Rising indie popstar denn. talks Percy Jackson, the Meaning of Love, & Butterfly Effects ahead of his debut album Cattle.

By Ike Nabuife

Whether it’s failed relationships or distant summers, like Orpheus, I cannot stop myself from looking back. If I was capable of moving on properly, Hades wouldn’t have given me this burden in the first place. Even Hades suffers, as we owe the seasons to the fact he cannot seem to let go of his vernal princess Persephone.

I don’t think Hades and I are alone in this struggle. Right as the year started, people wasted no time trying to reconstruct 2016. But can we ever truly recreate that? Is it even worth trying to return to that path? To denn., the answer is “no.”

denn. doesn’t bother with regrets or trying to recreate the way things were. The NYC-via-Connecticut singer-songwriter takes the pieces and constantly produces something new as a means of moving forward. Each day, denn. takes his influences — Conan Gray, Phoebe Bridgers, Lizzie McAlpine — and churns out fresh tracks spiced by vulnerable R&B reminiscent of Daniel Caesar or Omar Apollo. He’s reading new books (and old — e.g. Twilight and Percy Jackson). He’s creating new lore. He’s playing new Minecraft mods (Cobblemon to be specific).

Right now, his appetizing discography leaves you hungry for more, but ahead of the release of his upcoming album, Cattle, comes the track “nervous.” Its warm chorus swells delicately like a bakery pie’s aroma — that is, until your reverie is interrupted by intrusive glitches and stumbles in the melody. The charged falsetto tune emits the bittersweet, idyllic promise of a crush, electrifying you via positive daydreams laid out alongside the insidious anxiety of potential. Pushing off heartbreak, “nervous” adds to the crafty indie poet’s growing resume as he puts himself back together — piece by piece.

Ike Nabuife: Have you heard of the Ship of Theseus? It’s a Greek mythology thing. Like, I think it’s like a philosophical thought experiment where Theseus was traveling the sea, and they were repairing the ship as they went. The philosopher’s question was: if you replace every single part of the ship, is it the same ship?

denn.: Oh, no, no, I don’t think so. I definitely don’t think so.

IN: Do you think that goes the same for people? Like, if you change, like if you rebuild every single part of yourself, are you the same person or…?

D.: No, I don’t think so. I think even the act of being rebuilt will change something. Everything is so fragile — emotionally and physically with humans in the world and everything. I think everything is so fragile and so neatly put together, the way our universe works. And I think even the act of rebuilding, if you could do it perfectly, that movement of matter or whatever, something somewhere would have to be changed. I just don’t see how we could just recreate something exactly the way it was that’s as intricate as a human being, honestly.

denn.’s lo-fi indie captures these divine multitudes and sublime glimpses into his personal struggle with his ever-evolving emotions. Like Theseus with his monster-slaying club or Jason and his missing shoe, denn.’s style all-around is distinct. I don’t think the significance of Black hair needs any reiteration, but looking at denn., it’s immediately obvious the only thing more unique than his sound is his look.

IN: What’s your relationship with hair?

D.: Oh, I don’t know. I used to have really nappy hair — the nappiest head you’ve ever seen in your life — to the point where I used to cry when I would comb it out or go to the barber. He hit the Afro pick and he’d be going crazy. You know the picture of the dog just accepting his fate? That used to be me in the chair. So when I got into high school, I was like “Nah, I can’t be doing this anymore,” because my head was just so nappy. So I started perming my hair, and honestly, through that, I feel like I’ve been able to express myself more. I feel this hair is a lot more me than whatever hair I had before.

And I honestly say this to all my friends, because we have this debate once every couple months: hair and clothing are the two most defining features for me when I look at someone visually. If I’m attracted to someone, like 90% of it is because of their haircut. Like if you got a wolf cut going on or something, I just feel like I noticed that first. Then the second thing I’m looking at is their fit. I think it’s the most attractive feature of humans. Depending on what haircut they have, you can tell what kind of person they are. Certain people tend to gravitate towards certain things. Not to put people in boxes, but I feel like certain cuts have a certain vibe. So I don’t know. I like to look at people’s haircuts and wonder what kind of person they are and like… I don’t know, I just fuck with cool cuts.

IN: I just ask because I feel like your perm is so iconic. A lot of artists have a defining feature; you can recognize Ariana Grande even as a silhouette from her ponytail.

D.: I think I look very weird without [the perm]. Sometimes in the summertime, I used to be doing twists or whatever, and I’d be looking in the mirror and be like “damn, who the hell is that?” I would say it’s iconic to me, at least for now. I’ve been rocking it for a while. The first time I did it, it looked terrible. If you’ve seen Donald Trump’s cut, like it was low key looking like that the first time. My friends used to roast me in high school like “Oh, Donald’s coming!” So it took a long time to get here. A lot of trials and tribulations, but we made it.

