FEATURE: Spotlight: d4vd — Music Musings & Such

FEATURE:

Spotlight

PHOTO CREDIT: Hope Obadan

d4vd

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THERE are a whole gang of interviews to come to…

PHOTO CREDIT: Alex Hodor-Lee for Fader

with concerns to d4vd. Having released Petals to Thornes at the end of last month, it has brought to the public consciousness the incredible music of this wonderful artist. Real name David Anthony Burke, the Texas-raised teenager is heading for huge things! Although he has only been recording and releasing music for a short time, his name and sounds have blown up. He is getting a lot of love and respect here in the U.K. I want to come to a few of the many interviews around d4vd. This is someone who everybody needs to keep an eye on! Beforehand, here is some biography and background concerning this extraordinary musical wonder:

“d4vd has emerged as a visionary artist only one year after he began writing and recording heart-piercing tracks alone in his closet in Houston, Texas. Having released a smattering of singles touching everything from indie-alternative to pop to R&B, the 17-year-old, born David Burke, scored a breakout hit in summer 2022 with the melancholic indie rock song “Romantic Homicide,” whose brutally honest lyrics about heartbreak and resentment have connected with hundreds of thousands of listeners. “Romantic Homicide,” which was recorded entirely on an iPhone in his sister’s closet, reached No. 34 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart and led to d4vd signing to Darkroom/Interscope before he’d even graduated high school.

Having only listened to gospel until age 15, d4vd gained his now-eclectic taste in rap and indie music from internet wormholes and fan-made Fortnite videos on YouTube, which he also started creating as a homeschooled teenager. d4vd is also an avid Fortnite player who has amassed over fifty thousand subscribers on his gaming channel. When he noticed that the songs in his game montages were getting copyright strikes, his mother suggested that he should write his own original music as a solve. This motivated d4vd to start recording his own tracks after discovering an easy-to-use music-making app called BandLab. Gamer friends left comments urging him to release songs officially, so he started sharing tracks in December 2021 and soon built a presence in the “sped-up sound” corner of TikTok.

The runaway success of “Romantic Homicide” was unexpected because d4vd made the song according to his usual process. He’d find a pre-made instrumental on YouTube, go into his sister’s closet, and then “say whatever the instrumental needs me to say,” he explains. The lyrics came to him through stream-of-consciousness, and he later edited down hours’ worth of ideas into the eventual two-minute gut-punch in which he sings, “In the back of my mind / You died,” to a parting lover. “It’s literally the feeling that millions of people have when they have to leave somebody or they’re being left behind,” he says. “‘Killing somebody,’ or making them disappear in the back of your mind, is also like a form of forgiveness—having those thoughts erased from your mind.”

d4vd’s intuitive command of lyricism stems from his years of scribbling raps and poems in his journal since childhood. Growing up in the quiet suburbs of Houston in a Christian household, he was drawn to graphic novels and Japanese manga—especially the intense, gory ones like Attack on Titan and Demon Slayer, where he related to the “real and grounded” narratives surrounding ego and honor at the core of their fantastical imagery. “I would take bits and pieces from these mangas and add it into my own stories and worlds,” he says. His particular interest in storylines focused on relationships and isolation now shows up in his lyrics, which often evoke a sense of loneliness and yearning for connection.

d4vd’s early tracks show off his versatility and knack for crafting sentimental lines and melodies across genres, as on the surf-rock song “Take Me to the Sun,” the gloomy R&B of “Right Now,” and “DTN,” an experimental dance track. “I’m just trying to create my own genre and build a community around it,” he says. “Not many people who like Jersey club also like shoegaze, indie, and R&B. With my music, I can bring all those people together”.

