Origin Story: Di-Livyo

Ivan has been working with D-Livyo for many months now. DL is a young Chagossian living in Crawley who is confined to a wheelchair. This is Ivan’s report of how he worked with DL.

We produced 3 instrumentals all together. DL picks the instrumentation and advises how he’d like them to interact with each other. We first start with the genre which on all occasions has been Afro Beats. This style of music resonates with DL and finds he’s able to reflect more of his culture in the music. Production sessions usually last for a session or two unless DL wants to make major changes. 

Once the backing instrumentals were complete, Dl chose one he thought was more suitable based on the theme of the song he’d want to write. He’d settled on an origin story which he felt was necessary for every artist. 

He’d mentioned in sessions previously that he didn’t have the easiest upbringing due to his family’s financial circumstances. He had also felt resistance from people when he’d told them of his dream to be a recording artist. Due to these factors he felt compelled to tell his story and give hope to others. 

We spent the next few weeks writing the song. But first, he had to divulge all the information he wanted to be part of the song. We then picked out key moments and phases we used as a template for writing. 

Because of DL’s learning difficulties, finding rhymes and keeping to the topic was quite challenging for DL. But he persisted and understood it was a difficult skill that needed repetition. 

Once writing was complete, we staged a rehearsal so DL could get comfortable and confident with the lyrics. During this process DL made it clear that his speech impediment was holding him back. I advised DL he should repeat the process until he is comfortable with just the tone of the lyrics. We’d address the speech issues during the recording. 

Over the next few weeks, we were in the recording stage. DL had improved vastly and was full of confidence but was still worried about messing up. We therefore decided that the best way to achieve consistency in his speech was to record line after line. He’d do several takes of a particular sentence in the verse and we’d extract the best one. This is a fairly lengthy process but for DL this was the best way to achieve something professional sounding which was the main objective for DL. 

We had 3 recording sessions, followed by a mixing and mastering session as DL was interested in how the tracks go from raw recordings to finished radio ready tracks, 

DL has been very engaged throughout and loves the fact that he’s able to pursue his dream. 

Lyrics

Son of the sun, sea and palm trees
lord has sprinkled his blessings on me
Even on the nights when my belly was empty
When I cried I cried so softly
Mama said dry your tears for me
We gonna go to a land that’s foreign
Where you’ll find your peace
And calling
I’d sacrifice myself
I’m all in

13 but I only had a push chair
Let’s see if anybody would care
My dream is to have another good year
Never mind if we stuck in the hood yeah

Four in a bed
Can’t lift a leg
The pain alone
Made my eye turn red

All of the stress
I carry on my chest
Meant in life
I lost interest

Hold on to me tight
Don’t let go
Until we take the flight
Mama said so
I’m hoping that you right
I’ve suffered OH
They just wanna feed on my soul