Debbii Dawson Doesn’t Want To End Up Like Emily Dickinson

For her second EP, Debbie Dawson set herself a just about impossible task: figure out how to be human. Yet, the result, How To Be Human, doesn’t purport to have all the answers. Instead, it offers scenes and sentiments of a person simply trying to live in the world — torn between the comfort of solitude and the call of the unpredictable outside world.

One of her major inspirations for the album is Emily Dickinson, she tells me. After grappling with her own reclusive tendencies, Dawson dug into Dickinson’s life and work. In the end, she has resolved not to end up like Dickinson. So she leaned away from her desire to isolate and into her need to create. And we, the audience. are so lucky to reap the benefits.

How To Be Human follows her 2023 debut EP, Learning, a folk-tinged proclamation of her utterly unique singer-songwriter voice. The songs convey the stumbling first-steps of establishing one’s own personhood, filled with musings that are raw and never pedantic. Although the title was exploratory the songs hold clear truths about lessons learned. Dawson’s wisdom is inherited from legendary country songwriters like Johnny Cash and Patsy Cline while her ear for melody was honed by hymns and sharpened by classical music. The result is 70s-inspired folk-pop with songs fit for a cinescape. They’re songs of yearning, but also songs for dancing around your bedroom just to remind you that you’re alive.

Her eclectic influences get even more surprising as she tells me about her writing process — sometimes humming over dishes, sometimes inspired by art she’s consuming. Yes, the Dickinson, but also movies like Shrek. You’ve heard of a wall of sound? Dawson combines her unique musical background, diverse influences, and personal identities to create a tapestry of sound that cocoons its listener and welcomes them into her world.

How To Be Human doesn’t feel like a departure from Learning but a continuation, filled with the frenetic energy of someone who’s been still too long and is yearning for a life beyond their bubble. It’s the pressure, the build-up of energy before the release — which I hope we’ll get to experience in Dawson’s next project.

It’s thanks to this new energy, which manifests in disco-tinged production and anthemic synths, that we see a different side of Dawson as a vocalist, producer, and artist. The lyrics retain their tight intimacy but this nascent sound rattles alongside Dawson’s vibrato in satisfying chord progressions and soaring melodies.

When Dawson speaks, her answers come like her lyrics: concise and precise, but not at the expense of vulnerability. She reflects on themes like solitude, belonging, and multiplicity in her life and her music with specificity and universality. She doesn’t fall into cliches — she’s currently listening to Chinese classical music in her spare time, so nothing about her is run-of-the-mill — while also speaking to themes of connection and relatability.

Her groundedness is part of what makes her compelling as an artist, despite her success. She signed to RCA Records in April, joined Orville Peck on part of his Stampede North American Tour, and is slated for festival dates and a slot supporting Suki Waterhouse in September.