FEATURE: Spotlight: Dove Cameron — Music Musings & Such

FEATURE:

Spotlight

Dove Cameron

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ALTHOUGH she is not a brand-new artist…

Boyfriend, released earlier this year, announced Dove Cameron as a promising and growing artist on the scene. Maybe not the kind of artist I would normally recommend, the Washington-born Pop talent played a dual role as the eponymous characters in the Disney Channel comedy series, Liv and Maddie, for which she won the Daytime Emmy Award for Outstanding Performer in Children's Programming. She is not the first artist to transition from T.V. to a Pop career. In fact, the likes of Christina Aguilera and Britney Spears have taken this route. Cameron is an artist who, when an E.P. does arrive, will make a big impact. I feel, on the strength of Boyfriend, she has a long future. Not just a teen Pop artist or someone for a precise demographic, her music is broad enough to appeal to those who love other genres – maybe slightly older listeners will connect and relate. I am going to bring in a couple of interviews relating to Boyfriend. Maybe, by the time, I publish this (I am writing it on 10th June), there will be another Dove Cameron song out. A tremendous queer artist who is a huge inspiration to many, there are going to be a lot of new fans flocking the way of Cameron. I want to start with a Women in Pop interview. They chatted with Dove Cameron after the release of the breakthrough single, Boyfriend:

“In February this year she launched a new era of music with the single ‘Boyfriend’. It is a stunningly good track that mixes moody electronic pop with smoky jazz and an orchestral grandeur that is breathtaking in its scope. Lyrically the song sees Cameron embracing her true self and falling for someone at a party, persuading them “I would be a better boyfriend than him…plus all my clothes would fit.” The song has become her first major solo chart hit, reaching the top 10 in the UK and the top 20 in Australia, a country that now streams her music on Spotify more than anywhere else in the world.

The video is appropriately cinematic and features Cameron, in a room of faceless dancers, locking eyes with a woman across the room. They are soon making out in a phone box, and an open top car speeding through a motorway tunnel. It is a rush to watch and it is dripping with dark, sensual imagery.

Cameron says of the single “In writing “Boyfriend,” I feel like I finally found my sound, my perspective and myself in a way I wasn’t sure I ever would.” There is definitely a confidence, a maturity and assurance in the way she proudly delivers ‘Boyfriend’, which augurs well for future releases. Cameron is definitely a supremely talented artist who is going to be so exciting to watch in the next few years. We recently caught up with her to find out more about ‘Boyfriend’ and this next chapter in her career.

Dove, we are such fans of your work and I really appreciate you joining us today.

I really appreciate your time. Truly, it's such an honour to be speaking to you. Thank you for taking the time.

How are you feeling about the release of the absolutely impeccable ‘Boyfriend’?

I'm feeling fucking phenomenal! It's really, really mind blowing. It’s highlighted where my imposter syndrome lives and the corners of my mind where I'm limiting myself and self hating saying ‘something like this is never gonna happen’. Things like that! It's really wild to experience this in a career at any point, but also just as a human being I'm kind of mind fucked. It's really interesting!

That's such a wonderful thing to hear from someone that just continues to do wonderful things. There's quite often this perception that pop stars are nonchalant about these things, ‘yeah, just drop that, yeah, that was pretty cool.’ And to hear you've got impostor syndrome, and you're wildly excited about ‘Boyfriend’s success is really inspiring.

I definitely think there's this sort of thing in celebrity culture that we should be chill about certain things, but I don't know one person that actually lives like that. Everybody's an extreme geek, a fan of other artists and everybody's like 12 years old, you know. It's so nice to be able to just share human moments with people on a massive scale. That's a mistake that people make with having a large scale level of communication with people is they hide more. Shouldn't we be more human if we're gonna have a big megaphone?

Beautiful! Lastly, before I have to leave you, we have ‘Boyfriend’ out and it's an amazing sound. Can you tell me what else you've got coming up, you mentioned an EP might be on the way?

I've said that a few times now, which I'm not sure the label’s happy with or not! I wrote this song called ‘Breakfast’, which I'm really excited about. I wrote it like three weeks ago. The label is pretty confident that's going to be my next release, which is so great because my dream is just to release music constantly and for it to be something I just wrote so it is still relevant to my life, and I'm not sick of it. I then have two movies coming out, I have this movie called Good Mourning with Machine Gun Kelly, Megan Fox and Pete Davidson and that should be really fun. And then I have a movie called Vengeance with BJ Novak, Ashton Kutcher and Issa Rae. And then hopefully I'm going to delve into my debut album and a pretty sizeable tour in the fall!”.

At twenty-six, there is an instant maturity to her music. Not as teen-focused one might thing, it will be interesting seeing how Dove Cameron’s music changes and evolves with each release. An E.P. will give listeners and fans a fuller impression of who she is as an artist and woman. A skilled and acclaimed actor, she is definitely making quick impressions. Official Charts also spoke with Dove Cameron. Whilst not her debut single, it is the one that has registered her highest chart position so far:

“Boyfriend is your first-ever Top 20 hit on the Official Charts. What kind of stuff were you listening to while making it?

Actually a lot of the influence for the Boyfriend instrumentation was taken from films. Growing up, I really identified with all these flamboyant, male villains. Even with female ones, they're so hyper-sexualised in the Male Gaze. F*ck that, why don't I relate to any of this? I had to grow up and find the right language around it [to subvert it].

It's such an obvious queer trope that we're rooting for the villain, but they're so much more interesting and multifaceted! A lot of these new songs are coming, sonically, from a villainous, darker point of view. Based around intrapersonal stories of my life, obviously.

Things are moving very quickly for you now. What does this mean for the EP? Maybe an album?

I was actually just in New York to meet with the label about this! Without giving too much away...we are in a new era. I am re-introducing myself. Look, I'm in the studio every day. I've posted more songs on TikTok. It could be an EP, it could be an album, it could be a string of singles leading in to an EP. I just want to say we have a f*ck tonne of music for you.

We also think it's important to point out, Dove, that commercial radio pop hits like this, from a queer female perspective, are sadly quite rare.

This song has honestly enriched my life in so many ways. I have so many more queer circles and feminine circles. They've gotten much larger and wider and deeper. It's such a treat to find myself in conversation with my favourite people, with my community! We should just be able to drop a big, sexy, one-night-only song the way straight artists can. It's so great to have a big pop banger with a sexual, queer content and people aren't up in arms about it”.

If you are not aware of Dove Cameron’s music or are not sure it is your vibe, I would urge some investigation. Boyfriend is her best-known song but, as the year progresses, there will be more from her. A superb young artist who is going to establish herself as a major name in music, it is exciting seeing her take these early steps. By the end of 2022, I predict Dove Cameron will be…