Interview: DEXETER, Under the Apple Tree Roots Festival, London

If you've not heard of Dexeter yet, do yourself a favour and check them out! I caught up with lead singer Deeanne to chat about UK country, crowdfunding, Chris Stapleton and more - read on!

 

Ciara’s Country (CC): It’s Ciara’s Country here, and I’m joined today by Deeanne from Dexeter before their set at the Under the Apple Tree Roots Festival in Cadogan Hall. First of all, thank you so much for joining me today!

Deeanne Dexeter (DD): That’s okay, no worries!

CC: It looks like it’s set to be a great festival at Under the Apple Tree – are you excited to get up on stage?

DD: I’m really excited! I mean, originally when we were booked for this, it was going to be a weekend festival, and that was going to be earlier on in the year, but then Bob moved it to London and it’s changed date so we didn’t think we were going to actually be able to play it because there are obviously so many other artists booked. We thought we weren’t going to make the cut, but here we are, so I’m really excited and can’t wait to see Ward Thomas later too.

CC: I’m really impressed by the calibre of the artists they’ve managed to fit into such a short period of time! And just in general, how’s 2016 treating you?

DD: It’s been really good – we’ve had a really good year so far. We released our EP around April-time and we went on tour which was really good. We played 3 shows at Country 2 Country in March – that was our first show with Bob I think – we played his stage there so that was really good. We’ve just had some songs played on Hollyoaks which was really weird and cool! And then we recently released our song that Ben Earle from The Shires had written, and we released that through Decca Records which is incredible and now here we are today playing at a really fancy venue in Chelsea, so yeah, 2016 is going really well for us!

CC: I was really happy to see your latest single racing up the charts recently too.

DD: I know, it’s crazy! I think at one point there was us, Ward Thomas, The Shires, and another band called Dahlia who’ve released the same kind of thing as us – it was a song written by Ben – so they’re all UK acts in the Top 5 in the UK country charts! It’s just been crazy. I think the UK are finally taking over this country scene.

CC: And especially with events like this where artists are getting more exposure, hopefully the genre will grow.

DD: Exactly, I was at work the other day and listening to Radio 1 in the office and Ward Thomas was on, and I didn’t think that was ever going to happen, country on Radio 1. Anything can happen now, surely!

CC: So going on to talk a bit about your writing process – can you tell me a bit about the creative process you go through when you’re writing songs?

DD: Yeah, I mean Gareth’s our main songwriter, he’s written everything on all of our EPs but we’ve just started doing some co-writes which we haven’t done before. Last year we went out to Nashville in October and we managed to do a co-write with a guy called Michael Logan out there, and he’s been nominated for a Grammy Award, he writes for Kelly Clarkson and the Nashville soundtrack. That was great as it was our first co-write, but I think going to places like Nashville really helps with the creative process as well because you get there are you feel really inspired by everything. I think the style of writing has really changed from our first EP to what we’re releasing now, so I think it just grows over time. We’re settled as a band now, the members are staying the same so I think we feel really confident with what we’re bringing out at the moment which helps too.

CC: Are you working on anything at the moment?

DD: They’ll probably be another EP early next year because we’ve got a couple more shows this year, but it’s almost calmed down now that the festivals are over, so we’ve got a bit of time and we’ll probably have a new EP on its way shortly!

CC: Lots to look forward to then! And in terms of your last album, which was crowdfunded – how did it feel putting your career so much in the hands of your fans and the public?

DD: I think the pledge campaign is really really important, and we’re really grateful for that because it’s so expensive going to recording studios and buying the CDs for everyone – it’s really difficult for independent artists like us to be able to do that. We actually crowdfunded our first EP as well, and that went really went but I think that at the time we were a fairly new band, and a lot of the pledges were our parents and our friends who just wanted to help us out. Last year when we released the album and we did the same thing on the pledge campaign, they were people we didn’t know who had come out and seen our shows or whatever and they obviously wanted to help us out and release new music. That’s amazing because it’s gone from being your friends and people who have to support you to people who are there because they actually want to, so it was incredible.

CC: And I think it’s a great way for artists who might not otherwise be able to release their music to do so.

DD: Exactly, it’s just so expensive so it’s a great way to do that. But hopefully now I’m hoping we won’t have to do that again because we’re doing a lot of gigs and things which help to support releasing new stuff.

CC: And in terms of the country music genre as a whole, are there any artists out there who you think are currently underrepresented but deserve so much more recognition?

DD: That’s really hard, because there are a lot of bands on the UK circuit who I think are incredible, and I could name a few names but I don’t want to because I think that it’s mean to the others! But particularly in this country there’s so many people who just haven’t heard of incredible artists. Like just the other day I was talking to my friends and they hadn’t heard of Chris Stapleton, and I think that’s a crime! But I’m sure he’s doing quite well in the States haha!

CC: Yeah I bet! And as we draw the interview to a close, is there one question you wish you were asked in interviews but never have been?

DD: Ah gosh, not that question! I don’t like that question at all – I can’t think of anything! I mean all the questions are really similar and ask kind of the same thing, so just when anybody throws a curveball it’s always quite funny. Like we get things like ‘what’s your favourite dinner?’ that puts you on the spot and I’m just rubbish at answering things like that!

CC: Ah, I should have thought of something like that!

DD: But if I think of something later, I’ll come back and let you know!

CC: Perfect, I look forward to that next time we have a chat! Well thank you so much for taking the time to chat with me tonight!

DD: No worries, thank you for having me! 

What a fantastic interview with Deeanne - what did you think? Let me know on Twitter @CiarasCountry, and follow for more reviews, interviews and news!