The impossibly good-looking, immeasurably chilled Doyle Perez (AKA D At Sea) first gained a following after performing acoustic covers of his favourite hardcore tracks on YouTube. Since then, Perez has expanded both his musical taste and his skills before the eyes and ears of a burgeoning fan base.
For those who have followed his career, D At Sea’s latest EP,Anchors & Diamonds, might come as a shock, full of electronic production and synth melodies. But if they’ve been paying close attention, they should expect any number of surprises from the Sunshine Coast native.
Perez has just wrapped up a series of free park tours – he strapped on his guitar and parked himself under trees and gazebos around Australia – and is readying for what looks to be a busy second half of the year.
“Touring was really awesome,” Perez says. “I’ve always had a really close connection with all my fans and doing these free shows in the park seemed like such a perfect way to come out and chill with them. Sure, it’s out of pocket for me but hopefully I made some even stronger connections with everyone and it shows them that I’m making this music with them along the way.”
Every step of Perez’s musical meander has been unconventional – from hardcore to folktronica to who knows – but it all makes sense when the man himself explains his motivations.
“I used to play in a hardcore band and I started playing hardcore covers as a way of connecting with people who enjoyed the same music as me,” he says. “I also wanted to show people that hardcore music wasn’t just screaming and angry and heavy, that it can actually be quite beautiful.”
After all, a melody is a melody – most of what changes from genre to genre is tempo and timbre, but within those tiny differences exists a lot of identity. Try telling a metal fan their music is really no different to a Wagner opera, or a pop-punk fan that their favourite track varies little from last year’s Katy Perry hit, and you’ll get anything from puzzled looks to violent anger.
“Even when I released my first song from this EP – it has drums and synth and a lot of different textures to it – I then did an acoustic version of it and I had people saying they loved that one more,” he says, laughing. “It’s literally the exact same song but played on an acoustic guitar and some people will favour that just because of the idea of an acoustic song.”
Perez is planning on staying close to his audience, with park-style performances not necessarily a thing of the past, but in return the fans had best be prepared to be part of his genre journey.
“I like to push people to really think about things, and this time that’s been lyrically as well as musically,” he says. “But musically, even before I started doing the acoustic covers, I thought acoustic was emo or too soft or something like that, and this time around I had the same idea going in with electronic music. I used to think it looked so easy, like anyone could do it. But then I got into it and got into sound design and realised it was so, so hard and so I wanted to push the boundaries again with something that was new to me.”