IN: Yeah, that Black hair journey is very much a canon event. It’s so difficult. I’m still going through mine. I feel like it’s starting to get better, but it’s also trying to figure out the right shampoo and the right conditioner. I grew up in a Nigerian household, so they’re just like “Cut it short.” And I want to grow it out and get twists or something. I just want it to be longer. I want to see what that version of my character would look like and what that life would bring.

D.: Yeah, but it’s so hard to get it long, too. It takes so long. I feel like the best way to get Black hair long is just to get some twists or whatever. Then just start using some Cantu and stuff. That’s what I used to do. And that’s what my brother used to do too. And he had dreads down to (puts his hand at chest level) here. He was always using Cantu. Cantu was goated for Black people, lowkey, or just people who have thick curly hair in general. That’s ball knowledge for anybody that’s listening. 

I wish Black hair was even more malleable. Like you either get dreads or you get waves or you just have the shape up. Three options like a choose-your-own-adventure or a starter Pokémon.

IN: It’s like the four nations.

D.: Yeah, I had to choose a secret fourth option because I looked real chopped with the shape up. I’m too lazy to get waves. And dreads seemed like a lot of work.

IN: Dreads and waves both feel like a lot of work. I tried to get waves at one point, but I just was not committed enough to brushing. I feel like I was brushing so much and my hair was still not waving. It would wave for like one day and then disappear.

D.: Yeah, and it would go back! Yes! Dude, I tried it for a week in high school. I had the durag and everything. I was going crazy on the brushing, and it stayed for a little bit and went away. And I watched my brother try to get waves and that motherfucker’s always putting shampoo on his head, brushing, wrapping. I’m like “Holy shit, that looks like so much work.” Waves is probably lowkey one of the most intensive male hairstyles of all time. The amount of brushing that you might be doing day-to-day. Like I’m not remembering to do that. Respect anybody that got waves. That’s a lot of work.

IN: I salute them.

D.:  I salute because y’all in the trenches putting in actual work. Actual soldiers out here.

IN: The Navy. That’s why they’re called waves.

D.: That’s why they’re in the waves! I just remember my brother getting that shit. He doesn’t have them now, so he fell off. Couldn’t put in the work for that long, I guess.

IN: Bro drowned.

While trying to trace his lore and lineage, in lieu of Percy Jackson and Ship of Theseus references, I found myself trying to trace his mythology and family tree as well:

IN: If you were a demigod, who would your parent be?

D.: I think I’d like Hephaestus or maybe like Ares so I could be strong to protect myself and stuff like that. I’d mess with that. Hades would be cool too. One of those three.

IN: Are you really trying to be a child of one of the big three and not have to deal with all that?

D.: That’s when you got the most fun stuff going on. That’s when your life’s the most exciting. Like that’s when all the people are after you, and you gotta figure that shit out.

IN: Does that reflect how you live your real life? Like you’re always just doing things for the lore?

D.: Yeah, pretty much. If something comes along and I don’t really want to do it, I always tell myself in my head, “Oh, nah, I should just get this done, because it’ll be an experience.” So I’m kind of just doing whatever kind of crops up in my life, like, all the time.

While indecisive, the three guesses laid some clues as to the true answer: the fiery heart of Hephaestus, the eye of Hades, and the bitter passion of Ares. Amalgamating the traits, you find at the freshest branch of the Olympian family tree our indie demigod denn. — son of the Greek God Eros. Unlike the children of the Big Three that bend the elements to their will, denn. takes vectors of adoration into his own hands through his brand of heartthrob indie. His sound embodies the difference between melancholy and sadness.

IN: What would you call humanity’s top five inventions?

D.:  Radio. Internet. Satellite  Amazon Alexa or whatever. People have concerns like “Oh, it’s listening to me, blah, blah, blah,” but I don’t really care because my phone and everything else is already listening to me. And then cars or planes. It’s crazy distances that people used to be going on horses. You need to go to California and do this thing and it’s months gone. 

IN: Thank God you didn’t say AI.

D.: I can’t even think about having a kid when I feel AI is going to be really running the world and the economy and the environment and everything. What is there really for them?

IN: I think it was Zack Fox who said “I don’t want to have kids because of AI and Celsius.”

D.: Dude, I love Zach Fox. I also fuck with Kenny Beats heavy. That’s how I found out about Zack Fox. I think he worked on something recently?

IN: The Geese album.

D.: I’ve never seen the tweet, but that’s lowkey real.

IN: “Trinidad” just feels like a story about this white suburbanite family. The dad’s like, “I hate everyone here. I’m going to sit here in the car instead of going in to talk to my family because I hate everyone.” And you can tell he’s going to explode soon. That’s the whole theme of “getting killed by a good life.”

D.: That reminds me. Have you seen that band on TikTok everybody’s mad at? I forget what the name of the band is, but they’re from Connecticut, and they said, “I’m not afraid of Hell. I’m from Connecticut,” and everybody on TikTok was flaming them.

