Our guest is an incredibly talented singer, songwriter from San Diego. Having been writing for major artists since the age of seventeen, he has now started to gain momentum and success as a solo artist. He’s working with some top producers and is embracing what it truly means to be an Indie Artist. With a hot single, “Wasted Luv” out now and his debut EP “DAYVID” being received enthusiastically by critics and listeners around the world, please welcome to For Love and Music, Dayvid.
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Creating Music For The Indie Music Landscape With Dayvid
Our guest is an incredibly talented singer, songwriter from San Diego. Having been writing the major artists since the age of seventeen, he has now started to gain momentum and success as a solo artist. He’s working with some top producers and is embracing what it truly means to be an indie artist. With a hot single and video out now and also his debut EP being received enthusiastically by critics and listeners around the world, please welcome to For Love and Music, Dayvid.
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Dayvid, how are you?
I’m good, how are you?
I’m good. I have to ask this because I’m in LA and because we do this online, I always ask my fabulous guests, where are you right now?
I’m in LA as well.
You’re close by. Sometimes I have people who are in Athens or in London or all over the place.
I’m in LA. I’ve been working on a lot of music in the last couple of days.
First of all, congratulations on your single, Wasted Luv. I hear you’re getting amazing radio play around the major markets and the US.
It’s been so amazing. I released my first single off my debut EP, Dayvid, with the single, Wasted Luv. I’ve been getting so many amazing comments on social media. The people are reaching out to me saying how much they love it. It’s their favorite song and then the radio playing it. It’s unheard of for an independent artist getting radio play so early on. It’s so amazing that the people are responding well to it.
How did you go about getting the radio play? Did you bring on a radio team or is it through your own amazing ways?
I’m lucky enough to have such an amazing team around me to make everything easy so I can just focus on music. I’m very hands on in everything I do. I do have a radio promoter who is amazing and helping me build that side for the single.
How did you get into music? Start from the beginning. We want to get to know Dayvid.
I started music in elementary school when I was in church choir. I went to a Catholic school growing up. My parents weren’t musical at all. My mom would listen to more jazz or classical music. My dad would listen to country or alternative music. It wasn’t like they’re going to play music that they weren’t those type of people. I found music on my own through what my friends were listening to growing up. When I was in choir, I knew I loved singing, but I didn’t have any music that I knew. I basically was seeing what my friends were listening to and it was like, “I’m not into the church music, but I love all this other stuff.”
In the back of my head, I was like, “I want to do music.” Like anyone, when you go through your years growing up, when I was in elementary school, I didn’t care what people thought. As I grew older singing, I felt I was uncool. I went away from that for a minute. In high school is where everything hit where I knew I wanted to pursue something within entertainment. Music was something that I had set on, but I didn’t have any connections into the music industry. It was through hard work and building contacts that I am where I am.
That’s amazing because this industry is a lot about who you know and how you know them and also talents. When you’ve got all of those things falling into line, you’re going to have a bit of a chance, aren’t you?
The great thing about music in the 80s is there are so many things going on in the period. Click To TweetIt definitely was a lot of work and as a young person navigating the music industry, there are lots of different ways you can get pulled or discouraged. You have to stay true to yourself and that can be very challenging at times. That’s what I’ve always tried to do. On a journey of doing whatever career you’re going on, you’re going to get pulled a little bit and sometimes you have to get put back into the path that you know is right for yourself.
You trust your own instincts. Do you prefer going with your own instinct or taking advice from other people?
I usually lead with my own instinct. Everything I do primarily is what I first think of. I surround myself with people who aren’t going to go yes to everything. I have people who I truly trust their opinion and we’ll take that into account to add to my own opinion. I have trusted people who I will get opinion from and then make my determination after that, whether I think that what they’re saying weighs in heavy into what I’m doing. It depends.
I’d love to speak about your EP as well but tell us first of all about Wasted Luv and your inspiration behind that single and also the video, which is terrific. We’d love to hear all about it.
Thank you so much. Wasted Luv, the sound of that song alone was something that when I moved to LA, it’s weird. I had it pictured in my mind. I wanted something in that realm. At that point when I wrote Wasted Luv, I had been writing for years and I never made that song I always knew I wanted to make. I was at the Coachella Music Festival to go watch some performances. Before I went to the show, I was in my hotel room all alone and I had this concept pop into my head and it was called Wasted Luv. I had this post chorus melody, which you’ll hear in the song.
