If you haven’t yet heard of teenage sensation d4vd, he’s sure to be a household name before you know it.
The 18-year-old’s distinguished voice has been blowing up across major platforms on social media.
Songs like “Romantic Homicide” and “Here With Me” have easily positioned the artist as having some of the most replayed and well-known songs on Tik Tok, with millions of posts using his original audio.
The indie-pop singer from Queens, New York has already been dubbed the mouthpiece for Gen Z heartache and one of the most versatile up-and-coming artists we’ve seen today.
Charting on the Billboard 100 and having over 25 million monthly listeners on Spotify doesn’t hurt either.
D4vd is in the middle of his North American tour after recently wrapping up in Europe.
On July 5, he touched down in Toronto and headlined his show at the Velvet Underground to promote his latest project and EP Petals to Thorns.
Now Toronto got to chat with the artist the following day and talked about all things music, his fans and his love for the city.
D4vd shared how in 2022 he released a bunch of new music but had no idea which one would be on his project, or if he was going to put together a project at all.
It wasn’t until he got signed shortly after that the pressure was on to produce a body of work.
“I’m sitting in my closet trying to figure out what songs make sense in this era of music,” he shared.
“And I knew I wanted “Romantic Homicide” and “Here With Me” but it’s like, what made those songs what they were? And how do I expand upon that without making the whole project sound like those songs?”
D4vd describes his EP as bittersweet in nature and a story that continues with each song that plays.
“I hope that the message is received in the way that the songs were ordered because you really feel like you’re at the height of it. And then you just get crushed by the end of it.”
Being so young, d4vd described his first ever concert in Toronto as wildly different from his most recent visit. For starters, his last event was with fans who were 19 and older since the venue only allowed that age range.
“It was like older kids sitting there with their phones out.”
This time around, the crowd was full of much younger fans, indulging 15-year-old Emma who was singing along to songs at the back of the venue sporting headphones, with her mom not too far behind.
We asked the mother-daughter duo if there was anything they wanted to ask d4vd.
Emma wanted to know what it felt like to rise to fame so quickly and so early on in his career as a performing artist.
“Of course it’s an absolute blessing to even be able to make music that people are listening to, I feel like, as an artist, or as an aspiring artist, the worst feeling you’re gonna have is to express yourself and not having anybody be able to hear it,” d4vd said.
“And I feel like music is a way for many artists to vent, and to express their feelings. I don’t even look at the numbers. I look at the response. I love the feedback. And the response that I’m getting from the listeners in the audience and the community is insane so far. So, I’m just appreciating it one day at a time.”
For an artist who gets his flowers on a regular basis, he was quick to return the favour to Toronto, a city he has come to know and love.
“[Toronto] showed me so much love. Everybody in Toronto is so nice. The crowd was amazing, everyone was amazing. I love Toronto.”
When asked if he’ll be back in the city in the near future, he didn’t hesitate and shared that he’s only been here officially three times but wants to be here “at least 20 times by the end of next year.”
