I sat down with the singer/songwriter Danie to talk about her album, Alchemy, a mix of funk, rock, and R&B. Danie talked about how she became an indie artist and the parts of her life that she pulls inspiration from. In her album Alchemy, Danie reflected on her ego-death after she experienced after a few relationships that came to an end. She reflected om the grief she felt when she lost important people along her journey of self-growth. Through her alehemization of self-reflection and growth from her ego-death, she gained new perspectives on love, loss, and the meaning of life.

I wanted to depict how self-reflection can be challenging to get through because the “new you” is in competition with the “old you.”

Noa: When did you start singing? How did you know you wanted to perform?

Danie: At a really young age. I enjoyed singing a lot, but I was very shy. I always felt very deeply in general, especially when I listened to music. I would always be transported into somewhere else within songs and that would just happen naturally as a kid.

Then I saw the movie Selena, and I thought, “wow, that's amazing!” And then when I hit 12, my mom took me to see Tina Turner and that changed my life. I realized that singing and being a performer is essentially a superpower!! I just wanted to do that!

But again, I was very shy as a kid. I didn't even really speak until I was about five, six maybe. And even then, I'm pretty sure I would only speak to my mom and if I did, I would kind of call her down to me and whisper in her ear. I was just painfully shy. It took me a really long time to actually start singing in front of people. I would sing alone in my house all the time when no one was there.

I fell in love with dance first before anything. And I pursued that for a really long time, about 12 years. And then when I hit like 19, I just changed my mind and had an epiphany when I got asked to sing back vocals in a friend's band at the time. And that got me in front of crowds. at that point in time I think I was just kind of ready to start exploring that further. That's when I started pursuing music.

Noa: I heard you hit that high note like Ariana Grande and like Mariah Carey in the background. Were they on some of your songs in Alchemy? I was like, no wayyyy!!

Danie: Wow! I love that you brought that up because I get really shy about it. I'm working on doing it on command and it's something that I'm exercising right now. I'm getting better and better at doing it on command! But, for some reason when I'm really not trying to do it, I'm able to. I love sneaking it in a song for texture, fullness, being able to hit the full capacity of my range, and play with that kind of stuff. 'Cause first and foremost, my main instrument is my voice. So– I do enjoy using it that way.

Then we talked about playing and performing together which I find really inspiring because there’s so much negativity to get bogged down by and it’s easy to let negative energy get pent up. Performing in front of people releases that pent up energy both for the performer and the audience members!

I went on to ask her about where she pulls her inspiration for her music from throughout the different areas of her life.

Danie: Everything that I write is autobiographical for sure. So yeah, I'm a pretty transparent person for the most part, so I can't really help it. Music is my form of therapy.

She went on to talk about the specific experiences that she went through to write her album and how:

Danie: If something happened to me a long time ago I could fully express it in a song.. Alchemy was a collection of a lot of different experiences. but essentially the overall message of the song was to take all of these (negative/ego-death) experiences and alchemize them. That's essentially the message of the entire body of work as a whole, which is why the entire project is called Alchemy.

Each track on that record is talking about different situations that I had gone through over the past few years: romantic relationships, friendship breakups, just different life experiences. I was trying to unpack a lot of things.

Noa: I feel like friendship breakups can hurt more than romantic breakups sometimes.. ..

Danie: Yes. A thousand percent. It was just a culmination of a lot of different experiences. Just trying to face what I'm actually feeling, putting a name to it and choosing to allow those emotions and feelings to bubble up to the surface because I really always wanna make sure that I'm not compartmentalizing things. I really just try to make sure to keep an eye on that because I know it could be something that can easily happen or maybe I've just seen it a lot around me happening with other people.

I just wanna make sure that I am facing my things head on as much as I can. I don't wanna let anything fester. I really wanna make sure that I'm allowing myself to fully feel what I feel.

In our discussion about the making of Alchemy, we talked about Danie’s design for her album cover art.

Danie:

I mean, the cover of Alchemy is me in a coffin. I made it out of cardboard, hot glue, some fabric, and black spray paint essentially. But, originally, I was gonna rent a casket, and have it delivered in a hearse. Lol.

It was just so expensive. (Can add an article about the funeral industry prices.) So, I just thought, you know what? I'm very much a crafty bitch. So, I made it! I still have it because it's really special to me. It's an art piece and I'm really proud of it, as weird as it might seem

Noa:What inspired you to use a casket in the first place?

Danie: Death is a part of life and I've lost a lot of people that are close to me in my life, I'm kind of not afraid of it anymore. I really just try to utilize my time here as much as I can.

This record's special to me for a lot of reasons. But one of them is just definitely the subject matter and, and not being afraid to talk about things like that. And it's just kind of hitting all the the ways that alchemy and death and rebirth and things like that can hit really, whether it's like emotionally, spiritually, physically, all the things. When you really allow yourself to fully alchemize something hard, it really hits every level of you, whether you like it or not. The cover of me in the coffin was my visual representation of spooky, bruja vibes. I had a lot of fun playing with that imagery as well because a lot of people could see it as scary, terrifying, but in a way, I guess it's a little glamorized. The intent I have behind (album cover) is to make death less taboo to talk about, to acknowledge it, to face it, and it’s not a big deal because it's gonna happen to all of us. I guess seeing death as a reason to live your life better, versus dreading the day or being terrified.

I'm a very anxious person, so I feel like it's really easy to kind of let that spiral out of control. I definitely have tools now that help me. Music is one of them, journaling, going to therapy. I’m able to articulate my feelings better than I did before. At least I hope so.

I’m just not catastrophizing things as much as I would before. I'm at a point in my life where I'm not giving things that much power anymore. I know what I got going on. I don't really feel the need to prove myself. I am just very much comfy in my own skin in that regard. I'm following my own path. I have faith in myself and I definitely have my work speak for itself, and that's where I express myself the best. I'm an artist first and foremost so that's how operate.