New Single Release: Dana Gavanski ‘How To Feel Uncomfortable’
23 January 2024
Darcey has recently released an acoustic EP on Soundcloud, and a new single called ‘Male Gaze’. Despite being only 22, her voice is deep and distinct. If Adele and Amy Winehouse had a baby, that baby’s voice would sound like Darcey’s. Her songs masterfully blend jazz and soul while exploring difficult subjects through hard-hitting lyrics.
The first thing you notice about Darcey is her bold red glasses. Then it’s her colourful hand-painted trousers. She removes a towel from her head, apologising for her poorly timed shower and lets her long blond wet hair cascade down to her hips.
She takes me through a nondescript door leading into her studio. The room is heaving with colour: Kieth Haring doodles painted onto the walls; a bright pink drum kit; yellow spray-painted hearts, stark against a grey background. On one wall there’s a large collection of polaroids picturing every person who’s stepped into her studio- she warns me that as her newest guest I can’t escape the camera lens. Sitting below is her grandfather’s piano. Darcey smiles and recalls her first foray into music: “my debut was the rainbow song with my grandad accompanying me on this piano.”
She sits at her desk swivelling round in her chair while fidgeting with a tennis racket-shaped pen as I begin to ask about her life and music career so far.
Tell me about your early life.
“I had a good childhood. I lived behind a park, so I always did sports because there was a sports club there. I actually fully wanted to be a tennis player. My dad thought I was going to be and that was the direction I was being pushed in. Well, nicely guided into.”
But at eight years old, her mum, a former dancer, signed her up to a theatre group where she realised her passion for singing and was eventually encouraged by the teachers to start writing her own songs and perform them. Once she’d got a taste for music, tennis just couldn’t compare.
“As soon as I started enjoying [music] I just thought ‘oh yeah this will just be me for life’. I love tennis, I love playing now, but I didn’t want to do it as a job.”
What instruments do you play?
I don’t actually claim that I can play any instruments; I can’t read music and most of the time I don’t really know what I’m playing.
Dyslexia makes it difficult for Darcey to learn instruments and read music, but she continues to be a creative force.
“I tried to learn guitar, but it just wasn’t working out for me. I just couldn’t pay attention, so I stopped. i play guitar to accompany myself to sing (and it looks cool to be fair). I play bass because it kind of comes hand in hand with guitar, but would I say I’m a bassist? No. I play piano, but if someone shouted a chord at me I wouldn’t be able to fucking play it. It’s a goal to have an album or ep where I’ve played everything on it, that would be sick and I think I can manage it, it’s just the thing of how I learn it.”
Whats a core memory of yours?
My family would go down to Devon on holiday and [in the car] we had one album on repeat- Norah Jones ‘Feels Like Home’- that is core memories! It’s got my favourite songs on there. Music always connects you to feelings and emotions and places, and she [Norah] was my life.
What artists inspire you?
“I listened to Joni Mitchell when I started getting into songwriting but before then it was Etta James, Aretha Franklin and all the old jazz singers because my brother did jazz piano. And I love soul music- like Stevie Wonder, Donny Hathaway. Erykah Badu, Lauryn Hill, The Roots- I would love to sing live with The Roots one day- it would go cold.”
Whats the creative process for writing your songs?
“Sometimes I’ll be singing random lyrics and I’ll think ‘ooh that sounds good, I’ll voice note that’ and start working out chords around it. I don’t really stress myself out about writing, like it’ll come when it comes. I try to write a bit everyday- I’ve got these big song books, I have one each year and I just write everything in there.”
She holds up three large black bible-looking notebooks with gold-edged pages.
“I’m not very good at talking about my emotions, I just hide everything forever, and the only way I can talk about things is in songs. ‘New Look of Lonely’ is about how no one will ever know if I feel sad because I just act the same. I love performing that song live- it’s so fun.”
Whats your song “Dear Melody” about?
“Dear melody is a letter to the lost melodies of today. Songs these days focus on just the production rather than the melody and words. Songs were better back in the day- there are incredible songs now but generally I feel like we’re kinda into synthetic shit.”
Whats been your favourite achievement as an artist?
“I’m really happy with the songs I’ve written on this EP. And I’m happy with my look. Now I’ve got this trouser thing and I paint on everything; it feels so uniquely me. Art’s a big part of my music now, it’s part of my identity as an artist and singer.”
Talk to me about your latest song “Male Gaze”.
“Male gaze is about how men view women, and women not feeling safe out and about. Things are getting better- but not really. If you wear a nice dress you always wear something over it so you aren’t showing anything, but what are you showing- your fucking body? It’s just because people view it as sexual. Like men have their tops off and that’s not sexual but if you [a woman] have your top off that’s sexual- it just jars me! So I wanted to write a ‘fuck you’ song. It’s my favourite song I’ve ever written. Everything I wanted to say I feel like I was able to say in the right way.”
What do you hope to achieve as an artist?
“I’d love to go on a tour- I was opening for this guy a while back and the whole place was packed. And although they hadn’t all come for me, there were these girls at the front standing like right at my feet and it felt different, like this feels like I’m famous. I’d just like people to listen to my music and come to a gig because they enjoy what I’ve written. I think that would be beautiful. I’d also love to be rich, for music to be my full income because it’s not fun working hospitality jobs- that’s a really big goal that I fully intend to happen.
I’ve always been quite delusional, in a good sense, about everything I do. I assume I can do it- doubt really doesn’t come into my brain ever which I think is a really good mindset to have. I just want to achieve as much as I’m capable of achieving. I don’t want to think in life ‘if I had just worked a little harder or believed in myself a little more I could’ve got there’. I don’t want what ifs- I just wanna go for it.”
