Year in Pop: 2016

Post Author:

DÆVA

An exclusive introduction from DÆVA on her Furious Hooves cassette Beta Persei & more; press photo courtesy of the artist.

An exclusive introduction from DÆVA on her Furious Hooves cassette Beta Persei & more; press photo courtesy of the artist.

DÆVA’s album Beta Persei is available now from Furious Hooves on glittery cassettes & we give you a listen to the home brewed electro-sounds that ring with a hook heard every moment. The Blue Ridge Mountains by Brooklyn artist takes her name from old Avestan texts as meaning “demon” or false god” where expansive outdoor essences are made in the humble confines of bedrooms in city apartments.

Beta Persei opens with the sanctuary of visions on the hopeful anthem of excitement & longing heard on “Dream”, that traverses to the paranormal like vocal edit chops of “Drown”, to the track “Float” that actually acts upon the title by creating the free-feeling of levitation. Introverted bedroom pop & all the pensive sentiments simmer on the dance-infused beat of “Ache”, to the subterranean resonances heard on “Bloom”, that then sprouts to the timeless vintage dance rager “Love”, which later delves into the abstract ether of the otherworldly ethereal plains of the sky soaring “Fly”. The northwest sound of unbound & original creativity bursts forth on “Run” that does things that you rarely hear anywhere, whereas “Fall” provides words of caution & warning for eager hearts, ending with the amorous sparkle & shimmer of “Kiss” that keeps you craving more. DÆVA provided the following preface to the album Beta Persei with thoughts on her moniker & more:

Daeva is a phrase from the ancient Avestan language, loosely meaning demon, while the term “Beta Persei” refers to a star known as Algol, or the demon star, in the Perseus constellation. I like to think that Dæva is my wild/raw identity and Beta Persei is the magic space I create and am born from.

I wrote Beta Persei during my senior year of college, when I was living alone for the first time. It’s very much about who I am when I’m by myself—daydreaming, or feeling lonely, or nostalgic, or in love. I wrote, recorded, mixed and mastered the entire album from my bed. The track list is in chronological order of when I wrote each song and you can hear the production quality and music styles shift dramatically over the course of the album as I experiment and teach myself along the way. Beta Persei is also about the healing process after ending a long-term relationship and discovering femme/queer empowerment and independence through music.