Multifaceted rising star DLG. is forging his own path: pulling inspiration from a variety of artists and genres, he creates his own unique blend of sonic elements; a perfect fusion of everything from Glass Animals to Mac Miller. From songwriting, to production, to album artwork, DLG. is an artist in every sense.
DLG. had listeners enthralled with his 2020 hit “Inside My Eyelids,” which has amassed over 23k streams on Spotify. Taking the viral moment in his stride, DLG. continued to regularly release music, honing his craft and building a fanbase. 4 years later, he has released numerous singles, his debut EP Enfield (2022), and is now looking towards his next project.
Following a string of singles, DLG. is gearing up for an EP release later this year. His latest single “DIVE IN” is a sleek, easygoing track with lyrics about throwing caution to the wind and diving headfirst into a new experience. Straying away from a typical song structure, the song feels extremely free flowing, taking listeners along for a mellow journey through steady rhythms and smooth vocals.
Ahead of his upcoming EP, I got a chance to chat with DLG. to hear about the latest single, his unique album artwork, and all the exciting things that this year has in store for him.
Brigid: Thank you so much for taking the time to speak with me today! You just put out your latest track “DIVE IN”, how are you feeling about the release & the response to it so far?
DLG.: Great, honestly it’s been one of the better responses from the EP. I really like this one, so it’s really nice to have it resonate with people as well. It’s not experimental or anything, but it’s not a super conventional track. There’s no chorus or anything. When I wrote it, it was a very stream of consciousness kind of song, I made the whole thing in one sitting. It’s refreshing to have something I made quickly, instead of something I’ve listened to so many times that I hate it.
B: Could you tell me a bit about the inspiration behind the lyrics, and the creative process for the track in general?
D: I’m from Austin, Texas, originally. I moved to LA to pursue music. I quit my full time job as a graphic designer. “DIVE IN” is just about being in unfamiliar territory, going headfirst into something. The theme of the entire EP is very much centered around being somewhere new, with strange characters. Trying to adapt, trying to thrive, trying not to drown in it. “DIVE IN” is a little bit about that process. Trying to sink or swim in a new environment. LA is a pretty unforgiving place. The next song I have is also very much centered around that mentality, that idea. I moved to LA two years ago, and that one came about after about a year in LA. I was really soaking it in, having a good time but was also frustrated with a lot of things. Being a musician in LA can be extremely stressful. It was a bit of a stream of thought, getting things off my chest.
B: Totally. What was that transition like, moving to LA from Austin? That must’ve been a huge jump.
D: Yeah, it’s a very different place. It wasn’t as quite a big of a jump as it is for a lot of other people, I had some friends out here. One of my friends was looking for a roommate, and I knew I wasn’t going to find a better opportunity. Someone who wants a roommate and is also a musician… so, I jumped on that opportunity. I’ve only been here 2 years, so it doesn’t quite feel like home, per se. Now I’m in that strange gap where I’ve been here long enough that when I go back to Austin, there’s a lot of stuff I don’t recognize. I’m in the in between.
B: Yeah, finding your footing.
D: Yeah. I’ve been very lucky, I have met some really cool people and done okay for myself out here.
B: Absolutely. So, the EP is coming out later this year, correct?
D: Yeah, I have a track with Healy coming out on the 23rd of February, and then the EP will be in March. The idea is to get this single out, then drop the remainder of the EP. I’m stoked. Two of my favorite songs on the whole project are the next one and one of the ones on the EP. I’m very excited.
B: Can you tell me about the creative process that went into this EP? How did it compare to your last EP?
D: This one was quicker, every new project I make gets quicker. It’s good because the closer together you make music, the more cohesive it is. I’ve come to the conclusion that that’s the way to make a cohesive body of work, to make it as close in time as possible. The dream is to make an entire album in like, a two week stretch of time. That’s how you really get projects that sound like they’re part of the same world. Enfield, my last EP, the span of those songs… I finished a couple months before the EP came out, and another one I made when I was 13. It wasn’t necessarily an even distribution between those two time periods, but that should give you an idea. This EP, which will be called Characters, was made very much within the span of a single year. The goal is that the next project is made over the course of six months. Then the next one, three months. Everything is so much more tied together when it’s made in close proximity. It’s much easier said than done, but the best music is made quickly. I’m always trying to get better at it. Also with this one, I’ve learned a lot, musically, and made more connections. This one has a couple guest producers, Healy is on the next track, the Koastle guys… This one was more fun to make, for sure.
B: Yeah, I was going to ask how you feel your relationship with writing and creating has evolved over the years, as music became your full time job and all. Do you feel that it’s changed?
D: It definitely has, in some ways. Music has always been something I need to do, I need to have a creative outlet. It’s more of a personal form of therapy than it is anything else. I think there have been moments where I let [expectations] take over, which is not good. The best way to make songs is to let them flow, pluck them out of the air. Be true to what you’re feeling. There’s been moments like that, as things have snowballed into more of a career instead of something I was doing for fun. There’s a lot more pressure now, like now I have to promote it and do this and that. When I focus on the beginnings of how I started making music, and why I started, and can get back to that, the song is always better. I’ve been on quite a journey with creativity. I know people that make a song every single day, it’s like a 9-5 job. I don’t operate that way, some weeks I make no songs, some weeks I make 10 songs. When it hits, it really hits, and I make a bunch of stuff. With this EP 3-4 songs were made within the span of two weeks. I had come back from New York, I hadn’t even opened my laptop in 2 weeks. I came back and I made half the EP. It just happens like that, you roll with it. Creativity isn’t something you’re able to control, but you have to know how to seize it when it comes around.
B: Absolutely, it’s more of an ebb and flow. You’re very multifaceted, you do production, writing… I was going to ask what a typical session looks like for you, but it seems like it’s pretty varied?
