Originally from Louvain-la-Neuve, Doria D (24 years old) has been immersed in music since her earliest childhood. “The most distant memory I have, I am already singing,” she confides. At the age of six, she accompanied her grandmother in choir on the village stages of Wallonia. “I was the little mascot. My grandmother really liked to sing, she encouraged me a lot in that”. Introverted, she takes refuge in writing. “As soon as I knew how to write, I wrote songs in my notebooks. It was like a necessity”. At 13, she learned the electric guitar and began composing guitar-vocal songs based on her writings. At 16, she sang her compositions in bars and on the stages of small festivals. His influences are then “very rock, Nirvana, but also metal… I was in a very dark period”. Around 18, she tried “to small productions with the help of software”, which she shares on her Instagram account. Spotted by the label G-major Records, she presented her first EP “Dépendance”, which was brought to success by the single of the same name via TikTok. “Social media has always been the number one stepping stone in my career so far,” she admits. The young artist performs on the stages of the biggest festivals in the country, in front of several thousand people. After a break, Doria D goes independent with her first album I am still searching…supported by the Parisian label Jo&Co (Hoshi or Claudio Capeo), “because it’s still a lot to manage”. An introspective album, born from a week-long residency with his musician friends who will accompany him on the next stages, and from his influences like Billie Eilish, Tame Impala or Disiz…
In a sweet and tangy voice, she sings about not wanting to play the games imposed by society (“Nanana”), her “Questions” left unanswered, her relationship with others (“Ton Regard”), her fear of the future (“Morose”), the temptation of evil (“Blows and kisses”), or even releases one’s “Anger”.
Doria D, the young Belgian who never stops climbing, climbing, climbing…
How did you experience this sudden notoriety?
“I didn’t understand anything about what was happening to me. It was quick and came out of nowhere. It was my dream but it seemed utopian to me. At first it was very anxiety-provoking. I arrived in an unknown environment , I worked with people I didn’t know, and I signed a contract at 18 without telling my parents.”
Why this break?
“Since everything was happening very quickly and it was very intense, I didn’t have time to sit down or think. There was a moment when I no longer felt aligned between what I was doing and what I was doing. I wanted. There were very business thoughts behind my music. People saw me as a product to make money, and came to get involved with the thing to take part, but I wanted to gain visibility. an authentic angle. In addition to fatigue, I needed to take a step back, to take a break.”
You come back with a first opus “I’m still looking for…”. What are you looking for ?
“I feel like I’m like Dora the Explorer, who has to look for lots of clues everywhere to understand the world around me and understand myself, and the more I advance, the more I have answers, but I know that it is a perpetual search and that many questions will remain forever unanswered.”
So it’s an introspective album?
“Yes, I have a very therapeutic side with music to try to understand myself, to soothe myself. When I have problems, I automatically turn to music and writing to externalize my feelings. So , there is a very introspective side to all my sounds and my lyrics. It’s my therapy, and I hope that by opening the doors to my therapy, it can help others to create theirs.
In this album, you go through all genres, because you like to vary the pleasures?
“Indeed, I really listen to everything, from metal to classical to jazz, funk, rap… I don’t know how to confine myself to one style. That frustrated me in the project before; it was very pop, and I wasn’t allowed to experiment with other things. I also wanted to return to more authentic music, with more guitars, more real instruments, and on stage too, by adding. musicians. Now it’s really a rock band. There are five of us on stage: a bassist, a guitarist, a keyboardist, the drummer and me.
In “Nanana”, you sing “I have dreams to come true”. What are they ?
“The greatest dream would be to soothe, to heal all the souls of the world, and for us to live in a kinder world. I try to participate in this great goal by calming people’s hearts and my own. really dream of love and fresh water. The other dream would be to be able to live comfortably from my music.”
Would you have participated in a telecrochet without the success of social networks?
“I was cast for The Voice Belgium in 2016. I was 16. I was picked up and before going to the blinds, I said to myself ‘I don’t feel it, I don’t do it’ . I felt the atmosphere was a little too TV, too formatted and I had a song to sing that I didn’t really like.”
Doria D, THE Belgian musical revelation
What does the scene mean to you?
I love writing about my traumas, alone in my room, and I love being able to share it with people. The scene has something almost inexplicable, magical, bizarre: we enter another dimension, there is a crazy intense sharing of energy that I love.
♦ Doria D will be in concert: Music Festival (Brussels – Cinquantenaire) 22/6, Feel Good Festival (Aywaille) 28/6, Baudet’stival (Bertrix) 14/7, Francofolies de Spa 19/7, Les Gens d’ Ere (Tournai) 28/7, Les Solidarités (Namur) 24/8.
