Singer d4vd comes to Boston as his DIY viral hits gain IRL fans

The 18-year-old singer d4vd is bringing his Petals to Thorns Tour to Boston on Friday, July 7, performing at Brighton Music Hall. Born David Anthony Burke, he broke out with alternative songs like “Romantic Homicide” and “Sleep Well,” which gained popularity online thanks to the presence he already had from his Fortnite Youtube videos. His song “Here With Me” has been used in over one million videos on TikTok, playing as the backdrop for a range of videos, from cute animal content to sweet couple montages.

Ahead of his Friday concert, d4vd spoke with GBH News about his music and hopes for his career. Excerpts from the interview are below.

Haley Lerner: You have achieved immense success with songs like “Romantic Homicide” and “Here With Me.” How has it felt receiving such a positive reaction to your music?

d4vd: It’s been insane, that's the only way I could describe it. It’s such a blessing to have the music be received as well as it was, especially how I made it, on my phone with no professional studio or anything like that. It was super organic and natural, people just rode with it for what it was.

Lerner: Can you describe more the process in making your music in a do-it-yourself setting?

d4vd: Two years ago I was trying to become a professional "Fortnite" and "Call of Duty" video game player and I’d post my videos on YouTube with Justin Bieber’s music, SZA’s music and stuff like that. It would always get copyright striked because of how big they are.

So my mom told me to make my own music, and I thought, I can probably do that. So I hopped on my iPhone and I used my sister's closet as my little studio booth, put some clothes up for sound isolation, and I literally made my first song the next day, this was December 1, 2021.

Then I was like, okay, this could probably be something. So I made a second song called “You, and I” and I put that one into a Fortnite montage and then everybody else in my small Fortnite circle used it in their montage. And it kind of blew up on YouTube because it was royalty free. So every time I made a Fornite montage I made a song for it, soundtracks for the videos.

Then I went on TikTok, and boom.

Lerner: Your songs did really blow up online, how did producing your music for the online world shape your artistry?

d4vd: It's kind of interesting how most music is made to try to fit a 15-seconds audio threshold. The gaming world shaped my music because I would make a video and try to compose or score that video like it was a movie or scene.

It wasn't until I took a break from Fortnite for a little bit, I stopped posting videos for a little bit and I was like, “Okay, so now what type of music do I make if I don’t have anything to make it for?” I decided to make music for myself and I came up with “Romantic Homicide” and “Here with Me” and “Placebo Effect” all in the same week. And I realized that music is what I wanted to do.

I put a snippet up [on] TikTok and it kind of went crazy. The effects of having a song go viral on TikTok, you try to recreate it and you try to cater to whatever people like.

Lerner: Have you felt pressure to recreate those viral moments?

d4vd: I'm trying to find ways not to let it affect me, I really just like making what I want. That's why I pride myself on making a billion different genres. The EP is very prolific in itself and eclectic, and it is cool to push myself out of the box and change the boundaries of whatever sound I'm making.

Lerner: How was the process of creating your EP, “Petals to Thorns”?

d4vd: It's kind of like buying a puzzle from a store and laying the pieces on the floor and trying to figure it out without looking at the box.

I'm so attracted to roses and the way that beauty is pain in the same way that the roses are beautiful and there's thorns. So I wanted the love songs to be first and the heartbreak songs to be second and kind of transition through finding out that love can make you delusional sometimes and see that it’s really hurting you and you need to separate yourself from it, which is why the last song is “The Bridge,” because it’s that stepping away point.

Lerner: Is there anything you struggle with in the music making process?

d4vd: The thing that I struggle with in music is being over critical of myself all the time. I like to evolve with everything I make. I’m a writer first and I try to outdo myself lyrically everytime. I hate when I say something that sounds like another thing I said, but there's beauty in the way that you can say the same thing in a different way. So just trying to get over my own mental roadblocks.

Lerner: Right now you’re touring and are stopping in Boston. How does it feel to go on stage and have fans know all your song lyrics? Do you feel a connection with them?

d4vd: Oh yeah. It's insane. I try to after the shows to get down there and sign as many posters as I can and take pictures.

But it's insane to see the reactions to the music live. They're really performing to me as much as I’m performing to them. And they know the words and it’s just a real experience to have people that listen to your music in private stand there and scream it back to you.