In the five years since her debut EP ‘Cider,’ Wellington singer-songwriter Danica Bryant has captivated audiences with her powerful, singular voice. She’s released numerous singles and a second EP, performed coveted support slots for the likes of Elton John and Robbie Williams, and amassed a loyal following. Arriving at the start of August, Bryant’s debut album ‘Feast’ places the artist confidently in her popstar era, unabashedly covering topics of queer sexuality, feminism and neurodiversity. Approaching this important career milestone an undoubtedly excited Danica Bryant spoke with NZM’s Nur Peach.

“I think most artists have a dream to release an album eventually, one day! It’s something I’ve wanted to do since I was a kid, because that’s how I listen to music. I know it’s popular to listen in bite-sized singles now, but for me, I’ve always loved the art of pulling together a bunch of songs into one cohesive project, and how the track list matters, how the overall cohesive sound matters. So I’m just really stoked that, as an independent artist, this has finally become a do-able thing for me.”

More than just achievable, ‘Feast’ strongly feels like Bryant is coming into her own. Though she originally presented her music as folk pop, alt-pop/rock would be a more accurate descriptor of ‘Feast.’ The shift was already evident in her 2022 EP ‘Ego Death,’ where she worked with producer Johnny Avery. They collaborated again on the album, recording in Avery’s studio.

“I feel like I really found a kind of kindred spirit in him, and he really has pushed my sound to where I think it needed to be the whole time.”

In parts caustic, in parts tender, and always startlingly confessional, Bryant’s grittily powerful vocals and sharp lyricism are brought more to the forefront. The album offers a variety of different soundscapes, that diversity an intentional choice.

“I consider my music pop music, but under that umbrella so many genres fit because ‘pop’ is a genre, but also literally just means ‘popular contemporary music’. So I wanted to bring together all of the sonic palettes that I consume myself and make something that was really diverse, because I don’t want to make music that is just trendy. I want to make music that people like and is accessible and commercially friendly, but also still unique. I wanted it to sound a little bit chaotic and all over the place – I’ve realised you can do that if the main thread is a clear identity in yourself.”

Contributing to the diversity was Bryant’s choice to pull together songs from throughout her life for the tracklist. Two songs were written when she was still in school – the fiery, defiant queer anthem Acid and the achingly emotive falling-out-of-love balled Old Chocolate.

“I wrote a lot during high school, but those are just ones that happen to stand out and stick with me. They’re songs I’ve been sitting on for a long time, because they were how I genuinely felt when I wrote them, but weren’t necessarily something I felt confident sharing. They were the first songs I wanted to put out, because a debut album is a statement of who I am as an artist. So I wanted to put out the stuff that I’ve been sitting on for so long.”

 In January she embarked on a Boosted campaign with the goal of raising $12,000 to help cover the costs of production, mixing, mastering, publicity, visuals and more. Despite having released two EPs, she admits finding the process of making an album a lot more involved.

“With an EP, you can experiment in a way that can be quite random, because the shorter length also almost makes it more appropriate to just do random stuff the whole way through. But the way I think of albums they’re so much more structured and intentional, and I think they need to have a core message to them.

“It was much longer than twice the length of an EP to record, because everything just took so much more effort and consideration into how I wanted it to sound and go together and flow as a project. A lot of the songs also purposefully lead into each other, which is something you wouldn’t really do with an EP. I also thought so much more about building a world around the album. Everything about the album was so much more big and conceptual, and every element of art mattered, beyond just the songs themselves.”

‘Feast’ explores themes of identity and performance, drawing on Bryant’s experiences of being female, queer and neurodivergent.

“I was finding that those were increasingly prominent themes that I hadn’t had the confidence to put out yet. So I was picking those songs because they would be the next evolution of me as an artist, to just be a little bit more real and direct with my audience.”

Much of the imagery, lyrics and themes is multi-layered. The bedroom fantasy video for album lead-in single Narcissist, for instance, has Bryant holding people hostage so she can perform for them, taking the phrase ‘captive audience’ to a literal dimension, while singing sweetly about putting on an act when in public.

“I was thinking a lot about performance in general. Part of it is that I am literally a performer, but also I felt like I was performing for other people. Going through the motions and social interactions, doing what I thought I was supposed to do, but not really understanding that. I struggled to find who I was because every person I talked to, it felt like a mask of sorts.

“When I graduated and moved out on my own, I was like, ‘Oh, I think I could be autistic,’ and I eventually got diagnosed. So I know I was right, that there was something different about me the whole time. That was a huge thing that inspired the performance idea, because it is a double meaning. Yes, I have to get up on a stage and put on a persona to translate the music, but also, being autistic can make it really hard to find who you are underneath all of the expectations other people have of you and who am I when I’m not masking.

“That’s a journey that I was explaining through the album, but it’s never over. Every day of my life I’m still figuring out who am I when it’s just me, outside of everyone else watching.”

This idea of performance features in several of the other tracks, including I’ll Be Your Drag Queen, which Bryant says is her favourite song she’s ever written.

“I wrote it about the idea that, as a woman, you have to perform femininity for the world to be accepted. You often have to do these things to fit into the idea of what a woman is. I’m surrounded by people from the queer community, and I really have a love for drag and drag queens and kings and all that kind of performance. So I wanted to write something that blended the idea, and the lyrical theme was kind of like exploring how sometimes being a woman feels like having to perform, to such a degree that to be a woman is to be a drag queen of sorts –  which I just thought was a really cool, unique and honest idea.”

In Morals, Bryant goes even deeper into the challenges that come with being on the autism spectrum. The seemingly mild-mannered pop-rock track has a catchy alliteration in the hook “Can my morals stop making a madman out of me,” though the subject matter is weighty.

“It’s about autistic rigid thinking,” she explains.” When it comes to my career I often have one really specific path in mind, and if I’m not following that then I psych myself out and think that I’m doing something wrong. But the reality of music as a career, and also just life in general, is that there are so many different ways to do things, and considering one way to be the correct way is not accurate, and will drive you insane if you try to adhere to that. So I was trying to write about the idea that there are so many ways to do something right, but I will always tell myself I’m doing it wrong, which isn’t actually the reality.”

Another evident theme is that it’s okay to be confident and dream big.

“Especially in NZ, tall poppy syndrome is so real. People who are confident in who they are and are really clear about what they want, our instinct is to cut them down and make fun of them. And I’ve always been someone who has such big dreams, and the world tells me that I shouldn’t have those and that I’m foolish or selfish or egotistical for having them. But to a degree it’s really important to have an ego, because if you’re not backing yourself no one’s going to back you.”

Bryant says that the creation and release of ‘Feast’ has helped her step into a new confidence.

“I feel like I’ve changed my whole life. I am living like a pop star, because I’m trying to manifest something. I heard this quote from Lady Gaga that really inspired me. She said, ‘To become a celebrity, you just have to act like you already are one.’ So, the whole album process for me has been like shifting from, ‘I need people to get on board with this,’ to, ‘I’ve already made something amazing and people will come.’”