“The Project That Kept Giving”

An Interview with Dallas The Dove
Dictated to and Edited by Royal Young

“I just want to say to any of you survivors, thank you for listening. Know you are not alone. You are not alone. We survived. We’re here.” 

“I’m a quirky person,” Says Dallas The Dove when we speak on the phone. “Sometimes even other quirky people don’t get my quirkiness.”

Yet, Dallas’s quirkiness, lived experiences and beautiful artistry are the qualities that help make FREER Records’ forthcoming album SIGS On Seeley St. an epic musical journey.

Filled with pathos, pain and triumph SIGS On Seeley St. is a Neo-Soul R&B record which tells the life story of FREER Records’ artist Ms. Seeley. This takes listeners on a soulful sonic groove, touching universal themes of motherhood, falling in love, surviving domestic violence, raising and losing children, the beauty, tragedy and ultimate triumph of divine feminine strength.

Ms. Seeley’s story is given a powerful voice by Dallas The Dove, whose vocals are featured on each track of the record. Dallas brings vulnerability and strength to Ms. Seeley’s story, her voice both gritty and crooning.

Dallas also brought her own lived experiences to the project, as a domestic violence survivor herself and a mother who has lost a child. While recording SIGS On Seeley St. Dallas was in the process of separating from her abusive partner, and the recording sessions became a healing outlet.

Dallas The Dove is an accomplished lyricist whose single “Top Of The World” is globally streaming. Dallas has been featured in ThisIs50.com, NYGIRLSTV, Ntuned Show, 6flavas Miami, and The International Music show with Jay Kay in Dublin.

Today, Dallas lives in New York with her daughter, and works as a musician and advocate, telling the stories of other girls and women through her company DoveLove LLC.

ROYAL YOUNG: I’d love to start with where you grew up and your story.

DALLAS THE DOVE: My life is so complex, we might not even want to go that far back. I was born and raised in Pennsylvania. I’ve literally been writing and singing my whole life, playing the organ and saxophone, I did the choir thing and church and all that. But I started singing professionally at 17. 

ROYAL: What are some of the things that got you into music?

DALLAS: My grandmother was a Jazz lover. She had hundreds of records and a record player. I just realized that actually. She had everything. She had Whitney Houston, Anita Baker, Sade, I fell in love with all of them. My grandma raised me. She was the one who told me that I was a crooner when I was about six years-old, the way that I sing. I don’t have to belt it out.
My uncle does music too, he was in my music video for “Top of the World.” He was a big influence in my life. He’d always tell me I got this.

ROYAL: So it sounds like a very musical family. 

DALLAS: Yeah, you know what, probably more than we realized. 

ROYAL: It’s sometimes hard for artists to take another person’s story and make it your own. I feel like you did that with a lot of Ms. Seeley’s story. How did you channel her experiences into your voice and delivery?

DALLAS: It’s amazing, God does everything for a reason. Around the time I was recording this project, I was actually separating from my kid’s father, which was a domestic violence situation. So I had that in common with Ms. Seeley. Throughout the domestic violence situation, I also lost a child. So many of the songs, like “Eron” about Ms. Seeley losing her son, connected with me. 

ROYAL: Wow, that’s heavy.

DALLAS: Yeah, but it was right on time. Because it gave me that outlet too. 

ROYAL: In “Eron” the way you make his name into a refrain, which is also a lament but also is so loving, was really beautiful. Now that makes sense. 

DALLAS: Thank you.

ROYAL: Thank you for sharing that. It takes a lot of courage.

DALLAS: It definitely does. I really went through a lot, I needed the outlet and then this project was there. 

ROYAL: So it was a powerful generational sharing of a female experience of overcoming, surviving and thriving. 

DALLAS: It was the first project I did in a long time and I did this project under a lot of pressure. Everyone around really worked with me, and helped me with everything. They helped me with the recording process and balancing care of my daughter. It was the project that just kept giving, it was so healing. 

ROYAL: Is there any message you want to leave people with?

DALLAS: I just want to say to any of you survivors, thank you for listening. Know you are not alone. You are not alone. We survived. We’re here. 

Watch Dallas The Dove’s “BLVCK BXTCH”

Watch Dallas The Dove’s “One Track Mind”