Photo by Clementine Schneidermann.
Dana Gavanski was blessed with a lovely soprano singing voice, but during the pandemic, it started to fade. She describes her "lost" vocal cords as both a curse a blessing: a curse for obvious reasons, a blessing because it forced her to be more intentional about her music. Today she's announcing When It Comes, her second studio LP, and sharing "Indigo Highway," her second release since her vocal problems began. (November 2021's "Letting Go" will also appear on the forthcoming record.) The new song comes with an idyllic music video directed and edited by Daisy Dickinson, premiering below.
“In many ways this record feels like it is my first,” Gavanski tells The FADER. “When I could use my voice, I had to focus so there is an urgency and greater emotional trajectory than before… it’s very connected to vocal presence, which extended into an existential questioning of my connection to music. It felt like a battle at times, which I frequently lost.”
Gavanski's songs evoke a very specific nostalgia for the outsider pop acts of the '60s and '70s — chamber pop savants like Margo Guryan and acoustic lumineers such as Sybille Baier — whose work was just a titch to quirky to be fully appreciated at the time of its release. Her current sonic peers include Cate Le Bon, Aldous Harding, and Weyes Blood. But much like the Guryans and Baier's of the past, her sound is unquestionably odder than those of her more established contemporaries.
Raised in Canada by Serbian parents, she currently splits her time between London and the Croatian island where her mother resides. Her debut LP, Yesterday Is Gone, was a lush tour of her Canadian childhood and adolescence, but she dug deeper during the arduous process that led to When It Comes.
“Yesterday Is Gone consisted of straightforward pop songs. This album is about searching for something to excite me back into songwriting,” she says. “It’s about finding the origins of my connection to music, that tenuous but stubborn and strong link — why it draws me and what, if anything, I can learn from it. The album title has a heaviness to it but also a lightness, depending on your frame of mind. It’s about being open, and letting it come whatever it is, without judgement.”
On "Indigo Highway," Gavanski sounds at peace, her voice pushing past its limitations to reach a sing-song quality that feels transcendent rather than childish.
"This one came to me on my Grandmother Moog all at once, like a bouncy ball," she says of the new track. "It’s about someone very dear to me from childhood that I no longer have contact with. I spent almost all of my time with her and we often went on spring vacation together to Disneyland and California. It’s a kind of time machine back to the innocence and silliness of those days."
The FADER: Can you tell me about the experience of losing your voice, and how it informed the new album?
Losing my voice was a pretty dreadful experience. It came both at the best time and the worst time. Best as it was the middle of the pandemic and there were no tours but worst as I was trying to write a new album and already quite down about a few things. It also took me a while to accept I had voice problems or that they were not going away unless I changed a few things. Many of the songs were written during the moments my voice felt good, though never truly free from the pain. Some of the songs I suppose came from the restrictions I felt as I tried to work within and accept them. I could often only whisper and keep to a minimal vocal range, so it was a real test of my increasingly obvious minimal patience, but also a really important teacher as it was something I couldn’t easily ignore. My writing during this time often reflected my vocal condition or my defiance toward it and the inherent loneliness of that struggle.
Both "Indigo Highway" and its video have a fairytale quality to them. What's your favorite fairytale?
I don’t have a favorite but have always loved the story of the evil old witch Baba Yaga, which I grew up with, and Rumpelstiltskin, which Shelly Duval’s series Faerie Tale Theatre does so brilliantly!
How do you think your cross-continental upbringing and your Eastern European background influenced your interpretation of western pop music?
Hard to tell, though maybe one way it’s influenced me is that I’ve never really felt aligned to any one thing musically, mentally or emotionally. It’s always been about content and form for me, and even more so as I become increasingly comfortable with myself. Having an Eastern European background didn’t really influence my approach to music in any way I can tell. If anything, my family and other people have often told me to incorporate it into my music, but for me they’re kind of separate interests that I haven’t felt the need or desire to combine.
Your music reminds me a lot of Margo Guryan, who's one of my favorites. Was Take A Picture an important album for you?
She’s great! Not sure I totally hear the comparison, but I do love that album.
View the new album's cover, its tracklist, and Dana Gavanski's upcoming tour dates below.
When It Comes album art.
When It Comes tracklist
1. I Kiss The Night
2. Bend Away and Fall
3. Letting Go
4. Under The Sky
5. The Day Unfolds
6. Indigo Highway
7. Lisa
8. The Reaper
9. Knowing to Trust
Dana Gavanski 2022 European tour
2/27 - Brighton - Hope & Ruin
2/28 - Nottingham - Metronome
3/1 - Leeds - Brudenell
3/2 - Bristol -Exchange
3/3 - Manchester - Deaf Institute
3/5 - Newcastle - Bobik’s
3/6 - Glasgow - Hug & Pint
3/8 - London - Lexington
3/10 - Paris - Pop Up Du Label
3/11 - Cologne - Theater De Wohngemeinschaft
3/12 - Munich - Heppel & Ettlich
3/14 - Berlin - Badehaus
3/16 - Hamburg, -Uebel & Gefahrlich
3/17 - Nijmegen - Merleyn
3/18 - Amsterdam - Paradiso Small Room