Again, like Orpheus, the CT indiehead has learned his lesson from balking at breakups in the past. Despite moving out of “Hell,” his main change has just been transitioning from writing long paragraph texts to writing relatable sad indie gems. The son of Cupid and I had been talking about love and relationships for a whole evening, but I wanted to confirm our definitions aligned before we continued.

IN: How would you define love?

D.: If I had to be honest, I think love is unconditional — like stupidity in a way. Like someone that you will love, like no matter what they do to you, what their purpose is in the world, what they’re doing to their family, their friends, like no matter what they are doing, you will always love them. And like it’s stupidly so. I would just say it’s like, it’s just unconditional stupidity.

IN: Do you feel like love is a verb or a noun? Like just a feeling or…?

D.: I couldn’t say. I would say I guess I could see it being either or depending on the person and the time and the place and what’s going on. I don’t think love is one specific thing. It’s different for everybody. I’ve had friends try to tell me, “My story of love with this person unfolded this way, so maybe you don’t actually love this person because you didn’t go through these things” or “To love someone, you have to do this and you have to be going through that and it has to feel like this.” I don’t think it’s a one-track thing. If I had to give it a shape, it would be a circle — which I find one of the most versatile shapes. I don’t think there’s one stop for how it’s supposed to be or feel. But I do feel like the one thing that stays constant is that it’s unconditional. Like you can’t really choose it. You can’t really choose who you fall in love with and how that shapes you as a person. It just kind of happens. And then you’re just kind of stuck with that. 

IN: Yeah, like you can be having the most perfect night with someone. Like they say movie dates suck because you don’t learn about people. But then you go to the movies and somehow you learn so much about this person, how they react to certain things, and how your lives are connected. But then when you think everything is going perfect, they’ll be like “You remind me of my ex.” But for some reason you still like them.

D.: Bro, I’ve heard crazy things on first dates. People be sharing way too much, sometimes. I once went on a date with a girl, and then she told me when she was in high school, she was trying to go all the way through the football team and she got like five deep. I’m like, “Whoa, we’ve gone on one date, ma’am. Why are you telling me this? That was a lot of details.” I don’t know. Romance is just in a weird spot.

IN: They say there’s plenty of fish in the sea, but it feels like there’s something wrong with the water.

D.: Yeah, there’s something wrong with like 90% of the fish as well.

IN: There’s plenty of fish in the sea, but there’s something in the water, and half the time there’s a drought.

D.: Yeah, like all the fish are literally contaminated. Every time I’m single, too, it feels so treacherous. And it’s just a lot of money too, so if it don’t go nowhere, you’re like, damn, “I just lost 60 bucks and I feel like shit.”

The world’s first date with denn. on his debut Cattle sees his myth just getting started. It took a lot to even get here, but the plot threads have yet to fully come together.

IN: Since you mentioned Twilight, have you heard of the butterfly effect from like 911 to MCR to Twilight to Fifty Shades of Grey?

D.: I have not, but I would love to hear how those are related.

IN.: I think it was just the angst surrounding 9/11 inspired Gerard Way to found My Chemical Romance. Then the author of Twilight wrote it based on the vibe of My Chemical Romance. And then Fifty Shades of Grey started out as a Twilight fanfic. So 9/11 is responsible for Fifty Shades of Grey.

D.: Oh my God, I didn’t even know that. Wait, that’s crazy.

IN: Do you have a similar butterfly effect in your life?

D.:  Yeah, I would say so. I think everything is a butterfly effect. I think everybody’s life is a butterfly effect. For me, making music is in part due to me hearing like 3 songs: “Freshman Year” by Isaac Dunbar when I was a lot younger, “Comfort Crowd” by Conan Gray — that was huge for me — and I think the final like nail in the coffin was “World’s Biggest Hypocrite” by Sabrina Sterling. Those three things are the butterfly effect that led me to doing music and made me think I can do this. When I heard the Isaac Dunbar song, I started thinking about production. When I heard the Conan Gray song, I started thinking about songwriting. And when I heard the Sabrina Sterling song, I started thinking about releasing.

I’m still in the middle of my butterfly effect right now. A lot of things I’ve done are like me trying to set up for things to come my way in the future for good energy and things to enter my life. And, you know, I’m not finished with the chain that I’m on right now from those 3 songs.

IN: Where do you see that butterfly effect taking you three years from now?

D.: A small apartment with a couple of friends and being able to just make music and not have to worry about outside factors. Just being in my own little corner and making my songs and writing and being able to eat and chill every day. But not be completely away from worry, because I think everybody needs a little worry in their life to evolve and be a person. But just enough conflict to where I’m not drowning or swimming with an ankle cramp. I want balance in my life to be able to do the things I love and just be quaint and quiet about it. Just in my own little corner.