DVNA's Brand of Electro-Soul Is Outright Intoxicating
Somewhere along the Gold Coast in Australia exists a hot-shot young female producer, singer, and artist by the name of DVNA, pronounced "dah-na." Thousands of miles away she's steadily hovering in the E-minor minor scale. She's locked herself in her studio and refuses to come out if only for water… and maybe an orange. But what is she so feverishly creating in there you ask? Some super polished new age electro-soul music.
The rising Aussie only began releasing music in late 2019. Quite a lot has changed for her since then. With just three singles to her name, DVNA was able to go on tour with Golden Vessel last winter, open for Leisure this summer, and play major festivals across Australia, like Bigsound and Jungle Love Fest. It's her confident hot-girl R&B basslines that captured the attention of tastemakers Triple J and amassed her over 500,000 streams on all of her singles to date.
DVNA’s start in music is a quirky one. When she was seven or eight, she found a music-making software CD in a Nutri-Grain box of granola bars. She started messing around with it and made some super basic backing tracks for the band she was in. In her teen years, she found herself writing songs and uploading covers onto YouTube.
After graduating high school, she moved to NYC for half a year to learn from producers how to do it all herself. She wanted to be in full control of her sound and figured the only way was to figure out how to produce. When she got back to Australia she took the reins of her own future, teaching herself how to work Ableton with the help of a few YouTube tutorials. Shortly after that, she successfully found her sound, put a band together, and started playing her own creations live.
DVNA's music is soulful with very modern electronic elements. It's groovy like Daniel Caesar, produced to perfection like Snakehips, and contains lyrics as quirky as Lily Allen's, all of which make up some of her major influences.
"Girl On The Move" was the first of her singles. Admittedly, I originally thought the song was a Kaytranada cut that I somehow missed and that the voice I had never previously heard was the featured artist. Much to my own surprise, that was definitely not the case; it was all hers, producing the track at her kitchen bench. She, like Kaytranada, places accents on the beats you would never expect.
Later she released the mid-tempo dance track "Looking Like A Snack." Her technical bass skills shine on this one. You could strip the whole song down to the bass, and it would still hit as hard as it does. It's another super groovy track, delicious like, well... a really good snack!
"Sushi In Tokyo" is her latest release, and it may be her finest work yet. She produced it through her headphones and mixed it at least seven times before it was completely finished. It's such a strong effort and showcasing of her confidence as both a producer and a lyricist. The song is impossible not to move to with a hook like this,
"Rolled up like sushi in Tokyo.
I'm not used to this two to one ratio.
Ask what are the chances.
I play the cards I deal and I won't quit but how did I get myself here."
So long as she keeps this momentum and continual evolution, it won't be long before DVNA and her band of 'three boyfriends' cross the pond for some live shows. Until then, guess all we can do is continue looping her singles on repeat and count down the days.
