Exclusive: Stream Death By Denim's Year Long Minute EP with an EP Walkthrough

Premiering on Pilerats one day early, the EP arrives with a stack of tour dates that'll take them to the year's end.

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Over the past three years, we've had the pleasure of watching Death By Denim emerge as a new face of Perth's community-built live music culture, welcomed onto the scene as a bright newcomer of alt-rock-bound indie that's both high on energy and emotion - something they've continued to showcase over the years as they build upon their sound and continue to experiment. Whether it be their debut EP - 2017's Suburban Royalty - or the smattering of singles that have arrived since (their last being Drone at the start of this month), Death By Denim have continued to blow us away time and time again, and it's been really great watching them rise through the ranks and become somewhat of a looming, national force.

Today, to put a cap on the singles they've been drip-feeding through the year thus far, we're eternally stoked to be premiering their long-awaited second EP Year Long Minute, arriving on Pilerats a day early ahead of its greater release tomorrow. It's a collection of six tracks that showcase exactly how far Death By Denim have come over the years (especially when held comparatively to their debut EP); their evolution and growth mapped out over a tightly-knit group of songs that showcase that brilliant, Death By Denim charm.

It's packed with a sense of musical versatility which showcase Death By Denim's aforementioned growth in the most obvious way. While their past work was distinctly alt-rock with a slight touch of pop-esque choruses here and there, Year Long Minute sees them take on mannerisms of a wider range of influences - jangly indie-pop; swirling psychedelic riffs that give a certain shoegaze-esque spin to their sound; a light battering of synth that take their sound into electronic routes - and incorporate it into an energy and charm that is distinctly their own.

"Our spectrum of influences has undoubtedly widened on this EP," says guitarist Pallé Mazzulla on the EP, which lead vocalist Nikolas Iliadis explains further. "Each song brings a fresh perspective to the versatility of the band. We feel like this release is a huge step up and we’re really excited to play it all live on tour this month."

Dive into the EP below with a track-by-track walkthrough from the band themselves, in which they explore the EP's inner themes and creation one song at a time. Then, catch 'em live at a collection of shows across the next few weeks - more information HERE.

Drone

This song is definitely a psychedelic exploration on our part and is one of our more imaginative tunes to date. It began with a relatively complex chord arrangement which was a bit of a puzzle when trying to match with a more straightforward vocal melody. After some back and forth with Nik it came together and was unexpectedly fun to jam together for the first time as a band. I think we all enjoyed the way we were able to subtly mix a bunch of influences into the one song and take the sound into an interesting direction. The contrast of heavy driving guitars and synth to laid back beats throughout progressed a lot more in the studio sessions.

Lyrically, It hones in on the familiar feeling that someone is watching and judging your every move, even if it is just yourself.

Plane From Amsterdam

No doubt inspired by a trip to Amsterdam in 2017, I had kept a record of anything interesting that popped into my head during that time because I knew it would be great lyric material. It’s a soundscape built around that return trip from a faraway place, thinking about everything that just happened and what you might do differently when you get back to reality. We had a great time playing off that idea of plane travel in the studio when adding in all the ambient effects. The initial idea for this song started with the first chorus you hear. It took a little while to figure out what to do for the next three minutes of the song and that came from jamming it out over a few sessions together. The EP version has an extended synth introduction.

Wiggy

Wiggy was an old idea that was revived on a long car ride. When we run out of things to talk about we like to run through any and all song ideas to pass the time. After a good 20 minutes of making noise, we started to sing what would become the fuzzy guitar riff that begins the song and plays throughout. It really came to life in the studio when we started to add our latest sound to it and we did not expect it to turn into our favourite song. Lyrically it picks up where Plane From Amsterdam left off, arriving home and getting back to real life but still feeling a bit topsy turvy.

Right Mind

“Are you in your right mind?” – something we would say to each other on a daily basis. Inevitably it got turned into a song. This is a fun upbeat groove and many a dance was had in the studio sessions. It’s about getting too caught up in a holiday romance and questioning whether the feelings are real or temporary.

Cigarettes and Honey

A song that began with the title, Hamish reminded us of the time Nik chased a puff of a ciggy with a good serving of honey before a gig. The words rang true when sung by Nik over a melodic guitar riff that I had in the back pocket for a while and a full song was put together pretty quickly. It started to become a bit of a fan favourite at our live gigs so we felt compelled to produce it. It evolved and became way more dynamic in the studio especially in the drum and bass departments, transforming it into a bit of an infectious groove.

What You Want Now

It was great to see Rod Stewart and ABBA finally pulled up as references for a song in our studio sessions. This is another entertaining tune that had us dancing around the studio and moving into disco territory. Ending the EP on a lighter note, it was quite a refreshing change from the complexities we were exploring in songs like Drone. We didn’t want to overthink it, though we definitely lost our heads a little in the bridge section.