Listening to Dehd’s latest single “Bad Love” would not instantly bring to mind visions of a leather-clad strip club (a scene where “Pour Some Sugar on Me” might be a more expected backing track), but that’s where the music video opens as vocalist Emily Kempf’s rough vocals and scene-specific styling make some strange and perfect sense. Directed by Kempf and Kevin Veselka, the 80s-esque dramatization suits not only the vocal styling, but the celebration of sensuality and love for oneself, not only for others.
Kempf shared that the single is about, “recovering from love addiction and making a decision to stop choosing and aligning with people who aren’t your energetic match. I wrote it for myself and for everyone who needed to hear a song about choosing new forms of love. It’s about chasing a relationship with oneself rather than an unhealthy one, one that just doesn’t quite fit, or a codependent one. Everyone experiences loneliness and everyone needs connection. I wished to reclaim loneliness for myself and others as something not embarrassing or to be a kept dark secret. I wanted to embrace loneliness and being alone, alchemizing it with friendship and behaviors with self that don’t involve romance or sex.”
The single is the band’s first release with Fat Possum and their first off their forthcoming record Blue Skies due out this May.