Mar 12

Mar 12 DAHLIA: Looking Back (Exclusive Interview)

What inspires your music?

My inspiration has always been the same. Since I was 8 years old, I started to use music and lyrics to deal with what I was feeling inside that I couldn't necessarily express any other way at the time. I still make music the exact same way, except now, I do it with the intent to also spread hope and change in the world.

How did you start your recording career?

I was always hanging around producers and studios in my late teens. I started getting requests to write and perform hooks on songs for others. But the real catapult came when I entered a Songwriting contest that awarded a $5,000 music video from award-winning cinematographer Tom Antos. I won that contest and had to start seriously going into the studio to record my song to match the quality of the video we were going to create. It put a seriousness and deep understanding of the recording side of the business and I haven't stopped since.

How did you come up with your single?

My upcoming single "Looking Back" has really had an interesting journey as a song all on its own! It all started with a life-changing family trip to Portugal in 2017. When we were in Lisbon, we went to this famous music hall, Casa de Linhares, known for its old building charm, 22 ft ceiling, food and most importantly the voices of their guest Fado singers. The headliner artist, Fábia Rebordão, started to sing and I could not stop crying through her entire performance. I had never had that feeling before watching an artist perform where they were able to both technically and artistically evoke and mean every word they sang. Fast forward to almost 2 years later, I was inspired to write a song that stylistically and musically was directly inspired by the way Fábia approached melody and performance. To share my inspiration with my fans, I decided to find that very song that she sang online and post a video of her on Instagram and tagged her. Boom! she responded and I was able to share with her and thank her for inspiring me. I also shared that I was working on a song inspired by her and that I would love to either duet it with her or for it to be on her record and translated to Portuguese. I was working on developing that song and took it to writer and producer, Wes Pereira and together we put together a demo with Louis Simao playing the Portuguese Guitarra on it for her consideration.

She loved the song and pitched it to her management team and Sony Music Portugal, that loved it but it didn't end up working out for her record. I decided to keep the song for myself and a few months ago, I was in the studio with my producer Joshua 'Supayouth' Salcedo and he started creating this Tabla-centric beat with a really cool Indian shehnai riff and the progression that he was playing was similar to "Looking Back". I started singing along with him and presented this song I had been sitting on. Voila! The rest started to just flow and take shape.

What is your genre of music?

I find the industry tends to pigeon-hole artists and put them into boxes and genres. During my meditative process over the last year, I realized that I could never really pick or fit into one genre. I recognized that I am a Global Citizen and that in having lived and grown up in India, shuffling to Dubai in the Middle East, immigrating to Canada in the late 1990s and in living partially in Trinidad and Tobago that my influences and musical footprint is always going to be one of a third culture kid. I am an amalgamation of various life experiences and cultures and trying to separate that would be a disservice to my music and myself. To add to that, my dad was a DJ and a collector of eclectic music from all over the world. We would wake up to him blasting Greek Folk music one day or a really groovy old school Reggae tune the next. So I decided to embrace it all and interweave it into a genre-defying record. If I was to simplify it, I suppose I would choose to say it is a Pop/R&B record, with elements of Soul and hints of World Music.

Who are your influences?

Haha. Now that list is extensive! I grew up listening to and loving a lot of Patsy Cline, the Everly Brothers and Paul Simon. Then in my teenage years, I was introduced to and really got into R&B and Toni Braxton, Brandy, Tamia, Jodeci and the like that filled up my playlist on the regular. A lot of my friends in Canada during high school were from the Caribbean Diaspora and they introduced me to Dancehall reggae and Soca while I was already in a heavy Pop phase as well. A few years ago, I gravitated heavily towards Feist, Sia and Amy Winehouse that really had an impact on how I approach my songwriting, vocal melodies and delivery. My coach, Micah Barnes really helped me immensely with his holistic approach to be authentic to my gift while paying homage to my influences. The biggest influence for my current record in the last couple of years has been Billie Eilish as I love the honesty and effortlessness when it comes to performance and the production of Finneas that keeps her vocals as the centrepiece of every single song they put out. In addition to that, I start to listen to alot of incredible artists that cross genres and execute it in such a brilliant way including, but not limited to, Cape Verde artist, Mayra Andrade, Bangladeshi-Irish neo soul artist Joy Crookes, Indian-American rapper Raja Kumari and deeply admired Rosalía for her brilliant ability to fuse Flamenco-Pop.

How do you define success?

I shall admit for the longest time, I saw success in the number of views, followers, likes and shares I had on a platform. It is a flawed approach as I am just as much a success and proud of my work that I put out when I had 200 followers versus if I had millions of fans. Success is waking up every day and pursuing my passion for music. In which case, I am already a success. I would love to reach as many people in the world with my music. So if I can provoke thought, help heal and grow an individual outside of myself through my work, I would consider that a measure of personal achievement.

What can we expect from you in 2021?

I have so much up my sleeve right now for the year! What I can reveal is that I have a 5 song EP with 2 singles in the cue, 4 collaboration projects with other artists releasing this year and lots of Live Streaming concerts until I can travel and tour again. I'm so stoked!