As long as Dascha was a part of my life, music was a part of hers. From performing at family events to jamming at house parties, I have watched her voice fill rooms, big and small. I watched those rooms fall silent, the faces of people turning to Dascha as she created what I can only describe as literal magic with her voice.

Dascha and I both came from a country where encouragement to pursue creativity as anything else but a hobby was uncommon. Naturally, when we both went to university, we did not set out to be creatives. However, we would spend nights talking about our passions, our dreams and how we would eventually turn them into a reality. Dascha would play songs for me and show lyrics that she had written. Everything she experienced in her life was reflected in the beautiful rhymes and harmonious melodies. I watched her music grow up as she grew up. I still remember her first songs and the lyrics she read to me on her couch after a long night out.

Throughout the years, her sound evolved, but one thing remained: her incredible ability to transform any experience into something so beautiful that you could not help but hold your breath just to be sure that her voice was the only sound in the room. For the longest time, all I had of her talent was recordings she would send me on WhatsApp and videos I would film of her at parties.

daschan’s debut single explores her questioning her place as an artist and a human being in environments where her identity as a musician was not always recognised. I never questioned her talent, but for years, I wondered why she wasn’t pursuing it.

As a creative myself, I know that admitting to yourself that a career as an artist is something you truly want and then actually taking steps to make it a reality is incredibly difficult, especially in a world full of discouragement that pushes you to question your purpose twenty times a day. And screaming ‘Just do it already’ from the sidelines never helps. So I waited, sometimes silently, but more often very loudly, proclaiming myself as her biggest fan.

I was so proud when Dascha finally told me she wanted to explore a career as a musician. Flashes of sold-out concerts and Grammy awards instantly took over my mind. Because trust me, as someone familiar with Dascha’s magnetic determination and someone with ears and the ability to discern talent untainted by greed, this girl is going to be a fucking star. I followed her every step of the way, watching her make music for music’s sake. In the world of charts and viral checklists, she stays true to pure creativity, her experiences and inspirations being the only thing colouring her music.

Seeing Dascha work more on her music gave me another unique pleasure: watching her on stage. The comfort with which she gets up on the stage can only be matched by the one she brings to the audience. Her stage presence always amazed me. I have seen Dascha be the life of the party more than once, making strangers feel at home in any conversation and welcoming new experiences at every turn, but when she gets up on stage, her voice amplifies her charisma even more. I have seen her command the attention of rooms full of peers and, a feat much harder, every middle-aged parent at family events. More importantly, I have watched her take genuine pleasure in performing.

That pure enjoyment infected everyone in the room during the launch event for her single as we danced to her songs. When I looked around the room, I saw a crowd of people who could not help but smile.

I have heard all of daschan’s songs since she started at Abbey Road Institute. She wrote and produced them herself, leaving a part of herself in each one. But when it comes to an artist as multifaceted as daschan, every part is different. Every song has a different energy, vibe, colour, and association. Listening to them separately, you can still feel daschan through each one, yet the feeling is different. One represents her flirty and charming side, while the other showcases her deep and contemplative nature.

will i be is not just a single; it’s a journey. A journey accompanied by visual and sensory experiences that cannot help but become one with the song. Every flower Dascha has posted on her social media or incorporated into the decorations of her single release event immediately brought me back to those first gentle vocals that welcome you into the experience that is will i be.

sunshine seems like a natural continuation. After a melodic, almost nymph-like contemplation of her existence and the new path she is following with her music, Daschan begins to show that cute, flirty side I have seen so much at nights out, girl dinners, and every time she blesses the audience with her presence on stage. This track is Dascha playing around. It’s fun and easy. However, it still hides within itself some of Dascha’s thoughts, poetically revealed as the song slows down to once again demonstrate her remarkable vocal abilities.

With will i be and sunshine, I feel both parts of my friend, the slow and reflective and the fun and playful. However, there are many more parts she has yet to share. Lucky for me and you, she is just getting started.

Every person who has had the pleasure of hearing Daschan perform has confirmed what I always knew; her music is unique, personal and fucking amazing. It might seem like I have let any sense of journalistic objectivity go as I shamelessly brag about Dascha with friendship-coloured glasses on, but see for yourself that I am not exaggerating. I am just happy to get a front-row seat to watch the career of an incredibly and unapologetically talented performer flourish.

Ben Laidlaw

Unlike Asya, I did not meet Dascha in utero but instead at a pub in Islington. She had just graduated from the Abbey Road Institute alongside a friend of mine, and we were celebrating. That night, she looked beautiful, stopping by on her way to a party. Easily, she was the most beautiful girl in the room, which I suppose isn’t so hard when surrounded by drunken Angel-dwelling yuppies. Nonetheless, I thought I should find out more. And worryingly, when I spoke to her, I found she was also extremely clever and well-read. She spoke about a sort of transhumanist idealism and not in a cringe way, a feat I didn’t believe possible. Already, she was altering my worldview.

We shortly started dating, and with both of us being musicians, it didn’t take long for us to start playing and making music together. What struck me was her unique voice and confidence in using it experimentally. I could tell she had spent a lot of time jamming in her development as a singer, as she effortlessly built melodies and tension around themes and ideas without hopelessly clinging to them after they had run their course.

Dascha hadn’t released any music though was planning a series of single launches. She showed me the tracks, which had a nice variety with catchy hooks and dance rhythms. And were produced and performed to a high standard. A couple of weeks later, Dascha was performing at the launch party of the very publication I write for now: Mkh. Live, Dascha strip backs her songs to a lowkey format, with a jembe for percussion, bass, acoustic and electric guitars. Dascha’s band are extremely tight, and flow with the ease of a group that feels as if it’s played together for a long time. My compliments to Jonny Simon, James Ladds and Chris Hayden. Together, they have translated the alt-RNB essence of Dascha’s recorded work into a more peaceful style, but one that remains completely faithful to the interesting and alternative sound that I associate with her. I would recommend to anyone in London checking out when she plays next.

daschan’s debut single, ‘will i be’, is an introspective dive into questions of existence, perception and belonging, framed in a fresh and relevant style. In a deeper listen, one is confronted by questions adjacent to many posed within quantum mechanics. ‘Will I be if no one gets to see me?’ was undoubtedly a question Schrodinger’s cat worriedly asked herself as she sat within that proverbial box. This sly wink at wave function collapse, a question at the very forefront of human knowledge, is but one example of how Dascha is no ordinary pop singer but instead a true artist, using her voice to explore the very deepest rumblings that exist within her individual and indeed our collective consciousness.

‘sunshine’ daschan’s next single follows up where will i be left off. In an upbeat love letter to the self, Dascha shows more and more of her versatility as a musical artist. Producer Ben Fitzgerald compliments perfectly, creating cinematic dynamic shifts whilst maintaining the driving force of a true summer banger like the name of the track implies. Chris Hayden Dascha’s guitarist also deserves praise as his tasteful, understated solo truly confirms that a guitar god is an essential appendage to any pop girl’s live or recorded sound.

As daschan continues on this run of her first single releases, the only way is up. As she performs more and has more music out for the world to hear, I know the reception and praise will only grow; my advice to the reader is to watch this space. Though without a doubt I speak with bias, she is nonetheless one of my favourite performers in London right now, but don’t take Asya or my words alone and exercise your own discernment, go see Daschas next show and give sunshine and will i be a spin, you won’t regret it.

Check out will i be, sunshine and more on Daschan’s Spotify – daschan

Follow the artist’s journey on Instagram – @daschann_

And TikTok – @daschann_