The Toronto Pop artist and Singer/Songwriter Dani Kristina releases her most vulnerable song to date with, "You Don't Get to Choose." A powerful pop-ballad surrounding themes of making your own decisions towards love. Dani has written over 600 songs as a teenager, honing her skills to become the powerful and impactful Singer/Songwriter she is today. Trained as a classical pianist and vocalist, Dani will undoubtedly mesmerize you with one listen.
Her latest single, "You Don't Get to Choose" gives listeners a taste of reality while the surrounding production induces chills from each melodic instrumental. Not to mention Dani's vulnerable and heartfelt lyricism, she faces reality with strength on this piece.
"You Don't Get to Choose" opens with melancholy piano melodies and Dani's honest lyrics. Her naturally captivating vocals add this deep aspect to the song, while she spills her heart and sings of the woes that haunt her.
Around the chorus, celestial violins appear and create this cinematic masterpiece that fully supports Dani's heavy lyricism. She continues to sing of an unhealthy relationship where her trust has been lost, and towards the final hook, Dani pushes her empowering message of doing what's best for yourself. Ending the song off with this powerful sensation given by the instrumentals and Dani dominant vocals, we can't express how authentic and genuine "You Don't Get to Choose" really is.
We highly appreciate the powerful lyrical content you've created with "You Don't Get to Choose." Could you tell us what it was like to open up and be so vulnerable when writing your heavy lyrics?
Opening up is always a little bit nerve-wracking, but I always find that when I’m writing, words just seem to flow out. This song poured out of me, and I ended up finishing it in a couple of minutes. The lyrics you hear on the final track are the same ones on the voice memo when I first wrote it. When there’s something I’m feeling, I’m compelled to put it down on paper, not necessarily for any other reason except to understand what I’m feeling.
We're presuming that you came up with the song's theme through your own life experiences. When did you realize that you needed to release these emotions through music? What pushed you to create this track?
I’ve been writing about my life since I was about 5 years old, and it’s always been my favorite way to let out my feelings regarding just about anything. Writing really helped me through some of the most confusing times in my life, and it’s still the first thing I go to when I want to collect and process my thoughts. This song in particular was inspired by a lot of things. When I first started writing this song, I was definitely thinking about my own experiences with certain people and sorting through my feelings about that, but eventually, I realized that this theme might resonate with other people. That’s when the meaning of the song shifted for me, and the more people I played it for, the more I realized I should put it out for others to listen to.
We love the dynamic instrumentals within "You Don't Get to Choose," as they reflect our inner dynamic emotions. How did you create the instrumentals to reflect your passionate lyricism?
When I was creating this track, it was just me and a piano, and I felt like that simplicity really contributed to the vulnerability of the track. As we got into the recording process, I worked alongside Julijana Hajdinjak to come up with instrumentation that was non-vocal, but also similar in quality to the human voice! The song as a whole is kind of this lament, so we wanted to keep the arrangement growing as the track went on. The song is so vulnerable overall, and we really wanted to keep it sounding raw, but also empowering. This led us to add a choir to the end as well, to symbolize this collective feeling people have when they share a certain sentiment.
We've heard that "You Don't Get to Choose" is a preface to your upcoming EP. Does the forthcoming project surround similar themes that you touched on within this single? Why did you choose to release this track as a single prior to the project?
I definitely think “You Don’t Get to Choose” encompasses the overall journey that my upcoming EP, “Aura”, will explore. There’s a lot of depth and sadness to the metaphors I use throughout the project, but there’s also a sense of resolution and acceptance that comes about as you move on through the tracks. I released this one in particular before the rest of the project, because it hints at the sort of metaphorical songwriting I use to tell my stories throughout “Aura”. I also think this one is most socially relevant right now, with everything going on, I felt like it really summed up my feelings.
What has been keeping you inspired in 2020?
Honestly, I’ve been inspired by everything lately, but it hasn’t been like that all year. When the year started, I was consumed by a lot of different thoughts and emotions, and I took a bit of a hiatus from any creative work until it felt natural to do so again. The uniqueness of this whole 2020 situation has really made it possible for us to be left alone with our feelings, which has had a lot of different effects, but it’s also given me an opportunity to let my imagination run wild. It’s definitely been a challenging year for many of us, but I’ve found comfort in creating. Having all this time to myself has made me look back on so many moments in my life, and that’s what’s been inspiring so much of my writing.