Auckland newcomer deryk ruminates on revenge on the dark pop of her debut single “Call You Out”

With a music-making moniker nodding to her maternal grandfather, Madeline Bradley aka deryk is a talent that immediately feels destined for great heights.

Counting the likes of PJ Harvey, Fiona Apple and Kate Bush among her main influences, the 24-year-old has hit the ground running on her debut track “Call You Out”. Featuring finely-woven production courtesy of writing partner Justyn Pilbrow, it’s a song that conjures James Blake and the more dark side of Lorde in equal measure.

Accompanied by a video that deryk created, shot and directed on her mobile phone during lockdown, it’s an all-too-short tale of squandered revenge that marries widescreen synth lines and acoustic arpeggios with a host of skeletal beats.

Speaking about the track, deryk said: “It is about the feeling you get when you’ve missed an opportunity to say something you felt you should have said or could have been said if you’d been quick enough. 'I fucking wish I’d said that, fuck.'”

“There’s a shame and frustration that comes with not standing up for yourself or somebody else when you could have but you just froze, lost for words. You end up brewing for a few days, plotting, questioning whether to call them out and that exact fury is what inspired the song.”