Dana Gavanski: ‘I wanted to make a more performative album’

Canadian-born, now London-based singer-songwriter Dana Gavanski originally set out to pursue a career in film but began exploring music as a creative output when gifted a guitar by an ex-boyfriend. 

This led to the release of her critically acclaimed debut album Yesterday Is Gone on UK indie label Full Time Hobby in 2020, which began an ongoing collaboration with Margate-based producer Mike Lindsay (Tunng, LUMP). Her second LP When It Comes followed in 2022.

Last month she returned with her third full-length, Late Slap. For the record, she set about revamping out sound and methods of writing before again joining Lindsay by the sea to create her most arresting body of work yet. 

“The album holds together the seemingly disparate aspects of my character that I have sometimes tried to repress,” she says. “With this album I’m letting them into the room, celebrating them for all their strangeness - a strangeness which I think we all, on some level, share.”

Strange Tourist caught up with Dana ahead of her Ramsgate Music Hall date, to find out more about the album, her live show, and her impressions of Margate. 

Tell us about Late Slap. What were your inspirations and how did you develop the sound of the album?

During the writing of Late Slap, I was listening to a lot of music that featured the DX7 (an 80s synth) like Keyboard Fantasy by Beverly-Glenn Copeland and Hope In A Darkened Heart by Virginia Astley. 

I love the roundness and the airy hopefulness of the brassy sounds, which add a bit of playfulness into some of the heavier subjects that the album deals with. I was thinking a lot about childhood and loss, and content saturation à la Susan Sontag, which [the album's first single] How To Feel Uncomfortable partly expresses. 

How did your approach to this album differ from When It Comes and Yesterday Is Gone?

I'm mostly just nudging myself mentally and physically, trying to feel something new sonically and lyrically. I wanted to make a more performative album that pushed me out of my comfort zone just a little more than those before it.

You recorded the album with Mike Lindsay in Margate. How was that experience?

Yes! I’ve been recording with Mike in Margate for years now. It’s always been good fun and feels like another home. It’s relaxed, fun and explorative. Mike is brilliant, especially at what I think of as subtle wonk, making sounds and songs ‘pop out’ and pulse in a 3D kind of way. 

What were your impressions of Margate and Thanet? Any favourite places you’d like to return to?

I love coming to Margate! I’ve been countless times over the last six years, mostly to Margate and mostly for music work, so I would love to go and spend some time in the area and explore some coastal walks. 

You’re playing Ramsgate Music Hall as part of your upcoming tour. What can people expect from your performance? 

Yes! Very excited for that. It will be with a full band and featuring the very men that sang backing vocals on the album, who I otherwise have christened the Duds (a term of endearment), and which I suppose derives from the dudes…

Dana Gavanksi will play Ramsgate Music Hall on May 25. Tickets are £15.50 and available here.