New LP – “SISTRONIX 2.0” – Deap Vally
What do you do when your time as a band is coming to an end? Go out with a whimper with maybe one last show? Not if you are Deap Vally who have decided to go out with a bang. The duo of Julie Edwards (drums and vocals) and Lindsey Troy (guitar and vocals) are ready to head back out on the second part of their nationwide farewell tour and this week release a re-recording of their 2013 debut album.
SISTRONIX 2.0 sees the band regaining control of their legacy with their own version of the original eleven tracks as well as demos, previously unreleased covers and more. While the songs still have the timeless riffs and energy of the original, the guitars are a bit scuzzier and the vocals a bit more intense in the new recordings and bring a new freshness to tracks like “Baby I Call Hell” and “Lies”.
Troy says, “SISTRIONIX is just classic Deap Vally. It’s so pure and raw. It really encapsulates an era — an era of dank, yeasty backstage rooms across the UK, of the endorphin rush of that first wave of success, of youthful drunken, wild nights, of the worldly adventures and the newness of it all.”
“We’re just going to go to play as many places as we can and say farewell to everyone,” Julie Edwards adds. “Though the band is playing live for the last time, the door is open to us to collaborate. Now we’re all about re-establishing a workflow and connection around our friendship, after all we’ve shared together along the way.”
Deap Vally
Why are the band splitting up when they still sound so good? As the music industry dropped new artist-unfriendly disruptions on the regular, all while daily life brought on challenges spanning pandemics to pregnancies – the members of Deap Vally found themselves struggling to fit into a now-obsolete recording and touring cycle. “That model isn’t compatible with our current lives,” Troy notes. “We found we just can’t function as a traditional band anymore,” Edwards continues. “It’s time for both of us to explore motherhood and other avenues of our lives properly, rather than squeezing them into our artist’s hustle.”
“I’m so proud of all our records, and Julie and I have an uncanny creative relationship,” Troy says. “It’s hard to ever picture having that with someone else. After all that, ya never know what could happen! We need to find the balance where we can focus on the fun stuff, but have the freedom to make the music we love. We just felt it would be fitting to go out with a bang, not a whimper. I felt marking this occasion should be a cathartic process: healing deep wounds, reconnecting with old friends and collaborators – and falling in love with Deap Vally all over again.”
Having played some dates on the west coast in 2023, the band are heading back out next week to play the rest of the US before finishing the tour in Mexico City on April 18th. You can get tickets for the date of your choice by visiting the band’s website.
From Feb 1st through 7th you also have the chance to buy a piece of Deap Vally history as the band are holding a Stage Costume Pop Up Sale. Visit the Merch section of their website and pick up a copy of SISTRONIX 2.0 on vinyl (or a bundle) while you are there!
2023 finds Deap Vally reclaiming its legacy anew – even as the band concludes the journey it began just over a decade ago. Not long after a chance meeting in a knitting class, the duo of Julie Edwards (drums and vocals) and Lindsey Troy (guitar and vocals) unleashed Deap Vally’s first release, 2012’s ferocious “Gonna Make My Own Money” single, on the tiny U.K. indie, Ark Recordings. From that auspicious launch, Deap Vally went on to spawn three albums of powerful, idiosyncratic, maximally minimalist rock – SISTRIONIX (2013), Nick Zinner-produced FEMEJISM (2016), and MARRIAGE (2021) – that played by their own rules. That was in addition to the L.A.-based group’s groundbreaking collaborations spanning the likes of Peaches, KT Tunstall, Jamie Hince and Soko, even an entire joint album recorded with Flaming Lips (DEAP LIPS, 2020) – all while sharing stages on numerous tours, shows, and festivals with Blondie, Garbage, Red Hot Chili Peppers, and Queens of the Stone Age, among other notables.
Make sure you visit the band’s website to get some merch and tickets and follow them on Instagram and Twitter for any updates and news.
