The Nullarbor Plain born, New South Wales based singer/songwriter manages to regain her control of her enthusiasm as she declares, “I reckon I like it. I love England. I lived in Brighton for about six months. I have traveled back and forth there a little bit. I dig it. I think it is great.” While she would “love to go back and play. I’d love to go do this new material, that is the prayer,” it is clear that Dova is focused on her current surroundings and more important the impending release Deya Dova Remixed.
“I live in northern New South Wales now, that is where I am based. It has still got really quite incredible landscapes, but a little bit closer to the English countryside than the desert.” For those aware of her earlier work, Dova’s sound could easily be described as akin to nature. She is aware of the connection, and sees it as somewhat inevitable. With her upbringing on the Nullarbor Plain far from average, it is clear that her heart still belongs in many ways at home. “It’s really remote desert country, so very different from most Australian people’s upbringings. I grew up around lots of wild animals and lots of aboriginal people, things like that. Very removed from England. I got quite a culture shock when I went to England, but it was nice, it was a good one. It has definitely had a big impact on me growing up out there. It was such a wild place to grow up. I had so much contact with the landscape, whereas living in the city it is just such a different landscape. It still today really influences me. There was just a widescreen thing there that has carried through in my music.”
While her hometown habitat has defined her initial musical explorations, it would be fair to say that her travels and attraction to the city has equally had its effect. Though her latest release is a re-exploration of her last record, the personal impact of the revisit has proved an uplifting, if at times, surprising experience. “With my last album Burst, which was a self-produced album, I went down into a twelve month lockdown and just started to teach myself software and production as I went. It was my first self-produced album of the kind. It was a really exciting result for me. It was a massive learning curve, but at the same time I couldn’t help but have the curiosity of what a more established producer would do with my music. I love so many different sounds and production across the board in electronica, I was curious to see how different sounds of mine would translate in different electronic genres. So that is really how it was born.”
Having had complete control of her output until now, did Dova ever feel at risk? Did the curiosity kill the cat? Or will her satisfaction make her go back? “I think too, I have always had a real fascination with electronic music in the sense of the sound, the textures and the landscapes that can be created with it. In my own productions I like to flirt with different sounds that would be heavily genre-ised, this is trance and that is progressive house. I like to work when it comes to electronica more across the boards, and picking out the different parts from genres.”
Having taken the time to focus on developing on her own abilities, Dova realised that sometimes a little helping hand can guide you the rest of the way. While she is clearly beaming with pride as she speaks about her own attempts, it is equally apparent that there is a part of her that still craves further knowledge. “Though there was curiosity in terms of the remix album, it was a learning curve for me. I was really keen to learn from other producers.” Yet, regardless of her desire to reap the reward of other contributors, she concedes that the whole process was, in many ways, far more nerve wracking than having complete control. “It is definitely a process. As a creative person, when you create your little children, your precious things that you create and letting them go into the hands of these wild other labs.”
Though the process was at its most nerve-wracking upon the receipt of her newly formed baby, Dova soon realised that it was never her initial response that gave the most insight. While it often took several listens to get inside the mind of the other producers, she reveals, “It was just a great process for me to let go and really discover and have the attitude of there is no right or wrong. Everyone just sees things and hears things through different filters and perspectives.”
