Q&A: DAGR Brings Self-Titled Album Exploring Pop Formulas for the “Evil Club Kid”

Q&AMusic

Jun 29

☆ BY Anu Makinde ☆

LINKING BETWEEN THE REALMS OF DANCE, HIP-HOP, AND POP — DAGR’s self-titled debut album features a wide range of artists that provide the listener with a variety of tracks to color many years of raves to come. Composed of Ceci G and Veronica Jane, DAGR uses each other’s unique perspective on music to create something that reimagines what pop music can be and what it is used for.

Luna caught up with the two to learn about their inspirations, how they create their unique sound, and future live shows. With features on the album including Bali Baby, Warhol.SS, Uffie, Dizzy Fae, Jerome Farah, Prison Religion, Suzi Wu, Hawa, and Cecile Believe, this album gives us a slice of their own identity.

Ceci and Veronica reflect the crazy 2020s back to us with a new video, “YOMP,” around the taboos of sexual freedom. Dizzy Fae spoke about “YOMP,” saying, "I remember telling Ceci [from DAGR] when we worked on ‘YOMP’ that no one talks about eating booty; no one talks about the nasty stuff and I said, ‘Whatever, I'mma do it.’ Working with DAGR is fun — we do what we want and we do it well. ‘YOMP’ is really a bop for anyone. Enjoy.”

LUNA: I hope you guys have been well! How are you doing right now?

DAGR: Pretty darn good I’d say. Stoked to feel like LA is coming out of a dark year and live music and sessions are back.

LUNA: First off, congrats to you both on the release of your debut album, DAGR. I found “X-Rated” on Spotify in March and was immediately excited for whatever else you released, so I’m glad I can talk with you.

Something I appreciated on the album was the wide range of artists you collaborated with. How did you decide on and go about those features?

DAGR: Some of our best song ideas for this album came from unfinished sessions that we had been sitting around on hard drives for months, some even years. We would rehash the production entirely and ended up sending these demos around to a select few and came back with some crazy artist features. A couple of the songs came about when Ceci was on tour with Charli xcx, which is how we got some cool Ausi [Jerome] and Atlanta [Bali] features.

LUNA: I know you both have been producing for a while — how has this album been different from what you’ve made in the past?

DAGR: This project altogether is a space for us to explore a really saturated version of what we like about pop, hip hop, and dance music. We lean towards aggressive, hard-hitting production that is sometimes a little weird and unsettling. Writing songs outside of an artist focus is really liberating, as we work full time on producing and writing for other artists. Diving into DAGR helped us isolate and identify our own sound as Veronica and Ceci.

LUNA: COVID pushed onto us the idea of being confined to one space for a lot of time — how does that reflect in your album?

DAGR: For us it represented a time to fully sit on our work and take apart elements that were and weren’t working on the album. It was a useful time to polish and find cohesion across the tracks on the record that we wouldn’t have had time to do otherwise.

LUNA: Are there certain environments or scenes that inspired you?

DAGR: Definitely. We’re really into changing the scenery when it comes time to write a chunk of demos. If we want to mess with some new ideas or finish a collection of songs, we try to take a little roadtrip to move around the energy and get out of our usual studio zones. I guess this isn’t a scene, but being isolated in a foreign environment helps us focus and dig up something new.

LUNA: A collaboration that’s constant through the project is the both of you. How did you guys meet and influence one another’s production/music-making process?

DAGR: We met through a mutual friend in Ceci’s old band. We actually lived in NYC at the same time but never crossed paths at NYU. When Ceci moved to LA, we started making beats together and forming an identifiable sound. I definitely have learned an immense amount from Ceci’s creative process and musical imagination. Her intuition with a piece of music can be vastly different than mine, challenging me in ways that jumble my circuits to where I’m able to visualize a song from a refreshing new angle. We’ll often make a starter idea in separate rooms for a couple hours and then swap computers and bounce what we have at the end of the day. There’s always a zinger in there somewhere :)

LUNA: Being able to cross various genres through your collabs and your beats, how do you feel about the idea of the genre of hyperpop as it relates to the music you make?

DAGR: What I take away from hyperpop is exaggerating the pop form and celebrating absurdity. I think hyperpop has made it possible to just fuck everything up — so I’m here for whatever pop formulas hyperpop has helped dismantle and make space for a different kind of pop anthem.

LUNA: I felt like “YOMP” was necessary for me after this past year. With the volume all the way up in the headphones, it gave a release I’ve been needing. It makes me ask: Is there a certain person you make music for?

DAGR: It’s possible we make music for the evil club kid? From time to time, I think of a hot alien assassin in a grimy technotopia? Sometimes a slutty troll?

LUNA: What does a live performance look like for this album when you have the chance?

DAGR: Would love to DJ this baby on Mars!

But for now, while on Earth, we are looking forward to many fun DJ sets and dance parties where artists we work with come up on stage to perform with us and who knows maybe a flying V or keytar drops down from above and we rip a solo on the dance floor. It’s all possible really.

LUNA: And as a fun question to close off the Q&A: What’s a song that has been part of your COVID out the house rotation?

DAGR: “Buttons” — The Pussycat Dolls

“Earlier Days” — Zsela, Sunship Remix

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