London shoegaze three-piece deary have unveiled their latest single, Alma, alongside a breathtaking official video directed by Limb — and it might be their most quietly devastating track yet. The new cut arrives ahead of the band’s debut full-length ‘Birding,’ due April 3 via Bella Union, and is available to pre-order now.
Rooted in the Spanish word for soul (and the Latin sense of kindness and nourishment), Alma is the most pop-forward moment on ‘Birding,’ though that’s relative — this is still very much a band swimming in blown-out atmosphere and shimmering reverb. Vocalist and guitarist Rebecca “Dottie” Cockram describes it as a kind of band manifesto made song:
“I see Alma as an embodiment of our band. It has been with us for a long time and changed with us along the way. In the past 4 years, we have grown into ourselves and have a much clearer idea of what deary is. In this song, I am talking to my younger self who made the decision to look after us and become a better person.”
Formed in 2020 — during, y’know, that — by Dottie, guitarist Ben Easton, and drummer Harry Catchpole, deary built their sound on a holy trinity of influences: Cocteau Twins, Slowdive, and My Bloody Valentine. It shows. But ‘Birding,’ self-produced and running 11 tracks deep, isn’t just reverence — it’s deary carving out something genuinely their own, threading trip-hop rhythms through oceanic shoegaze and gossamer indie into a record that breathes and bruises in equal measure.
The album’s themes are heavy, real, and handled with care — innocence, grief, mental health, nature, and what it means to exist as a human in the modern world. Ben Easton has been candid about the emotional weight behind the record: “I was writing the record in one of the worst periods of my life. I was not in a good space at all. The album came from an isolated, almost hopeless space, and you can hear that in parts of the record. But there are also moments that are very self-loving and meditative, and a bit more uplifting.”
And summing it up with quiet confidence: “Our last EP was us trying to be deary. This album is us being deary.”
Alma follows previous singles Seabird and Alfie — the latter already earning nods from BrooklynVegan (“pure shimmering, magisterial beauty”) and Stereogum (“Slowdive influence is strong… and deary do justice to the lineage”). The band also came in swinging with their debut single Fairground, which hit #1 on the UK Vinyl Singles Chart — not bad for a first outing.
They’ve shared stages with Slowdive, Cranes, The Murder Capital, and Saint Etienne, and have UK and EU tour dates lined up to follow Birding’s release.
‘Birding’ drops April 3 via Bella Union. Pre-order it. Then go outside and look at the sky for a while.
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