Dyssidia Reflect On New Album ‘Deeper Wells Of Meaning’

Adelaide prog experts, Dyssidia have just released their second full length album, Deeper Wells Of Meaning, The band have carved a distinct mark on global progressive metal with their commanding blend of technical precision, theatrical depth and emotional intensity.

From their spearheading trilogy of influential EPs within an exploding Australian prog scene beginning with 2013’s Quiet Waters to their ambitious debut album, 2020’s Costly Signals the Adelaideans evolved into a respected powerhouse icon of Australian prog metal, in the wake of inspiring countless acts with their avant-garde approach to the genre.

Their proven pedigree is mirrored by who they’ve shared stages with; Opeth, TesseracT, Leprous, Between The Buried And Me, Voyager, Caligula’s Horse, and SikTh, to name a few. Now after five long years, Dyssidia unveil their most immersive and expansive work yet, their second full length album, Deeper Wells of Meaning. Co-produced and mixed by Sam Vallen (Caligula’s Horse) and mastered by V. Santura (Obscura), the album dives deeper into the band’s core a unique combination of weaving, crushing intricacy and raw vulnerability into a singular, immersive experience. Mitch Brackman talks to Hi Fi Way about the album.

How hard has it been managing this limbo phase waiting for the album to come out?
It’s out now which is very exciting. The limbo phase is brutal though. This record has been completed for maybe a year and a bit. We shopped it around and finally found a label that was going to help us. Realistically, the writing, the whole conception and production of the album took almost five years.

How do you keep the focus for that long, knowing it’s going to take years to come to fruition? Do you ever think is this ever going to happen?
Oh, man, we get close to giving up, I’ll tell you that much. We all get frustrated with how slowly things move. But we’re adult and clever enough to understand we all have lives that work in between doing something like this. Dyssidia is some of the purest joy we feel as people within this band. It’s easy to lose sight of the end goal, but we remind ourselves we’re doing this because we enjoy it. We enjoy each other’s company, we’re very good friends, and that makes it easier to keep going. It’s about enjoying the process, good or bad.

When these songs have been with you for so long, was it hard to let go, given the attachment you have had with them?
Really interesting question. Yes, when we’ve sat with that music for so long, it becomes more personal because of the effort we’ve put in. I’ve had the finished album in my possession for months and listened to it maybe three or four times. It’s personal and cardinal to us, but we’re ready to let that bird fly the nest so we can start on newer things.

Has your feeling about the songs changed much from when they started out to how they ended up?
For a lot of artists, every listen changes your opinion. Your brain hones in on little things you or someone else in the band has done. Even though we created it, our opinions shift each time. It’s fluid. The songs are a yardstick for how good and sophisticated we were at that point in time, but they’re also fluid in our own brains because of all the layers, rhythms, and movements. It’s hard to have one fixed opinion.

From your original vision, was it clear what you wanted to do when you started out?
No way. This album grew over a few years. It wasn’t like we sat down in six months and wrote every song. One or two songs were written before the release of Costly Signals in 2020. Some songs have been in our working catalogue for a very long time, and some were finalised a year or two before recording. Altogether, it was at least five years of writing, changing, manipulating, and pre-production.

Does it feel like a moment of triumph when you get to the end and it’s all done?
Triumph is a great word, but I’d almost say relief. Just like, “Oh, good, it’s done now.” Then we can enjoy the fruits of our labour or move on to something new creatively.

Does it feel like purging of the soul, like you’re unburdened and free to look at what’s next creatively?
We don’t have many plans right now. We’ve all been busy, with the album dropping and the rollout happening, we’re in business mode. We’re practicing, organising, and handling logistics. Now the record is out we can feast upon the fruits of our labour, we’ll feel more inspired to create again.

With all the touring that you’ve got planned coming up, is that mostly going to be doing the new album start-to-end?
The record is actually quite a lot shorter than our last. So I believe the majority of the shows and touring we have planned in the future, we will be doing the majority of the record, as well as a couple of oldies. We’ve been around for fourteen to fifteen years almost, so we have a reasonable back catalogue of EPs that people sometimes request songs from. And we go, oh god, we don’t even remember how they go, we haven’t listened to them for ages.

If you had to describe the album, how would you say that to somebody in terms of what it is and what they can expect to hear?
Oh man, that’s a really hard question to answer. It is different for Dyssidia. I would say it has a little less extremity to it, but I’d be lying if I said that, because there are some nut sections in some songs. I think it’s a more adult version, and a more laid-back version of extreme progressive metal. That being said, it’s really fun to listen to. There are some sections and phrases in this record that, even when I listen after having heard them a trillion times, I still can’t help but bop along to. There are some really cool, exciting things, but we’re just ready now.

What are some of the bands that inspire and influence you?
I can’t speak for the rest of the guys. It’s a conglomeration of lots of different sounds. One band I feel contributes a lot to my sound is Nevermore, Warrel Dane and Jeff Loomis. Strange, wacky vocals, lots of layers, feelings, movements, inertia. Collectively, some of our favourite bands are Dream Theater, Opeth, we all like SikTh, and we’ve been quite fond of Tesseract in the past. There are a lot of bands we enjoy together. What makes Dyssidia interesting is that we’re all sophisticated musicians, but we all enjoy different things that come together.

What is next for the band? You’ve got a launch show at Jive on Saturday December 13, do the plans go bigger and broader over the summer?
At this point, nothing is totally locked in, but absolutely that’s the plan. We’re really excited to share this record live with a lot of people. We haven’t had a proper opportunity to tour recently. When Costly Signals came out in 2020, it was a month before COVID hit, and we had a whole bunch of stuff organised tour-wise, but we didn’t get to do any of it. So we didn’t get to enjoy the accolades from our peers. Fingers crossed that a global pandemic doesn’t happen in between now and us touring this record. We’re very excited to go and see old and new friends in different states and play the music we’ve enjoyed creating so much for them.

Interview By Rob Lyon

Deeper Wells Of Meaning is out now via Wild Thing Records.
https://orcd.co/deeperwellsofmeaning

Catch Dyssidia at their album launch show
Sat, Dec 13: Jive Adelaide
Tickets available here