Margate duo debdepan on miserable music and their latest EP ‘Lovers & Others’

From the seaside streets of the UK’s Margate, Chelsea and Grace – aka debdepan – are redefining what it means to be a modern alternative duo. Fusing dark pop, grunge, and dance influences, their music is at once introspective and kinetic, exploring love, identity, and friendship through a raw, dramatised lens.

Formed during lockdown, the self-taught pair bonded over a love of “miserable music” – think The Cure and Tom O’Dell – yet they also channel the rush of rave and dancefloor energy, creating a unique tension that has become their signature. And their band name is as unique as their sound – a little unusual, a little unexpected, just like them.

After cutting their teeth in grassroots venues and winning over audiences at international showcases, the duo has supported acts including Margate’s own Pete Doherty. Their new EP, Lovers & Others, draws heavily on their life in Margate, balancing reflective, “sad girl” vulnerability with hard-hitting, danceable arrangements.

In this interview, the duo discuss their Margate roots, the real-life drama that inspired their new EP, fusing sad girl vibes with a party energy, how they’re winning the SEO war with their band name, the importance of grassroots venues, and what it was like supporting Pete Doherty on tour.

Hi debdepan! Where are you joining Headliner from today?

Chelsea: We're in my wardrobe in Margate.

How long have you both lived there? (Margate, not the wardrobe)

Grace: About a year and a half. We were weighing up between here and London, but London was just so expensive, and Margate’s got a good music scene.

Who is the first artist you can remember having an impact on you?

Grace: I’d say it’s always been kind of miserable music [laughs]. We used to have about a 40-minute train journey, and we used to listen to things like Tom O’Dell and The Cure – just anything depressing.

Chelsea: We went to school together, and I think most of the reason we bonded is our shared love of depressing songs.

Depressing music aside, are you into any music that might surprise people?

Grace: We like a lot of dance music as well. I’m definitely a big fan of Cobra, which is ravey tracks. I think people are more shocked that we like more depressing music! Everyone thinks we’re upbeat and into party tunes all the time.

Chelsea: Yeah, a few people who’ve seen this live have been like, “There’s a really weird contrast between when you play music and when you speak between songs, because it’s two very different personalities”.

When did you decide to start making music together?

Chelsea: We've been playing terrible cover versions since we were about 13, like 10:15 Saturday Night by The Cure. Neither of us studied music or anything, so it was very much just for fun, just for us. We didn’t really properly start writing until lockdown.

Grace: We never gigged any of them! We were just stuck in a rehearsal room for about six years. We used to do a couple of their covers by Soft Play – but they were called Slaves at the time – because they were a two-piece. One of us would stamp the drum and play guitar while the other one sang. But those covers will never see the light of day!

How did you both learn instruments if you were both self-taught?

Grace: The way I learned was by looking at songs I liked and just sitting on Ultimate Guitar Tabs or YouTube tutorials, and teaching myself that way. Definitely no theory.

Chelsea: I was a really big Taylor Swift fan at school, and my parents bought me a Taylor Swift signature guitar, so I was learning all her songs.

debdepan is an interesting band name. How did you come up with it?

Chelsea: It’s just a made-up word, to be fair. We wanted something really weird, so that if you Googled it, we’d be the only thing that came up.

Grace: The closest thing is the tube station that comes up, which is Debden. But if you type in the name of our band, we’re the only thing that comes up. That’s the aim.

Do you write songs together or separately?

Chelsea: It depends on the songs, really – sometimes together, sometimes separately. It’s been quite varied.

Grace: No two songs have been the same. We don’t really have a set process; it’s just what feels natural at the time.

Your music often features quite personal lyrics about tough situations. How do you handle writing such personal songs and then sharing them and performing them for an audience?

Chelsea: I just try to dissociate, to be honest! Initially, when I start writing, I don’t know what I’m going to write about. Then it comes up, and I think, “Oh, maybe I should look at that.” And then I’m just done – then it’s nothing to do with me anymore.

Your OMEN EP was released in 2023, which led to a run of live dates in London and Kent, including support slots with Margate's (sort of) very own Pete Doherty on his 2025 UK tour. Plus, you got airplay on BBC Introducing and BBC 6Music. What was that time like for you, suddenly touring and supporting other artists, and why the wait between EPs?

Grace: It’s gone really quickly and really slowly at the same time. I think we were quite frustrated for a while because we hadn’t released anything and were just building up our catalogue over the past few years.

Chelsea: We just wanted the next release to feel right and for us to feel more ready for it. When we did Omen, we didn’t really have a clue what we were doing.

Grace: Over the last two years, we’ve definitely honed our live sound, worked with a lot of different people, and pushed ourselves – doing big support dates. Supporting Pete was an amazing experience. It’s just been a learning curve over these two years, keeping at it and continuing to grow.

