singer, writer, and rapper Dessa shared her new video and single “I Already Like You.” The upbeat summer jam is the sixth and final installment of Dessa’s IDES single series — the project saw Dessa dropping new music on the 15th of each month. “It’s been a long year, man,” says Dessa. “Never wrote one before, but 2021 called for a sexy summer driving song. Windows down, volume up, and maybe a wave for the cute driver one lane over.”
IDES is the product of collaborations between artists working from their home studios across the country, trading sound files, snapshots, and voice memos. In a world without touring (a world that Dessa wrote about in The New York Times Magazine), Dessa says the song series is designed to deliver music in regular installments — new art to look forward to every month. The title of the series nods to the ancient Roman calendar, ides being a day that falls roughly in the middle of each month. Previous IDES singles “Rome,” “Bombs Away,” “Life On Land,” “Terry Gross,” and “Talking Business” have been praised by many including The A.V. Club, Earmilk, Brooklyn Vegan, American Songwriter, Our Culture Mag, V Magazine, Under The Radar, and FLOOD Magazine.
Dessa has made a career of bucking genres and defying expectations—she’s performed at Lollapalooza and Glastonbury, co-composed for a 100-voice choir, contributed a song to the “RBG” documentary soundtrack, appeared on the Billboard charts as a solo artist and a member of the Doomtree hip hop collective. She’s written for The New York Times and National Geographic Traveler, presented a TED talk with more than 2 million views, and in 2018 published a memoir titled My Own Devices. Her most recent full-length record Sound the Bells was recorded live with the GRAMMY award winning Minnesota Orchestra.
On June 25th, Dessa will premiere On the Line, a new radio play produced by 45North. The play was written by Dessa, directed by Jessica Rose McVay, and stars Emily Carewe, Dessa, and Ross O’Donnellan with sound design and editing by Tony Gayle. The premiere comes alongside a virtual live reading and and Q&A, tickets to the early show and late show are on sale now.
Dessa has also announced three concerts for next month: two back-to-back shows at the Turf Club in St. Paul (both of which sold out in under a minute) and a free set at the Stern Grove Festival in San Francisco on July 11th, opening for Thievery Corporation. She’ll be announcing a slew of U.S. tour dates soon.
Dessa also hosts a new series on science and human behavior called Deeply Human that’s already broken into the Top 100 on the Apple Podcasts chart. A collaboration between the BBC, American Public Media, and iHeartRadio, the series airs on the BBC World Service and is available as a podcast on all major platforms. The first season—12 episodes in total— features surprisingly intimate interviews with leading scientists and researchers, presented in Dessa’s funny, writerly style. Together they chase down answers to questions like, “Why do we get Deja Vu?” “Why are we attracted to symmetrical faces?” and “Why do we listen to sad music?”.