Q&A: The Hustler interviews DEDSA to discuss their new album, the creative process and living on Mars

Vanderbilt Hustler
Nashville psych-rock band DEDSA are on the come-up. Made up of guitarist/vocalist Stephen DeWitt, keyboardist Robbie Ward, bassist/keyboardist Ben Carreon, and drummer Grant Bramlett, the band works together to fuse psychedelic vibes with catchy riffs and hard rock sensibilities. Before their concert at the Mercy Lounge on March 2nd, DEDSA sat down with the Vanderbilt Hustler to talk about their new album Salmon Velocity, out now.
Vanderbilt Hustler: So are all of you from Nashville?
DEDSA: Actually none of us are. Grant and [Stephen] are both from Birmingham, and Rob and Ben are both from Colorado.
VH: So then how did you meet?
DEDSA: Stephen and [Rob] moved up here separately just on a whim. Stephen was hanging out with a band that [Rob] was playing with temporarily, who ended up just ditching us and leaving just us behind, leaving us experimenting on our own. Ben joined us in roughly 2011, and Grant joined us about three years ago, which is when we really consider the true start.
We were making a lot of compromises back then, just playing along with tracks on an iPhone. It’s just not quite the same as playing with a human behind a drum kit.
VH: Where did you get the name “DEDSA”?
DEDSA: It started as a joke; we can’t tell you [laughs], but it’s really just an acronym for whatever you want. We encourage everyone to make up their own.
It’s graphical, symmetrical, it sounds like NASA, like a weird government organization, maybe potentially evil. It was just funny to us, and it’s the only thing that comes up when you google “DEDSA”.
VH: So tell me about Salmon Velocity.
DEDSA: We’ve had the name for years. We love naming things [laughs]. When we were working on the first album, we were writing a lot of ...


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