That idea came to me and I knew, “This is something I’ve got to write.” I texted my producer, Morgan Taylor Reid, who’s executive produced the whole EP. I said, “I want to write this as soon as I get back from this weekend. Let me know when you can do it.” We got in a week or so after. We wrote Wasted Luv that day. It turned out amazing. Everything, how I picture the song, I knew how I wanted it to sound. I knew I wanted to be this big bold, sounding production and ’80s influence. He’s so good at helping me do that. We wrote the song primarily on piano and then after that we built everything around the vocals that we recorded.
I’ve been reading that you’re heavily influenced by the ’80s. You’re a lot younger than the ‘80s. What songs from the musicians from the ’80s have you loved as you’ve grown up and you’ve developed into the artist you are?
There are so many good songs from the ’80s.
Can I say I love the ’80s as well and I lived in them? It’s the best.
The thing I like about the ’80s is not in one particular song because there were so many things in that time period. The things I pull from especially are the sounds, because people were pushing the boundaries. The sound production, using drum machines, creating these big hooks and stuff like that in the chorus that encapsulate you. It’s this huge production and everyone wants to sing along to it. Also, I pull a lot in the music video, the colors and the brightness. Everything in that whole time period was so loud, which I loved. I took a lot of inspiration from The Sonics from so many different songs in that time period. I worked with Morgan, who helped me take the songs from that time and modernize it. It was amazing. It was to create Wasted Luv. Wasted Luv set fire to me creating the rest of the EP. Before that I’d written a lot of stuff but that made me want to expand on it because it inspired me so much.
You have been working with some fantastic people here like Morgan Taylor Reid, who’s worked with Christina Perri and Marshmello. He produced Wasted Luv for you and co-wrote the song, correct?
Yeah, we wrote that together and he produced everything on the EP.
Also, on the EP self-entitled Dayvid, you’ve worked with all the fantastic people like Zach Paul, Michael Pollmann. How did you get introduced to all of these brilliant musicians, producers and writers?
I fortunately worked on making a project a few times, everything fell into place this time. Before that I’d been writing a lot, doing sessions pretty much every day for pitch to other artists or for myself if something came along. I met one writer and then they would introduce me to their friend and it was one after the other. If someone likes what you’re doing, they’re like, “Maybe you should work with my friend.” You get an intro from them. Literally that’s how I’ve met everyone in the industry like, “You should work with this person.” They put me in contact and then we either get along, write a bunch of stuff or we decide maybe we’re not right for each other and should be friends.
As with any relationship, it either works or it doesn’t. Clearly though, you have always been able to develop great relationships because even as a teenager, you were writing for the likes of Navarra. Tell us about some other artists you wrote for before you became Dayvid the artist.
I did a song for Fedde Le Grand, who is a big DJ and we did a song for him called Monster. That song was written in this tiny studio. It was like a loft. It was a huge studio complex, but we’re in the small room on the second floor, but no one wanted to work with. We wrote the song in there. I noticed someone reached out from his team saying that they were interested in it, but I didn’t hear anything for a year or so. All the sudden, I got an email that it’s coming out in a couple of weeks. It’s crazy to see how something you wrote in a small room is loved by big artists and taken. They do something with it. That’s amazing for it to be out in the world. It’s super cool.
How do you enjoy working on songs for other people compared to writing your own material for yourself?
Unless you’re in the room with the artists, everything starts out, you’re writing it for yourself and some things might not sit. You might think, “This is a great song. I love it, but this doesn’t fit necessarily my project. It doesn’t fit the vibe I’m going for. I think someone else could tell this story and make it great.” There’s a fine line between finding what works for you and what doesn’t. Sometimes I’ll write a song and the song is amazing. I pay attention when I’m creating a project, how everything sounds together and the emotions, how they run through the whole EP. If it doesn’t feel it fits that, then I put it to the side and then I might come back and revisit it. After I put a project out, I usually try to write new stuff after that. That stuff I put into a folder to see if other artists would be interested in.
How many instruments do you actually play?
I honestly sing. I play a little piano enough to write something with, which I do. I’ve written stuff on my piano, which has been fun in my apartment. One of the songs on my upcoming album was written in my apartment with my friend Zach Paul. That song is my story of moving to LA and it’s called Eighteen and in LA.
How do you find being an indie artist? Do you want to remain an indie artist having your own independent team, like your radio team, your press team? Would you at some point like to be signed to a major label? I know a lot of indie artists these days are not interested in majors at all. What’s your thought on all of that?