I am a very new convert to the music of d4vd. He has been in the U.K. recently, and there are so many people tipping him for a long and influential career. At the moment, he is promoting his E.P. and, I can imagine, having a rest after such a hectic and eventful start to the year! Back in March, The Face spoke with an artis who was in the U.K .played his first London show the week previous. This seemed like a bid to go from viral success to real-world and face-to-face adulation and awareness. Plating alongside Beabadoobee and Holly Humberstone, he shone in front of a 250-capacity Lower Third venue crowd – all hungry to hear more from this incredible talent:

“Thirteen months ago, d4vd (it’s pronounced “David”, by the way – his birth name is David Burke) didn’t make songs at all. The original goal was to become a pro gamer, and so he started creating tracks to soundtrack compilation videos of him flexing his shooting skills in Fortnite. “You have to really subvert expectations with those videos because people’s attention spans are so short,” he says. When TikTok creators started using his tracks, d4vd knew it was time to give the music thing a proper go.

d4vd started recording in his sister’s closet because it was the only place where his DIY studio set-up (which is pretty much just a phone and Apple earbuds) doesn’t sound too shitty. The songs he’s recorded there have racked up millions of streams, and secured him a deal with Interscope records and the Darkroom label, also home to the bedroom pop queen herself, Billie Eilish.

Testament to his star appeal, there’s already a busy Discord server called “d4vd’s closet”, where fans can share their own creations in music and gaming. “I definitely feel comfortable with all the attention I’ve been getting,” he says, seemingly unfazed by the rapid blow-up. “[Because] I already have such a strong community behind the music.”

He believes his music is connecting with audiences because of its imperfections. “I make everything on my phone. I don’t mix or master anything. All my songs are full of imperfections. Feeling like you can make the song yourself is so important to me,” he says. “What I’m doing is relatable.”

Having been homeschooled in a Christian household, d4vd didn’t hear secular music until he was 13. Then, he “discovered everything all at once”. His musical diet now includes Paramore, Wallows, Deftones and jazz greats like Chet Baker, Brenda Lee and Elvis Presley. He’s also digging into The Cure’s back catalogue, after noticing his music being compared to theirs.

d4vd’s songs range from fast-paced, reverb-drenched dream pop to woozy slacker rock, and you might hear elements of R&B and pop-punk in his vocals. But like most Gen Z artists, he describes his music as genreless.

Five months after releasing his first song, Run Away, in December 2021, d4vd dropped Romantic Homicide, a downbeat indie track which spread like wildfire on TikTok (it currently has over 461 million Spotify plays), in part thanks to its relatable lyrics about heartbreak. But d4vd also thinks it stood out in contrast to the hectic hyperpop that so many musicians of his generation were peddling. “I came out of nowhere with one vocal and a couple of guitars,” he says. “People were so used to being overstimulated; my music gave them a break.”

But new track WORTHLESS marks the end of quiet time. The thundering song simultaneously nods to Soundcloud rap, garage punk and soaring, radio-friendly pop. “I just like contrast,” d4vd shrugs. “I’m not afraid to take risks”.

I am going to end up with a review of d4vd’s E.P., Petals to Thorns. I guess you could call it a ‘mini-album’, as it runs at nine tracks at just under thirty minutes total. However you classify it, there is no denying the fact d4vd has released a hugely important debut! NME spoke with him in September last year. I wanted to include this interview, as this was one of his earliest in the U.K. The U.S. artist was on the radar here. His track, Romantic Homicide, was getting people very excited:

“D4vd became a musician by accident. In the truest of Gen Z career goals, he grew up wanting to be a professional video game player, and spent his early teen years uploading short clips of himself playing Fortnite to YouTube under the name Limit Ant, with his videos amassing over 15 million views in total. It was here where he’d begin releasing his own tracks, fulfilling the need for non-copyrighted music in his Fortnite montages by making his own tracks on social music platform BandLab, and it changed his outlook entirely.

Over the past year, d4vd (born David Burke) has continued to quietly upload music to Soundcloud. The beachy indie sound of his earlier cuts ‘Here With Me’, ‘You and I’ and ‘Take Me To The Sun’ is more in line with the likes of Wallows and Rex Orange County than the soaring, richly detailed emo of his latest single, ‘Romantic Homicide’. The track has been a breakthrough for d4vd: it debuted within the Billboard Hot 100 in the US, has surpassed 75 million streams, and is quickly becoming a trending hit on TikTok.

