Mit über fünf Millionen Follower:innen auf TikTok und mehr als zwei Millionen auf Instagram gehört David Kushner seit einigen Jahren zu den aufstrebenden Artists der internationalen Musikszene. Seine Songs haben in der Vergangenheit immer wieder auf Social Media für Aufmerksamkeit gesorgt und ihm eine stetig wachsende Fanbase eingebracht. Ende des Jahres erscheint unter seinem eigenen Label sein zweites Album Devotion. Vorab veranstaltete Kushner am 15. September ein exklusives Pre-Listening-Event in Berlin, wobei wir die Gelegenheit genutzt und mit dem Singer-Songwriter über sein neues Album und seine musikalische Entwicklung gesprochen haben.
David Kushner im Interview
You’re about to release your sophomore album, Devotion and you’re ending the year with a completely new body of work. How does that feel right now? What’s on your mind as you’re getting closer to the release?
I’m feeling great. I’m excited to put Devotion out on November 13th and yeah, people love the snippets I’ve posted of some of the songs already and yeah, it’s been cool. I’ve put out two singles for the album so far. We’re doing three total, so I have one more single after this but this song is undecided as of right now. “Electrified” was the first single and then the second single was “Ritual” which just came out last week but yeah, I’m super excited, it’ll be very fun.
And how did the album come together? Was there a particular moment or experience that sparked the writing process for it?
Definitely. Overall the album is about my disappointment with love and relationships. And the past two years I’ve been going through some loss with, you know, relationships surrounding my family members. And I had a relationship with a manager that I fired. I fired a manager in my career in the past year and I had gone through some traumatic stuff with him and so I had a very bitter taste in my mouth with certain relationships and trusting people again and how love and relationships can be very good for you and in in the right environment they can be really healthy and good. But also how love can, like, ruin you and destroy you at the same time if it’s not nourished in the right way.
So did you feel like you processed all of that with that album? Are you feeling better with all that than before?
Totally. That’s what the album was for. It feels really cool to write it about that. And I think so many people will relate to it and so many people will really identify with it and it’ll help them process relationships of their own that they’ve lost or grieved and maybe they’re having a hard time trusting again in people, in humanity and yeah.
I guess that happens to a lot of people. The album is called Devotion, but there isn’t actually a song on the album with that title – and that was also the case with your previous album. Is there a reason why you don’t have title tracks? Do you rather see the album title as something that connects all the songs, rather than giving one song the full attention?
It’s definitely that. That’s a good question. Yes, I know a lot of artists do that, where they’ll have the same title as the album as a title track. I would definitely do it one day, but it wasn’t intentional. It’s not like I never did that for a certain reason but yeah, the way you explained it at the end was – that is definitely how it’s been for those albums. The title is kind of like the overall meaning of the collection of songs. That’s just what I’ve always done.
And so what does “devotion” mean to you, and why did that feel like the right title for the album?
So, devotion to me is full commitment to a certain thing, person or place. However, the listener interprets the album in their own way. But for me when I hear devotion, it means just full commitment to a person. And I would say it felt like the right title cause it just summarized all the songs together ‘cause all of the songs are like the highs in the lows of a relationship and being devoted to somebody. I was just trying to think real hard of what’s a word that would summarize all of these songs and then it just hit me like: “devotion” would be the perfect title. Because that’s a universal human thing. We’re all devoted in so many different ways to so many different things in our lives and I just thought it was a universal album title.
And you said that you did release two singles. “Electrified” was the first single from the album. What made you want to introduce Devotion to listeners with this song?
Because it’s the one song that’s pretty different than the rest and it’s like the high of the relationship. So the album kind of starts on that high – everything‘s good and then it kind of gets worse. That song is like the honeymoon phase, like everything‘s new and exciting and “this is great, I wonder what is held in store for us or for this”. That’s what “electrified” is about. Everything‘s good and you and that person don’t really know your deepest, darkest secrets and like the ugly side of your character or like you know the things that nobody sees, just our struggles and the messy side that we all have as humans. So it kind of start on that, and then the other songs are just about the toxic side of it.
Then “Ritual” came out just last week. Which is the opening track of Devotion. So does that also count as a more ‚happy‘ kind of song?
Yeah, it kinda has like a hopeful, cinematic element. “Ritual” is one of the songs that – it’s about the inevitable end to something, like the relationship, or whatever it may be, and just being afraid to change something and walk away from something and you’re just stuck in this ritual of only toxicity with this person. And you’re waiting for some miracle from God or something to happen and you’re waiting for this person to change or this thing to change, but you just know you need to walk away from it.
So the hopeful aspect is kind of finding the courage to walk away and break that cycle of toxicity? That’s what its sounds like to me.
Yeah, defnitely. I agree.
„I definitely pushed myself vocally.“
Once Devotion is out, can we expect to see you bringing the album on tour next year?
Yeah, yeah yeah June and July. I’ll be touring around Europe. I’ll do like my first world tour, which would be really exciting.I’ve never done a full on tour where I’ve posted like I’ll be all around the world. I’m excited to do that. So yeah, we’ll definitely tour starting in the spring. Next year will be really fun so stay tuned everybody.
Great – exciting things are happening!
Yeah, it’ll be fun.