There’s always an upside and downside to everything. The music landscape has changed a lot in the recent years with streaming. Labels are great. I currently love being independent. It’s a lot of work, but it’s very fulfilling. I never want to say no to sign to a label. At the moment, I love how my team is. I’ve created this amazing team of people who are working with me to support the music I’m putting out. The biggest thing I love about being independent is owning all my own masters and owning my art, which is such a big thing. Taylor Swift said the whole thing about being with major label. Label is about her owning her own masters, which she now does in her current deal, which is very rare. I think the music landscape is changing and I hope to see more artists be able to own the work that they’re creating.
How do you listen to music? That’s changed a lot. Do you buy vinyl? Do you buy CDs? Do you stream? What do you do?
I do all kinds of stuff. I love streaming on Apple Music or Spotify, but I also like listening to CDs once in a while if I find one from when I was younger. I also love the sound of vinyl. There’s nothing like that sound of you pulling it out of the cover and putting it on. The sound is so amazing. There’s nothing that compares honestly.
On top of the sound with vinyl, it’s so gorgeous to have that artwork. I was lucky enough to be given a vinyl copy of Quentin Tarantino’s soundtrack for Once Upon a Time in Hollywood. I was like, “I want to frame this.” If I frame it, where am I going to keep the vinyl in themselves because I don’t want them to get damaged. I was like, “I won’t frame it.”
The funny thing is I was talking to someone about vinyl and she was like, “I have so many vinyl I’ve been collecting.” She’s like, “There was a scratch on it.” I was like, “Yeah, but that scratch is the memories from you listening to it.” I was like, “You always remember that.”
Vinyl is super special. I was at UCLA because sometimes I talk to the students from a music industry panel. It was interesting. The age range was like 18 to 21. It was interesting to hear one person in the room bought CDs, everyone else borrowed, about three streamed and then a few bought vinyl. Without a shadow of doubt, it was all about Spotify. No one listens to the normal radio in that age. I was interested to hear from your perspective, what do you do?
I also think that the experience of taking it out and then sitting down and listening to it, the experience of doing all of that is amazing. There’s not very many vinyl stores and then looking around and then asking people what they suggest is, there’s nothing like that experience.
As we’ve mentioned before, you have released your first EP Dayvid on October 11th. It’s already doing super well and it’s a six track EP. Again, you’ve got the ’80s influence throughout, is that correct?
There’s definitely ’80s influenced throughout the whole thing. I do try a little bit of push in a couple new ideas on there to hint towards what the album will be. The EP is a little taste of what the upcoming album will be, which is exciting to always tease a little bit on smaller projects.
There's a fine line between, between finding what music works for you and what doesn't. Click To TweetWe’ve got tracks here, Keep It Together, Wasted Luv, Got My Sunglasses On, Love Like You, Same Old Feeling, Drnk Txts. Tell me a little bit about each of the songs in a couple lines.
Keep It Together, I wanted that to open the record because it felt something you’d listened to in the car and it’s this opening of the story and then it goes into how I’m feeling into the next song, Wasted Luv. It was a good opener and then it went into the after Wasted Luv. It went into this trappy had these 808s in it more of a club song that was fun to make. It’s experimented me doing this like whispery type vocal on it, which was so fun. Pushing new techniques and doing new things is always fun to do so you’re not doing the same. It goes into Got My Sunglasses On, which was the last song that we wrote for the EP. It’s this fun song that gets you in a good mood. You feel happy.
The idea for the song was written when I got to the gym too early. I was sitting in the parking lot and I was like, “Let’s think of some ideas.” I had this title and then I had this basic chorus idea. I went to the studio and I brought it to Morgan. We wrote the song you hear and it’s about, it doesn’t matter where you are, you can make the best of wherever you are and have fun. Goes into Love Like You, which is the oldest song that was written for the project, was written years ago with my friend Zach Paul and Jimmy Bernie, who I had written with so much since I moved to LA.
Jimmy Bernie and Zach Paul were my first people that I work with in a real session setting and they have been such great writers to work with and mentors of mine. It goes into Same Old Feeling, which is the last track. Which was so fun to make because it’s almost 99% organic. The piano is real. The gospel choirs who lend their voice to the record, they killed it. It sounds amazing. Doing all the harmonies and stuff like that and making this epic ballad was so fun.
