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 hed uncork 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 reverted his outlook entirely.
Over the past year, d4vd (born David Burke) has unfurled to quietly upload music to Soundcloud. The beachy indie sound of his older cuts Here With Me, You and I and Take Me To The Sun is increasingly 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 transilience for d4vd: it debuted within the Billboard Hot 100 in the US, has surpassed 75 million streams, and is quickly rhadamanthine a trending hit on TikTok.
Yet despite his recent success, d4vd admits he only started thinking well-nigh music seriously a couple of months ago. I didn’t plane think well-nigh how far it could unquestionably take me in terms of the numbers and everything, he says over Zoom from his family home in Texas.
At only 17-years-old, not much has reverted in d4vd’s life since the runaway success of Romantic Homicide, but it feels like its well-nigh to. Over the summer, he hit the studio in Los Angeles with musician Jim-E Stack, whos previously written and produced for the likes of Caroline Polachek, Dominic Fike, and Gracie Abrams. Having recently signed with Darkroom Records home to Billie Eilish and Holly Humberstone d4vd’s striking bedroom pop with a nightmarish whet fits right in with the sounds of his new labelmates.
As ‘Romantic Homicide’ continues to race up the charts, NME meets d4vd for his first-ever interview which takes place in the middle of homeschooling, in a slot thatd usually be reserved for spending time making new music in his closet to yack well-nigh his transilience single, his unique upbringing, and his big plans for the future.
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 surpassing 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 squatter for a straight week is unquestionably amazing. And the fact that people resonated with the music… it kind of promoted itself.
What was it well-nigh 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 preliminaries vocals for the harmonisation. It’s just a track that you don’t have to think too much well-nigh to listen to, you can hands connect to what’s stuff said considering I’m not over-saturating the sound, and it’s just the feeling that everyone 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.
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 wondrous 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 reverted my life. I couldn’t ask for increasingly it’s unliable 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 worldly-wise to make the music that I like without compromise.
Did you teach yourself how to make music?
I didn’t plane watch a YouTube tutorial, everything is really laid out for you on BandLab kudos to the creators considering the user interface is so user-friendly. I was worldly-wise to just get on there with a stock preset, dabbled in EQ and reverb, and started making my own music. But I just dabbled in it myself and created a whole variety of presets for myself to use.
Youve been homeschooled since the age of 13. How has your upbringing unauthentic the way youve built your career?
I think if I was still in public school, I wouldn’t have had time to play video games, and then I wouldnt have had time to focus on having music for [my videos]. I don’t think that I would have made music otherwise. Now I can learn what is not stuff taught in regular school curriculums, and extracurricular activities; I can learn increasingly well-nigh what I’m interested in instead of having somebody telling me what I need to know.
Going into making music, were there any specific influences for you? There’s a lot of variegated genres that come through each song of yours.
I grew up in a very Christian household, and we listened to strictly gospel music for the majority of my life. Lately, I started listening to secular [non-religious] music. Previously, I hd the perception that all music outside of gospel was just rap, so when I found this music with instrumental production, I realised that you don’t plane have to sing anymore to be worldly-wise to make music. Im making the sounds that tousle what I’ve heard prior and new things that I’m interested in: I’m mixing them and I’m putting my own spin on it.
“You could pop into your closet, make a [song like] Romantic Homicide, and it goes straight to the brains of over 40 million people.
What was happening in your life when you were making ‘Romantic Homicide’?
The song wasn’t [called] Romantic Homicide until well-nigh two days surpassing release. There was three other versions of the song considering I found the instrumental by scrolling through YouTube, and I had an idea for it as soon as I heard it. It didn’t pan out and I didn’t like it. And then the second time, I tried to put a hip-hop verse on it.
“I got really bored one day and hopped when in the closet and then the initial ‘I’m scared’ moment came. I was like, I gotta alimony rolling with this [music], and it just unfurled to roll out that way. I wasn’t plane thinking well-nigh what was stuff said in my lyrics until ‘in the when of my mind’. As soon as I said that, it was like, ‘What emotion do I want to come back?’ And I realised it was a feeling of losing someone and having feelings of resentment towards that person, then they disappear from the when of your mind. I don’t really know what came over me to make that type of music that day, considering the an early version of the song was very happy.
You posted on Instagram recently that ’Romantic Homicide’ 2, 3 and 4 are washed-up then Im retired. Is there truth to that statement?
Yeah, that’s a lie. I never want to remake a song. If you squint at my discography, I don’t have two songs that sound the same. But theres increasingly music coming that’ll contextualise the previous music as well. You can expect increasingly from both sides: new releases and old releases, new visuals for old releases and new visuals for new releases.
As a Black versifier 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 value of DMs I get from people saying, ‘I thought you were white’… it’s so funny to me! And I like it, considering it’s like I’m taking a spin on the stigma well-nigh 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 finger like making, you dont 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.”
Has the success of Romantic Homicide unauthentic the way that you want to make music in the future?
Not really. I went to the studio when I was in LA twice, I made three songs in the studio in May, and then I came when home and it was like I never left BandLab. So that [app] is my go to I’m pretty happy making music in the closet. Its not like, ‘Oh man, I’ve experienced the studio now I’ve got to go there all the time’. I have a studio when I’m in LA, and then when I come home, I’ve got my phone.
What’s else can we expect from you soon?
It’s whatever comes to me in the moment. I’ve been making a lot of happier music recently considering my mom is like, ‘Why do you alimony making all these sad songs?’. So whatever the instrumental tells me what needs to be said is what I say on it. Were still getting ideas for an initial live show in the very near future, the first show is gonna be an experience. It’s going be amazing.
d4vd’s new single ‘Romantic Homicide’ is out now
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