Interview: Deadlights Chat About Their Latest Single, ‘Born Of A Lie’ and more

Brisbane-based post-hardcore quartet Deadlights have just returned with their potent new single ‘Born of a Lie’ and announced their forthcoming sophomore record ‘The Uncanny Valley’ – mixed and mastered by Chris Vernon (Belle Haven, Windwaker, Stuck Out).

Loving the new track ‘Born Of A Lie’, was there anything unique about how you wrote this one?

Our music always starts off conceptually. Our favourite artists and songs are the ones who can create a mood with their music. You hear a song, and it sounds like the colour red, or you listen to an album and are transported into a new world. We try to create the soundscapes and lyrics that reflect the emotion or ideas we want to put out into the world. For ‘Born Of A Lie’, we wanted to write a song that felt hopeful & resentful at the same time, with technology as its theme. This inspired everything from the key we chose, the tempo we chose, to the structure of the song. Everything from having a powerful chorus to synth backings and the robot voice.

How did Deadlights form? 

Tynan (guitar & vocals), Josh (drums) & I (Dylan, vocals) have been playing music together since we were fifteen. Josh & I used to jam together as young bucks and, loving Underoath, decided we needed a clean singer. A friend of ours introduced us to Tynan at Soundwave who sung in a pop-punk band at the time. We invited him over and he sung ‘The Best of Me’ by The Starting Line on an acoustic guitar at Josh’s place to show us his skills. He killed it and we were a band by the end of the day. After many bass players and stylistic changes (and growing up), we finally solidified Deadlights in 2012 and have been going hard ever since. Things really kicked off when we found Sean to do bass & harmonies in time for our debut release ‘Mesma’ in 2017. From then it’s been full steam ahead.

How did each of you get into music? Has it always been something you have wanted to do?

I (Dylan) used to write lyrics and poems from as young as 10 years old and always knew it was something I wanted to do. My older brother played in a metal band when he was 16 and I was 8, and I thought he was the coolest guy in the world. That definitely set me off on my path. Josh’s dad is a phenomenal musician himself; he is over 60 and still plays in a band. He’s got a great set of pipes and can strum like no other, so Josh grew up with music and has played since he was a youngster. Tynan always sung as a little kid but when his older brothers got into punk rock and metal, that’s when he started taking a big interest in music, playing their guitars they gave up trying to learn on. If he learnt how to play a song they liked, he would get praise. Sean always used to sing with his mum when he was really little, in the car, around the house etc. He first realised he had to pursue music when he was about 10 watching video hits on a Saturday morning in his pjs in a bean bag with some cereal (the good life), MCRs, WTTBP and FLW played back to back and for that rough 10 minutes he didn’t touch his fruit loops, they just sat in the bowl getting soggy. He says he’d never seen or heard anything like that before. That was the moment his child mind said, “I’m going to do that.”

Outside of music, what do you guys get up to?

We all have our own little things that we love. Tynan is a fantastic producer and has been building his skills in that regard for a while. He also loves to cook some hella fancy dishes. Josh is a big geek at heart, and you can find him with over 100 days worth of playing time on Runescape. Sean has 2 woofers that are absolutely adorable, and he is one hell of a pup Dad. He also has a keen business mind and is always checking his bitcoin or whatever coin is going at the time. Josh gets around that too. You’ll generally find me reading a book or skateboarding in my free time. We are a diverse crew but wouldn’t have it any other way.

Can we expect more music soon from Deadlights?

‘The Uncanny Valley’, our sophomore record. Out May 28. www.theuncannyvalley.com.au