A talk with Dev, singer of “Like a G6”

For the last year, her electro-pop voice has floated out of radio speakers and across dance… For the last year, her electro-pop voice has floated out of radio speakers and across dance floors in the song that hit No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart: “Like a G6.”

The song by Far East Movement features the vocals and sound-mixing work of Dev and The Cataracs. On Wednesday night, Dev and the Cataracs opened for pop star Usher at the Consol Energy Center, but before the show the 21-year-old Dev sat down with The Pitt News backstage.

The pop singer talked about group that discovered her, her influences — saying of her iPod that “it’s like either degenerate hip-hop or it’s emo” — and sharing her excitement for the upcoming  release of her first album.

The Pitt News: You were discovered by the band the Cataracs when they heard your version an Amy Winehouse song and a “diss” song about your ex-boyfriend’s new girlfriend on the Internet. Can you talk about that?

Dev: I did one where I covered an Amy Winehouse — her “Back to Black” song — and then another one was a diss track to this girl that my boyfriend dated for like a couple weeks when we were broken up, you know, one more time.

The Cataracs found it and thought it was hilarious because I was actually singing really like, softly and pretty, but if you listen to the words I was pretty much calling her all the bad things I cold think of … The song was called “Blonde Trick” so I think you can get an idea of that. And I think I called her a b**ch a few times or something.

TPN: Did she ever hear the song?

Dev: Oh, yeah, it was like a thing around town. It was like, ‘Dev out of nowhere puts up songs? She sings? Oh, and it’s about der-der-der?’ You know. It was really funny. I got a kick out of it … Nobody really talked about it [being about this girl], like, you know, they were just kind of like, ‘Oh, Dev’s singing,’ you know. But we all knew.

TPN: You’ve said before that you’re a big fan of Eminem. What draws you to his music, and how does that influence your music?

Dev: I guess that depends. I like Eminem out of just one of the million artists that I really obsess over. But I guess he’s just really courageous in that that first LP I got when I was like 10, he didn’t hold back from saying anything, you know? I definitely always respected him for that. So, yeah, I guess he’s pretty bada**.

TPN: Do you think the music you like to listen to [Yeah Yeah Yeahs, Brand New, the Hustla, The Jackler, Nicki Minaj] comes across in your music?

Dev: I think a little bit — in some sense you can definitely tell the songs by the Cataracs are made by a very hip-hop influence. On the album there’s a lot of ballads and little, like, love things. So yeah, I guess you can definitely tell we grew up being fans of a lot of different genres.

TPN: How are you feeling about the upcoming release of your album The Night the Sun Came Up [out Sept. 20]?

Dev: I’m really excited, I’m so excited. I keep listening to the album’s rifts these past few days as much as possible. I sent them to my parents and stuff. And I can’t wait for everyone to kind of just hear more about who I am, not that I just sing “[Like a] G6” — which is awesome, “G6” did amazing things for me … but I can do more things.

I’m excited for everyone to see the different flavors that we use … Up until now I was just kind of living in a small town and working in Old Navy, but I still think I’ve got a lot to say.

TPN: You’ve gotten a lot of comparisons to singers like Ke$ha, and you haven’t seemed to like that. Do you think this new album will change perceptions of you?

Dev: I understand people with that comparison because they do just get the bass-down-lows in “[Like a] G6.” Personally I’m not such a fan of that comparison. I think once the album comes out people will definitely get to see different sides, which is cool.

I’m not trying to prove that I’m not like so-and-so or prove that I’m not like — this is just who I am as of right now. You know, I’m 21 years old and this is my first time putting out an album. That’s a really gnarly thing, so I’m just going with it.

TPN: Can you talk a little bit about what you learned making this first album?

Dev: I learned a lot from the Cataracs over the last few years — I didn’t know how to write a song, I didn’t know how to perform in front of a microphone or anything. So I think working with them in the studio and getting thrown on stage at a bunch of different shows and going into the album, I learned that it was definitely okay — and I felt most comfortable — being sort of vulnerable, being open to different things.

But [I knew] that I really wanted this to be personal — you know, I make references to my family, to moving to LA, being Portuguese and Mexican, you know, that was important to me.  Even if people don’t get it, it was important for me to sort of put that in the album.

And there’s still a lot of really cool, like, little up-tempo stuff. And I have a song with Timbaland and stuff like that — so there’s still some hip-hop stuff. But I definitely am trying to play around a little bit more with finding out who I am. You know, like I said, I’m kind of young, I’m still figuring out who I am as a woman every day. You know, I’m like … it’s like a mess, it’s nuts. And so I had to do that and sort of put it down set in stone on these songs that are going to be around forever.