NEW SINGLE RELEASE – Dea Doyle ‘One For Me’
21 November 2023
A talented artist in many ways, she also has studied fine art, potentially a clue towards inspiration for her new track ‘The Muse’. The song echo’s themes of misogyny and is partly based on the infamous statement from Picasso that women, to him, were either ‘goddesses or doormats’. But now we get to see the perspective of The Muse, who is always looked at but never seen.
It was a pleasure to get to speak with her about her creative process, experiences, and her new track The Muse.
How long have you been focusing on your music, and what kicked it all off?
I want to say in the last 5 years, I’ve started to really hammer down and put my focus into it. I’ve always been interested in music, with my dad being a musician. Then I went to university and focused on my fine art for a long time, and I never really found the time to put all of my energy into it. But recently I decided, this is what I want to do so why don’t I just start now?
What really inspires your writing process?
Things that inspire me are just the everyday, mundane thing. Just being aware of everything that’s around me. I can think quite existentially sometimes, which can be overwhelming, but I think it’s quite important to channel those thoughts into art so that’s what I do. If I get inspired by something morbid, like fear of death, I want to try to put that into a song. I’m also inspired by anything I see in the media. If anyone says something that interests me, I’ll put it in my notes on my phone or put it in a song lyric. If you go on my note’s app, it’s just filled with random jotted down sentences.
Are there specific musical influences which inspire your music?
Billie Eilish is an obvious and big influence. I’ve always been a fan of her music, and I love that it’s so mainstream and pop, but also so heartfelt and sad at the same time. Dodie Clark as well, I used to be obsessed, and followed that obsession from a young age. Matt Maltese’s music is great, and Imogen Heap also is a genius and huge influence. I would say Hide and Seek is probably one of my favourite songs.
How do you find performing? Have you had a favourite venue, or a favourite performance?
It’s hard to remember all the venues I’ve played at! Brighton Dome is probably my favourite I’ve performed at as that was our first gig as The Beggs Sisters, so you can imagine my mind and nerves at that moment. I would also say the Black Lion, our local pub, is one of my favourite places. It’s really intimate, homey, and comforting. Very good vibes. It’s always really comforting to see familiar faces, and kind of feels like there’s less pressure involved.
One of my goals in particular is to go on tour. Whether as a solo artist, session musician, in a band or playing bass, I think my ultimate goal is just to get to go touring. Or to play festivals, they just look like so much fun and I would love to do that one day.
You perform also with your family, could you tell me a bit about that?
Yes! I perform in a band with my dad Nick Beggs and my sister Lula, called The Beggs Sister. A lot of people think that it’s just me and Lula as The Beggs Sisters and my dad just plays bass in the band. We have a running joke where he always says he’s just the ugly one.
Whilst working on my own EP I have also been investing a lot of energy in our outcoming EP for January, as well as our gigs we have been doing recently. Our next one is at 229 in London. Our preshow ritual is mostly just blasting Man Down by Shakka and having a boogie to get rid of nerves.
Lula and I tend to write separately, and then build on each other’s work. We write about similar ideas; she came to me the other day saying she wanted to write a song about the menstrual cycle because ‘I’m sick of my period!’. So, then we started collaborating on that idea which has been really fun. It’s so nice to have her with me, because she also grew up wanting to be a solo artist and she told me first hand how difficult it was being a woman in the industry.
Would you say your family inspires you a lot?
Yeah definitely, you take inspiration from everyone around you, and you just cut things that you like from certain artists and make them your own. A nice composition of everything that you love.
You mention about it being difficult for women in the music industry, can you expand on that?
Well for instance, I have found that when I’ve played bass in other people’s bands, and we’d be doing soundchecks, being in an all-female band at times it can be quite intimidating. Especially when a lot of the sound engineers, who have been male, have been quite patronising and talked to us like we don’t know what we’re doing, that can be quite difficult to navigate. Being a solo musician is scary, let alone being a woman in the industry. There is still a lot of work to be done.
I am excited to talk to you about your new track The Muse. Was the inspiration conceptual or personal?
A lot of it was conceptual but there was an instance where I was kind of dating this artist, and he would often draw me. So that fuelled it too, I remember thinking how interesting he’s kind of using me for his art. I will never see him again, but I was still a subject of inspiration for his work.
Do you feel as though your artistic background helps you with your writing?
I think so, yeah. Particularly in this song. I did life drawing when I was at university, and that’s what kind of sparked the idea to write a song based around the idea of a muse falling in love with a painter, something I’m sure of which has happened. I think both my art and music fuel each
Can you tell me what it was like producing the track? Were there any challenges or breakthrough moments during the recording process?
I was quite lucky on this track to have the help of Kieran Weston who was brilliant. Going into the studio, there were definitely things that I didn’t expect to happen. I played the bass, the guitar, all the vocals were also mine and then he helped with production and the drums. I didn’t expect to like the drums so much, but after he added them, I realised it made so much sense. He also made me try different harmonies that I didn’t place in the demo originally.
Do you have a favourite lyric or musical moment in this song?
When it does the double chorus and it feels really powerful, I love that bit. Everything is going off in the harmonies and the overdubs.
Where does The Muse fit into your upcoming EP? Does it give us a glimpse into the EP?
The EP is more collective, with The Muse being the folkiest song on there. I’m still in the process of producing the rest of them and finding the sound that I want, but they are all quite different. They share similarities, like they are all just very lyric heavy. It’s less about instrumentation and more about I want you to listen to these lyrics.
Can you tell me more about the upcoming release?
The Perfect Life will also be on the EP too, which was actually produced by me just in my uni room. I was feeling really overwhelmed, like what am I doing with myself? And then it was just written there in my room. Early next year I’d like to release the EP, but this will be the last single before I release it.