Yet despite his recent success, d4vd admits he only started thinking about music seriously a couple of months ago. “I didn’t even think about how far it could actually take me in terms of the numbers and everything”, he says over Zoom from his family home in Texas.

“‘Romantic Homicide’ is having a real moment online. How have you navigated all of the newfound attention?

“It’s been amazing, actually. I’ve had small moments like this before with songs on SoundCloud, but to have a song take off the way it did and have it be as natural as it did without me pushing it in somebody’s face for a straight week is actually amazing. And the fact that people resonated with the music… it kind of promoted itself.”

What was it about ‘Romantic Homicide’ that you think has resonated with people?

“I think it’s so simple. [The song] is relatable in a way; it’s not crazy with the vocals, it only has two layers of background vocals for the harmonisation. It’s just a track that you don’t have to think too much about to listen to, you can easily connect to what’s being said because I’m not over-saturating the sound, and it’s just the feeling that anybody could have made that song.

“I mean, you hear music that’s mainstream now, and it’s like, ‘Man, I gotta have this voice to do this’ or ‘I really wish I could sing like that’. But honestly, you could pop into your closet, and literally just make a [song like] ‘Romantic Homicide’ and it goes straight to the brains of over 40 million people.”

d4vd (@d4vddd) · You and I

You’ve been using BandLab to make music at home. What’s your relationship to the platform like?

“So my relationship with BandLab has been amazing in that I can make music literally from my closet. The CEO reached out a couple of weeks ago and said he was amazed that somebody who has used the platform he made has managed to get on the Billboard [200 singles] chart.

“[BandLab] has literally changed my life. I couldn’t ask for more – it’s allowed me to make music from my house without any professional mic, as I literally just use Apple earbuds and the app on my phone. I’m able to make the music that I like without compromise.”

As a Black artist navigating the indie-sphere, is it important for you to pave your own way and create music on your own terms?

“I love it. The amount of DMs I get from people saying, ‘I thought you were white’… it’s so funny to me! And I like it, because it’s like I’m taking a spin on the stigma about what African-American creators’ music should be, and how it should be perceived, and what they should be making. It now feels like you can make whatever music you feel like making, you don’t have to be put in a box. You can be successful in your own lane, depending on who you are, and be true to yourself, and just do what you love to do”.

I am going to wrap things up soon. High Snobiety spoke with the incredible Queens-born d4vd about his music and aspirations. It is evident that so many people have this excitement and love for what he is putting out in the world. It is definitely someone who you need to add to your playlists. I think that d4vd’s career will blow up (in a good way) very soon – and pretty rapidly too:

“Were you going through a breakup at the time?

No, but it's about love. When I'm writing about love, I try to capture new sides to it, because so many people write about love. When I wrote “Here With Me,” I tried to harness the parts of love that no one writes about. That's why many people saw the passion in “Romantic Homicide.” It was the other side of what happens if you never grow old together. Most songs now are about heartbreak and hating the person you once dated. I wanted to write about that!

I’ve always thought that you write about resentment pretty well. What does resentment feel like for you?

To me, resentment feels like suffocation. It feels like having so many things to say but not being able to say it. It causes you to overthink and over analyze every situation.

How have you changed since being signed?

I've been the same since I was 15. I haven't changed at all. I'm making a lot of pop music right now. Not like “Romantic Homicide” necessarily, but similar to Travis Scott. I have a little bit of Justin Bieber and Billie Eilish in there too”.

I'm used to making music alone in my bedroom, so the process of making music with a label is new for me. And I’m more aware of the internet. I’m aware of what’s trending on TikTok.

What side of TikTok are you on?

I'm on the slideshow TikTok. Are you on slideshow TikTok? I try to listen to music on all platforms so I cover my digital real estate, and I can't stand silence. But I don’t think of my music as “successful” as related to how it does on TikTok”.

