20 November 16 - 22, 2023 dallasobserver.com DALLAS OBSERVER Classified | MusiC | dish | Culture | unfair Park | Contents Pet Shop Boy DvD’s new album All Roads Lead to the Gift Shop is a different form of retail therapy. BY ALEX GONZALEZ O n his latest album, All Roads Lead to the Gift Shop, David Lunsford literally put his emo- tions on display. Lunsford, who performs under the stage name DvD, is not sure what number album this is for him, though an Apple Music search suggests it is his sixth. DvD prefers to make music by way of a stream of consciousness, rather than thor- oughly mapped out “eras.” With each song, he thinks of material as a “souvenir” from the time he wrote and produced it. We speak with DvD on a Friday morning at Houndstooth Coffee, shortly before he is heading out on a weekend trip to Vegas. Like his creative process, he plans to approach his trip in a freeform manner, letting the city direct him where to go. DvD recalls discovering some of his favor- ite music through video games as a child. One of the first songs he learned to play was Koji Kondo’s “Song of Storms” from Legend Of Zelda. He’s played piano and guitar most of his life but gives his music the electronic vibe of a video game using Logic Pro X. “I can see everything visually [on Logic Pro X] from start to finish the song,” says DvD, “And I think it’s really easy when you have an idea and can just drop it in there. I don’t have a ton of fancy plugins though, I mainly just plug my guitar into my MacBook and get to work.” DvD says he is a fan of the Mellotron plug- in, which he uses for nearly every one of his re- cordings. “It has kind of a vintage sound to it, which, I think, is cool paired with smaller- sounding guitars. That was a big theme on this record. I cut the EQ of the guitars a lot just to make them sound like they were coming out of those little tiny amps. They sound a little rub- bery, and a little cute, I guess, to me. That’s def- initely a sound that I wanted to be consistent throughout the album.” All Roads Lead to the Gift Shop came to- gether over the course of two years. During this time, DvD thought of himself as a “good communicator,” but recently, he says, he dis- covered that he may not communicate as ef- fectively as he once thought. Oftentimes, when he felt anxious about saying things out loud, he found himself turning to music. The Gift Shop title came to DvD as he started thinking of these songs as mementos from a specific time in his life. “I can look back at a certain song and be like, ‘Wow, it’s almost like a tiny figurine or a trophy that I have of that specific experience,’” DvD says. “So to me, it felt like all roads lead to the shop. It sounds very out there, but it made sense to me.” On a song from the album, “Attention,” DvD makes apparent his need for validation from a particular person. Over a punchy, per- cussive track, DvD vies for the affection of someone who isn’t reciprocating his feelings. “You can have your cake / You can take your long day off on the back of a boy / Who was never even paying the love that I’m paying / I just need attention,” he sings on the chorus. DvD says this song was born from a day he felt “like a complete loser.” Packaged in a sweet, catchy pop song, DvD’s lyrics resonate with queer listeners who have felt this form of heartbreak. “I think those juxtapositions are fun to play with,” DvD says, “where it’s kind of like a catchy shell of a chorus, but then when you re- ally listen to it, you’re like, ‘Oh, this was border- line pathetic.’ But I thought it was fun to put into an album.” Perhaps a more confident, assured song is the punk-pop-influenced “Think Before You Speak,” which serves as a big “fuck you” to people we are often told to idolize or respect. DvD comes out of the gate, singing “It’s the stupidest voice that’s always so damn loud / Couldn’t laugh at your joke if you held a switchblade to my throat / It’s just not there / There’s no quote from you I’d ever share.” This particular song came from DvD feel- ing drained after scrolling through the internet and confronting the rage-bait that came across his feed. “I get in that state of mind where I’m just like, ‘There’s no winning this argument that we’re all having,’” he says. “And I did think of a few personal figures in my life when I was writing that song, who I would never share a quote from or I would never laugh at their joke, no matter how much pressure there was.” But being chronically online comes with the territory of independent artistry. Not that DvD would ever chase a viral moment. “I think that’s kind of distracting for a lot of musi- cians,” he says. “And sometimes people can put that before actually having substance, be- cause we see some people go viral, per se, but then there’s not really much to keep going, and I think it just fucks with your head.” DvD does his best work on his own terms, not adhering to any sort of timetable or indus- try constructs. There’s no telling when his next body of work will drop. It could be tomorrow, or it could be years from now. But with his setup in his bedroom, he knows that when he’s ready to get back to work, the music will be right at his fingertips. Sometimes he has bursts of creativity and spends days upon days doing nothing but making music. Sometimes he hits a creative block and will take a pause. The album took two years to make, but DvD says that the peak of his creativity was during a period when he was between jobs and spent a month working on his music nonstop. “I had different pockets of time where I reached that space where I was creatively working,” DvD says, “which is not the easiest space to get to sometimes.” Over the years, DvD has surrounded him- self with creativity. He once lived with Oak Lawn regular drag performer Kolby Jack Dav- enport, a period he says was a “very inspiring time” in his life. He’s also performed on bills with Lorelei K, and Homewrecker And The Bedwetters at venues such as Three Links. All of the avenues for independent musi- cians can be as overwhelming as they are fruit- ful. But as DvD is ready to head to Vegas for a weekend, he looks forward to vacationing with his partner — who is “thankfully not” a fellow artist, as DvD says — without any sort of agenda. After all, we find the best souve- nirs when we’re not looking for them. “I get really, really into music,” says DvD. “And then when I’m out of it, I just want to be out of it. I like to live life and make more stories to tell.” Nate Bishara | B-SIDES | t Music “I like to live life and make more stories to tell,” says DvD, aka David Lunsford. SCAN HERE TO ENTER TO WIN TICKETS www.dallasobserver.com/signup go to WEEKLY EMAIL D SIGN UP FOR OUR WEEKLY EMAIL LIST for feature stories, movie reviews, calendar picks and more!
