Shawnee Dez
As part of our Artists To Watch list, we’ve conducted interviews with the eight artists featured in our 2021 Spring/Summer edition. Check out our Q&A with Shawnee Dez below and click here to check out the full list.
Whether it’s organizing a community bike ride or stacking harmonies, Shawnee Dez creates with intention, seeding her nurturing spirit into all that she does. Her Pre-Juneteenth Black Joy Bikeride in the summer of 2020 attests to this nurturing, altruistic part of her character, both as an artist and individual. Shawnee aims to unify her community through active participation on the ground while valuing the connections she forms along the way —always centering care. And it’s that same care and warmth that imbues her music. Even a single titled “ICEY” captures Dez’s intoxicating, soulful voice and her versatility as an artist. Moving into 2021, she vows to allow herself to exist with or without permission from the world, and we can’t wait to have a front-row seat.
From your visual for “Let It Be” to your Black Joy Ride in June & your Bronzeville Bike Tour, it seems like you spent 2020 creating and connecting not only with your community but yourself. What lessons are you taking from 2020 into 2021?
That's a great question. I would say, it's so interesting —first because it feels like I didn't do anything in 2020. The lesson I'm taking into 2021 is being less afraid to just express. I don't wanna say fail because I feel like that's not even the reality most of the time, you're just afraid of failing, but you're actually not going to fail. I guess not being afraid to fail and remembering to give myself permission because I don’t need permission from the world. I don't need permission from anybody. It's about me having a vision or an idea and feeling empowered enough to execute it.
Your music encourages “energy exchanges” between you, the listener, and the song and that’s very apparent through all of your music. Is there a common message/energy that you want people to take from your music?
Not necessarily like a universal takeaway in terms of lyrics or anything, but I'm a Cancer so I feel like I have a very comforting, nurturing spirit and I want people to feel like they’re healed when they listen to my music. I just want them to feel like “okay, this is a safe space for you to now go out in the world and do whatever the fuck you were thinking about because you have my support.” I support you, that's how I want you to feel.
Your voice creates such a dreamy and intoxicating sound with each of your tracks. Can you tell us a bit about your creative process when making music?
My partner is a producer so I basically co-produce everything with him, we make it together. One thing I always look for is space. I always like for him to either put down keys or drums first without them both being together because it leaves me more space to find the melody. It's a lot more of a challenge for me to listen to a finished beat or a finished song before I can write to it. I need to write to it as it’s being built and I always go for harmonies first so I would find the hook where the hook is supposed to be or I'll find a nice little melody and then I'll just harmonize and stack those harmonies and then I'll build around that.
What’s next for Shawnee Dez in 2021?
Oh my gosh, so much stuff! I am first of all just working through you know self-sabotage and telling myself that I need to have everything perfect before I put things out so coming up I have a song dropping…. We were gonna drop in the last week of january but with everything happening we wanted to push it back so we can have the video nice and crispy so around valentines day i'm gonna be dropping a song called icey, called icey, i'm really excited about it bc its much different than let it be its much different than white skies and even wasted time it has a lot more of a free mindless just dance or chill or smoke or relax type of vibe. I'm not necessarily trying to convey a message. I'm just trying to get people to feel good and not think too much because we've all been doing that shit too much. I feel like that song is gonna be just a good marker for okay, let’s switch the gears, let’s get off of our emo cancer vibes, and let’s fucking feel good. And then like right after that we are gonna be dropping more and more and more, everything is pretty lined up and we’re just in a place where I just want to get the music to the listener and have them grow with me. Also, setting an expectation of “y’all are gonna see me fail” or “y’all are gonna see me maybe be a lot more careless, be a lot more mindless, and be a lot more expressive” than I have before and I'm really setting the intention. My listeners are my family so it's like you don't judge your family, you just vibe with them and you know who they are so that's the vibe.