Rapper and Producer Duo, Dave B and Sango, Discuss Their Slice of the Seattle Music Scene in Music Genesis
Dave B and Sango share many common threads – including their Seattle roots, strong musical influences from family members, and, most importantly, their mutual admiration for each other’s work that led to their collaboration. What started with a few DM’s and a handful of shared beats evolved into the two of them in Dave B’s mom’s house carving out their niche in Seattle rap. This episode of Visit Seattle’s Music Genesis series explores the individual musical styles of Dave B and Sango, their collaboration, and their song “Melodies From Heaven II” that was born out of it.
“A musician of sorts” is how David Bowman — better known under his stage name Dave B, describes himself. This description feels appropriate for an artist whose musical education came from immersing himself within different types of art and performance from a young age. His father, who ran a gospel radio show at a local Seattle station, served as Bowman’s introduction to music and sparked his passion for art. Bowman recalls growing up “surrounded by art in the city” and how he met most of the people in his life. With his constant exposure to music at home and from trips to the radio station with his father, it is no wonder that performance came naturally to him. Memories of theater camps, summer musicals, and performing at the Langston Hughes Performing Arts Center in Seattle come to mind when Bowman recalls his childhood. When he finally decided to make his own music, Bowman turned to his network in the arts in Seattle and found the people he needed to meet to make his dream a reality. His musical journey involved “riding the bus to studio sessions” and constantly trying to “link up” with the people he wanted to make music with the most. This grind and dedication to his craft has helped Bowman amass tens of millions of streams across his music, gained him a feature on a hit pop artists song (that now has over 48 million streams), and secured him a set at Seattle’s former KeyArena.
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A music producer’s job is often overlooked or thought of as a behind-the-scenes aspect of music and song creation, but for Kai Wright—also known as Sango—producers are the therapists of the music industry. To Wright, his job as a producer is to “dissect what the artist is gonna create” and find all the components with them. In fact, Wright does not define himself by just one title; he sees himself as a “producer, graphic designer, audio engineer” and “every type of artist you can think of.” Growing up in Seattle’s South End, his earliest memories of music were of his grandfather, a percussionist, coming to his house and lining Wright and his cousins up with pots and pans to “practice how to stay on rhythm.” A childhood household full of music shaped the artist that Wright is today with a goal to always “totally wow” his audience. At around 11 years old, Wright moved from Seattle to Michigan and he remembers missing the rich diversity of Seattle that exposed him to so many different cultures at a young age. Returning to Seattle later in life was essential to his music career because of the culture in the Seattle music scene where successful local artists often return to Seattle to help and mentor younger generations.
Since returning to Seattle in 2015, he has been able to work with top recording artists across a variety of genres, and his music has earned over a million monthly listeners. His return to Seattle also enabled him to finally meet and collaborate with Bowman.
Initially, Bowman was attracted to Wright’s ability to blend different styles and genres into one cohesive sound. Wright was drawn to Bowman’s skill for taking “himself outside of what’s typical on purpose” and the individual sound he created. That is what these two artists brought to “Melodies From Heaven II”, blending their styles and turning some of their typical practices on their heads. Bowman abandoned melodies and stuck to mainly rapping for this track, while Sango took the original beat for the song and flipped it to create something new and fresh.
There was a snowstorm in Seattle when they sat down to work on the song. Wright, who has synesthesia, feels that that darkness and grit came through in the music, defining what it is about. To Wright, this song is an ode to Seattle and to “how underlooked we are as a city,” whether it be “culturally to music, to art, to sports, to whatever – we’re the underdog and we’re always proving people wrong.” Bowman has a very similar story when recalling working on the song as he was trying to create “the hardest sounding, kind of grimiest sounding thing and give it a pretty title” to emulate that “grungy dark music” that has become synonymous with the Seattle music scene. Both artists spoke about how the city of Seattle, either consciously or subconsciously, finds its way into the art and music that is created here and this song is their interpretation of the city.
These two artists trailblazing in the Seattle music scene have created their own version of Seattle music. Wright said “Seattle rap is real and it’s different; it doesn’t sound like one thing” and that perfectly describes the Seattle music scene as a whole. The modern Seattle music scene is not just one type of artist, music genre, or venue. Wright’s Seattle music scene is performing at venues across the city, looking out into the crowd and seeing friends and people he grew up with supporting him and the emotional rush of that experience. Bowman’s idea of the Seattle music scene isn’t complete without historic venues like The Crocodile, where he played some of his first shows for little to no pay and often with an audience of 10 of his friends (although he could always count on his mom also being there). He was up for anything to get on stage and pursue his passion in the city that helped foster his love for music. Bowman and Wright both frequented Ruby Room Studios in Seattle to record and create music, but their musical inspiration extends outside of the studio and into the city itself. For Wright, that can look like spending time with his family at Genesee Park on Lake Washington or stopping by Fat’s Chicken and Waffles for a home-cooked meal. Wright and Bowman both know the owner of Fat’s Chicken and Waffles, Mrs. Erica, whose son is one of their friends and they all make music together. It’s just another example of how deeply rooted the Seattle music scene is in communities and families.
Bowman and Wright shared the sentiment that Seattle’s music scene is overlooked and not widely seen as the hub for culture and music that it has proved to be. Luckily this has done nothing to deter their creative drive. In fact it has pushed them to prove people wrong and share with the world what makes Seattle so special. With their unique musical styles, rich and diverse communities, and Seattle-infused perspectives, these two have a lot to share.
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