Behind The Band: Dear Rouge

Dear Rouge's Canadian husband and wife duo, Drew and Danielle McTaggart, share the inspiration of their debut album Black To Gold

From the LifeMinute Team

July 20, 2015

Dear Rouge, an alternative dance-rock band from Vancouver, British Columbia, released their debut album Black To Gold this spring and have since received praise from the music industry. "A lot of artists aren't comfortable with the question 'Who do you sound like?', but it is a reference point, and I would say the clearest reference point for us would be like a female-led The Killers," says Drew McTaggart, who along with his wife Danielle, form Dear Rouge.

The first 3 singles from the album ("I Heard I Had", "Best Look Lately", and "Black to Gold") have all cracked the Top 20 on the Canadian Alternative Rock charts. "We feel like it is a very sincere snapshot of who we are and how we write, and it's an honest album from us and our friends," he adds. Canadian Beats values the "metric kind of vibe [of the album, which] maintains its own sound. Black to Gold is quite addicting and tracks can easily be put on repeat."

The song "Black To Gold" was inspired by Danielle's favorite childhood book, The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, The Witch, and The Wardrobe. "There was a part that said everything was melting from white to gold. The fields were turning into gold. Golden from a time when everything can be icy and cold and hard and a struggle to it clearing out and there being a good time ahead and there's something to look forward to," explains Danielle.

The synergy the couple shares allows their songwriting process to be seemingly effortless. "Danielle just penned the lyrics right away and then when she passed it back to me, it really felt like it was holding hands with the music. Sometimes, lyrically, you can get away with it and if you're attached to the music, you can feel like the lyrics are in it, but right when it hits the chorus, the lyrics are musical and they fit the music of the song," says Drew. "I like to think of songs as human beings. You do what's best for them. You dress them a certain way just based on their personality, and we try and stay close to that when we're writing together," he adds.

In addition to the title song, "Black To Gold", the track "Best Look Lately" is also getting a lot of play. "This song was really about people being confident, and we were inspired by nature and the kind of sincerity as a human being--like the best look you can have is just being completely sincere," says Drew.

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