Alana Davis is no stranger to the ups and downs of the music business. She knows how fickle fame can be. After a few years away, the Grammy-nominated singer-songwriter is back with a new collection of songs. Deco caught up with her to check out what she’s been up to.
“Love Again” is the title track of the latest album from Alana Davis. It’s been a while since the Miami-based performer has been in the marketplace.
Her new songs forced her to come out of hiding.
Alana Davis: “This batch came in such a way that I felt I was actually supposed to maybe share it. That maybe I was being selfish just playing it for me and my family, you know.”
It’s not like Alana ever took a vacation from songwriting.
Alana Davis: “I never really stopped writing. I just stopped sort of being in the limelight, stopped trying to sell it, stopped trying to promote it.”
Davis broke big in 1998’s with the song “32 Flavors” from her Grammy-nominated album, “Blame It on Me.”
She’s known for her jazz-folk sound, and growing up in Manhattan, she was influenced by a variety of styles.
Alana Davis: “I heard a lot of hardcore, I heard a lot of, you know, the beginning of hip-hop and all sorts of stuff was happening in the ’80s in Greenwich Village.”
Davis kept the arrangements pretty simple on “Love Again.” That way, the emotional power of the work comes through.
Alana Davis: “I tried to strip down this record so you could just hear the songs. I can’t tell you how many people have come up to me after a show and said, ‘Wow, I didn’t know you played guitar.’ I said, ‘Wow, I need to turn it up on the next record,’ because I write all my songs on guitar.”
The sound of the songs lets you get up close and personal to the artist performing them.
Alana Davis: “I built around the acoustic song, but I tried not to fill in all the blanks. I tried to leave it still kind of acoustic at the core, so that you’d feel my heart.”
Alana believes the Magic City is the perfect place for the music she’s writing these days.
Alana Davis: “I found a great home for some of my music the last few years in Miami. Coming from a lot of playing in Jamaica and now in the Bahamas, there’s sort of an island influence that really seems alive here as well.”
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