Q&A: Making Bitterness Brighter, denn. Transforms Heartache Into Joy With “TT”
TO TYPICALLY KEEP QUIET AND ULTIMATELY EXPRESS OURSELVES IN SONG — has become denn.’s emotional outlet of choice, and one we see strengthened further in his new single, “TT.” This track is perfectly primed for a long drive with friends while ultimately delving into the cavernous space of broken trust.
denn. is a self-described solitary person, turning to romance novels and manga in his free time and with his closest friends, all at a physical distance. They come together every so often for a classic road trip that often becomes the fodder for a new music video.
Although its content surrounds the aftermath of betrayal in a relationship, “TT” takes a crisp leap toward something warmer and somehow soothing while harnessing that all-too-familiar ache in lyricism. For a perfect listen, consider timing it up with an amber sunset, falling deep into radical acceptance and the art of letting go.
Continue reading below to explore more of denn.’s inner world, from his love for Paramore, a purposefully jam-packed social battery, and reliably judging books by their covers.
LUNA: I was wondering if you started building this track on any particular moment or feeling?
DENN.: I like to do colors — a lot of my songs have colors they’re associated with. For me, “TT” is orange, and so I was like, “Today, we're gonna make an orange song.”
I just finished my album, and those were all blue and white and gray songs. I was making a lot of sad music. I wanted to make a sad song about something fucked up that happened, but I wanted to make it for a drive or something and make it orange and make it summer. I made a song about getting cheated on and then crashing the fuck out, but I made it for a drive.
LUNA: Was it intentional to release only singles up until now, or were you planning for an album the whole time?
DENN.: I wasn't planning for an album. Even when I'm making an album, I don't really sit down and be like, “Oh, let's make an album.” I like to make a bunch of songs a day, and then some days I'll be in a pocket where I'm making a lot of similar-sounding songs, or I'll be inspired by something.
Last summer I was listening to a lot of Fiona Apple, and I made a whole Fiona Apple–inspired EP, just for fun. This year I was in a different pocket — I made five songs [and thought], “Oh, these are real good. Let's expand on these and see what we can do and flush it out.” It's not like I’m thinking of making an album, it's more so the album starts happening and I expand upon it, and that's what I'm doing right now. “Think.” is going to be on the album and “TT” is going to be from that album as well.
LUNA: Do you always record and do all the planning for all of your music videos?
DENN.: I did two bigger ones, one for “it's happening?” and the one for “rottenteeth.” When I planned it out, I gave my entire plan over and worked with [the team] to make it a reality. With Evan, there was more of a back and forth, kind of half-and-half for rotten teeth.
In all the other ones, and the one I'm doing for “TT,” the way I like to do them is I'll usually travel somewhere with my friends and I'll record whatever we're doing and mash it up. It's like a home video, to be able to look back on this moment kind of thing for me. I like to do it that way, where it’s more personal so you can see the song and how these two weeks were for me when I went to Miami or when I went to Nevada, or whatever bullshit I was doing.
LUNA: You reference a specific relationship and deep, emotional betrayal and trying to learn to trust again. Do you feel like you’re finding peace through songwriting? How has that process been for you?
DENN.: I would say I’m usually more of a … muted person. I don't really discuss my emotions, even with my closest friends or my parents. I don't discuss how I feel about things. That relationship, the one that most of my songs are about, was the first time I talked to my mom and dad about any emotional thing I’d been feeling.
Usually I'm the “it is what it is,” fake nonchalant person, because I try to project that and manifest that truth. If I just say it is what it is enough then I maybe won’t [care], and sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn’t. My emotions are very messy, and they come back up later. The songwriting is the way for me to outlet all of that stuff, and that's the way I like to do it.
I don't like to project my bad emotions out into the world. I more so like to project them into my songs and get it out that way, and then after that I'm good, but I think that was a problem. My last girlfriend broke up with me because I don’t open up enough. I thought I didn’t have anything to say because I got it all out in the song. After that, I don't need to talk about it or complain about it.
LUNA: I’m thinking about the trips you described for your music videos. Do you feel like traveling plays a larger role in that processing?
DENN.: Yeah, because I'm an introvert. I have a lot of internet friends [who], for the most part, live in different places. My two best friends live in Nevada and then my other best friends live in New York. I live in Connecticut, so they're two hours from me. I’m not getting a ton of human interaction every day, especially because I like to be inside.
I’ll plan a whole stretch of a month of me getting all my social stuff that I'm supposed to be getting for the year, and then my social battery completes. Then it’s like, “Okay, I'll see you guys in four months or whatever after I feel good again.” It’s a way for me to get my socialness in and think of new ideas, experience new things, and get a new perspective on shit that I was feeling before, or be a little less sad.
LUNA: Are there any songs you've been obsessed with recently?
DENN.: “Roommates” by Malcolm Todd — favorite song of all time right now. Then my favorite song of all, all, all time — this one actually got me started making music — is “World's Biggest Hypocrite” by Sabrina Sterling. That song is so good.
I like “Idol Worship” by Paramore. Paramore was the first band that I liked when I was a kid because I got introduced to them by my sister. That song has a really cool middle section. Then just glaive. Anything that glaive makes all the time, and then Chappell Roan, “Good Luck, Babe!”
LUNA: Everything I’ve been seeing on my feed is only Chappell Roan, and I'm not complaining.
DENN.: That song is so fire. I can’t even relate to the lyrical content, but the song just sounds so good, so that’s in my headphones all the time.
LUNA: Listening to “TT” reminded me of the yearning in a lot of ’70s soul music. Do you enjoy that kind of music or feel any inspiration from that era?
DENN.: Oh, yeah. Well, I wouldn't say I took inspiration. I'm not a smart guy, so I don't really be thinking that deep. I just turn the beat on and start going. I would say I listen to literally everything. Everything except for country. There's some country that I like, but I don't fuck with country that heavy. I listen to everything else.
LUNA: Do you have a list of top three albums of all time?
DENN.: Number one of all time, Brand New Eyes by Paramore. So good, so amazing to this day. Will never get old. It's always been good. It's been good since I was born and it'll be good when I die. It'll be good three million years from now.
Then I would say another one that really shaped me was Kid Krow by Conan Gray. That one had me depressed as hell, in my bag for two months. My last pick is the glaive album I Care So Much That I Don't Care at All. That one was so good.
LUNA: Are there other ways that you explore self-expression, or any other mediums that you enjoy in your free time?
DENN.: I’m kind of a boring guy. I watch YouTube, I read, I make my music. Sometimes I'll sit outside and read trying to feel like I'm in a movie or something. I don't have any other creative mediums — I used to draw when I was in school until I realized I was really bad at it, then it stopped.
I will say writing, even when I was in school, I liked poetry. I was failing every subject except for English because I was just good at that one. When we had the poetry segment, my teachers would submit my poetry without my consent for competitions and stuff like that, and I kept writing since then, and that’s manifested in my music. It's like a writing exercise, even though I don't really write things down that much. It’s the quick succession of poetry in my brain that’s fun. For me, it’s like a game.
LUNA: Are you turning towards poetry when you read or [are there] different genres you usually enjoy?
DENN.: I'm reading romance books. It’s the same with shows — I'll watch anything romance. It’s my main genre, so I'll just be sitting there in my bag.
I don't read poetry. I only write poetry, but I will read song lyrics by themselves. I'll be on the train like, I really wonder what Lizzie McAlpine was saying in that song I heard three weeks ago. And I read that dry without the song, which is kind of freeing.
LUNA: I like when people start analyzing [lyrics] super hard and are having huge discussions about how they're interpreting it.
DENN.: I love that. You know what's really good for that? J pop music. They’ll make a whole animated video for the song and in the comments there’ll be three million people [saying] this is the metaphor for this and that and this and that and you can spend a whole afternoon just reading that. It’s so fun. I screenshot them to look at them later. I don't ever look at my screenshots after I [take them], but I always think that I'm going to. I have 30,000 photos on this phone and 90% of them are screenshots from things. I think, “Oh, Imma look at this later.” I don't ever look at it.
