Dasha Unveils Deluxe Edition of What Happens Now? with New Single "Didn’t

At eighteen, I transitioned from writing poetry and short fiction to covering the underground rock scene for a friend’s magazine, drawing on the vibrant memories of our shared experiences. Around the same time, California’s Dasha shifted from pop to singer-songwriter, having found a home for her darkly introspective and vulnerable nature in a musical genre that she was truly drawn to. 

In 2021, Dasha’s singles  “Love Me Till August,” “Nervous” and “TALK” marked her break from the waxy gloss of contemporary pop music and its protocols as an industry. These gritty, stripped-back tracks were steeped in her own coming-of-age experiences, utilizing GarageBand electric guitars and deep basses to convey the complex emotions tied to adventure, love, and heartbreak. The result was a heartfelt adaptation of raw musical styles, reflecting her unique voice and tension. Dasha’s comfort within composing darker and deeper instrumental worlds with more organic and bluesy instruments states itself proudly on the acoustically-produced debut album, Dirty Blonde (2023), Sacred experiences, held tightly onto from the past and taking place in the here and now, lead the seventeen songs she chose to include on her debut full-length release: smoky heirloom-ribboned bedroom pop overarches as Dasha’s thread with whimsy-grunge, thick, bronze honey R&B, lacey Delta blues and for the first proper time honeyed Georgia country. Softly-rolling brassy digital drums, Dasha’s own bleeding heartfelt acoustic guitar accompanied by real, tart lemonade electric guitar and touches of wistful bluegrass-band brasses and strings paint a nostalgic pink-magnolia sunset. 

Dasha and her collaborators trust softly-breathing production on this brave debut album from a young and newly-signed artist; Dasha giving in to a richer, more throaty vocal delivery than she had provided on even her experimental singles. “7 Minutes in Heaven” reveals Dasha’s giving in to her once-in-a-lifetime draw to somebody bad from her past (“I’ll take 7 minutes in heaven, for seven months in hell”) as “Wish That You Were Here” speaks for the first time out loud her naivety in and the toxicity of a very young romance with one who she dangerously yearns to share one more night with. “Olivia” quietly confesses Dasha’s jealousy and ire for the young woman who drew the good man she gave her heart to out of her arms while “Vegas” prays tell to the hidden disappointment she has held close to her over a lover who long ago promised to take her away, to play her getaway driver, to a brand new life the two would build together. Dasha punctures each outer layer on “Eyeliner,” revealing her personal reliance upon playing a role to protect herself and confessing a darkest desire for a lust that wrecks her peace, and more tenderly on “Dramatic” allowing the liberty of letting out pent-up rage as the singer-songwriter knows good girls are not supposed to.

Following suit on Dasha’s careful experimenting with novel sounds on her shorter singles prior to a fuller-work’s process as she had begun to do leading up to Dirty Blonde, 2023’s “Even Cowboys Cry” and the breakout song that Dasha is thusly most well-known for “Austin (Boots Stop Walkin’)” built up and richened the Delta blues she and her collaborators had been trying their hands at over the last year-and-a-half. Dasha’s delicate and raspy, blistering acoustic guitar charges ahead, leading a loyal bluegrass band of players, some of whom step back knowing off-page, by-heart who is needed and why depending on the subject of her lyrics and the emotional beats pouring out of them. A stronger, more studied hand of production makes deeper and more robust the aforementioned. Cradling the empathy and patience of first single “Even Cowboys Cry” are golden-brassy piano keys, graceful banjo plucks and feather-soft fiddle lines that seem to speak out to the blinking stars. Cheering on her therapeutic reconsidering of “Vegas’” subject after almost two years on “Austin” are a determined brotherly kickdrum, soulful bass, wailing fiddle and rhythmic hand-clapping – this last reminiscent and communal ‘instrumental’ inspiring a kin’s line-dancing trend on Tiktok last Summer.

