Chatting With Dekker

Dekker has amassed a steadily growing global audience, international radio support, and over 75 million streams to date. Dekker will release his third long player, Future Ghosts, tomorrow, a textural ten-song album that oozes with love and loss. He will be playing a major release tour in March, including a release show at The Lexington in London on March 1st, as well as sold-out shows in Berlin (Festsaal Kreuzberg), Hamburg (Markthalle), Munich, Vienna, etc. With hopes that he may take his record on the road around the UK, we spoke to Dekker to find out a little more about the impending album release.

Future Ghosts is the upcoming album. Tell us what we can expect…

That’s right. My next album is called Future Ghosts and will be released on 1st March. It’s a more melancholic record than my previous two, but I wouldn’t say it goes as far as sad or downtrodden. It’s a more textural record, I’d say, as well. Themes of love, loss, and much contemplation are all present on the record.

How did you arrive at the album's title?

Track one is also named Future Ghosts. I wrote that song with my then-seven-year-old daughter as we tried to come to grips with the idea of death and what comes after. Death shows up in various places and in various ways across the record. Future Ghosts was the first song written for the record, and it was only natural to name the record this.



You've teased the album with a few singles; how do they typify the sound of the record?

I think those tracking along will have picked up on the slight change of tone to a more melancholic feel. I’d say too that the textural stuff I mentioned earlier is fairly pronounced in, for example, the first single, Hero Myth. The way each chorus is punctuated with those weird pitched-up and screwed-up guitar and synth sounds is a fairly new thing for Dekker.

Describe the album in just one sentence.

A very human record made of acoustic-driven indie folk songs with a dash of pop influence.

If you were to file it between two other records, what would they be?

This is a tricky question for me to answer. I think I would have found it easier to list nine other albums in order to compose a playlist of ten records, as it would allow for a more nuanced answer. But I understand the brief, so I’ll say Carrie and Lowell by Sufjan Stevens and Figure 8 by Elliot Smith.

What are your goals for the record?

Any goals I had for the record would have been creative ones, which I would only share with my creative team. In terms of my hopes for how Future Ghosts will be received, I would like the album to land softly on the hearts and listening habits of the masses to the degree that I am no longer embarrassed to face my in-laws. If it doesn't, there’s always the next one.

You are headlining a London show to celebrate the album's release. What have you got planned for the show?

Close your eyes and imagine a U2 arena show. Nothing like that.

Can we see you elsewhere in the UK any time soon?

Nothing on the books just yet, but we are aiming for an autumn UK tour. See you then!