dega-dont-call-it

Photo: Maggy Swain

DEGA – “Don’t Call It” (video) (premiere)

The husband and wife duo DEGA center their latest slick synthpop soundscape around the concept of love in all of its stages.

Kalen and Aslyn Nash are an indie pop super-couple if there ever were such a thing. Before becoming as a musical duo themselves, the husband and wife duo put their best feet forward with other projects that saw them acclaim. Kalen previously provided his chops as a singer-songwriter to the Georgia Americana band, Ponderosa. Meanwhile, Aslyn was signed as a solo artist to Capitol while also providing background vocals for Ke$ha. Now, they’re blending all of those individual experiences together in their latest project, DEGA.


At first listen, DEGA‘s “Don’t Call It” is more retro synthpop than anything. All of the usual frills, from old-school drums-and-bass percussion to very “future chic” keyboard riffs, are present here. And, to a certain degree, that is the major vibe that it emits throughout both the song itself and its accompanying music video, which features the Nashes exchanging verses in an elegant vocal performance that remains at the center of the aural landscape that they’ve set out to create.

You can feel the collection of past influences at play, too, though. It comes across naturally in their inherent chemistry as performers, playing into each others’ lines and harmonizing with incredible form. If you like what you hear, DEGA’s full-length LP hitting on 23 February on Lemonade Records might be of interest.

Aslyn Nash says, “‘Don’t Call It’ is about love choosing you. There’s the struggle, the coming and going, the doubt…and then there’s the moment of certainty, a power bigger than ourselves, that brings us full circle back to what’s real.”

“Our relationship was the biggest influence in this song. During the recording of the record we were both touring separately with other projects- and were always drawn back to create together and just to be together.”

“We didn’t have a title for the song… The chorus repeats ‘You Know,’ so that would have been the natural title. But we had a song called ‘Already Know’ on the album. So we named the song ‘Don’t Call It,’ cause we didn’t know what to call it!”