Artist of the Month – Dvwn (다운) | Namaste Hallyu

Namaste Hallyu is excited to introduce to you our artist of the month, Dvwn!

Jung Da Woon goes by his stage name Dvwn (다운). He gained popularity via his SoundCloud and that triggered the start of his career. He debuted under Studio MOS and released his debut album, ‘Panorama’ in 2018 with five really soothing melodies, out of which, one them was a beautiful instrumental. At present he is signed with Koz Entertainment, a subsidiary of Big Hit Entertainment.

Koz Entertainment was founded by singer-songwriter, rapper, and record producer Zico, in 2019 and DVWN who is now a signee under this record label was also featured in Zico’s single ‘Being Left’ and recieved great reviews.

Besides his vocal skills, many record labels also reaches out to Dvwn including SM Entertainment that led him to contributing to EXO Lay Zhang’s “Mapo Tofu”, Chanyeol’s “SSFW” and most recently, SHINee’s new song, ‘Heart Attack’. He has also worked on songs like Eric Nam’s ‘Love Yourself’, Babylon’s ‘Karma’ and featured on Kang Daniel’s ‘Movie’ amongst others.

In 2017 his final song ‘Last’ which he was working on for his first album ‘Dawn Defibrillation’ was released on SoundCloud and this later became his debut song. In one of the interview, Dvwn stated, “I think it would be a nice song to listen it alone while sitting on an empty bench”. He also reached out to fellow SoundCloud artists like YAYYOUNG and Brighten/Light and explored in the dynamic of music. Songs like ‘Fairy’, ‘Insomnia’ ft. YAYYOUNG, and ‘Concrete’ ft. Cheeze along with other cover songs show that he is a pretty versatile singer with a deep passion to make “honest and simple music” as he pours out his heart in order to make it relatable for the people.

So what does Dvwn mean? Why did Jung Da Woon choose this as his stage name? The versatile artist explained that Dvwn originally was Dawn but he inverted the ‘A’ to make it a ‘V’; the meaning however stays the same as it is during the early morning when he makes music and feels energetic. He also said that since his Korean name is Jung ‘Da Woon’ which sounds similar to ‘dawn’ and fans kept addressing him as Da Woon, he got attached to it and wanted to keep his stage name similar to his real name.

DVWN has a deep passion to make music that one can resonate with. He derives inspiration from music and art forms/platforms. His album ‘Dawn Defibrillation’ was influenced and inspired by an English movie titled, ‘’Leaving La Vegas,’ an emotionally exhausting movie which speaks about light at the end of the tunnel. He in fact started making music as ‘Angel Eyes’, an original sound track from the movie really drove him. Tom Misch’s song called ‘Movie’ also influenced him while making an album.

If you are a sucker for soulful tunes and warm lyrics, DVWN is your stop. His singles – Last, Phobia, Home, and Fairy deal with themes like fairy-tale, utopia, fear, hope, hurt, love, separation, gives a lot of feelings altogether and the lyrics will draw you closer.

‘Last’ is about separation where he sings about his last time with a certain person and how the bring memories are fading slowly. ‘Fairy’ is about paradise and he wishes to go there holding hands. ‘Home’ is an English song by him and it’s lyrics are really sweet as he sings about his definition of home and how he will be one. ‘Phobia’ hits different. The lyrics portray holding on to hope but still doubtful, especially when there’s no one around. This is one of his best songs. Some of his best collaborations ‘Concrete’ ft, CHEESE, featuring in Zico’s ‘Being Left,’ and ‘Burn the Memories ft. Giriboy.

Koz Entertainment never fails to impress us with their MVs. Each MV has a story and amazing metaphors that speak DVWN’s mind and heart. In ‘Burn the Memory, we see how he’s trapped in a circular fish tank and every time he removes it, featuring artist Giriboy puts on him a new tank. Even after Giriboy is attacked, he still comes back to trap him. It looks like DVWN portrays himself as person who is ‘stuck’ but the feeling or the reason for being stuck is unclear, this is probably because he wants the audience to put themselves and their problems here.

If you thought that was a little too serious, Concrete’s MV took a turn and turned out to be a cute, stop-motion animated love story between a bee and a flower. The bee tries to cheer up the flower by taking him outside and showing him the beauty of the outer world. A very notable thing here is that the bee is a female while the flower is a male, this breaks the stereotype that flowers are “feminine.” The two lovers create a beautiful world around them and live happily. With the beautiful vocals of Dvwn, this is such a heart-touching MV!

Also, check out the Stay at Home version as it is probably one of the most relatable in our present day scenario as the video is just about staying home and having a mundane life. The video is however accompanied with his lovely vocals so, there’s nothing not to love!

Dvwn has also done a few covers and received appreciation from IU! She put up a post for him on Instagram. Check out the link below!