Deserta

Matthew Doty, who functions as singer, songwriter, and multi-instrumentalist, shaped the Deserta project around the intersection of synth pop and shoegaze. The 2020 release Black Aura My Sun first presented Doty’s reverb-soaked, ethereal approach, one that recalled M83 as readily as Slowdive or Mogwai, before he honed the sound further on the 2022 album Every Moment, Everything You Need.

Doty entered recording in the early 2000s as a member of the post-rock band Saxon Shore, remaining its sole consistent participant through an initial lineup that included Josh Tillman of Father John Misty. After the group ended its run following five albums, among them 2009’s It Doesn’t Matter, Doty formed Midnight Faces with vocalist Phil Stancil; that collaboration united post-punk and synth pop. Midnight Faces issued Heavenly Bodies in 2016 and then dissolved, leaving Doty to pursue music independently for the first time.

Anticipating fatherhood and drawing from the expansive textures of Slowdive, Sigur Rós, and M83, he began composing in 2017 the material that became Deserta’s debut. Felte Records released Black Aura My Sun in January 2020. Working as an essential employee during the global COVID-19 pandemic, Doty maintained his home-studio output as circumstances allowed. February 2022’s Every Moment, Everything You Need delivered a more refined take on the Deserta aesthetic, centering Doty’s vocals, with drumming supplied by James McAliser, engineering by Chris Coady, and mixing by David Fridmann.