dreamcastmoe is making music to live to
06.09.2022 - 20:25
/ thefader.com
dreamcastmoe has a theory that food and music are just alike. “Some shit hits you different, man,” he says over Zoom in early August. “It’s going to hit somebody’s body a little different than the last person.” That theory starts to make sense when you ask him what songs have resonated with him.
The Washington D.C. native won’t hesitate to reveal his favorites, but he won’t do it without telling you vividly detailed stories about why they spoke to him. One of the songs is “Giving Up” by Donny Hathaway, one of his musical heroes, which he found solace while going through a breakup and grieving his grandfather.
(“It was only crazy because my ex's aunt was the one who told me. She was like, ‘Yeah nigga, you better go listen to some Donny Hathaway.’”) There’s also Drake’s “Ratchet Happy Birthday,” which reminds him of a loving aunt that passed away (“He probably ain't even write that joint. I’m sick.”) To him, music is a blanket meant to “wrap a person’s heart.” There’s a comfort to be found in the familiar emotions a song can evoke.
Read Next: Song You Need: dreamcastmoe’s “El Dorado” is a dubby ballad dedicated to the grind Before he was born, his mother worked at Tracks, a famed gay nightclub in D.C. that closed in 1999, and his father was into go-go. Their love of music and nightlife led to a young dreamcastmoe (born Davon Bryant) to take a liking to it all.
He started off as a drummer—congas and djembe, specifically—before moving to produce house tracks in his teenage years. He’d begin releasing music in the late 2010s as dreamcast (the “moe” came later), eventually catching the attention of Andrew Morgan, who runs the D.C.-based funk label People’s Potential Unlimited. Through them, he’d release “Liquid Deep,” a
.