LUNA: It’s a virtual filing happening. Like, “Oh, let's put that away, maybe I'll look into that later,” but I’m the same, I never get around to it.
DENN.: Thank god it's on the phone, because if that was in my house, I would be a hoarder. There'd be shit everywhere.
LUNA: Are you into any fantasy romance novels?
DENN.: Yep. I even read this website, Webtoons, and they have little internet scrolling comics. I’ll be reading romance on there and I’ll buy romance [novels]. I just go to Barnes & Noble and look at the cover, kind of read the back or the front, but I'm more like, if the cover is cool I'll read it.
LUNA: We do judge a book by its cover sometimes.
DENN.: I definitely do in all facets of life. I'm not gonna lie, I judge everything by the cover. If it looks bad, it's gonna be bad. I don't eat food that looks bad either.
LUNA: It's the first impression that we have! For anyone else who is a fan of romance novels, do you have any recommendations?
DENN.: Noughts + Crosses [is a] great book. It has romance in it but it's not the focus, and I'm gonna recommend Webtoons. Down to Earth is a good one. It’s Mine is my number one pick if you want to read a Webtoon. They're like Korean manga — it's really good.
LUNA: You were saying you had plans for a music video for “TT.” Are you going to lean into the color around it a bit more? If you don’t mind exposing the concept, I would love to hear more.
DENN.: I’m not a secretive person; I'm a yapper, so I'll tell you exactly what the video is. I filmed it when I went to Miami. I went to Miami for my birthday in May with all my friends. We went to Disney. Don't ever go to Disney. That was boring, but it was pretty fun. We went to a bunch of places and I recorded everything that we did. Lots of ping pong in the video, and the ping pong place was orange. Lots of green. We rented a car. I forgot what the car is called, but it was a convertible. We were riding around top down doing stupid shit and the video is just that.
LUNA: Is there anything else that you wanted to add?
DENN.: I’m thinking about that cinna scramble sandwich from Panera Bread that came out recently. It’s really good and I think everybody should try that. This is not sponsored, but they should all eat it. It’s a cinnamon roll that has sausage, cheese, and some type of sauce. I've been eating it every single day for two weeks and I'm going to eat it after this again.
LUNA: I had no idea this came out. That's all of my favorite things.
DENN.: I'm literally dressed right now to go to Panera.
LUNA: Do you have a favorite soup or sandwich combo?
DENN.: I have such bad news for everybody. I really just don't like soup. I love sandwiches. Sandwiches are my favorite, I just don't like soup. I don’t.
When I see those people where they're eating their sandwiches with a bunch of greens and they have their tomato soup and they're dipping it, I'm like, “You look so cool right now doing that stuff.” It kind of reminds me of this thing I saw that was, like, eating an apple in New York is the same thing as smoking a cigarette. It gives the same vibe as walking around eating the apple. That's like the sandwich dippers in the soup for me. I wish that was me.
I don't know. I had soup one time when I was maybe 10 and I never ate soup again. I eat ramen, though, if that counts.
LUNA: In regards to your album, is there a timeline you have in mind? Are there any hints for us about that?
DENN.: I would love to answer, but I honestly have no clue. I'm not lying. I actually don't know. If I could choose, it would be end of this year or somewhere in the first half of next year, I would hope.
I want to release another single after this one, and then I want to drop an EP which is going to be 10 songs from the 20-song album. Those numbers are not concrete, that's just what I’m thinking right now. That's the plan, but I don't know. It could be in 30 years from now. Maybe I'll die and then you guys will listen to it through neuralink or streaming it to your consciousness through satellites or something.
LUNA: We love this track and everything else you've been doing. Thank you so much for your time. If you have any final words, feel free to speak them.
DENN.: Tune into the song after this one, because it will be the saddest song I’ve ever made. Top five saddest songs I’ve ever made. You guys will all be crying, calling it now.
“TT” is out now. Watch the music video here.
