Those American Music Awards could have used a dash of Dessa last week.
The singer/rapper/poet would've been a delightful break from sundry pretentiousness. Her day will come — at better awards shows, no doubt — and when it does, authenticity will not be an issue for Dessa, who relishes the moment. The awesome Dessa brought it during our interview after a rehearsal for her recent, second, collaboration with the Minnesota Orchestra.
Early on, I asked, did she ever envision a day when she'd perform with the Minnesota Orchestra?
"No," she said, smiling. "No, I did not. When the e-mail first came from the orchestra from Grant [Meachum, director of Live at Minnesota Orchestra], I thought it was maybe spam. It was such a flattering request. It was so exciting to be asked to collaborate."
Dessa's work ethic guarantees that she arrives ready to play, which is just something else to admire as she cuts a path through the artistic world. The former CEO of Doomtree Records is brilliant, something I intuited before learning she was a high school valedictorian and a philosophy major in college, and that brightness illuminates her memoir, "My Own Devices: True Stories From the Road on Music, Science and Senseless Love." It is funny, heartbreaking, insightful and scientific, because she is a science geek. When told that one bookstore can't keep her memoir on the shelves, she said, "Thank you, Minnetonka Barnes and Noble. That's awesome."
When I let her know that I had learned Dessa is Latin or Greek for "wandering," there was a bemused arch of the eyebrow, from the woman born Margret Wander but now identified on her passport as Dessa Wander. She looked into the camera and playfully said, "Heeeey. What's up, research?" Here's Part 1 of our interview.
Q: You don't need a PR person because you are not hiding much?
A: I have to say this was a frank account, the book stuff. Even in the songs, I'm usually, like, pretty open emotionally, but it was different to write a book.
