Hi Da’wan Gold, how are you today?
Hi Sofia, bless & thanks for this interview. I feel grateful, happy, blessed, and focused. All the writing has finally aligned & this is part of the payoff. I’m currently in Tel Aviv Israel working with my close Homie/brother in music Gon, but I call him G… He’s a musician and former classmate I met while living in Berlin. a short-term goal of ours has been to break in internationally. So here we are. Real shit.
For those that haven’t heard of you yet, how would you best describe your sound, and who have been your biggest influences so far?
Some say I’m a groove master. Lmao, I’m older Hip Hop repackaged with Neo-Soul, R&B, Blues & an Alternative vibe mixed with a little touch of Acid. My influences span from Erykah Badu, Kanye West, H.E.R, Outkast, Common, The Roots, Black Thought, Otis Redding, CeeLo Green, Kendrick Lemar, J-Cole Drake, Bryson Tiller Jimmy Hendrick Micheal Jackson Stevie Wonder Rafael Sadiq, Just great musicians, songwriters, producers, & artists in general.
And aside from music, what other inspirations have worked their way into your music over the years?
Music is all around it never stops. I’ve been fortunate to now have an outlet in film. I’ll be part of filming a movie with a Nigerian movie company that wants to shoot a film focused on uplifting Africa this year. Also maybe getting an acting role. I’m super excited. I’m also traveling again, seeing new places around the world, meeting new cultures has definitely been a super inspiration to the music and to my being.
You released a new single, ‘Calm Down’. Can you tell us how that track came about? Is there a story behind it?
The song transpired from some unfortunate event with my niece who had taken bad drugs and I wish she didn’t have to go through that. She’s doing better. I’ve taken bad drugs before, definitely not high vibes and I wouldn’t want anyone to have to endure that experience. So the lyrics tell a story of a GF & BF taking drugs & throughout the song it goes from being super nice to her tripping out in the bathroom alone before the paramedics break down the door with the trip/high finally being over. Some endings aren’t so fortunate Some experiences leave people with trauma long after the trip.
Can we expect a new EP or even an album from you in the near future?
l’m currently releasing an 13 song project as singles called Ego Trip while I’m here Gon & I are currently working on a new album, I don’t have a title for it yet but it’s super fun with the textures of emotions, love & hate family & our views on the world we live in without being too political. We have 6 songs so far for that project.
The pandemic outbreak has obviously affected everyone’s plans, but what have you got in store for the rest of the year?
Travel, shoot film and release as much music with Gon & work on the first visuals while building cohesive content.
And finally, what is the one thing you hope to achieve as an artist?
Haha great question, that list is pretty long. I feel I’m in a great place trusting the process. I hope to become verified this year and get back to the stage with other artists, producers & musicians to do shows while meeting people with good intentions.