Ahead of the release of his sophomore album I Won’t Be Your Foe, indie-folk artist Dekker shares his new single Supposed To Be a Friend, out now.
Talking about the single, Dekker explains, “I wrote this song in a hot moment. It spilled out quickly and emotionally – almost real time. I do that sometimes, I’ll get caught up in a particular mood (I tend to ride them like waves) and if all the chemicals are lined up in a certain way; boom, a song. This one was like that. I demo’d it hastily on my phone and sent it to my drummer and collaborator, Stefan Wittich. I asked him if it was too bitchy for a Dekker song. He seemed to like it, so we put it together. The glue of the track for me though was that simple-and-lonely mellotron line running through the song. Somehow this song feels sad, lonely and frustrated; exactly how I felt when I wrote it.”
Currently living in Nottingham, Dekker – aka Brookln Dekker – has been performing as a solo artist since 2019 and works regularly with Berlin-based drummer Stefan Wittich, alongside mixing / mastering engineer Zach Hanson (Bon Iver, The Staves, Whitney). Dekker’s debut album ‘Slow Reveal: Chapter One’ (2020) has been streamed over 15 Million times and aired on radio stations around the world. Dekker has already seen support from the likes of BBC Radio 2 and BBC Radio Nottingham, as well as being featured on Spotify’s Chill Folk, Infinite Indie Folk and Van Life playlists to name a few.
The album is oozing with rich textures from the offset as rippling guitar twangs are met with hypnotic drum beats and whispered harmonies. Dekker’s beautifully honeyed vocal is at the forefront throughout, sounding akin to the likes of Nick Mulvey and Bon Iver as a result. Opening with previous single Small Wins, the listener will be immediately enchanted by Dekker’s warm, tender tones, whilst singles like Maybe October allow Dekker to dip his toes into the folk-pop sphere with confidence and charm.
Talking about the album, Dekker explains, “it was written and recorded entirely during the pandemic. I didn’t want to make a small sounding introspective album as that was the easy route in such weird times. Rather, I wanted to make a record that sounded more like the world I wished I were in at the time; a little more upbeat and colourful.”