Written by Jasmine Semjase for Keyframe-Entertainment / Evolver EDM
Interlacing breathtaking vocal work with futuristic electronica, Deya Dova paints sonic pictures of divine wisdom through sacred storytelling and visionary soundscapes. Her latest concept album dives into the dimensions of consciousness, honoring the ancient in a way that seeds evolutionary pathways to the future. Her vocals offer messages of divine truths, in honor of the Highest Good of all, while serving as a powerful beacon of inspiration for the sacred radiance of feminine power. Released in early March, her “Myth of the Cave” EP offers grounding music medicine that mixes tribal beats with electronic frequencies that journey through the vast realms of Spirit. With elements of ceremonial magic and temple mysticism, Deya’s powerful presence is that of a sonic Priestess, elevating experiencers through the empowering realms of conscious dance and ancient songlines.
In honor of this work and her vision of future dreaming, KEYFRAME connected with Deya to dive into the birth of her new album. Her art channels authentic cosmic wisdom and inspirational activations, and we wanted to see what sort of magic lives within this musical genius.
Keyframe Entertainment: Your first track “Myth of the Cave” is full of incredible vocal work and vivid soundscapes that strikes listeners with its evolving beauty. (This song brought me to tears of joy when I first heard it..) What was your inspiration for creating this track? What is the message here?
Deva Doya: Myth of the Cave was inspired by my aspiration to write new myths filled with nourishing and regenerative content infusing sound with themes of hope and empowerment. My intention is to sing in the stories that assist in smashing through old paradigms of perception. Like Plato’s ‘Allegory of the Cave’ in which we are lost in a dark cave of shadows with only knowledge gained from our own senses.
Myth of the Cave is about the awakening that is happening on our planet at this time, it is about the emergence from the cave of illusion into a grander understanding of human consciousness.
Myth of the Cave is inspired by remembering the power that is invested in us to re-write these archaic stories that create disconnection to the Earth, to our innermost selves and to the Great Life Force flowing through everything. Myths are Being statements and my inspiration for this song came from the understanding that I can activate and amplify these new myths through energy, frequency & vibration = sound, into the field. I’m inspired to sing the songs that tell the story of a Humanity in Connection. A Humanity that remembers its nobility and lineages in the stars.
You record a lot of your music live at ancient sites. The last track on your EP – “The Great Sky Lodge” – was recorded live at Mateo Tipila (Devil’s Tower) in Wyoming. Can you tell us about that experience and how it influenced the evolution of your song?
For 3 days we camped at this incredible sacred site. Sacred to many Northern Plains Indians and for the Lakota as the place where spiritual being Pte San Win-Yan, White Buffalo Calf Woman bought the sacred Chanunpa bundle to the people.
I spent the days and nights around the powerful monolith connecting with the spirit and energy of the place.
I recorded The Great Sky Lodge just after the sun had set. The peace and serenity of this place is extraordinary and as at many of these power places there is a stunning vortical spin. At Mateo Tipila it spiralled up towards the stars. As I sung I began to travel with the spin up into the night sky. I arrived at a campfire in the stars. The information of the conversation that happened around this fire is contained within the song. The experience of singing at these ancient sites for me is beyond culture. It is a universal experience of being connected with all things. When I sing at these sites I feel incredible wholeness and well-being emanating from the earth and the cosmos inside myself. The Great Sky Lodge encapsulates this frequency and medicine.
The music video for “Return of the Bird Tribes” was full of visionary mythos and intricate costuming, rich with earth elements and primal essence. Can you tell us the direction and significance behind the production?
We had such a blast filming this video, literally, a huge dust storm blew up just as I was standing on top of my spacecraft, the stunning 10 foot high Mars Molecule instillation by Mario Martinez. Although radically harsh, filming in a total white-out dust storm for 5 hours, it was an absolute blessing as we’d wanted a surreal otherworldly look to our planet. There is so much meaning embedded in this clip. Return Of The Bird Tribes is an honouring of the prophecies. We are the old souls returning again to assist in the up-liftment of the Earth. I believe we live in a time of great hope and the intention of Return Of The Bird Tribes video was to share this message. A magic-infused part of the video for us was the shoot we did right after we’d played a smashing sunrise set on Abraxas in the middle of the desert. I had collected earth of 4 colours; Black, Red, Yellow and White, to represent the root races of the planet, each person in the clip carried a bloodline in this time of that colour.
I mixed the coloured earth together in the shoot to remember and symbolise all the races are within ourselves, 5 brothers inside. The 5th brother, Brown is the combination of them all. Dance was important for us in the videoclip because the song is a celebration of the return and the miraculous angelic consciousness afoot. Return of the Bird Tribes is about bringing online the wisdom that we carry from the lives we’ve lived before, the wisdom of the winged ones.
Your powerful vocals reflect the strength of the sacred feminine, while your partner Hamilton Barnett offers the technical wizardry of live electronics. How does this union of feminine and masculine energy work to balance your musical offerings?
