Deva St John is one of the UK’s surest rising stars, and she won’t slow down for a minute, according to her press. The three singles since her debut “Afterlife” in October 2018 are mere punctuation in a stellar career that has included gigs around the London scene; airplay on BBC Radio 1; a collaboration with her life partner XV that garnered 30K streams on Spotify in its first six weeks; a live spot on the Sennheiser Instagram page; a spot on the upcoming Readipop 2021 Festival: all while maintaining a busy acting career.
Deva’s musical output fits into three rough categories: slow and soulful (Dear Ocean, Afterlife), up and at them (The Information Age and Reckless), and collaborative (Split the Dealer) although there is a little cross-over with Ocean.
The Information Age, with its digi-punk start, is much like today’s Northern-sounds (Wombats, Arctic Monkeys, Ben Wood. etc) but comprises several movements around the main theme.
Dear Ocean is your piano ballad but the whole band emerges to make it more powerful, into a quick fade; while Split the Dealer, her collaboration with life-partner XV, is an r’n’b power-pop ballad that crosses Deva’s other categories quite successfully.
Afterlife opens with a call to prayer, a scream of terror, before growing into another powerful ballad that starts to rock out after about half-way, closing soulfully. Having listened to / watched the top ten this week, this is what is featuring on radio today, which makes St John avant-garde as Afterlife was her debut late in 2018 and the reason for the ensuing accolades!
Reckless, her latest single, is described in her press as being about being reckless for the sake of self-preservation. It alt-rocks along unlike anything else she’s done to date, with a catchy hook to push it along on radio, and in people’s earworms, and a sharp ending to drive programmers mad!!
Can we expect more music? With her schedule, probably not. But keep your eye out for Deva St John at a gig, festival, or radio show near you, and/or get the existing music into your ears any way you can! Like the New Music Podcast, for example!