Multi-talented Montreal native dee holt opened up the main stage at the second annual Sommo Festival on Friday, September 13, 2024 in Cavendish, Prince Edward Island.
Shortly after her performance, the 21-year-old singer caught up with SWOMP for an interview. Listen, below:
dee holt is no longer facing the wall. At just 20 years old, the Montreal-born singer and songwriter is opening up—to the indie-pop music industry, eager audiences, and, most of all, herself. What lies within is a marvel to behold.
Indeed, the first time dee performed in public wasn’t on a stage or record label boardroom. She was with her parents, who were meeting her boyfriend’s family. Encouraged to bring out her guitar, dee agreed to play, but it had to be facing the wall.
“When I turned around, everyone was like, ‘Oh my god, we weren’t expecting you to actually be good!’” dee laughs. Of course, dee’s natural ear for hooks has always been there—ever since childhood when she’d tape herself making up songs on her parents’ VHS camera. Now, dee is on the verge of releasing an intimate and hook-packed third EP, ‘loving in the dark,’ via Nettwerk Music Group.
At first, dee took things gradually, juggling school and two part-time jobs—she needed to ensure this was what she really wanted. Because COVID lockdown had prevented dee from having a proper high school commencement ceremony, her mother offered to fund a few studio sessions as a graduation gift. That’s around the time dee met Montreal producer Benjamin Nadeau, a family friend, and now the singer’s closest creative collaborator. “Had it not been for my parents, my friends, and my boyfriend, I would not have done it,” dee says of pursuing music. “I’m super grateful for everyone and everything.”
The industry, however, had other ideas. Upon releasing her first two singles, “Hardest Part” and “Olivia,” Spotify added them to their discovery-minded LOREM playlist. After signing with Nettwerk Music Group in 2022, dee released her debut EP, When I Close My Eyes, garnering millions of streams, numerous playlist covers, rave reviews, and even a Spotify billboard in downtown Toronto. The media also responded: Teen Vogue called dee “one to watch,” while SHEESH Media compared her vocals to the great Billie Eilish. Closing out 2023, dee gave a momentous debut performance at M for Montreal, which won praise from such Canadian press outlets as La Presse, Le Journal de Montreal, Cult MTL, RANGE, and more.
Today, dee is officially a full-time artist, embracing everything that comes with that title: spending time in songwriting and studio sessions, honing her live shows, and spearheading her creative direction; all dee’s album artwork and merch are self-drawn. “I’m really giving it my 100%,” dee says. “It’s kind of a different journey now, and I’m really enjoying it.”
dee’s steady evolution is immediately evident on her latest collection, which features five cohesive tracks—all written at different times—that span aesthetics, from eerie, Eilish-inspired productions to club-ready electropop and R&B. Created in close collaboration with Benjamin Nadeau and primarily written and recorded across Montreal, Nashville, and Los Angeles, loving in the dark grabs the listener with magnetic melodies and a relatable coming-of-age narrative.
Follow dee at https://www.deeholtofficial.com/.