ARTISTS

Deva Grace

FKA: Dæva

Gigi Mead

Genre: Synth Pop / Post-Chillwave / Post-Witch House
Current City: Brooklyn, New York, USA
Home: Blue Ridge Mountains, Virginia, USA
Pronouns: She / Her
For Fans Of: Bjork, Yeule , Emily Yacina, Swordes, Palmbomen II, Labyrinth Ear, You’ll Never Get To Heaven, Jenny Hval, Julianna Barwick

Bandcamp | Complete Playlist | Instagram | Soundcloud | Spotify

Press Photos at bottom of page

Biography

Evolving from Dæva to Deva Grace (pronounced day-va grace), this project is the brainchild of one Gigi Mead who grew up in the Blue Ridge Mountains and has been living and playing in Brooklyn since 2016. It started as a way to explore her shadow side through song writing, and now her new name change represents her core-being as a plant spirit. The plot moves from ‘Beta Persei’ into ‘Vocivos’, describing a diary-like story of “where she came from” into a new chapter of intimacy through the Void personified as a lover. Her self-production expands from a fully electronic sound into playtime with instruments including harp, bass, guitars, Korg Minilogue, and occasionally Omnichord.

Gigi has performed live at a number of venues and houses, in and around Brooklyn, NY – not to mention a 2021 livestream set from her own bed, undoubtedly the very same bedroom where many songs were written and engineered within. She is looking forward to playing more shows all over the place and focusing on event fundraising for mutual aid within her chosen family community.

Gigi’s debut album ‘Beta Persei’ was released under the moniker Dæva (pronounced day-va) which collected 10 experimental pop songs of love, loss, and X-Files. It was released November 25th 2016 digitally worldwide, as well as on limited edition cassette via Furious Hooves. Her song “Dream” was included in Gorilla vs. Bear’s “Best Songs of 2013” end of year list.

Back in 2016, Gigi spoke with Impose Magazine about her moniker and more back.

Dæva is a phrase from the ancient Avestan language, loosely meaning demon, while the term ‘Beta Persei’ refers to a star known as Algol, or the demon star, in the Perseus constellation. I like to think that Dæva is my wild/raw identity and ‘Beta Persei’ is the magic space I create and am born from. I wrote ‘Beta Persei’ during my senior year of college, when I was living alone for the first time. It’s very much about who I am when I’m by myself — daydreaming, or feeling lonely, or nostalgic, or in love. I wrote, recorded, mixed and mastered the entire album from my bed. The track list is in chronological order of when I wrote each song and you can hear the production quality and music styles shift dramatically over the course of the album as I experiment and teach myself along the way. ‘Beta Persei’ is also about the healing process after ending a long-term relationship and discovering femme/queer empowerment and independence through music.

Press & Accolades

Gorilla vs Bear’s “March 2022” mix features Deva Grace’s “Photosynthesis” from ‘Vocivos’ LP.
Gorilla vs Bear’s ”Best Songs of 2016” features Dæva’s song “Dream” from ‘Beta Persei’ LP.
“Dream” from ‘Beta Persei’ LP was included in BIRP!’s January 2017 Playlist.

“The shimmering column of synths in opener ‘Ego Death’ is clearly indebted to Beta Persei but markedly different too, as if blossoming in the space its predecessor created. Likewise the cold haze of ‘Ephemera’ and the way it wears its shadows so lightly, holding the ominous depths as an inviting mystery rather than some inhospitable void. ‘Ribbon’ embraces this luminosity most fully, Mead’s vocals cycling with hypnotic charm. “A ribbon grounds me / voice manifesting” she sings, a mantra that charms the bright instrumentation around itself as a kind of rebirth.”
– Various Small Flames, preview of ‘Vocivos’ LP as Deva Grace. (3/2022)

“Here's a glittery, ethereal dream-pop gem from Brooklyn's Gigi Mead, aka Dæva: "Dream" is the opening track from [their] beautifully vaporous, two-years-in-the-making, X-Files-inspired debut LP ‘Beta Persei’, which has provided a very welcome and chill (and even occasionally danceable) escapist vibe for us these past few nights.”
– Gorilla vs. Bear, review of “Dream” from ‘Beta Persei’ LP. (11/2016)

“Lush and downright fantastical, Dæva's single "Dream" is exactly the after-hours escape you need.”
– The Grey Estates, premiere of “Dream” from ‘Beta Persei’ LP. (11/2016)

“…emotions pushing in with tangible weight but diminishing upon closer inspection, like bright lights visiting your patch of sky before passing on, zipping up and away to wherever such things go, leaving only the slow creep of melancholy and a latent anxious twitch.”
– Various Small Flames, premiere of “Ache” from ‘Beta Persei’ LP. (11/2016)