Sounds of LA: Deap Vally
San Fernando Valley blues rock duo Deap Vally debuted its sound in 2012 with the single, “Gonna Make My Own Money,” challenging gender stereotypes. Deap Vally will perform Sunday at the Air + Style Festival at the Rose Bowl.
(Courtesy of Stevie Decanay)
By Kristy Pirone
Feb. 17, 2015 2:18 a.m.
Every year, new artists emerge, ready to be Los Angeles’ next great musical discovery, making their rounds through small club tours across the city. Inspired by the hippie enclaves of Topanga, the backyard punk scene of East Los Angeles or the coastal grunge of Venice Beach, each act has its own distinct sound. This week, A&E columnist Kristy Pirone discusses Deap Vally, a blues-rock duo from the San Fernando Valley.
Artists from Taylor Swift to Katy Perry have suffered from more attention being placed on their songs’ subjects than their actual songs.
The media spends more time obsessing over which famous paramour inspired popular songs than focusing on the content and merit of the songs themselves, criticizing female artists for their social lives.
These female artists are judged for writing about the one universal theme present across genres, generations and genders: love.
San Fernando Valley rock band Deap Vally’s 2012 debut single “Gonna Make My Own Money” seems to try and counteract this common criticism before the duo is even connected to it, singing “You say marry a rich man/ Find a rich one, if you can/ Daddy, don’t you understand?/ I’m gonna make my own money, gonna buy my own land” over drum-heavy, riff-filled rock ’n’ roll backing. Deap Vally establishes itself as a duo of strong, independent women who will not rely on marrying a rich man to provide for them.
Still, the same universal themes of falling in and out of love and relationships rear their head on the group’s 2013 debut album “Sistrionix.” And that’s a good thing.
Despite its blues-rock sensibilities, Deap Vally’s Lindsey Troy and Julie Edwards met at a Silver Lake crocheting class in 2011 before coming together as a musical pair, united by their shared desire to make heavier music. The duo will perform at the Air + Style Festival at the Rose Bowl on Sunday.
Whether it’s spurning a former lover on “Lies” or welcoming a new one in “Procreate,” Deap Vally puts a new spin on traditional themes with their girl power rock ’n’ roll. But it shouldn’t matter if the band is forging new paths or following old ones. Women should be able to write about love without gossip taking center stage. Judging by the strong, empowering lyrics found on Deap Vally’s debut, it’s easy to assume the duo would feel the same way.
Deap Vally joins a long roster of bands in Los Angeles’ growing feminist rock movement, including the Dum Dum Girls and L.A. Witch. Deap Vally shifts the usual feminine narrative of relationships through its frank allusions to sex and swapping gender roles, like in the song “Your Love,” where a man’s beauty is described in the same way Helen of Troy’s once was: “You got the face that launched a thousand ships…/You were mine.”
Fielding comparisons from the White Stripes to Black Sabbath, Deap Vally doesn’t sound much like the pop princesses that usually fall under scrutiny for writing about men. Their focus goes to darker, more sexual places than the artificial, upbeat relationships talked about in made-for-radio pop music, but the stark differences between the two genres show how universal these themes are.
The duo include the classic Hollywood film “Thelma and Louise” as one of its influences, representing its devil-may-care, “#GirlBoss” attitudes, embodied in their song “Bad For My Body” where Edwards sings “Doing things that are bad for my body/ Doing things that are bad for my head/ Doing things that are bad for my future/ ‘Cause I can’t help myself.”
All the same, as Troy wails like a hard rock Karen O over Edwards’ big drum beats, they’re connected to all the scorned, powerful women who came before them and the ones who will come after them. Those themes of female empowerment through – or in spite of – men are just as important as songs about friendship or nature or whatever women are expected to write about when the media decides they shouldn’t write about love anymore.
Deap Vally is a perfect example of women who rock and make music that is valuable regardless of who it’s about, what it’s talking about or who’s talking about it. The devil may be in the details, but Deap Vally is more concerned about the music.
