New Music Report: Emerging Artist of the Week - Dagny

Dagny. There's no doubt you've been seeing her name lately. The pop singer from Norway has been making noise with her new single "Wearing Nothing," but you've probably heard her music before. An acoustic version of her debut single "Backbeat" was featured on an episode of Grey's Anatomy. The song is from her debut EP released last year in September 2016 via Republic Records, which also features a collaboration with BØRNS called "Fool's Gold." 

Now having brought her music to America, and toured around the country, she's working on more music to share with the world, and "Wearing Nothing" is just the beginning. 

"Wearing Nothing" holds a few different meanings, one being the most literal. But the lyrics go deeper. In the chorus Dagny sings, "Nothing at all/When I'm with you I feel like wearing nothing." But "wearing nothing" doesn't necessarily mean being naked or next to naked -- it's also about being bare and open in a relationship. She tells iHeartRadio:

"We wanted to write about that feeling you get when you meet someone that you just want to be completely open with and completely bare with. I think for me, it's quite a rare feeling, it doesn't happen all the time, and I think it's such as strong feeling as well. So we're obviously playing on this idea of being completely without any clothes, or even that a piece of thin clothing is too much space in between. It's actually just about wanting to open up and show everything about yourself to someone."

Dagny describes her music as "band driven, energetic pop music," and says that it's a real art to make a good pop song -- an idea not a lot of others realize. She explains, "Making a good pop song really is not [so easy]. Everybody's like 'oh, it's so simple,' but it's not. It's difficult. I think there's such a fine balance. For example, for me, I'm definitely a melody girl. I always work with music and the melody first, and then I work with the lyrics, but I'm still so specific. If the lyric is right, it's so right, and it just speaks to you, and if it's not right, then it's definitely not right. So, it takes a lot of time. We always spend a lot of time just really getting it right and finding it."

Being someone who creates pop music, Dagny is influenced by many people outside of the pop world, like Ryan Adams, especially on the songwriting side. 

"I'm also Ryan Adams fan, which is actually very different for what [music] I make, but I love Ryan Adams, I love Joni Mitchell and First Aid Kit and a lot more kind of country, even a bit more rock, and that's where I like it. Most of my inspiration actually," she explains. "Someone like Ryan Adams, the way that he does his lyrics, you listen to it and even though you haven't necessarily experienced it, you can just feel all of it because he just managed to say it in such a brilliant way."

Having toured the country and released her music in America, Dagny calls it "a dream come true." She tells us, "Coming to America from growing up in a small town in northern Norway, it's so exotic and exciting and completely different. So it's really fun and actually the music scene is quite different. I think all these different territories have their own sound -- like Scandinavia and England and the UK and America. I do think that my music really works in America."

She adds, "I feel like here in America, you're not really scared of super pop music. So, I feel like there's a lot of pop music and great inspirations for me to be here."

What's next for Dagny? While fans can currently catch her around the festival circuit, and also heading back to Europe to tour. BUT, she's also working on new music. She explains, "We're going to be releasing a lot more [music]. We're just in the middle of a festival summer now and we're doing 33 shows all over Scandinavia and Europe. And then we're going to be releasing a lot more music and hopefully come back [to America] pretty soon."

Photos: Rachel Kaplan