Meet Oakland’s “Darling”, Deva Rani
Deva Rani is an Oakland-based South Asian artist. Her recent single, “darling”, was released in September 2024. Read my interview with her below to learn more about her upbringing in Oakland, her journey as an artist, and her music influences and inspirations.
Photo courtesy of Deva Rani
FELIX: You released your first single, “Blue Raspberry”, in 2020 during the pandemic and I’m curious to hear about your growth as an artist. With your most recent release, “darling”, do you notice any changes in your music style or approach to making music?
DEVA: I actually wrote “Blue Raspberry” in 2018 when I was in high school and I was going through a break up so it’s been around six years since I first wrote that song. I noticed after Blue Raspberry, as I started putting out more and more music, my lyrics became less and less personal. I was so fixated on writing something that I knew people were gonna hear, and so I started censoring the stories that I was writing about. And because of that, my lyrics were losing vulnerability. But, in the past year, the songs that I’ve been writing are truly coming from my heart and I’m basing them on real experiences. I’m still working on trying to be more personal in my lyrics, which is something that can be hard for artists because it’s like showing someone a page in your journal, but when I do end up putting it into a song, it makes me feel like I can give my audience a piece of my experience.
I’ve also definitely improved my producing skills. A majority of the songs I write I also self-produce, and it comes down to how well I can make a song sound like what I’m hearing in my head and feeling in my heart. I’ve noticed that with practice I’ve gotten better and better at that. At the end of the day, I was a producer first and songwriting is something that came afterwards.
FELIX: I see the cover art for “Golden Eye” as well as your other song cover art has South Asian influences. Has your cultural background influenced your creative process in any way?
DEVA: My family and my culture influence everything that I do. My grandmother was a pianist and used to teach me growing up. My dad was also a pianist and played in a rock band growing up. My affinity towards music is undoubtedly genetic. South Indian music has influenced my production a lot. The rhythms you hear in Carnatic music are so complex. It has inspired a lot of what I put in my music.
I’m heavily inspired by seeing South Asian artists like Sid Sriram and Priya Ragu come out with music that blends elements of Western music and South Indian styles. Of course, growing up as an Eelam Tamil, MIA was an artist who inspired me both as a producer and as a performer. She was the first Tamil artist to gain international recognition, and she did it while shedding light on the genocide against our people. She has always been radical in her art and has been an inspiration to me and many others.
I’m hoping to incorporate more and more elements of the music of my ancestors into my sound. With that being said, the culture I grew up around in Oakland has been equally inspiring to me and how I’ve formed my identity.
FELIX: As a creative, one of the things that artists can struggle with is burnout. How do you balance spending time with your music and taking breaks?
DEVA: This is something that I definitely experience more often than not. I was talking to one of my friends about this who is also a songwriter, and she described it as the changing seasons throughout the year. A tree can’t produce fruit year-round.
Being in the studio all the time is not sustainable from a creative standpoint. My music is a space where I can express my emotions and bring life to them. But this only manifests when the sounds build up inside me and I can’t help but hop on my computer and let it all flow out. When that happens, you can’t pull me away from my computer for hours until the song is practically complete. If I take ten days out of the year doing just that, I’ll have a full project. Or at least I wish it was that simple, but the creative process is never on a timed schedule.
I am also a full-time student; I focus a lot of my energy on school and music is something that I get to do in my free time. Songwriting is something I definitely can’t do when I feel like I’m under stress, however during certain parts of the year where I have free time that’s when I get most of my music done. Once I have a decent amount of music created, I can focus more on releasing it and promoting it. Through this cycle, I’m able to be productive on my music year-round without having to constantly create. The other thing I find important is to spend time producing music that I know no one will hear. This takes some of the pressure off of having to be creative for an audience and instead, I can be creative for myself.
FELIX: One final question! As a Bay Area creative, are there any creatives you look up to in the Bay Area? Do you know of any local up-and-coming artists from the Bay Area?
DEVA: The Bay Area has always been a hub for creativity. However, I think we’re coming into a new era of Bay Area music that will transform the culture here. There are so many artists I have had the chance to see come out of Oakland and shake up the music scene. Shout out to my producer friend ShawnIsADHD. Shawn is so talented and has taught me so much about producing. He not only makes R&B music, but he also produces for rappers and other experimental artists. He’s got a great vision. I also want to shout out Red Heron Studios in Oakland. They host incredible Bay Area talent for their live shows. The studio is also run by artists who are making waves in the Oakland music scene. They’re doing so much to highlight the talent here. I look up to everyone who is hustling as artists in the Bay Area and dedicating themselves to their craft. They’re the real inspiration. I’m very lucky to be living in Oakland during an era of immense creativity and musical evolution.
You can follow Deva Rani on Instagram, Spotify, and Apple Music.
Watch her visualizer of Moon Dweller below:
