Q&A: Reva DeVito Talks New Album, Musical Origins & the Importance of Taking Risks

Q&AMusic

Sep 14

☆ By Kate Chase☆

Photos by Ashley Walters

“DON’T BE AFRAID TO FUCKIN’ LET YOUR FREAK FLAG FLY, BABY,”— LA–based funk/electronic/R&B artist Reva DeVito says, and she definitely practices what she preaches. DeVito describes her sound as "sweet and smooth with a touch of bounce,” and you can’t help but feel this describes her personality as well. Full of vibrancy and energy, DeVito fills every conversation with the same good vibes as her music.

With honey-smooth vocals and groovy melodies that can only be described as the love child of ’70s crooners and ’90s house music, every song fills you with a sweet electric buzz. DeVito is a veritable sparkling disco ball in the world of smooth funk, giving off positive vibes to whatever her light touches. She has collaborated with the likes of Kaytranada, Yung Bae, and Young Franco, and her new album, Goodbye For Now, is a necessity for every summer playlist.

We quickly bonded over the music scene in our shared hometown of Portland, as well as the experience of leaving behind your hometown and starting afresh.

Read below as DeVito opens up about the importance of taking risks and never getting too stagnant, paying your dues in the music industry, and always always being true to yourself.

LUNA: Tell me more about your musical background and how you got into the industry.

DEVITO: Yeah, you know I just always loved to sing and make little songs. I was an only child … I had a stepbrother and stepsister but for the most part I lived as an only child. So I found joy [in music], and that's kind of how I entertained myself, through music and writing little tunes or learning my favorite songs from front to back. That was kind of how I fell in love. Then I started collecting CDs, and that was sort of how my musical love began. I would say I didn't really start the professional part of it until a bit later on in my life. My first EP came out in 2016. I'm kind of like a long-game type of gal, you know?

LUNA: So we’re both from Portland, and I know that’s where you started your music career. I’d love to hear about your experience with the music scene here.

DEVITO: Totally. So when I first started I was singing hooks on a lot of hip-hop with a lot of rappers in Portland. That was kind of the scene that I fell into when I was younger. And that was how I first started to hear myself recorded, on thes, like, golden era hip-hop tracks. The guys were called the Sandpeople. But from there I met this dude named Tony Ozier who had a funk band that was heavily influenced by George Clinton. So I was sort of all of a sudden in this funk band, like a large funk band where I was actually exposed to Black music and really just learned a lot, both about music and about Black culture. So that was really important to me, you know, because I hadn't really been a part of the community like that before in my life, and that actually influenced me to minor in Black studies in college. From there I started to make my own songs and then started having my own shows and then recording my own songs. I had recorded quite a bit before I released THE MOVE. I definitely would say that I took my time with everything. And I'm super grateful for the experiences that I had in Portland early on. They're super influential to my life, and I cherish them.

LUNA: How have you been liking LA? How does the scene there compare?

DEVITO: So I have been back and forth between LA and Portland for a while just because my label was there, the producers that I wanted to work with were there, and a few of my best friends live there. I had opportunities a couple times a year to play a show or something, so I was pretty much back and forth. But I moved in October of 2019 for good. I love Portland, but I had felt like I was hitting a glass ceiling a bit. I just feel like a lot of the time in your hometown there's a lot of opportunities that you just start to bypass because you've been there, you've seen everybody, you've been cooking there for so long. And I was just ready for something new.

Also, I was getting out of an eight year–long relationship that was kind of holding me there, and I was really trying to make it work. But, like, once we knew it was not working anymore I was like, “I'm out of here, I don't need to be here anymore, I think that my time has come.” So then I moved. I sing live with a band called Miami Horror, and so I moved and then went immediately on tour in November. We toured the USA, and we toured immediately after that in Australia. And then I got back to LA in, like, the middle of January, and then the pandemic started in March. I feel like because of the timeframe that I moved there I'm only now feeling like I'm actually starting to experience the music industry. Because it was just so quiet for so long. I was still going to the studio, which is great, but I feel like only now in 2022 am I actually going to concerts and parties and raves you know. I'm just pretending like those two years didn't happen.

LUNA: How would you describe your sound? Do you define yourself within a specific genre?

DEVITO: I think about that pretty often. I feel like this kind of gets me into trouble with streaming and stuff because there's such a need to label music so that it falls in the right box for you. But I would say that it would be mostly like electronic R&B if I had to put a label on it. But man, I love making music of all kinds. To be honest with you, my favorite thing in the world is just to write — I love writing. I love being in the studio and I love a challenge. I would love to make a Phoebe Bridgers–type song or write something for Dua Lipa, you know what I mean? Like pop shit, indie shit. But I tend to always do more of that sort of electronic bounce R&B with a touch of house vibes — that’s where I sort of gravitate towards.

