After years spent honing her craft and featuring on Brockhampton and Biig Piig songs, Deb Never is finally ready to release her debut LP, Arcade. Here, she tells us about her nomadic youth and the joy of independence...
Your debut LP, Arcade, has just landed. How are you feeling?
“Scared, but excited. I’m really proud of what I made, but I’m still scared of how people will receive it. I’ve made it as honest as I could. My statement with it, I guess, is that I wanted to make something vulnerable and to not fear doing that too much.”
In the early days of your career, you experimented with an indie rap sound that’s since morphed into indie rock/pop. Was that a natural progression or intentional?
“Ultimately, my background was making songs in my room with just a guitar. And then being able to go full circle into fulfilling my desire to play with a live band… it was always going to lead there. The sound change wasn’t that intentional, though. I just make what I’m feeling in the moment.”
Arcade is being released by Giant Music. What is your relationship like with them?
“I mean, they’re sick. They trust me a lot – maybe a little too much – but in a great way. They give me a lot of liberty to do what I want artistically, and I think that’s a rare thing. It’s important to me [to be on an independent label] because I still have so much I want to do, in my own way.”
What impact has growing up in different countries, such as South Korea, China, Malaysia and the US, had on you?
“I was thrown around like a rag doll in every random country you can think of! Going to so many different countries, what I took in culturally and musically influenced me. If I hadn’t lived in Malaysia for a year, I probably wouldn’t have known about house music.”
You’ve now lived in California for a decade, how is LA’s music scene treating you?
“There’s definitely a good sense of community. It’s easy to make music because a lot of people have home studios – not necessarily, like, nice home studios – but everyone has some sort of set-up. A lot of artists, musicians and producers live here, so it makes things much more accessible.”
On that note, you executive produced Arcade with fellow LA-based producer, Romil Hemnani, whom you previously worked with when you featured on Brockhampton’s song, No Halo. What’s it like working with him?
“We were friends for so long and then, years later, he was like, ‘Oh, let me help.’ He’s one of my best friends, so it was natural and felt really good. It’s really refreshing because we can be so honest. We fight for our opinions on a song.”
Finally, what can we expect from you next?
“There’s a deluxe [version of Arcade] coming and I’m already writing new music. I want to play live – hopefully this summer. What do I want to get out of my career? I need to pay my bills! (Laughs) I want to make enough to live doing what I love, which is music. If it connects with as many people as possible, then I’m good.”
