Date Signed: March 2026
Label: Jagjaguwar
Type of Music: Alternative
Band Members: Dylan Young
Management: Ben O’Connor
Legal: Paul Sommerstein
Publicity: Jacob Daneman, Pitch Perfect PR - jacob@pitchperfectpr.com
A&R: Eric Deines
Web: facebook.com/waydynamicmusic
As one of the A&Rs working for Secretly Group, the Indiana-based collective of labels that includes Secretly Canadian, Dead Oceans, and Jagjaguwar, Eric Deines often receives tips on music worth checking out. Last summer, numerous people suggested he take a listen to an artist under the moniker Way Dynamic.
Deines immediately connected with one tune in particular: “Miffed It.” The Australian player’s style is difficult to describe, as it blends art rock, baroque pop, and minimalist folk into something new. “There’s this Nick Drake quality to that song,” Deines points out. “The delivery is so hypnotic.”
Colleagues at Secretly began passing around the full album, Massive Shoe, which originally came out on Melbourne’s Spoilsport Records. Meanwhile, Deines began listening to Way Dynamic while taking care of his young daughter in the mornings. “You can only listen to so much Elmo,” he half jokes, noting that his tyke also harbors an appreciation for Nick Drake.
Then in February, Deines went to North Carolina to visit producer Brad Cook, who was recording a band from Down Under in his Durham studio. The label rep got to know the group’s engineer, Dylan Young, during that time. “I could tell he was talented, because he was also playing bass, guitar, and keyboard, and doing harmonies,” marvels Deines.
A text exchange with a friend triggered a sudden revelation—Young was that musician he liked so much. The A&R, who’s worked with acts such as Cut Worms, Foxygen, and Moses Sumney, quickly confessed to Young how much he loved the breakthrough artist’s music. Talk about signing to Jagjaguwar ensued. “We never toyed with the idea of one of the other labels,” says Deines. “It’s always been—'oh, this is Jagjaguwar.'” With Way Dynamic having turned into a hot commodity, there were many labels competing to bring him onto their rosters. Secretly Group nonetheless won out.
The global reissue of Massive Shoe will feature an exclusive bonus track. Plus, they’ll be filming a video to mark the occasion. “And then we’ll be releasing whatever he’s doing next,” exclaims Deines, bursting with enthusiasm. “You really get to find out about your artists when they’re working on a new record.”
Way Dynamic will be touring North America for the first time ever starting in September.
