I had always had an affinity for series in literature, and I thought it would be really cool to incorporate what I loved about books into the story of music, to pile it together.
— Dawn Richard
Instagram is just something I like to do. I feel it's the best way to portray who you are.
'Goldenheart' is like a modern-day Joan of Arc. Think of it like medieval times-cum-2045 or Lancelot and Guinevere in 3025. It's a new version of these battles - age-old stories for the now.
I wanted to make an album that sounded like a release of inhibitions, really getting away from the idea that you have to be anything other than in that moment.
My father's music is all I remember from my childhood.
I just want to be a storyteller, and I think the way to do that is by your lyrics, by your visuals, by your choreography, by your dance. It's imperative as an artist.
I write for myself. It's therapy.
Besides music, I was all school, school, school. And softball. I played the game since I was four, and I wanted to go to the Olympics for softball. I got a full scholarship through softball.
When I get inspired, I give out free music. If you look at my track record from the beginning, that's always what I've done. I've never changed.
I always treat shows as though they could belong on either platform. I always design it for the bigger stage, but I love it on the smaller stage.
Just as much as you need the people who love you, you need the people who doubt you - to prove them wrong.
My grandmother had a Ph.D in library science, so I grew up in a library, and I would appreciate those books and the smell of them and how they'd have these series, and it was cool to me. I always felt like, if I had an opportunity, I'd create an album that felt like a series.
I believe I am standing firm as a black woman in this industry in a time that it is hard as an artist period.
I've grown so much in the music industry. From 'GoldenHeart,' it was just about me and the music and me in this dream. With 'BlackHeart,' its more about me and who I am and what role I play in my own life and in the business.
To create and do something no one else has done before - that feeling beats anything else I've felt.
When I look half naked on stage, it's not because I'm trying to be sexy but because I am dancing and want to be mobile enough to move.
Fashion is my lover on the side, but I am married to music.
I want to get up and celebrate something - and why not celebrate being a woman?
Music and dance is part of everything in New Orleans. So I grew up appreciating it all.
When my dad went to college to get his master's from Loyola, he was playing Debussy and Chopin and Beethoven. But he played all that New Orleans stuff, too. I would go with my dad to gigs, pick up the piano and the speakers, and I would be like his roadie.
Growing up, my parents were Roman Catholic - strict Catholics - from New Orleans. I understood the idea in the principle of spirituality. I noticed it in the stories that I read. The Trinity was something that was brought up consistently: the power of three. Things happened in threes, and I thought that was brilliant.
Dreams rise like the sun and set like the sun: One minute, it is high and bright; the next minute, you might lose it.
People want to peg you as alternative R&B when they hear soul or see the color of your skin. It's comfortable when people see artists of color or artists that come from a different country to put that brand on us. It's just not as linear as that.
I'd only do a deal with a label if it allowed me to still be indie and have that indie mentality. I have to have creative control.
I don't take myself too seriously.
I can be a little messy and wild and carefree with my creativity as a solo artist. In a group, there's a certain structure, and everyone has a part to play, and being a solo artist, I can do as I please.
Anything that creates fear, I want to conquer it.
I would describe my personal style as putting Twiggy and Yoko Ono together. It is hobo with no rules.
'Blackheart' is purely falling into the electronic world and pushing the envelope.
I couldn't do a record without knowing I'll translate it into something visual.
Originally, I was set on going to Hawaii Pacific University. We visited the campus in Hawaii. I was gonna be a Rainbow Warrior. I was gonna play softball. I was gonna major in marine biology. Everything was set. Then my dad was like, 'So you're not gonna do music? If you do go to Hawaii, there's no studios there, baby girl.'
I think, my entire life, I was a bit different. And I didn't think I was different; I just kinda always stuck out.
I do not have a history in set design. I have a history in art. I draw. But I learned set design when I couldn't afford to have a team and I didn't want to look like I was indie. I wanted to give fans the visual.
'Redemption' is about understanding myself and not worrying about my relationship with the industry.
You have to put time into the art to do it, and you have to know that what you'll get out of it is not a financial or a fame thing. It'll just be the pleasure of being an artist. And I'm cool with that.
My dad was a teacher. He has a Masters in music. He taught elementary school, and he played gigs his whole life, and we lived good.
