There's a warmth in the eyes and a clearness of thought
When the deepest of sighs and the frankest of shadows are gone
- The Deepest Sighs, The Frankest Shadows by Gang of Youths

Timeline:

• July 30th, 2018: Matt pens “I Have a New Favorite Band“
• Oct 5th, 2018: Chris sets up a development site to try things out.
• Oct 15th, 2018: Social accounts are registered.
• Oct 26th, 2018: Forum is set up.
• November 8, 2018: Website is announced to the world.

Chris:

I sent Matt a message something like: “Figured we could just test the waters a bit with an actual site. I can move it to a live domain pretty easily or just click a button to destroy it.” 

Matt was the one who discovered Gang of Youths and wouldn’t stop pestering anyone and everyone about it. Eventually I had to give in and check the band out and begrudgingly admit that he kinda maybe sort of liked them.

Matt:

It’s all David Fricke’s fault. His RollingStone.com article comparing them to U2 showed up in my Google alerts and I was instantly fascinated. Back in the day, every band that came along was compared to U2, but that hasn’t been the case in a while, so I just had to check ’em out. Best decision ever.

Was I pestering? It felt more like I’d just discovered a pot of gold and was trying to get everyone to come grab their share. The real pestering was when you and a couple other friends started talking about domain names and fan sites! I mean, you set up a test site before any domain was purchased, so clearly something connected for you in a legit way.

Chris:

Ok fair enough. But nothing really happens until a domain name is registered. And you pulled the trigger on that one. It was all inevitable at that point.

I was sucked in by the lyrics you kept tweeting and then when I heard David’s vocals – a mixture of Leonard Cohen mumble singing and soaring choruses – I was hooked. 

Matt:

Yeah, I’m not usually a big lyrics guy, but this band and these songs are another story. I was a bit of a mental mess after both my parents died, and two GOY songs — “Do Not Let Your Spirit Wane” and “Deepest Sighs” — brought me out of my darkness. (I wrote about that here.) After 23 years of running atu2.com, I wasn’t looking to start another fan site, but when it was obvious that you and a couple other people were thinking about one … as you said, it was inevitable.

I hope that Deepest Sighs can serve as a news/community hub for Gang of Youths’ fans around the world, and also help propel the band toward the level of success that I think they deserve.

Chris:

Since you’ve got a pretty good track record of picking bands with longevity, I wanted to get in on the ground floor of this experiment at Deepest Sighs. Here’s hoping the band has many more albums in them to come!

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