Faye Minton
If you’re into indie rock, you should keep an eye out for DENIO.
The group has dedicated the last few years to rise through the local music scene – and they made sure they had a lot of fun in the process. Offering a flexible, authentic, and original blend of acoustic and techno sounds, DENIO manage to incorporate both playful and thoughtful concepts into their discography, which results in a soundtrack that makes you feel like you’re living in a movie.
I chatted to Andres about the group, their origins, their experience so far, and what they hope to achieve in the future.
Tell me a little bit about you guys as a group… How did you meet and decide to form a band?
We are a four-piece band from Liverpool. There are some family ties in the band; Andres and Dan are brothers and Mike and Felipe are cousins. We’ve been friends and playing in various bands together for roughly 12 years now. We decided to form the initial band back then through a mutual love of music. Mike had recently been to Glastonbury and felt inspired to start a band with his cousins and they asked the only other people they knew who could play an instrument to join. Fast forward 7/8 years and DENIO was born!
Where did the name ‘DENIO’ come from?
The name DENIO comes from a ‘manhunt’ style game that people from Formby (our hometown) may be familiar with. When you get back to the base, you say ‘denio 123’. In the content of the game, it means home, but to almost everyone else it doesn’t mean anything, which was a nice clean slate for us.
Are there any particular artists or groups that you feel have influenced your sound over the years?
As with every artist we’ve got a lot of ever-changing influences. We try to look further afield than similar artists to ourselves, so we don’t end up sounding the same as everyone else. We love the likes of Tame Impala, Easy Life, Toro y Moi, Jungle, Khruangbin, Little Simz, and Kendrick Lamar to name a few.
You’ve had a lot of local support – for example, BBC Introducing Lancashire and BBC Introducing Merseyside have backed you and helped you make names for yourselves. What do platforms like BBC Introducing mean to up-and-coming artists?
BBC Introducing definitely gives artists a platform that we wouldn’t really get otherwise. So many artists have gotten to where they are today because of BBC Introducing and it sounds cheesy but it gives us a bit of hope when you see another artist get these opportunities. It’s like a little nod of approval that you’re doing something right if they play you on their respective radio shows.
What’s your writing process? Do you each have a set role or does it depend on the song?
The writing process changes and we try to keep it that way so that it doesn’t get stale and repetitive. Dan takes control of the engineering and production side of things but every song is written slightly differently. We’re currently away in the Lake District in a cottage we booked so we can spend a few days just writing new material, so that’s something new we’re trying!
Do any of you have a favourite song to play live?
I think each time we release a new single, it automatically becomes new and exciting and therefore we’re excited to play it live. ‘Dreaming’ is fun to play as that seems to be the song most people connect with, but to be honest we enjoy playing them all. When we feel ourselves getting bored with a song we try and change something to keep it fresh.
What’s been the highlight of your journey so far?
The gigs we’ve played since lockdown have been the best we’ve ever played. We have enough music out there now that the audience literally knew every song which was pretty incredible for us.
And, finally, what’s next for DENIO?
We’ve hit a good run of form with our songwriting at the moment so we’re making the most of that and we’ve also got some live show ideas in the pipeline. Exciting times ahead, friends.
To find out more about DENIO and explore their collection, check them out on Spotify, where their newest single ‘Settled Here’ is available for streaming now.
Featured image courtesy of DENIO. Shared with permission.
Faye Minton
Faye is a former Empoword Editor in Chief and an MA International Journalism student at Swansea University.
1 Comment