And did Pete know about your connection to Margate?

Chelsea: Yeah, I think so. Grace and I were both working at Justine’s, which is a club in Margate. It's owned by Carl Barat. We’d seen both Pete and Carl at different events. We recorded one of the singles from the EP at The Album Rooms, which is their recording studio.

Grace: So yeah, there’s been a bit of a connection from day one. They actually gave us our first-ever gig at The Album Rooms, so it’s a nice loop.

What was it like to support Pete on tour?

Grace: It was crazy, and kind of surreal. We did Birmingham and then Bristol. We walked into the venues and spent a few hours just driving around. I remember getting out and seeing how big the place was, and I was like, “Oh my goodness.”

Chelsea: Weirdly, for me, I thought I’d feel really nervous, but it was just such an enjoyable, good time overall. The whole thing was great.

Your new EP, Lovers & Others, is your most ambitious project yet. This is a collection that chronicles the complexities of love, identity, and friendship through debdepan’s dramatised lens. What inspired these themes?

Chelsea: We spent a good couple of years just figuring out what we wanted to do and where we wanted to go sound-wise. In those two years, we obviously experienced a lot more drama to write about.

Grace: Moving to Margate kind of sums it up. The past year and a half we’ve spent there has been quite nice, and the majority of the content comes from Margate.

Margate seems integral to this new music. Where do you write your songs in the town?

Chelsea: Mostly just at home, to be honest, and sometimes at Justine’s in the basement. We used that as a bit of a writing space.

Grace: It’s nice down there – we’d lock ourselves in for long hours, days at a time, because there are no windows or distractions. So it’s quite good for writing.

Chelsea: Our house is really see-through, so people walking by can probably see us writing. We’ve got a bit of a writing space – I call it the dining room, but it’s really just an extra bit of room in the kitchen, with a big window above the table I work on. Our neighbour often stares through that window at me, which is really uncomfortable [laughs].

The EP’s lead single, Habit, explores emotional inadequacy and the exhausting games people play for affection. Where did the idea for this song stem from?

Chelsea: We went to a residency called Westway Lab in Portugal. It was a writing camp and a showcase festival, where we got paired with Portuguese artists to come up with 40 minutes’ worth of material in just a week. So it was quite intense.

Grace: At the end of the week, we had a performance for a load of industry people, which was even more scary.

Chelsea: The timing was literally just after I went through a breakup, so I was wallowing in self-pity and all those sad feelings to write about. When we went there, we got paired with a techno artist, so we were fusing our “sad girl” vibes with his party energy. It felt like a really good way of processing sad emotions.

Grace: It was a new way of working for us, and we both like dance music, so it was really interesting to work with more of a dance beat behind the music and build it up that way.

What are your favourite songs on the EP?

Chelsea: Mine is Oh No, although it wasn’t actually supposed to be on the EP – it was a little accident song. After we worked on it, we went to Cardiff to work with the producer James Minas, and something really special happened to that song. It’s a bit of an underdog.

Grace: My favourite is The Girl. It feels nice to have something we’re both really proud of out in the world.

Grassroots music venues are under threat; how important are they for emerging bands like you to hone their craft?

Chelsea: They are so important. We're really lucky in Margate to have so many venues. And there’s the Ramsgate Music Hall, the Booking Hall in Dover, and lots of other great spots around here. They’re so important – not only for giving new artists a chance to play, but also for meeting other artists and music lovers and sharing that love of music.

Grace: It would be such a shame if they ended up shutting. It’s always really devastating news. We started in grassroots venues and have been playing them for a long time, so they’re a key part of the music community.

What is your favourite grassroots venue to play in Margate?

Chelsea: I love Where Else?.

Grace: It’s such a good vibe. The venue’s down in the basement, so you really get the attention of the crowd. It’s just a really cool place. Sammy, the booker, does such a good job of bringing really cool touring bands to Margate, which really breathes life into the scene.

Chelsea: That venue was kind of a staple for us. We used to go and see a lot of gigs there before we were even making music, and I remember thinking, when we started the band, “If we get to play there, we’ve made it.” Then Sammy gave us, literally, our second ever gig, and we were like, “Oh, maybe we should set some more goals!”

Is debdepan on TikTok, and do you feel pressure to keep producing content on there?

Chelsea: Yeah, we’re on there, but reluctantly. I never really got on with that app. When it came out, I could see it doing really good stuff for new artists and how it could be great, but I just find it confusing. I’m more of an Instagram girl.

Grace: It just seems like the weirdest stuff gets attention. It’s hard to navigate what people are going to like and what they won’t. We’ve had some really stupid videos do quite well, and you’re just like, “Oh God, really?”

Chelsea: And then you feel so embarrassed to have them out in the world! But I feel like you do well on TikTok by embarrassing yourself.

Photographer: Martin Perry