Spiritual. That is the first word that comes to mind, front and center, when thinking about or describing the Czech singer/songwriter Vaclav Polansky, or DAVA, by artist name. Now, I know what you are thinking, “oh yeah Mr. AMS Radio, the guy in the sukhasana easy pose in his profile pic is spiritual, what a hot take.” Fair point. And might I add that you are a tad bit feisty today as well. Let’s first define what it is to be “spiritual.” According to my “ask me anything” phone, it means to have a feeling, sense, or belief that in being human, there is something greater than one’s self. Given that the title of DAVA’s debut EP was, “One with Everything” and debut album was “Joy is Our Guide,” I would say that conceptually we are at least checking all the boxes so far. He has a new single coming out on all streaming services December 2nd entitled, “Back to Myself.” Wait, so in title, does “self” indicate a step away from spirituality then? I would argue no! In order to conceptually “return to self,” one would have to have a sense of being somewhere beyond self to begin with (hence by definition earlier.) Checkmate. I’ll pause to let you to pre-order now on Bandcamp and work up an apology for the mean line of questioning I completely made up in my head.
At one time Polansky was making a living as a professional drummer, scoring gigs with TV and radio. Somewhere around 2016 is when he hit a rock bottom to what he described as a “self-harming lifestyle” according to an interview with Authority Magazine in August. That moment in time is what I took away as the beginning of DAVA. His work as DAVA has reflected what his bio describes as an “unfolding musical journey” as a result. It was an awakening, if you will. He writes songs that project his personal experiences along that spiritual path. The connection he looks to establish with his audience is coveted by authenticity. With “Back to Myself,” DAVA says this about the meaning of the song:
Our true liberation lies on the other side of our emotional pain. It is not possible to avoid it or to walk away from it. The only way is to head straight for it, embrace it fully and walk through with an open heart. I wrote this song called “Back To Myself” to remind you that we are in this all together and YOU ARE NOT ALONE!
DAVA on the meaning of the new single
The new single actually comes about subsequent to what sounds to me like writer’s block, as I read how DAVA describes it. He states that the inspiration tends to work in cycles. This I would agree with wholeheartedly. Sometimes it’s just “on” and other times it feels like you couldn’t get inspired to save your own life. Figure of speech. Pretty sure life threatening instances are always inspiring, but you catch my drift. DAVA recounts the writing process:
That´s what happened to me this spring 2022 when I felt a need to write some fresh music but it just did not work. It was probably due to a deep healing I was going through, while working on letting go of my old fears and programming. After a while I finally got an idea for a song and it was pretty clear that it had to be a song about healing because it was something I was experiencing very strongly at the time.
With that context in mind, DAVA actually means “medicine” in Hindi. As fate would have it, it was a translation unbeknownst to Polansky at the time he was starting the project and that makes for an interesting, “whoa” moment as he has referred to his music in the manner just quoted as well as “conscious music with a healing touch” in his previous interviews and bios. To which he playfully smirks at the notion: “Coincidence?”
Don’t expect to hear a lot of apples to apples comparisons to other artists in terms of sound. You could call it an experimental folk music. Psychedelic even. I liken a lot of the ethos and experimentalism conveyed to things George Harrison traversed in late era Beatles and throughout the 1970s. It was recorded with British producer Ben Wilson from Acre Base Studios. Mark you calendars on December 2nd for some meditative healing.
Don’t forget to support this project and to follow on Instagram, Facebook, TikTok, YouTube, and Spotify. You can also visit his official website. If you enjoy their music and are able to provide monetary support, you might consider downloading it on Bandcamp.
It also helps to stream and share their music; you can obviously find it in the following Playlists: Less Than 1,000 Followers, Fresh Singles, Indie Only, 12 New Songs This Week, Chill – Folk – Acoustic, Unknown But Essentials! And Autumn Acoustic.
Remember that you can always find me here AMS Radio for all my social media and collaborations.
P.S. If you enjoy discovering new artists and fresh new music you can subscribe to this blog Less Than 1,000 Followers and follow the Playlist with all the artists that we have presented here!
This coverage was created via Musosoup #sustainablecurator
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