Alejandra deheza biography sample

ABOVE: SCHOOL OF SEVEN BELLS’ BENJAMIN CURTIS (LEFT) AND ALEJANDRA DEHEZA. IMAGE COURTESY OF JUSTIN HOLLAR

There’s something primal about School of Seven Bells’ particular brand of dream pop. The ethereal vocals Alejandra Deheza and the churning soundscapes of Benjamin Curtis create a ghostly yet danceable blend, drawing out influences from the dense guitar-driven shoegaze genre to percussive electronic music.

The band was originally a trio, coming together in 2007 after Curtis left his old band Secret Machines and Deheza and her twin sister, Claudia, came over from project called On!Air!Library! Claudia left the band in 2010, leaving a void, particularly when it came to the band’s signature dual vocals. But School of Seven Bells has continued onward, most recently releasing an EP called Put Your Sad Down in November.

Alejandra Deheza spoke to Interview about the band’s new music, growing up in Florida, and moving to New York.

ROLAND LI: How does the new EP compare with your previous albums?

ALEJANDRA DEHEZA: It wasn’t thrown together, but it wasn’t something we planned on. We didn’t feel that much pressure with it, and we didn’t give ourselves a deadline. I felt with the other records, there was a lot of planning involved. We were in between tours, so there was pressure with deadlines. With this one, we felt like we just wanted to relax and make a record in a space that we had never done before. We never really did anything just for fun. With this one, we weren’t even planning on making it, but people heard it and they really liked it.

LI: What are some of the themes or subjects that you’re trying to touch on lyrically?

DEHEZA: I didn’t really even have a chance to think about that. It felt very spur of the moment. Lyrically, I feel like there are things I always go back to, having to do with relationships.

LI: The first

Some New Yorkers were terrified when Hurricane Irene hit the city last month. Alejandra Deheza was mesmerized. The heavy winds were nothing like Hurricane Andrew, which devastated southern Florida, where she lived as a kid in the early ’90s. They were more like the lyrics she wrote for her electronic-rock band, School of Seven Bells, in songs like “Windswept” and “Dust Devil” and “Joviann,” which contains the line “The night begins as a roving wind that summons the earth from under my feet.” When she heard the wind, Deheza woke up at 4 a.m. and stared out the window of her Brooklyn apartment.

“I love storms anyway,” says Deheza, who sings and plays guitar in the New York duo with guitarist Benjamin Curtis. “It was the gorgeous spectacle happening, as opposed to something terrifying.

“I don’t know if you’ve ever looked up the Orishas at all. It’s this Yoruba religion. It’s not my religion or anything, but I’ve always found it really inspiring. They’ve made these deities out of the weather, (and) these particular gods and goddesses have the traits you’d expect from a hurricane, or nature itself — even the ocean,” she continues, by phone from her apartment. “I’ve always been drawn to wind and even tornadoes and the chaos they cause. It definitely inspires some kind of poem or song. I did a lot of writing after that.”

Born in Guatemala, Deheza grew up in Florida and Washington, D.C., before moving to New York City with the vague notion of being a writer. Eventually a friend suggested the best way to make it was to become a songwriter. Deheza switched.

“You know, it made a lot of sense, especially because I did love music so much,” she says. “It’s really funny — it never ever occurred to me, ever, up until that point, to be in a band. … The minute he said that I was like, ‘O