‘Out today is the dreamy new EP – Lullaby from experimental pop artist Kat Duma. Incporating elements of Trip Hop, Spectral Pop and Dungeon Synth, Duma creates the dreamiest of soundscapes giving Enya, Polachek and Link getting rejuvenated in the Fairy Fountain.

The Serbian-Canadian Producer found inspiration in Kyoto’s Sagano district, the transitory space between sleep and wakefulness and the unconscious patterns we continue to re-enact. Across the EP’s hazy textures and whispered confessions, Duma explores escapism, longing and the strange comfort found in surrendering to the unknown.

To celebrate the release Loverboy caught up with Duma to discuss omnichords and Mariah Carey’s ‘One and Only.’

Hello Kat, Congrats on Lullaby. I feel Lullabies are often meant to be calming but somehow they also have a melancholy vibe, so not that relaxing. Haha… What do lullabies signify for you? Why did you decide on the title?
Thank you! For the title, I think the word evoked a lot of imagery for me – specifically, a “lullaby” being a guide between a state of awake and asleep. In that transitionary period, I think that’s where your mind can really be free to wander… In some ways it can feel more real than a dream, because you’re kind of awake? But I also think there can be a lot of honesty in that space because you don’t have your conscious mind dictating what you should think and how you should feel.

Opener ‘Mirrored Water’ gives us a bit of a glitchy vocal compared to the rest of the album. Why was it important to start with this track? What journey do you see yourself taking in terms of the sequencing of the tracks? How did you want to pace it?
To be totally honest, I don’t actually know. For me sequencing is more of a vibe, rather than a “story” or a particular journey. “Mirrored Water” just felt like a first song – I also start my live set with it. And “Chained” feels like a last song. And “White Light” I just love, so it’s going to the top.

On ‘Cruising’ your vocal delivery is irregular, off the beat a bit, adding to the dreaminess of it all. Can you tell us more about how you use your delivery to create moods on Lullaby?
The “Cruising” delivery was actually a choice by my friend Alex Tanas who worked on the song with me. It was originally a chorus to a totally different song, which Alex then chopped up. It took me a second to wrap my head around it before falling in love with how unusual it sounds. Later on, I actually did sing it off-beat like you hear in the album version, but to a faster BPM. It’s for a remix which will come out soon. In general though, I love playing with cadences that subvert standard pop expectations. I love the dissonance between what you hear and what you expect to hear – that tension is something I always look for in songs.

That song has a real Portishead energy to it for me. That 90s Trip-Hop scene was kind of magical for me. I wondered if you could tell us about your connection/experience to it?
I’ve always loved that era of music. Tricky, Massive Attack, Portishead, DJ Shadow etc… I guess my main connection was listening to it on my iPod at school. My mom was also a big fan.

‘Chained (to you)’ is my current favourite. I love that witchy Dungeon Synth vibe. The genre seems to have had somewhat of a boom in the last couple of years. It feels like a real community. Maybe it’s not that deep. I wondered what you made of its rise in popularity and what you enjoy about it.
Thank you – I honestly didn’t hear that connection when writing it but I love that that’s what you hear. I do love a lofi dungeon folky synthy dirty atmospheric fantasy vibe. I think people yearn for a time that’s not so hyper-digital. The genre also doesn’t feel commercial, the way everything does these days. I think maybe it rose to popularity because it’s creative and it’s vast – which is comforting in a way that makes you feel like there’s something else out there.

In your song writing can you tell us about how you navigate between the real world and a more fantasy element. How much is based on real experience and how much is more fantasy, story-telling?
It’s interesting because I always think I’m writing about real experience, and then I finish the song, and I’m like, what is this even about? I don’t understand. And then time passes, like years later, and it dawns on me that it really was about that specific experience – but I just didn’t have enough perspective at the time to know. So it’s always both.

You also cover Biljana Jevtić. Are you able to tell us more about this diva and what you connect to in her? Why did you choose this song?
The song is unhinged, it’s funny, it’s honest, it’s real. She calls the guy “weird” in the very first line of the song, because he is too emotionally dense to comprehend the sheer scale of how deeply she feels. The chorus is pure drama – she offers her body, her heart, her soul. She calls him out for not having even an ounce of the fire she carries in her heart. She’s a volcano, he’s aggressively lukewarm. It represents exactly what I love about female artists. There is a lazy tendency to underestimate their intelligence and sense of humour, but a track like this proves just how much self-awareness is required to pull off this kind of performance. She knows exactly how theatrical she’s being, and that creates a deeply feminine, subversive type of humour that I love.

I’m reading a great book about Kate Bush at the moment. And felt some kind of similarities with your music, that kind of folk influence, but making it ethereal and dreamy. Are you a fan?
I’m a fan, but I need to become a bigger fan.

Kate didn’t like to be tied to the studio and I think you’ve mentioned recording in various different locations before. Where were you for Lullaby? Anywhere unusual?
I’m definitely not a huge studio girl. In fact, “Evo ti srce na dlanu” was originally recorded as a voice note. Unfortunately that version ended up sounding better than the properly recorded one, which made mixing a bit of a nightmare (we ended up stacking the versions). Most of the songs were recorded between Toronto and Lisbon, but my favourite place to record is in my bedroom.

You’ve said before, ‘I am 100 per cent not shy to turn a knob I know nothing about.’ Were there any serendipitous discoveries in producing this album?
Haha. I forgot I said that but it’s still so true. There are always serendipitous discoveries! I don’t know if any one has ever made an album without them. For example, in “Mirrored Water”, in the bridge, there was a section where I could hear this shimmery, almost-percussive glissando – and of course I knew there was nothing like that in the actual song, because I produced it. But every time I listened to the song, I heard that sound. So we were in the last stages of mixing and I had to ask to pause so I could add in a track of me running my fingers up and down an omnichord, essentially recreating that sound I was hearing in my head.

You recently created a soundtrack for John Scarlett-Davis’ film ‘Under The Influence.’ JSD also worked with Kate Bush. What do you connect to in his work? What elements drew you to the film?
The film is just so beautiful. There is a sharp contrast between the fairy-like, storybook day scene and the dark, gritty club scene, which is an energy that is very much present in my music, and probably in my life as well. The opportunity came about when my friend Kevin Hegge, approached me to score the film as a companion piece to his documentary Tramps!, which of course I was thrilled to do.

We are named after the iconic Mariah Carey song. We always ask – what is your favourite Mariah Carey song?
All-time, it’s gotta be ‘Honey’, but right now I’m going with ‘One and Only’. That one Twista-like verse of hers is so weird and cool, and the chorus is 10/10.

Lullaby is out now. 
Photo by Geoffrey Scott.