Dawa have been around for a while. They started their career in 2011 – uploading the first videos to YouTube and putting their first EP „All We Need Is Patience“ out there. Since then Dawa have released 3 albums and participated in a nationwide TV show which almost got them nominated to represent Austria at the Eurovision Song Contest 2015. Besides all of that, they played tons of shows. It’s legit to say: they’ve been busy!
Barbara from Dawa joined us to talk about milestones of their career, the way they deal with offending comments and their upcoming video „Speed of Light“.
What are the biggest challenges you face as an up and coming artist in the digital age?
To be honest, that there are way too many options and platforms to share your work with and to keep track of all the “rules” regarding to them.
Could you sum up some personal milestones in your artist development?
My personal milestones …get the chance to play more and sometimes bigger shows to reach as many people as we can. Playing at the Acoustic Lakeside Festival and although it was raining, the crowd came, stayed and enjoyed the music with all of their hearts and sang along, that was amazing. The mainstage at the Frequency Festival was pretty neat too – and the Gig on the Ö1 Stage at the Donauinselfest, man, that was crowded! And, I have to admit, even though we’re not the typical Eurovision Songcontest band and haven’t made it to the national pop-mainstream radio station till then – people votet us on 2nd place as they’ve obviously liked our music. It feels good to – maybe – expand their musical horizon.
Which artist’s social media feeds do you dig and tell us why.
Hm. Actually; i try to keep track of some old idols on Instagram, like the members of Silverchair and so on. Just to see what they are up to. I also like to follow some friends of mine like Leyya, as I love their “where is Marco?” challenge. Otherwise, I just like to see beautiful pictures (of tattoos for example) that’s the main and boring reason why I’m following my “Instafriends”. I also use “bandsintown” to not miss any concerts around my area. That’s pretty much it.
How do you deal with online negativity and/or offending comments?
It always depends on the context. I definitely will avoid reading the comments when derStandard.at publishes an interview with us or something like that. Regarding our YouTube channel, mostly there are positive comments, if there’s a stupid one, we try to ignore or answer it properly. I mean seriously, where’s the sense in puking out every (mean) thought that comes to your mind? It’s cowardly, it’s hurting, it’s unnecessary. If they don’t like something – they have a right to not like it, but why be hurting and rude online? It makes no sense to me, so I avoid this negativity as good as I can.
What was the best music video experience you ever had?
I still remember walking around for two days for the “familiar thing” video, that was pretty nice – and our first shoot ever as well. It was fall and the weather was perfect, it felt like a holiday with friends. The shoot for our upcoming video “Speed of Light” was pretty fun too, as we stayed in Türnitz for two days, hanging out. Dressing up and playing some other version of myself was exciting.
Don’t miss “Speed of Light” and subscribe to Dawa’s YouTube Channel
Dawa are nominated for the Amadeus Austrian Music Awards – vote here!