LUNA: Do you have any significant muses that show up a lot in your work or have showed up a lot over time?

DEVITO: Well, I would say that the Goodbye For Now record definitely talked a lot about the end of my era in Portland and the end of my relationship and sort of saying goodbye to the comfort and familiarity of a place or a thing for a time. Sort of leaping into the unknown and the question of what comes next or what could potentially be next if you just do the thing. This resonates really heavily with me just in general because I think for a long time I was in denial about my comfort zone. And I think I shot myself in the foot a lot of times and I feel like I missed a lot of opportunities that I could have taken advantage of if I wasn't just so comfortable where I was, you know. No regrets, but I'm definitely in a place now where I'm not trying to miss out on those opportunities when they come around again, you know?

LUNA: So you had an album come out July 29, Goodbye For Now — tell me more about that.

DEVITO: I would say for my process, this album for me was kind of more like a collection of songs really, as opposed to an intentional project, just because I had so many different producers working on the album and I made so many songs at different times. It was more just at the end, like, “Okay, what's going to be on the album?” And how am I going to organize it? And what do I need to finish? So it just happened that it ended up kind of telling the story of heartbreak and, like, goodbye, you know? I think for my next project I do want to have it be less of this kind of pieced-together project with multiple producers and try to get three or four main producers and sit down and write the project from front to back.

LUNA: Do you have a favorite song on the album or one that really resonated with you?

DEVITO: Oh, man, it's tough actually, I’m gonna do my top three. I think “One Shot” is one of my favorites just because it's kind of about [the idea] that you have one life to live, you get one shot — don't give it away this time. So it kind of goes back to what we were talking about, like, I don't want to like this idea of comfort. I don't want to find myself in that place again, where I'm so comfortable that I'm just letting the days roll by.

I also really resonate with “Goodbye For Now” just because that was the actual breakup song and it was super cathartic for me. I wrote it in the months before we broke up. I couldn't sleep and I was hearing the song in my head, and I got out of bed and went into the living room, just started writing it. Then the day that we broke up I actually was in the studio, and I was like, I think it's time to record this song. And then we broke up that night. So I was like, definitely in the studio crying. It's very cathartic for me. I also just love the sound of the instrumental — it has very like new wave-y ’80s vibes. And then I would say number three's probably “Cali” just because it's a really nice feel good song.

LUNA: So you went on tour this year — was that the first tour that you had done since COVID? How was that like getting back out into the live music scene?

DEVITO: It was, yeah, I supported Franc Moody on their US tour. Oh, so fun. It was so fun, babe — I literally had the time of my life, I was having a blast. I was just really hungry for that, just playing music and seeing people again. That meant the world to me. So I was super grateful they brought me out.

LUNA: Do you have any sort of driving philosophies that you implement into either your music or just your life in general?

DEVITO: Sure, yeah. I think it goes back to that same conversation about taking risks, and I try to kind of get across. I also think a lot of younger artists think that a lot of artists are out here just, like, working on their art and making money off their art. Do you know what I'm saying? And that's really hard to do. So I try to be real about the fact that I hustle and I work two jobs. I work jobs to make the music job happen, you know? With Miami Horror I do get paid freelance, so yeah, we make money, but I have other jobs that I do to fund this music shit. And it's hard work — I work 12-hour days and then I go write songs and go to the studio and stay up until 3 a.m. and get up at seven and do it again. It's a full-on passion, you know? It's something that I do because I can't not do it — I love it.

And so I think that's an important part of it that I try to let folks know, because I think a lot of younger artists feel like everything's gonna be served on a platter for them. But that's a rare thing, like a lucky, lucky thing. A lot of times, it takes a lot of hard work. And even for somebody with millions of plays on Spotify, they're not balling out of control. You know what I mean? Especially if they have a label, a major label, that's taking half and then another producer taking half or whatever. So I would say that's one of the things and then the other is just … be yourself. Classic — just be yourself. Raise your freak flag and let it fly, you know, don't be afraid. Don't be afraid to fuckin’ let your freak flag fly, baby. Because who gives a shit? And you'll notice that the weirdest ones are the ones out there really cooking.

LUNA: Do you have any goals going forward or projects you're working on right now that we should be on the lookout for?
DEVITO: I'm currently putting together some shows to perform the record. So I'm working on that right now. And then I have some features coming up a bit later this year. And I'm going to be singing with Miami Horror again — we're on tour in Europe in November. So that's kind of where I'm at for right now. But yeah, just definitely going to be back in the studio cooking it up.

CONNECT WITH REVA DEVITO

INSTAGRAM

SPOTIFY

Listen

INSTAGRAM

We couldn’t be more stoked to have Suriel Hess as our new headliner for our upcoming LA show 🤩 🫶 Not gonna lie, us & Notorious Noise kinda went OFF with this line up & you’re not gonna wanna miss it - ticket link in bio 🎫