The BRIT Awards 2020 with Mastercard - Show Programme

Dave
Psychodrama
NEIGHBOURHOOD. UNIVERSAL MUSIC
JM Enternational
If its therapy you’re after, you’ve
come to the right place. Dave
released his No.1 debut solo
collection - a concept album -
in March 2019. Split into three
acts - dealing with themes of
environment, relationships and
social compass respectively - it
is what its creator hopes will
become “a potent time capsule”.
“The kind that captures the age, my
generation and the conditions of my life.”
Inspired by the talking therapies his
brother experienced in prison, it is
bookended by the soothing voice
of a psychoanalyst, encouraging
our now 21 year-old protagonist
to examine his darkest thoughts,
to go deep inside himself.
Working alongside producers 169
and Fraser T Smith (Adele, Stormzy)
Dave spent twelve months creating
it. He says, “Psychodrama allowed
me to get a lot off my chest”.
“It allowed me to become the person
that I wanted to live up to being. It
allowed me to fulfil my potential,
changing the way people see
me, and the way I see myself.”
It can be heavy stuff but its clever,
concise, hard-hitting. He dissects the
external environment he grew up in, as
well as personal and family pressures;
the result is a stunning and insightful
critique of some young London lives
today. It’s a hard place to be for a young
man whose peers are often steeped
in bravado, so he traces his journey of
self-discovery through a progression
of “gold or silver, something rare or
precious” tracks - “from the start, when
I was more reluctant to speak, to the
end, which is embracing the idea that
it’s OK to find out a bit about yourself”.
“What’s important is the flow; how
words fit together with the tempo.”
The first three songs are a distilled
version of what defines him Psycho,
(“I’m not Psycho, but my life is”)
Streatham, and Black. The latter
is an uncompromising blast about
belonging, race and Empire.
“That track is my experience,”
says Dave. “Me being south
London, black, Nigerian… but I
don’t think that it’s universal for
the whole black experience”.
The middle section is catchy,
containing the summery Location,
Then as the end draws near there is
social commentary on the cinematic
Lesley (with themes of domestic
violence), the metaphorical Voices,
which is “a constant chase for
happiness,” and Drama. Drama
features the voice of Dave’s brother
Christopher, serving time for murder,
speaking from his prison cell.
Some of the album’s lyrics - including
“forget the other brother that was even
bigger, we were figures just trying to
figure out if we could be a figure” - are
snippets from visit and phone call
conversations between the pair.
As a teen, says Dave, “in my
life nothing was rosy“.
“I didn’t know what I was going to do
with my feelings. My (two) brothers
were both in different prisons — I just
had to express myself, and when I got
onto that mic, I let everything out.”
That’s how he found his way forward,
in music. Still doing visits, he says
the inmates now like his music.
“It’s something different to the status
quo”, he says, putting it mildly.
“It had a positive impact on everyone.”
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