Info

Biography

Formed in 1988, deardarkhead are based in the Atlantic City, New Jersey area and consist of: Kevin Harrington (guitar), Robert Weiss (drums), and James Malizia (bass) who joined in August 2024. They have been performing as an all instrumental unit since their long term vocalist, Michael Amper, left the group back in 2009. The band takes its name from an Irish poem, "Cean Dubh Dilis" (1867 Sir Samuel Ferguson), about a beautiful girl with black hair.

The group’s sound is openly and proudly Anglophilic, combining both elements of the blissout shoegazer scene and a slightly older vein of post-punk guitar experimentalism, making a rich combination between the two influences. Words like atmospheric, ethereal and dreampop are often used to describe their original guitar driven, psychedelic storm of sound that balances moody textures and shimmering melodies. 

They have played with the likes of Supergrass, The Psychedelic Furs, Smashing Orange, The Sky Drops, Everclear, Nothing and The Lilys, to name a few.

deardarkhead have released five recordings, since forming, on their own Fertile Crescent Records label. Their music has also appeared on various indie compilations from the USA and Japan. Captured Tracks released a retrospective of their early material called Oceanside: 1991-1993 as the second contribution to their Shoegaze Archives series at the end of 2011. The band joined Saint Marie Records, a label specializing in shoegaze, dreampop, indiepop and electronic music, in 2015. Their first recording for the label, Strange Weather, was released in March 2016 and has been well received by critics:

"Strange Weather is Deardarkhead's first newly released material of the 21st century, and it reveals them as an impressive instrumental unit with no apparent need for useless, empty words." - AllMusic

"Strange Weather will have you breathless, excited, reflective, and going on a myriad of imagination bred adventures with its suggestive incitement. We are no experts on deardarkhead and their releases to date but the EP has to be up there as possibly their greatest moment yet." - The RingMaster Review

"Just six tracks because any more – based on the too-much-of-a-good-thing model – might cause the listener psychic damage, Strange Weather is a whirlwind of intensity, density, space, and melody." - Stereo Embers Magazine

"Cuts like the excellent moody opener, “Falling Upward”, the icier Sunshine Through the Rain”, the varied “Ice Age,” are as good as anything the band has done previously and to be honest, there’s not a bad cut among these six tunes." - Dagger 'Zine

"For a three piece band these guys have a great big sound. This is a short album that clocks in at just over twenty-five minutes. But in that amount of time, these guys make it perfectly clear they're in it for the long run. Groovy, compelling, and hypnotic." - Babysue

"Intense and captivating music with multi-layered textures unfolding slowly. Sometimes words can get in the way of the flow of a track and Deardarkhead have managed to write poetry without using actual words." - Here Comes The Flood

More info:

When The Sun Hits Interview: Deardarkhead
The Blog That Celebrates Itself: Oceanside with Deardarkhead - An Interview
Wall of Sound 95.3 FM WRGP interview 3/4/15

Former Members:

• Brandon Howard: Bass (2021-2022)

• John Bennett: Bass (2019-2020)

• Kevin McCauley: Bass (2010-2019)

• Michael Amper: Vocals, bass, guitar, keyboard (1990-2009)

• Blakely Parent: Vocals, bass, guitar (1988-1994)

• Kurt Douglass: Guitar (1988-1992)

• Josh Minor: Bass (1988-1989)