Davon Bryant Aka Dreamcast, A Lifelong Denizen Of Washington DC, Repurposes Some Tough Experiences Into Tender Moments, Creating Music That’s Vulnerable, Haunting, And Romantic. For Extended Family, Bryant Reaches Into His Funky, Soulful, House Heavy Collection To Present A Collage Of The Cool And The Wonderful.

DC is notorious for closing early, even on the weekends. And it was a Wednesday. But an announcement was made earlier in the week that Boiler Room was featuring Washington DC in a collaboration with the Beautiful Swimmers of Future Times, Andrew Morgan of People’s Potential Unlimited, and Protect-U of Future Times. Boiler Room’s excellent brand visibility fueled the growing crowd that was sardining into the creaky, wooden kitchen/living room/dining room that had been converted to a pop up dance floor. 

Some tedious international travel related issue was forcing the Boiler Room team to arrive in the middle of the week, but a curious mix of djs, producers, label heads, party promoters, office drones, college kids, and extremely online albeit AFK fans were streaming in with regularity, despite the unusual scheduling. 

The show was thrown together in heaps of jittery anticipation, in that hasty pre-performance anxiety, and orange film had been taped over the windows which were filtering an august hue into a seeping gold.

Davon Bryant was commissioned to film the event and arrived with a DSLR and a contagious energy and an artistic eagerness. 

The party was immense. All the performers are pros, world class, and a feeling of gratitude laced the mood of the impromptu party as it rocked across the technical suave of Protect-U’s live set, Andrew Morgan’s obscure RnB remixes and boogie super cuts, and the Swimmer’s playful but gripping expertise.

There were a few unexpected obstacles. Sami and Dawit of 1432 R, the tenants of the house, found that their roommate had stopped paying for the electricity months, a fact only discovered when the power went out that very afternoon, a fact that caused a bit of a panic. And after the power matter was sorted, some crook would fiddle with the thermostat and turn the heat all the way up on the blistering swampy day, leaving the tenants aghast and confused.

Perhaps the most comical failure was that the film that was shot that day would be deemed later as unusable. Although the crowd had gathered in order to be apart of the Boiler Room brand, no moments would be documented, so the party would only lie in the memories and stories of the attendees. I guess shit happens.

Regardless, the music of that day would live on as legend. The sets were prime. The crowd was respectful of the energy they had brought in. That happy day can be looked back on by many as the start of some crucial relationships that would change the course of DC dance music forever. 

This would be true for Davon too. He would meet Andrew Morgan of PPU, Andrew Field-Pickering of Future Times, as well as Dawit Eklund and Sami Y of 1432 R.  Davon’s alluring charisma drew everyone around him closer from jump, he makes every room more fun and more loving, and catching him in the city is always a treat. So he was a natural fit. 

Now, seeing Dreamcast is a warm hug, and his music feels the same. His energy is confident but kind, magnanimous but vulnerable, a friend to all but beholden to none; his sounds echo this aura. The city has been proud to be his home base, for it’s true, it just would not be the same without him. Within the electronic music industry, his identity has begun to fuse to his hometown in a way that only Washington DC can. Determined to do his own thing, his own way, Dreamcast has fortified his skills despite untold challenges, creating romance to relate to. And we love him for it.

As a lifelong denizen of uptown DC, Davon has come a long way from uploading tracks to the abyss of SoundCloud back in 2017. He’s comfortable enough along the dice games between row houses that line some of the neighborhoods uninteresting to tourists as well as the polished courts of all the federal tax maintained buildings, they are everywhere.

He knows his way with a mic as well as knows the city. As a vocalist, producer, songwriter, percussionist, and DJ, Bryant has emphasized his commitment to experimentation with an accessible, easy going mode. His music feels like a gentle and winding drive through velvet deserts in the mellow of a summer night.

House, R&B, boogie, and jazz are rinsed through everything he does and he manages to present his sound with a captivating, delightful stage presence. His show will channel elements of nostalgia, without suffering any fatigue. Inspired by the likes of Uku Kuut, Donny Hathaway, Karen Clark-Sheard, Marvin Gaye, and Duke Ellington, Davon’s vocals cut through the noise. 

His productions have captured the attention not only from fans but also of some talented collaborators. He’s worked with artists and projects including those with Sasac, Max D, Black Rave Culture, ZDBT, and Will DiMaggio. 

From his early beginnings of learning to play the drums in church, his career has taken off. On top of self releasing his projects, he’s published music with People’s Potential Unlimited, Future Times, and most recently announced plans to release his new mixtape on Ghostly International’s free form label, Spectral Sound, later this summer of 2022. 

RU Ready, the first single released from this upcoming project, feels like falling in love under water, straight into the deep end of a chlorine treated pool. Only a confident person can show vulnerability in a beautiful way. It’s the same surreal feeling in the Liquid Deep EP and the Lamont EP, where Bryant waves in and out of a haunting falsetto that expands the narrative of what being vulnerable can even mean, how it can feel. 

The music scene will never overtake the political scene, and perhaps for good reason, since most of us here believe in strong social programs (Washington DC is a Democratic stronghold as far as the polls go). But that can mean that the artists here feel little encouragement from the city or its infrastructure, sometimes none at all, sometimes outright hostility. So, if you want to make music, you have to want it real bad. You can’t be afraid of taking no for an answer, at least from a creative intention. You have to be able to push through the discouragement of an environment unconcerned with the life changing potential of art and music. 

Living in DC means living alongside a heavy police force, a perpetual murmuring of political violence, and a demoralizing wealth disparity. It can be stressful. But Davon’s personality has been molded by this pressure and the life that he leads now features a miraculous character that’s committed to his own heart, with great depth, with a infectious hypnotism, with a fierce loyalty to those that he holds close, and with a love for love and the adventure that comes with it. 

It’s this heroism that guides him as he finds beauty in the struggle and uses soulful narratives to speak of the essence that is living as an artist in the capital of the US. If the old adage, that pressure makes diamonds, is true, then we have only begun to chip the surface of Davon Bryant’s shine.  

Follow Dreamcast on Bandcamp, SoundCloud, Twitter, Facebook, Resident Adviser, Spotify, or Instagram.