Very few musicians have had a career trajectory like Dawn Richard. Beginning in the glamourised but often brutally demanding world of major labels and reality TV competitions with Making The Band and her girl group Danity Kane, she gradually earned more creative ownership over her work. Over the last decade, she’s become an independent pop auteur. Records like Blackheart and Second Line are heady and ambitious, offering autobiographical stories about her family, New Orleans, and the failings of the industry, often told through a fantastical off-world narrative.
But her latest release Quiet In A World Full of Noise offers no such obfuscation. It’s a raw outpouring, and the barest music she has made. Backed by Spencer Zahn’s spacious and delicate piano, Richard details tough experiences, like the instability of her home city after Hurricane Katrina and familial loss. It also arrives following Richard’s allegations of inhumane treatment and sexual abuse against Sean Combs, who she is currently suing. Combs has denied the allegations.
Central to the record is her partnership with Zahn, who has been similarly vulnerable and open when composing for Richard. After their fantastic collaboration on 2022’s Pigments, the pair have found a rare common ground. “Obviously, we’ve tapped into something”, Richard says. “It speaks to the fact that music can unite, can form, bend and stretch if you don’t confine it, if you don’t put a label on it. It can find its way into something new, energetic, raw and honest.”
Richard knew that she would find her way to her current sound towards the “end” of her career – “and when I say end, I mean society’s version of the end, where I [no longer] care about releases [being judged on their commercial success],” she says. “I thought: I’m going to get to a place where I can make whatever I want, and do it because I love it as much as I do. A lot of that would have been in soundscapes and composition. But I met Spencer, and maybe that sped it up.”
The record is heavy and light simultaneously, treating its subject matter with a warm embrace. In this spirit, Richard can paint a clear line through all of her work. “If you truly know me as an artist, my music always ends in hope.” She says. ‘That is the New Orleans way, right? We dance through our pain. We find celebration through darkness. That story and that message has been consistent throughout my entire career. I think that’s my signature.
“I don’t ever want to be honest in my sorrows If I can’t get out of it. I don’t want someone living in depression or living in their darkness to think that there isn’t a way out of it. It’s okay to be sad. It’s okay to fall, because the recovery is the light. I’ve had severe pain. Severe loss. But I’ve also had incredible gains. I want to show those that juxtaposition.”
Richard and Zahn are taking their record on the road, in the midst of what Richard describes as a crazy situation, between supporting her parents through illness and navigating her legal case. But she believes her show will create a breath of fresh air for both her and her audiences. “I know for me, with everything going on, I need this.” she says. “I’ll be purging in front of a lot of people, but I’d rather do that than be held down. So I think this tour will probably be the hardest for me to do, but also probably the most cathartic.”
There are two common threads in Dawn Richard’s Baker’s Dozen. The most obvious being that sense of release. Many of these selections were found through teenage discovery, sifting through film soundtracks and record stores for something that reflected her experience. But more than that, these choices reflect her love of art which wears its difference proudly. Regardless of genre or perspective, that is the music she is most inspired by.
Dawn Richard performs with Spencer Zahn at London Jazz Festival on 16 November. The pair’s new album Quiet In A World Full Of Noise is out now via Merge. To begin reading her Baker’s Dozen, click ‘First Record’ below.
