Think of the words dutch pot

and the sturdy, staple cooking utensil bubbling with flavourful seasonings and

filling foods will come to mind. Now think of the words again, and instead

replace the ingredients with a blend of varied musical genres, cultivated and

packaged in a vessel just as relevant and resilient as the ‘dutchie’, and you’ll

get the projected essence of D’Yani’s upcoming EP, titled Dutch Pot.

The fusion singer serves as the

producer of the seven-track effort, which he has been labouring on for some

time.

“Dutch Pot is a

melting pot of my musical influences. It represents me as a musical being and

why I do music,” D’Yani told BUZZ. “I do all kinds of music,

not just reggae and dancehall, so the EP will have additional genres like

afrobeats, R&B, jazz, everything.”

He has high expectations for

the project, which he said has been more than two years in the making.

“I expect it to do really well;

I put a lot of work in it, nitpicking and getting live bands and everything

cause it’s 100 per cent self-produced,” he said. “I’m still trying to

finalise a release date, but at this moment, I’m just trying to get more buzz

so it doesn’t fall on deaf ears.”

To this end, the 28-year-old

recently released Wife Anthem, not the cliché lauding of women who

“wear the ring”, but a man professing his adulation for his spouse

and decision to commit to her before God, man – the whole shebang (a wedding

ceremony script used in the song audibly concretises things).

“It represents the guy’s

perspective on why he wanted to be involved or get married to his prospective

girlfriend, so other than sexual advances, the second verse speaks of how he

feels emotionally, and the third and fourth verses represent him proposing to

her, so it’s like a vow in a sense…this is the reason why I love you and want

to get married,” he said.

“This song has given me

the most female reactions so far, and surprisingly a lot of males like it

too.”

The visuals for another single,

Heaven Telegram, is expected to drop within a week, and D’Yani is also

orchestrating a tour.

“It’s something I’m

organising myself, and I’m looking to go to a couple places like Suriname and

Africa. I have a good fanbase in Kenya and Gambia,” he said.

Navigating the music business

as an independent artiste has not been easy for the singer who made music his

full-time career three years ago. He’s no complete stranger, having made an

impression with tracks like Give Away My Love, Realise and

DOH!, and he stays motivated by putting in the groundwork.

“At the end of the day,

nobody never know Michael Jackson when he was just starting, so it’s a process.

I’ve been putting in the work for quite some time and networking so it will

happen.”

And, having a loyal fanbase

doesn’t hurt.

“The majority of what I’ve

been doing is not just me, but friends who see the talent and chip in one and

two times,” he said. “This loyal fanbase gives me a strength, and

most of what is happening is because of people who genuinely want to see me

progress.”