PHOTO CREDIT: Lindsay Ellery

The penultimate interview I am coming to is from Billboard. Naming d4vd among their ‘21 under 21’ list, they spoke to someone who had admiration for Billie Eilish, was surprised by how quickly things have gone huge for him, and realises what an important impact Romantic Homicide has had:

“While d4vd says that it’s “hard to break through the saturation” of social media, noting it’s “super hard to be seen,” his prolificness helped him stand out. He recalls the first time he met his manager, Mogul Vision’s Josh Marshall, who had discovered his music on SoundCloud even before “Romantic Homicide.” “I remember he flew down to Houston the next day, and we [sat] in Panera talking about the music industry, and I was like, ‘OK, this is it.’ You really can’t hesitate. Social media moves so fast. You can blow up as quick as you fall off.”

Around the same time, d4vd’s parents were moving just as quickly to help him navigate the various labels eager to set up meetings in New York and L.A. By August, as “Romantic Homicide” continued to build, d4vd signed with Darkroom/ Interscope — the label responsible for developing Billie Eilish, a superstar whose career d4vd admires especially because of what he thinks is the “perfect timing” of her releases. He signed a management deal with Marshall (along with his day-to-day manager, Robert Morgenroth) at Mogul Vision soon after.

“The Darkroom team, I just feel like we clicked because everybody saw the vision. My management company as well,” says d4vd. “I wasn’t even trying to be an artist at the beginning, so people who are making plans and seeing the bigger picture, that’s who I want to [work] with.”

And while d4vd may not have intended to land here, as a Black artist in the alternative space, he now feels honored to be a reference point for young listeners who didn’t think that combination was possible. “Before ‘Romantic Homicide,’ I [hadn’t] posted my face. Then I released my live performance of it on YouTube, and people were like, ‘You’re Black?!’ ” he says with a laugh. “[I’m] a gateway into that genre. It’s an absolute honor and a blessing”.

The final interview I am including is from CLASH. Talking with him late last month, there was chat and spotlight around the brilliant Petals to Thorns E.P. One of the essential releases of this year, it is exciting thinking about where d4vd can go. I think that worldwide touring is not out of the question for 2024. It is clear that this artist had an abundance of tracks to choose from when compiling the E.P. Beyond this, he has plans for an interconnected world of music and visual art. It would be cool if d4vd’s music featured in film and T.V. – something I feel he would welcome and proves that his music is really resonating. We are seeing the early moves and shoots of a brilliant teenage artist who has a hell of a lot more to say:

“You seem very refined in that sense, what was your relationship with music growing up – did you ever think you’d be an artist?

Not at all. Music in my house was like, predominantly gospel till I was 13, like nothing else. My mom forced me to play piano when I was five, but I quit four months later. And then I was in church choir for a bit as well and then I quit. Then I was in school band I was in sixth grade band; I played the flute for a little bit and I quit that [he laughs]. So just like some gaps of musicality in my life, I never had the drive to make music or create for myself. So when the drive came for me to do it with my videos, it was like a need because I needed the money for to upgrade my setup because if I was gonna go pro, I needed better computers. So it was like, a bunch of factors that weren’t music that made me make music.

From your first ever track until now, there feels like there has been a shift sonically and lyrically. Was there a conscious effort to do so?

It happened naturally. I’ve been writing poetry and spoken word since I was in fifth grade. So the lyricism came very, very naturally. And then melodies, I feel like you can never go wrong with the melodies, you just listen to what the instrumental tells you to say. You say, I’ve tried to force any specific messages in my song either. It’s like, I was just talking about life, creating characters, just me being a storyteller. And then even coming at it from an even more organic perspective was, I wasn’t even trying to make the music for it to be music. I was like a composer for my Fortnite videos, I’d make a Fortnite montage and then make the music for that, instead of making the music and then trying to see where it fit. Yeah that was my main inspiration, in the early days of music was literally just Fortnite and video games. It allowed me to look at music and like a different lens. Rather than, oh, I gotta make a hit, I was like, nah, I’m just gonna make it for this video, and just get through the day [he laughs]. And then my mom will stop yelling at me for being on the game for 12 hours.

PHOTO CREDIT: Eleonora Collini

Debut EP ‘Petals To Thorns’ feels like a symbolic continuation from his first tour, can we discuss the imagery you used?

