Brisbane artist Deena Lynch is not afraid to take risks when it comes to life and her music.
Born in Japan and raised in Australia with a Taiwanese mother and an Irish father, Deena has been exposed to a variety of musical influences. On her own, she picked out aspects of each style to create her own sound.
In 2012, when she decided she wanted to pursue music, Deena took a chance and traveled to the Orange County in the US to record an album. At the time, she didn't want anyone to know what she was doing, so she told people she was backpacking. Her risk paid off and a few months later she released 'Lone Wolf', which was later deemed Australia's Album Of The Year by Brisbane's Traxxx radio. Deena returned to Australia with surprised but supportive friends and family who had no idea she wrote music or played the guitar.
Two years later and Deena is gearing up to release a new single later this month and a second album next year. Again Deena is ready to take a risk, with her next album taking on a different sound. “It's so completely different,” Deena explains. “And that's what I'm really scared of ... that it's 360 degrees different. I'm excited and curious as to how my fans and audience will take it as it's completely different to the sound of 'Lone Wolf'.
“Firstly, I have the band behind me now [Luke Sampson, Joe Fallon and Jack Killalea], so it's not quite as solo sounding, and it's more of a band sound, and instead of it being quite folky, it's gone towards a blues/rock kind of sound. So it's heavier and prettier, so it's different in that aspect.”
As it's her first album accompanied by a band, Deena has been working on it all year, trying to get it to sound just right. “I started recording in February and it's been so many months of working on it, it's been a slow process. It's a love/hate relationship but I'm so excited that it's nearly getting wrapped up. Also with the songs, I'd written them ages ago and I wasn't quite sure if I wanted them recorded, just because it was a lot more personal. It's been a really long journey but I'm glad that it's coming to and end, and that I get to share it with people who have waited two years since my last release.”
Partially crowdfunding the album through Pozible, Deena has set a goal of $8000 to cover the cost of mixing the tracks, mastering the album, creating the CD Artwork, pressing the album to CD, funding the first single music video and releasing the album. So far she has reached over half of that goal, a feat she never expected.
“I've been quite overwhelmed with the support and encouragement from the community around me. I thought that I'd be so lucky if I reached quite close to the halfway mark at this point in time, but it's gone way over that, so I'm really grateful. I didn't realise how much hard work crowdfunding is, but with the people that have been so kind in supporting me, it's been a lot easier of a process.”
With organising crowdfunding and creating the music, the self-managed artist has a lot stay on top of. “It's not just limited to the creative side, it's admin work, management, publicity, promotion, all of that stuff. And sometimes it's a really difficult juggle when balanced between all of those, while still being able to stay creative and write music and be the artist side of what the music business is. I think that's been the toughest battle, doing that on my own.”
After the release of her album, Deena will touring internationally to Japan, Malaysia and Singapore, and returning to tour Australia.
Deena will be playing at the Foxy Bean on the 12th September (acoustic) and The Zoo on 23rd October (with band).