It sounds to me you’re onto something special here. I’m super excited to see what the future holds for Dayvid. When can we expect to hear your album?
In the New Year but before then, I have an original Christmas song coming out.
What’s that called? What should we be looking out for?
It’s called Find You This Christmas.
People, go and look for Find You This Christmas. Where will they be able to find Find You This Christmas?
They’ll be able to see on all major platforms: Spotify, Amazon and Apple Music.
My podcast is called For Love and Music, which are the two reasons I moved to LA. I always have to ask a little question about love. I wish I’d throw into the mix. Is there a particular song that you love, that resonates romantically with you? If the answer is no that’s absolutely fine.
Are we looking for a modern song?
Anything you like, it could be today or many years ago.
I’m trying to give you something that’s not a standard one that everyone listened.
For me, when I first thought of an answer to this question, I was like, “The Sea by Morcheeba is a special song to me.” Unfinished Sympathy by Massive Attack. I love that song.
I’ll give you two. One would be Adele’s Someone Like You. I’ll give you a three. Bruises by Lewis Capaldi and Praying by Kesha. All those songs have a special place in my heart because of different time periods. I’m going through different things, moving to LA, all kinds of stuff. They all have different meanings to me. They were good songs that I’d love.
What should we expect to see from Dayvid? What would you like to have achieved in five years’ time?
What I’d like to achieve is continue pushing boundaries with the music I’m creating. I do love to tour around the world. I would also like to create some cool music videos with amazing storylines within them. I would like to do a visual album with this through line with all the music for my own film, which would be fun.
You’d like to compose schools for movies.
That would be super fun to write music for films. Also, I’d like to write some music for musicals and stuff like that. That’s something I would like to do later on.
This all sounds very exciting and you’re clearly multitalented. I’m sure anything you want to do is going to happen.
Thank you for having me.
You must come back when there’s more to promote.
Thank you so much for taking the time.
It’s an absolute pleasure. You’ve been a delight. Go on give yourself a plug. Tell everyone where they can find your EP and your single.
This is Dayvid and you can find my debut EP, Dayvid, on all major platforms: Apple Music, Spotify, Amazon. The link to it is on my website, which is OfficialDayvid.com. You can also check all my socials, @OfficialDayvid.
Thank you, Dayvid. It’s been a complete joy and a pleasure. If anyone has any questions for Dayvid, you can send them to me through LaLaLanded.com, where you can also check out this fabulous podcast interview. You can also check us out at La La Landed podcast on Instagram and on Facebook at La La Landed. Thank you again to all our wonderful audience. Thank you to our amazing guest, Dayvid. We will be back with you all again at some point soon. Thank you. Until next time, bye.
Important Links:
- Dayvid
- Dayvid – EP Album
- Wasted Luv
- OfficialDayvid.com
- @OfficialDayvid on Instagram
- La La Landed – Instagram page
- La La Landed – Facebook page
- https://www.YouTube.com/watch?v=p7jGGJ7Tx0c&feature=youtu.be
About Dayvid
21-year-old singer and songwriter DAYVID is a San Diego native. As a child he sang in a church choir, and in high school began dissecting popular music to understand its construction. At 16, he began commuting to Los Angeles to find a path into the music industry and soon found success writing music for artists including Fedde le Grand and Navarra. At 18, DAYVID moved to Los Angeles to pursue a full-time music career. Wanting to remain independent, he assembled his own music team of collaborators, and released his debut single “Sure of Me” in Fall 2018. He began a collaboration with Grammy-nominated Morgan Taylor Reid soon after, which spawned the well-reviewed single “VHS” in Spring 2019 and the current single “Wasted Luv,” from his debut EP, “Dayvid.”
DAYVID has a unique modern voice that is often compared to ‘80’s artists like Tears for Fears or Chris de Burgh. The production builds the music bed around his smooth natural tone to provide a modern flair.
DAYVID’s music is inspired by many artists including Prince, George Michael, and Peter Gabriel from the 80’s and current artists Justin Timberlake, Bruno Mars, and Taylor Swift.
“I co-write all of own my songs, and am deeply involved in the entire process including production, mixing/mastering, and the creation of visuals to keep everything cohesive with my overall vision,” says DAYVID. “Much of the inspiration for my music and aesthetic actually comes from 80’s classic films like ‘Breakfast Club,’ ‘Say Anything,’ and ‘Sixteen Candles.’ For me, it’s all about creating music that speaks for me, and hopefully gives a voice to others.”