I feel like your music has always had a very distinct identity – even when your sound evolves, it still feels very recognisably like you. Is that something you consciously try to hold on to when making new music, and does Devotion stay true to that “classic David Kushner” sound, or did you find yourself experimenting more this time around?
Yeah, I did experiment a little bit more. There’s like three songs on the album that I can think of right now that have some melodies that I have an R&B undertone to it. And some of the production as well is in this R&B kind of world. I definitely pushed myself vocally. And also just the production. Overall, I worked with Jacob Ólafsson as the executive producer on the album and he comes from the R&B world, so it was really cool working with him. It was really inspiring. It was really fun and he’s an awesome producer. But it still overall has my sound in it that people know of, but there’s still some differences that you can hear in a lot of the records of just things that are fresh and new and like “whoa, I have never heard this in David’s music” or “he’s going in a different direction with this”. So I’m excited to see what people think.
So you did a little experimenting but it sounds like you did stay true to your sound for the most part. Is having that consistency in your sound important to you and do you think there’s a point where experimenting too much can make an artist lose what makes their music feel like them?
Yeah, one hundred percent ,I think you always have to stay true to you and what’s authentic and as long as you know that it’s coming from your heart and your soul and you’re not necessarily trying to sound like another artist. Cause I think artists get definitely taken away by trying to sound exactly like this artist or sound exactly like this song that’s, you know, an already successful song or something. But yeah, for sure. I think it’s a balance. I think you have to stay true to yourself and to make sure it doesn’t sound like something that it’s not or that it doesn’t sound like you and it doesn’t sound genuine.
Your music has always had a very cinematic sound to it, and you’ve released cinematic versions of some of your songs with strings before. But I could actually imagine your music sounding incredible live with a full orchestra or a choir. Is that something you’ve ever thought about or could you see yourself doing a project like that in the future?
Yeah, one hundred percent. So I actually just did a little performance music video of some of the unreleased songs on the album, like a cinematic rendition. I recorded that about two months ago back home in America. I have a full band. I have string players. Like, I have a cinematic set to it where there’s strings and we had three people from a choir singing. It’s a really cool cinematic thing. It’s not a full choir. I would love to do a video where it’s a full gospel choir or something cool like that but yes, I’ll definitely gonna do more of that in the future. I love that and I think my fans love that type of stuff. So yes, I’ll do more of that for sure. I love that stuff.
I hope so because I also think it fits your sound pretty well.
Thanks!
„It’s definitely been hard in all honesty to be in Nashville creatively.“
So you were mentioning touring which means not being at home for a while. You’ve lived in a few different places yourself and have been based in Nashville for a while now. Does Nashville feel like home to you at this point? And has living there changed the way you make music?
For sure. It definitely feels like home. It’s a very – in the best way possible – mundane side of Nashville where I live, like there’s not much going on. It’s very quiet, like simple living. It’s kind of in the countryside of Nashville. So yes, it feels like home, it’s very peaceful and yeah, I have very much so cultivated a home environment there which has been amazing and very needed for sure.
As far as music, I feel like as shocking as it is, it’s definitely been a struggle for me cause as nice as it is to have a home and what I need as far as a home, leaving Los Angeles and coming to Nashville was hard for music. Cause like 90% of the industry is in Los Angeles where I used to live. And all of my collaborators, like most people I still work with on all my albums are in LA. So I’m always in LA and still having to travel there so it’s been a little tough being inspired. I feel like LA is more inspiring to me. Just cause there’s so many walks of life and different cultures and yeah, lots of things happening. Very busy, it can be super stressful at times to live there, which is kind of why I left, but yeah, so it’s definitely been hard in all honesty to be in Nashville creatively. I mean I have the means to travel to LA but but it’s been good in terms of like I built a studio in my house there and it’s been a good place creatively just by myself, but it can get lonely creatively cause there’s just not many people in Nashville that I work with and not many people to choose from.
That sounds tough but I hope it’s still manageable. But I can totally see why you left. I live here in Berlin which is not quite LA but still a lot going on.
Big city, yes. Totally.
And finally, we have one little Untoldency tradition: is there anything untold about you? Preferably it’s a fun fact about you or a funny story you haven’t shared. But it could be honestly anything.
What comes to mind about a fun fact is: I am a golf addict. I love golf and I’m currently on the journey to be a scratch golfer.
What is that?
So there’s a handicap system in golf. Just think of a scale – there’s zero and the negative and positive numbers. So handicap is like: the higher positive number you are, the worse you are at golf. And if you’re a zero – which is scratch – you’re like really good. So I’m like a positive five, which is still good but it’s not a scratch so I’m trying to get to the zero. And then professional golfers are like negative seven, negative eight.
Well, then that’s good that there’s still room for you to improve!
Yes, definitely there is. So almost being a scratch golfer is the fun fact about me.
That is a very good fun fact indeed! And that’s all. Thanks so much for taking the time. I hope you’ll have a wonderful show tomorrow with some amazing fans or yours. And enjoy the rest of your time in Berlin.
Of course, thanks for having me. Thanks for the questions. Appreciate it.
Hier könnt ihr „Devotion“ von David Kushner pre-saven:
Fotos: Joel Alexander
