Desarae Dee – Entering the mind of a creative overachiever

BY SIMONE J. SMITH

What makes our Woman Empowered different is her fearless mentality, along with her ability to genre bend and push musical boundaries. Her creative mind is very different from others in the industry as she functions outside of the norm to create an ultra-creative euphoria. There are people out there that support her unorthodox and unique sounds, and the team at the Toronto Caribbean Newspaper are a group of those people.

Her name is Desarae Dee and she is a solo Instrumental Fusion Artist. Some of you might be thinking, what is that exactly? Well, this talented artist is a Pianist/Keyboardist, Multi-Instrumentalist, Producer and Educator from Toronto, Canada and she has created her own lane in the music industry that has never been heard of in Canada. Most people have never heard of a Black woman pianist in Canada at that and especially one who plays instrumental Fusion music.

There isn’t much talk of instrumentalists putting out music in North America, regardless of race or gender. To be honest, you don’t hear much about the work of instrumentalists; people don’t seem to understand the amount of work, time, energy, and level of skill it takes. Music lovers in North America are used to hearing lyrics from vocalists and rappers, and for some reason there is not much interest in trying to understand anything different, especially when it comes to instrumental music.

Regardless, Desarae’s has overcome this lack of openness, and her grind has been in overdrive over the past eighteen months. After launching multiple critically acclaimed projects in 2020, she entered into a strategic music monetization brand partnership with RADIOPUSHERS, who have appointed Desarae as the Global Ambassador of MUSIC HYPEBEAST, an interactive broadcast platform for progressive emerging artists.

I had a chance to sit down and vibe with Desarae, and she shared with me her story of inspiration, triumph and of course, her love for music.

“I was born in Toronto, Ontario, to Jamaican and British/Indian parents. I have been told that I was very energetic, and a little extra. I would walk around with this fur jacket and purse that I still have. My dad is a musician, and he used to sing in a group. When I was four my parents noticed that I had a talent, and at six years old, I started to play piano.”

Her parents eventually put her into music school, but she tells me that she was a tomboy, and loved to run around, so music was not on her mind.

“What was missing for me was representation. At school no one looked like me, and the teachers could not connect with me. I was about nine years old, when my parents discovered that there was a Black lady who worked at the school. My parents immediately approached her about teaching me.

I was so frustrated the first day that I worked with her, and I will never forget when she asked me, ‘How are you feeling.’ For once someone cared, and that is when I blossomed. She would have me come in early when there were recitals to play for the parents as they were coming in. This is when I started to discover music outside of classical music.

I went to high school, and that was when it hit me; I was very good at this. People used to call me Alicia Keys, and they would request songs for me to play. I flourished in school, and I was the only girl in a jazz band.”

Desarae tells me about a visit to see her guidance councellor and what he told her,

“When you go to university, make sure that you are doing what you love. I will never forget that. I studied music for three years. It was a four-year program, but I excelled in my classes, so I finished it in three. I learned how to play violin, the trumpet, and now I play 15 instruments. I was going to write the LSAT’s, and I told my parents I didn’t want to go to law school. I wanted to do what I was inspired to do, so I decided to go to teacher’s college instead. The words of my guidance councellor remained with me, kept me focused.”

Even though she was following her desired path, her journey came with some challenges. She was the only Black student in teacher’s college at Western University, and she had to deal with racism, and prejudice attitudes.

“One day we were doing a partner assignment, and an emergency call came in, and the teacher called me out for being on the phone, when everyone else was on his or her phones. I nearly got kicked out of the program, it was a tough three months, but I pushed through and graduated.

I wanted to explore my musical talents, but I didn’t want to be like any other artist out there. It took some time to figure out who I was in music and how I wanted my sound to be.

In 2014, I started out with a single “I’ll Worship You,” to see how people responded. After recording that, I realized that I had a passion for producing instrumentals.

In 2016, I put out my debut EP “20,”and I also put out my Christmas project, and people really enjoyed it. In 2018 I had a very rough year. I went through writer’s block, and I was trying to figure out what more I could do. I almost quit music because I was not getting the support that I thought I deserved as a black woman who was producing instrumental music.

I realized that I was not tapping into all the gifts that I had. I relied on other people to help me get my songs out. I began experimenting with sounds, and I realized that I was sleeping on myself. I started to drop music, and then the pandemic hit. I kept creating. I wrote 150 songs in 2020. “Moments of Christmas,” was released in 2020 and it was an album of Christmas songs written by me.”

Desarae now teaches music, and she explains that being a music teacher in the system is different then being a private teacher.

“I don’t believe in grading students. How do you grade creativity? My goal is to open people’s eyes to the importance of music. It is a subjective art, but very empowering. I want to create a curriculum where kids enjoy music without the pressure of grades.

I wanted to be the one to take on a new path and smash all the barriers and ceilings. I’ve done the impossible and am still working to share my story with as many people as I can because I believe it’s important to celebrate Black women, especially musicians.”