(Photograph: Acacia Evans)
Nashville artist Dana Rogers goes by the stage identify “daena” – and her debut album Alter Ego feels destined to make quite a lot of “Better of 2024” lists.
The brand new album is a showcase not only for daena’s very good songwriting however for her extremely versatile voice as properly. It’s arduous to convey tenderness, however daena is a grasp at it. Songs like “Fortunate Quantity” and “Bri” are intimate and touching.
But the album has loads of uptempo delights, too – just like the album’s title track that has a Sabrina Carpenter-style Large Refrain.
We spoke with daena concerning the new album and her plans to market it:
“Fortunate Quantity” is SO stunning and seems like successful to my ears. What’s the backstory on this nice track?
Thanks a lot! This one is unquestionably some of the particular on the album to me. My fiancée and I are getting married in April, and by the point we do, we’ll have been collectively for 10 years. However, once I wrote this track we had been about to hit our 7-year courting anniversary. Nearly in a single day, I felt a shift and realized that not solely did I need to spend the remainder of my life together with her, however I used to be truly prepared to get engaged and begin the subsequent chapter of our life collectively.
I wished to write down about how one of the best love doesn’t should be grandiose or over-the-top to be stunning. And that protected, snug love can preserve getting higher and higher 12 months after 12 months. I got here to my co-writer Kate Yeager with the concept, and after speaking each about my future in-laws’ love of playing (LOL) and the tender and candy method we love our respective companions day-to-day, we discovered our solution to “Fortunate Quantity”.
“Bri” can be a really particular track. What led to you writing that one?
This was a troublesome one to write down. I wrote it as an apology to my childhood finest buddy, Bri, at a time once I felt like I hadn’t been nearly as good a buddy as I ought to have been to her. I believe it’s arduous for anybody to confess one thing like that, and it truly took me a couple of years to write down. There’s an early model of the track from round 2018 that I then delivered to my co-writer Kären McCormick in 2022, and she or he helped me form it into what you hear on the report. And sure – Bri and I are STILL finest mates! I’ve by no means as soon as nervous that we wouldn’t be. I believe it’s only a testomony to how robust our friendship and belief with one another is, and I’m so fortunate that she gave me her blessing to launch this one.
Will you be doing any reveals this fall to advertise the brand new album?
I simply had my album launch present final Friday at The Lipstick Lounge in Nashville, which was an absolute blast! I’m nonetheless driving the excessive and should say I’m form of itching to plan some extra now… so preserve your eyes peeled on my social media for any new dates being introduced.