Motivated by these early audience resonances, Dasha pulled back even further and dove in to a human, back-porch-rustic frame of production on her next single ahead of sophomore album What Happens Now? “King of California” – employing alongside her acoustic, her team’s reliable fiddle, a hopeful tambourine and heartfelt percussion. “King of California’s” understanding of the past and yearning for happier times and romance of what is simple, what is true, is Dasha’s chosen thread on this second long-playing record. “42,” the final single off What Happens Now? records her difficulties reconnecting with one who could be her real true love but who fate and careers have pulled apart (“42” referring to the number of days before all “the boys [she’s] been kissing” have been told “that [he] finally gets to have [her.]) Dasha’s few backing instruments have an organic twinkling stars sound – her band’s bass and piano gently sparkling. The album’s opening number “What Happens Now?” asks herself, her mama and her loyal band what happens to young love running wild and free when the summer’s sun goes down for the final time and that first chill makes one shiver. This curious yet grown subject backed handsomely by a twanging banjo, heartily supportive tambourine shakes and a taking-no-prisoners drumbeat and delivered by Dasha vocals as unafraid as they are vulnerable. On the other side of the album closing track “Share This City” trusts only Dasha’s voice, as clear and strong as ever, her tender acoustic and gentle percussion. Marking Dasha’s growth and maturity the almost lullaby makes peace with the departed beloved that has hurt her the most and the scars they had left still healing; she offers to share the town the two call home like a truce, an olive branch. 

Dasha’s latest single “Didn’t I,” its strong and rawly sincere live Vevo performance released along with August’s passing, and the first single off of autumn’s deluxe version of What Happens Now? (featuring five new songs) considers for what hopes to be the final time, trying again with a once-beloved who has hurt her and whom she has hurt. The singer-songwriter accepts the sides of her that ‘good society’ would shame her for and at the same time, contemplates in real time why she is drawn to those with darkness and a need to heal themselves within them. Forgiveness and healing, and honouring her own happiness and desires are pursued across Dasha’s music and life alike; the two are not enemies as much as they may appear to be to somebody on the outside but rather strong individuals with a historic past because of this single reason. 

To know why one does what they do is oft a lifetime’s journey – for those of us that try to unfurl this delicate puzzle in the first place – and Dasha is dedicated to finding this out for herself in every nitty-gritty facet that must be upturned. “Didn’t we take all the pictures down? So why am I here with your lips on mine? I coulda sworn it was over, didn’t I?” ; “Said it was once, then it was done, that we’d made our last mistake. Lasted a month, now look at us. My lipstick on your pillow case.” At a drive-in movie theatre and actor playing her beloved holds snugly onto the back of her headrest as she watches a movie she has seen a million times already. Community has become her bread and butter – an accomplishment that the singer-songwriter feels eternally proud of and grateful for – and women believing their partners to be unfaithful to them (in each sense “faith” may be understood to mean) beckon her and her acted beloved to a softly-glowing line dance on the outskirts of the drive-in. Between re-kindling their romance and commitment by slow-dancing, challenging one another with teasing, combative moves and swapping dance partners for a second try at true fidelity and to draw out jealousy and possession from the other, the two struggle to get their feet and catch their breath. 

When apart from the crowd loving, pleading eyes and small intimate touches beg; lit up by her freedom and formed female friendships within the crowd, Dasha imagines who she could become if she finally called it quits with her beloved.

Dasha trusts her hopeful communally-supported and -reaching-out acoustic guitar to act as the backbone of “Didn’t I;” a sign for where her next music may be heading towards. On the single, a robust production hand is handed over to the organic accomplishments of Dasha’s beloved and faithful bluegrass band. Fiddle; steady percussion; hand-claps and vocal harmonies from her band chosen for this single. Each instrument chosen for the contemplative and searching song seeks for and grasps ahold of dual nostalgic and joyous sensibilities, each as potent and peaceful as they could be. Dasha’s trust with and reliance upon the individual experiences determining the playing of her band are as strong as anyone no matter their knowledges of instrumental playing or musical composition could tell from the song’s listening. A familial kitchen-table feeling coming across, autumnally cozy and warm. Dasha’s albums and singles can be found on iTunes, Spotify and in digital and physical copies on her website and you can follow her pursuits on Tiktok, Instagram, Twitter and Facebook.