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Late summer morning 2005, i woke up in Austin to the familiar smell of amphetamine smoke billowing from the garage. The half-sane chatter of children awake for days bouncing off concrete and wine-stained carpet, echoing the tired intentions we’d left scattered across a West Texas desert long ago, and i knew it was time to make my break. Never quite the saint myself, i packed a bag full of half-burnt candles and a beat up black guitar, then quietly slipped out the back door with the girl with hope in her green eyes. The next time i awoke, i was in New York City...
A series of happy accidents later, there was a band called Deadbeat Darling. First, i was waiting on some mediocre Americana singer to lull me to sleep somewhere on the Lower East Side at quarter past eleven, when i happened upon a kid in a Brazil footballer jacket and Korean baseball cap playing drums. Looks and sounds the part i suppose, so after a bit of cat and mouse cyber-stalking i convinced Alex to come join the circus. Gladly... Next i’m stumbling through an underground West Village club, a few jamesons and joints down the road when i felt compelled to spew to a stranger at the bar that he was a “pillar of greatness” - a proclamation that must have set him wondering about the long-haired white kid with whiskey on his breath. Not much later Sanjay would find himself stacking bedroom electronica on top of dub bass lines on top of silk-skinned promises with his new deadbeat lovers. Flattery will get you everything. And finally, over bottles of cold sake and lines of bullshit about soundscapes with a sweet-tempered, Brooklyn boy named Mohit, i was nearly convinced that we’d found another willing participant in our little urban sideshow. But really, who was interviewing who? After another bottle and a little bite of the moon, it hardly seemed to matter...
So in early 2007, with the cast assembled and the sails hoisted high above the frozen ground, Deadbeat Darling began playing club shows throughout New York City and the surrounding areas. In the Summer of 2007 they hooked up with producer Chris Coady (Tv on the Radio, Yeah Yeah Yeahs, Blonde Redhead) to record their debut EP "belle epoch". They released it the following October, and promptly began selling out Lower East Side clubs such as Pianos, Arlene's, and by early 2008, Mercury Lounge. Throughout that year they played support slots at venues such as the Bowery Ballroom and Highline Ballroom with bands such as Ambulance LTD and VAST, and by mid-Spring were back in the studio to begin work on their first full length album. This album, which would be called "Weight of Wandering", was recorded in numerous and bizarre locations over the course of 8 months. Starting in a strange blacklit studio in Hoboken, and migrating to the likes of Alex Wong's home studio (Angelhouse) in WIlliamsburg, a basement/discotheque in Long Island, a fencing studio in Manhattan (yes, as in masks and foils), Sanjay's Chelsea apartment, and all the way down to Sounds Outrageous Studios in Austin, the album was quite a guerrilla-style project. "Weight of Wandering" was mixed by Lars Goransson in Austin, mastered by Fred Kevorkian in New York City, and released out into the world in June of 2009. Deadbeat Darling celebrated the release of their 10 track debut full length album with a sold out show at The Bowery Ballroom in NYC. They followed up the release with tours of Texas and Midwest, the latter in support of Universal artists Blue October.
After a magical Summer, travelling, playing and bathing in the afterglow of their new album "Weight of Wandering", the band very sadly parted ways with original member and dear friend Alex Wong, who left to pursue other creative endeavors, such as dance-fighting and lion-taming. Or maybe it was to front his own band the Paper Raincoat and spend more time producing various artists in his studio. I'm not quite sure - things get so blurry sometimes. Whatever the reason was, the departure was sad but amicable, and we all wish each other nothing but the best. You might even catch them out chasing wolves together through shadowy basements down Ludlow on some early morning hours...
With every ending there is a new beginning of course, and in the Fall of 2009 the band welcomed drummer Evan Howard into the Deadbeat Darling family. Hailing from New Orleans, Evan is not only a talented and handsome young man, but he is left-handed as well. Things could not get much better. Currently, the band is working on material for their 2nd full length album, and preparing for a new year of touring and carousing...


PRESS INQUIRIES: Nichole Nawfel @ Mezzoforte Productions

BOOKING INQUIRIES: Sanjay Jain

Photography by John-Floyd Pardieu
Web design by Clever Carrot