Dominique | An Interview With

At the start of the month we featured Dominique’s new single ‘Receipts’ as part of our ongoing Good Sounds Playlist. I personally loved it and was super stoked to bring Dominique back for an interview with us! Take a dive into the story behind ‘Receipts’, details of the new EP set to be released soon and even more cool stuff such as getting more Women involved in music, and enjoy!

Hey Dominique, how’s it going? Hi there! It’s going great, thanks. Really excited to have released a new track after so long, and to put out more music this year!

First of all, what got you into music? I can see that you started from the age of 5, so music must have struck you quite early? Yes, my dad has been a professional bass player my entire life so he taught me to have a deep appreciation for music. I used to perform with his band when I was five years old, and throughout school I was always in chorus and acappella groups.

You’ve recently released your new single ‘Receipts’. What can you tell us about it? It’s a fun, upbeat track about not taking any more BS from someone and having the evidence to prove why. It’s probably the least dark track on my EP, and was a blast to make because I wrote and produced it with my two friends in NYC, MDA and EJAE.

It also mentions that your Dad played bass on the track too. How cool was that? Can we expect to hear more family collaborations in the future? It was so cool! He’s done that before on some unreleased tracks–it’s so convenient having a musician for a dad because he’s always there when I need him. We actually had our first writing session together the same night we recorded the bass for Receipts and I love what we made. His approach to writing is so different than mine because he’s super influenced by progressive rock. It makes for a really unique sound and I’d love to make a full project with him someday. Also I’m pretty sure that if you pitched my voice down or his up, our vocals would sound exactly the same, which is crazy.

You’re also set to release a new EP soon. Can you provide us any details on that? This EP has been a year in the making and it’s way more thought-out than anything I’ve done in the past. It’s extremely emotional, but the songs are still something you could dance to. I’ll be releasing another single soon. I’m so excited!

Is the new EP going to showcase a new sound compared to what we heard on Me & U? Honestly, it has a lot less of that chill vibe to it. Vocally, it’s very similar. But the production and writing is much more upbeat.

Aswell as being a musician, you’re also a producer, and have a keen interest in bringing more females into the studio. Do you feel that is something that’s lacking in the music industry? Definitely! I just want other women to know that I’m accessible and if they ever need any help learning how to produce or getting started, they can contact me. It’s been a bit difficult for me to find mentors these past five years that I’ve been producing, and as I get better at producing, I want to change that dynamic. I believe that if we all help each other, no matter what levels we’re at individually, we all have a better chance at success.

What can you tell us about the mixtape you’re planning to create too? So, this was inspired by my travels in the past couple of years. I noticed that in pretty much every country, even if their main language isn’t English, English language music has a strong presence on the radio. The non-English music that’s being played on the radio too are all bops, but you’d never hear it on the radio in the US. And when a non-English song blows up across the globe, there’s usually an alternate version created with more English lyrics for American radio.

I think with streaming, more and more Americans are getting used to hearing and loving music that’s not in their native language, but there’s still a ways to go until a non-English language track has the same potential for success as one in English does. My goal for the mixtape is to produce and co-write absolute bops, but only feature vocalists from other countries singing in their native languages. I’ve started work on it and it’s been incredible collaborating with people across the globe. I think it’s gonna result in some really great music.

Finally, if you could close out this interview with one final thought, what would it be? Stream “Girls Night Out” by Charli XCX on Spotify and Apple Music. 💖