D: Yeah! When it’s just me, I’m doing all sorts of stuff. When it’s with other people, it goes one of two ways. This is something that changed a lot when I moved to LA, I will say. In LA, I sometimes pull up to sessions and I’m just a vocalist. In Austin, I didn’t know a lot of producers, and in sessions, I was one of the better producers. In LA, everyone is really good at what they do here. Sometimes it’s easier to pull up and say ‘hey, you’re running the session, I’m just a vocalist’ or vice versa, sometimes people pull up and I’m just producing. Other times, we’re both doing everything. It really depends on the artist. Every session is very different based on who it’s with. I try to only work with people where I really like their music, and I really like them. It makes it a lot easier.
B: Totally. I also have to ask about your mom doing your album artwork, can you tell me about that creation process?
D: I’ve been working with my mom on artwork since I was about 4 or 5. I’ve always loved to draw, she would take my drawings and watercolor them to make them more realistic and give them a surrealist look. It felt very natural, it was almost just the easiest option when I wanted to make album art. Some of my early art is just me in Illustrator, and then I realized I should just have my mom paint what I’m drawing. How it generally works is that I come up with a concept and draw it, then send it over to her. We talk through color choices and general composition, sometimes I’ll give a few and she’ll critique them. We decide what we want, and she’ll transfer my drawing to watercolor paper and start painting. Some of them are one piece, it depends on the composition. Some get painted in different sections, then she’ll scan them and send them over to me and I assemble them in photoshop. It’s a really fun process, and it gives me the opportunity to keep creating art with my mom which is something I’ve been doing forever. I do have to give her a lot of credit, I come up with the idea and then I give her a really terrible sketch. She really cleans it up and makes it look really good. 90% of it is on her end, she makes it real which is awesome. Shout out to my mom!
B: That’s really cool to have her involved in your music career in that way, I think that’s really special.
D: I do too, I’m very thankful for it. It’s great. The artwork was always something that was very important to me. I think people often forget that sometimes it is someone’s first impression of your music. I wanted it to be something that stands out and is unique, and had a bit of a story behind it.
B: Definitely. So, I know you pull inspiration from a variety of different artists and genres, so I wanted to ask: what are you listening to right now?
D: That’s a great question, let me pull up my Spotify right now. Listening to a lot of Pale Jay, love Pale Jay. I listen to a ton of jazz, hard bop. Oscar Peterson. I’ve been listening to Montell Fish a lot. Not really the type of music I’m making, a lot sadder. I’ve been listening to this kid Bōlají, he’s from Houston. I really like his stuff. Glass Animals are always on repeat. I listen to The Internet all the time.
B: Quite a range, I love it. “Inside Of My Eyelids” was sort of a viral, breakout moment for you. How did it feel to see those numbers? Did you have an inkling that that song was going to be big, or was it a total shock?
D: I had no idea. I realized my EP was taking a while, and that song was me putting something out in the meantime. I started that one in the library in Austin over COVID. It might’ve been pre-COVID, even. Austin has a really nice library downtown, right near where I live. I went over there and was working on stuff, I wanted to put something out to keep engagement up before my EP was ready. The song did pretty well, and then when that happened, I did not know what was happening. I never opened TikTok. I had no clue what it was. A friend of mine works in social media marketing, and I knew it was definitely TikTok or something. Daniel Mena, who’s a really cool creator in Ecuador. So it was blowing up in Ecuador, and then spread to Mexico City and Bolivia and all over Latin America. It was a really weird feeling, because on one hand it’s great, because your song is on a bunch of viral charts in different countries. On the other hand, I had no idea what to do. I didn’t know what the next move was. That was something I’ve learned a lot about, between then and now. It was completely foreign to me, I had just been making music in my bedroom and putting it out. It was great, and gained a lot of fans in Latin America. I don’t speak Spanish, so I had a friend who speaks Spanish helping me. It was a weird time, but I’m really thankful for it. It kickstarted my actual career in music, and it did teach me a lot about that. Something I also learned from that is though viral moments are great, and they definitely help quite a bit, the real underlying framework of a music career is not one viral moment. I would much rather have 10 songs with 10 million plays than one song with 100 million plays. I mean, I’d take both. They’re both great. [laughs] Virality is not everything, and I think that gets lost a lot in the noise these days. If you are able to capture that viral moment, you definitely want to take advantage of it, and that’s something I’ve learned a lot about since that happened to me. I’m thankful for it, I learned a lot from it, and it was very weird. Very out of the blue, like overnight. One day I just woke up and something was happening.
B: Hey, the algorithm works in mysterious ways!
D: It really does! I’m thankful for it.
B: At the end of last year you went on a mini tour, where you did some live shows. What was that experience like, playing live?
D: So fun. That was the tour with Healy, who’s on the next track of mine. He’s awesome, the band’s awesome, the crowd’s awesome. I haven’t played a ton of live shows so far, but those were for sure the most fun. It was a 3 show run for the west coast leg, and all of us at the end of it wanted to do more. None of us wanted it to end. I had a great time, my band is awesome.
B: To wrap up, what do you hope that listeners take away from your music, especially from this upcoming project?
D: Oh man, great question. I think that I’m a big fan of letting people find what they’re looking for in my music. I’m happy to share what my songs are about to me, but I think every song has a different meaning for everybody. I like to not force any one feeling. I love hearing from people, hearing about a song that I’ve never even thought about in a certain way. It’s completely different than what I wrote the song about, but I think the meaning is just as valid. I hope people take away what they are looking for. I make my music simply as a reflection of what I’m feeling and what I need to get off my chest for my own sanity, and I think a lot of people listen to music for their own sanity. Whatever is going to help them do that, I hope they find it in my music.
Listen to DLG. here!
