Meet DaChri
So I grew up in Detroit. I was raised pretty conservatively. I don’t have any musicians in my family but growing up in Detroit my dad introduced me to some great music and musicians. I’m talking the Jackson 5, Michael Jackson, The Temptations, The Four Tops, The Supremes and the like. We both really loved BoyzIIMen. Michael Jackson was the biggest deal to not just me but my dad, my cousins, the kids at school, pretty much everyone at the time. Such great melodies and such great songs and an incredible performer. Then I remember being introduced to rap and rock through MTV and my mind was blown. These sounds were very opposite of what I was used to. The pain and turmoil they were feeling were being expressed in ways that I had never really heard at that age. I remember hearing 2pac, Biggie, Ruff Ryders, No Limit and such and being real captivated by their grit and swag. Then I was also listening to rock like Linkin Park, Hoobastank and Incubus. Then on the other side you had mainstream pop music which seemed to be the polar opposite. NSync, Backstreet Boys, Craig David, Usher, etc. Light, catchy, easy to repeat the songs after the first listen and I was in love with all of it. Different days meant different moods. I had all this music swirling around in my brain and I didn’t know what to do with it.
At 15 I wrote my first song. I wrote the words and the melody and would just sing it a cappella. Then I started writing more and more and then some. My grandmother had gotten me a guitar when I was 13 for Christmas but it just collected dust under my bed at this point so every song I would just imagine what the music would sound like. When I was 18 I went into the studio for the first time. I met up with a producer and told him my ideas. I sang the words and melodies I had come up with and he put music under them. It was a life changing moment for me. From then on you would never catch me not in the studio. A year later I would pick back up my guitar and start digging into chords and actually putting my own music to my lyrics and melodies. From there I started getting singer songwriters and indie rock. Artists and bands that used their voices and guitars to make a statement. Artists like Jason Mraz, John Mayer, Indie Arie, Manchester Orchestra, Parachute. Anybody that had a guitar and sang no matter the genre I was all for it.
Fast forward a few years and I find myself trying to implement all the music I loved growing up, with how I write songs, how I see life and where I want to go. This is where you get the crazy mash up that is DaChri.
Ha, if it is was smooth it wouldn’t be worth it to me. I think the bumpiest part has been navigating what my actual sound is. This is the part I love though so bumpy is cool with me. Smooth is overrated in my opinion. What would be the fun in that?
I am a singer, songwriter and rapper. I write songs that mean something to me and hopefully they mean something to other people. I also have been writing for others. I guess my most proud moments are when songs I’ve written in my bedroom that I never thought anyone was going to hear get out and people are really into them. Other proud moments would be when I write a song for someone else and they instantly attach to it.
Success for me is when people are connecting and engaged with the music that I am creating. I would love to do music full time and travel the globe with these songs but if I only stay semi-local and play to a few hundred people every month that are really invested in what I do that’s still living the dream. Success doesn’t always equate to dollar signs. It can but not for me. Not when it comes to my art. I get more fulfillment out of writing and performing songs 12-14 hours a day than I do anything else so the more I can do this the better. The more love and peace I can spread through my music the more I feel accomplished. I’m just going to keep writing, keep creating and keep elevating. Hopefully people will keep coming back.