I have a very floral aesthetic, especially with white roses. And that symbolism is very important to me. The first tour is the growth, it’s like the stems the roots, and then now we’re finally at the stem where the thorns are and at the petals. I am the flower and I’m evolving with every step that I take in this.

We noticed your single ‘Placebo Effect’ didn’t make the EP despite it being released not too long ago. How did you narrow down your track listing?

This is my favourite interview now, no one has asked that question [he laughs]. It’s called ‘Placebo Effect’ and it was the first thing that I released as the EP rollout, right and it’s not on the EP. So I hope that people will get it when they hear the EP, and it’s not on the EP because it is a placebo effect, like you expect it to be on there and its not. That’s a part of the EP as well, like it lives beyond streaming services. It’s not just music, it’s beyond that. And the song too, there’s an element of a relationship that you thought was there, but it was not there. And you look back on it was like, yo I heard that but when I listen to the whole thing, it’s missing something. Yes, that piece!”.

Let’s bring things to a close with a review of Petals to Thorns. Ones to Watch shared their thoughts about this phenomenal E.P./mini-album. I hope that d4vd comes back to the U.K., as there is a lot of love for him over here! I really love his music, and I am interested to see where he goes from here:

“Petals to Thorns opens with the enchanting "Sleep Well." The previously released single is a stunning ballad that showcases a new side of d4vd. Woozy instrumentals blend smoothly with his lovesick lyrics, epitomizing romance with a teenage fervor. Offering stripped-down vocals that allow his falsetto range to shine, he sweetly croons, "I'm here for you still / And even if you don't think that I'm near / I'll still be right next to you, my dear... Who's to say that our love ain't real?" as string and brass instrumentals ebb and flow in the background.

Listeners are then transported to the sunny, Up-inspired world of "Here With Me." The viral track expresses wanting to spend your life with someone you love while doing everything you can to keep them around. It sheds light on spending time apart and ultimately works as a comforting song because of its central theme of remembering the person you love is always with you. With beach guitar riffs and low-key percussion, the track feels like a warm hug that lingers after you've parted ways and said goodbye.

The EP then sees d4vd partner up with Icelandic pop artist Laufey for "This Is How It Feels. It's a captivating ballad heavily rooted in storytelling, with the duo using their iridescent vocals to communicate through song against twinkling piano keys. The end result is something that sounds right out of a fairytale, not dissimilar from the soundtracks of your favorite nostalgic childhood films. Wounded and pleading, "Don't Forget About Me" describes the end of a relationship in brutal detail. "I don't wanna keep crying on your shoulder," d4vd sings, obsessing over where things went wrong and asking to be remembered since fading out of memory is too painful. Strings and multi-tracked vocals enrich the otherwise skeletal production, making for a song that's so vulnerable it's almost difficult to listen to.

Other memorable tracks include the Euphoria/Rue Bennett-inspired "WORTHLESS," the anguish-filled "Backstreet Girl," the high octane "You and I," and of course, the RIAA-certified platinum "Romantic Homicide," a grungy, guitar-driven breakup anthem. The record's closer, "The Bridge," is a contemporary tune inspired by early 2000s pop punk, with rich guitar riffs and heavy-hitting percussion. Opening with stripped-down guitar riffs, d4vd uses his intoxicating vocals to paint a picture of not feeling enough for someone and keeping the love that they threw away. Then, as the instrumentation swells into one final chorus, he belts gut-punching lines like, "Enough, shut up, 'cause I'd kill myself for you / Walk in the dark, I can't find my way to you / Gone, gave it all, and it's all my fault," closing the whole record with the lyric, "Don't you get complicated, that's the reason we separate”.

Go and follow and support the incredible d4vd. This is an artist who is among the most-discussed and adored in music. It reminds me of when Billie Eilish came through around the time of her 2017 debut E.P., Don't Smile at Me. Don’t bet against d4vd headlining festivals like Glastonbury in years to come. One of the rising artists of 2023 that has the promise to conquer the world, go and check out…