18th of June with Joe Terror, Hollie Joyce and Confusion In Colour. $15 entry on the door.