Thank you. Hamilton and I produce all the music together. Often people think, oh the lady sings and the man’s doing all the technology, but a big part of my musical journey has been empowering myself as a Music Producer and getting savvy with the electronics. Our musical process is about bridging the ancient and the future. Harmonising the natural and the technologic. Balancing our energies of masculine and feminine, together and within ourselves. For me it is a process of dreaming outside of time, writing new myths where vision and the sonic universe collide to create the tapestry. For Hamilton a lot of inspiration comes from the rhythms and using Bass to conjure the feelings of being moved by wild earth. We have many different processes in creating the music. I record live at sacred sites and much of my/our inspiration comes from these adventures. We love to bring the pure energy of ancient earth and stars to our albums and festival stages. The music starts by one of us bringing a sonic sketch to the conversation.
Hollow Bone started from a bunch of soundscape textures I’d created and Hamilton singing a bass idea when we were deep in the desert in Arizona. Once the track was forming we decided to bring in the didgerdu and sounds from the Australian desert honouring the ancient Songline link between our two continents.
For Return Of The Bird Tribes Hamilton wrote the beat idea and played it to me. Inspired, I improvised the main vocal hook in the moment and recorded it on an iPhone so we’d remember. From there we built the track, both of us writing elements of the instrumentation. Once a track has its foundation I go into seclusion to write and arrange the song and record the vocals myself. We then come back together to finish the arrangement and mix together. It is a dance of balance, mutual love and respect and a whole lot of devotion and commitment to one another and to serving the music.
There is a lot of symbolism embedded into your logo. Can you explain what some of those are, as well as their meaning to you and your artistic message?
Yes it has many layers. The disc at the bottom represents the Earth and life in a body. The seven pointed star disc represents higher consciousness. My connection to the Seven Sisters dreaming tracks, the Pleiades star system. It represents the marriage of Earth and Sky, Inner and Outer, Physical and Spiritual. In it but not of it. It is an axis mundi, a winged disc, the Feathered Serpent and a teleportation key.
Your tracks take me on a sonic journey, musically guiding me through a visionary experience when I sit back, close my eyes, and listen to the beauty unfold. What are your intentions for listeners to experience when diving deep into your tracks/album?
Beautiful Jasmine. My main intention is to be in service to the Creator. To surrender and be a conduit, a hollow bone for what needs to be voiced at this time for the Highest Good for all. To sing like a bird does in reverence of its Maker. It may sound lofty, but it is a very profound and real experience for me. My intention for my listeners is that they may feel this connection within, feel the direct contact to the source and be as deeply moved and inspired by the Life Force energy flowing through this music as I am. My intention is to embody my authentic ancient and divine self so that it may give permission to my listeners as well.
Your art is filled with the brilliance of ancient mythos and divine wisdoms. What led you to the desire to spread these messages through your art? How did you come to this path in your musical journey?
I have always felt a deep calling and a responsibility as a creator to offer the visions that I receive and contribute to the evolution on the planet. I believe it is the role of the true Artist, to be an intermediary, to take the people to places beyond the mundane into inspired heightened states of being. I was born inside my embryonic water membrane, so somehow that is who I am – I dwell between the worlds. I bring messages from other worlds/dimensions into this one through my craft.
We’re excited to hear you’ll be touring more in 2017. Which upcoming festivals will you be attending? Also, you mentioned you’ll be visiting sacred sites along the way. Are there any you’d like to mention with us, and share their importance to you?
Yes we are excited to be back in North America and we’re playing an exclusive collection of shows. Sonic Bloom, Inshala, Oregon Eclipse Gathering, Return Of The Star Tribes Gathering, (a couple we can’t announce yet), as well as shows in San Francisco & Nevada City.
We’ll be visiting sacred sites in Arizona, Utah, New Mexico, Nevada and the Canadian Rockies and are currently working on raising funds to bring an amazing cinematographer from New Zealand to shoot a documentary of my journey recording live at these power places. Some of these sites lay directly on the earth energy lines that connect Turtle Island USA to Australia. I will be revisiting a site very special to me in the Four Corners, Grandmother Spider Rock, an ancient monolith I understand to be a primordial birth point of the Earth’s Energy grid whose architecture has evolved over time into the elaborate geometries we know today.
I’m excited to be traveling up to the turquoise lakes of the Canadian Rockies in the Grid Point 8 vortex region this year for the Solstice. June 21st is a potent time to sit with the Earth. Chief Arvol Looking Horse, 19th generation keeper of the sacred white buffalo pipe of the Lakota, Dakota & Nakota has been encouraging all people of all colours to pray according to their own faiths at this time at sacred sites around the world. I will also be giving my presentation on the Songlines & The Planetary Grid sharing the science behind the Earth’s energy field and how it is connected to indigenous wisdom. I absolutely love the people and the Spirit of the Land in North America, it feels very familiar to me. It inspires me greatly singing the songlines that connect our beautiful continents.