Deer Park Avenue first became known as the sister rock duo who live their lives on tour, delivering honest, in-your-face, jeans-and-t-shirt rock ‘n’ roll. The sisters released their album Conscious Mess – a raw, energetic debut release with Muve Recordings – on Lockdown Day 2020, the day the whole world became a mess of fear and confusion.
Conscious Mess is an album that swings easily from bright, sunny satire to unnervingly honest introspection, and back again. Powerful, gritty vocals dip into soft, intimate confessions, while booming toms melt into personal, storytelling percussion. The stark contrast between loud and soft, high and low, light and dark is a polarity that defines DPA as few other bands.
Sarah and Stephanie were trained in classical piano and classical ballet before getting a drum kit and electric guitar, pursuing their love for rock ‘n’ roll. As kids, they started playing music at their dad’s church on Long Island – a classic white-steeple East Coast church where drums and guitar had never been played before.
In 2016, they released their self-titled debut EP and toured at clubs, dives, underground venues, high schools, and house concerts in the US and Europe. DPA worked with producer Matt Bissonette (Brian Wilson, Elton John) and drummer Gregg Bissonette (Ringo Starr, David Lee Roth) to create the bright, colourful sounds of ‘The California Album’ as their fans fondly call it.
After popularity on indie radio and music blogs, Deer Park Avenue signed with Muve Recordings for Conscious Mess, a hard-hitting, fast-paced, raucous mess of rock ‘n’ roll. With sounds channeling raunchy Jack White-style guitars, big drums of the 70s, and the angsty distortion of the early 90s, the album touches on greed, depression, isolation, racism, personal identity, being a misfit, and just growing up. It’s about life. About identity. About knowing who you are, and knowing who you aren’t. Sometimes #WeAreAllAMess – and that’s ok. We’re all in that together. Deer Park Avenue’s stream of conscious*mess is about that realization, the most liberating of them all.
