Doomtree's Dessa unlocks the secrets behind her Badly Broken Code

D: If you put it in hours, it'd be a reasonable amount of hours, but if you measure those in years it's an embarrassing amount of years, in part because of the neurotic re-recording. You know when you are at a perfume shop, and your nose gets exhausted so they hand you a little jar of coffee? Trying to be a performer and the producer at the same time is not a skill that comes effortlessly to me, because my ears exhaust themselves in the same way that your nose gets fried. So for me it really helps to have somebody good around to say, "That's the take, that sounds good" or, "That does not sound good."

AVC: You've put out an album under Doomtree's "bootleg" False Hopes series, and collaborated on Doomtree's group record and other members' solo work, but this is your first official solo album. How does it differ from the other work you've done?

D: On the first projects, on my first False Hopes, I was excited but terribly nervous. In subsequent projects, collaboratively, I think everybody kind of finds the spot where our styles comfortably overlap to make a collaborative project. I think I have a better idea of what I'd like to do as a lyricist [on Code]. The album itself is very varied, in that there's some tracks that are a cappella, kind of churchy songs, some tracks are rap bangers, and some songs are melancholy, kind of a torch vibe.

AVC: Collaborating in Doomtree, do you run into creative arguments, or does it tend to go smoothly?

D: It neither goes smoothly nor is it riddled with arguments. I think the producers are really good at collaborating effortlessly, but the rappers in Doomtree, because we're accustomed to having total artistic control, it's still a new and difficult process. It isn't difficult because we're fighting, but it's difficult because we don't know what we're doing sometimes. How do we make this song sound cohesive without me moving into your house for four days to try to get it done? I think that's the challenge that a lot of rappers have, because songwriting in rap music is so modular. You get your 16 [bars] and I get my 16, and we have a hook. … So for us, it's been laborious but not argumentative.

AVC: A Badly Broken Code will also be your first foray into starring in music videos. What was the experience of making the video for the song "Dixon's Girl" like for you?

D: I really lucked out, because Doomtree certainly does not have the budget to make a proper, professional, polished music video, and we lucked into some artists that were willing to give us that on an indie, shoestring budget. … The narrative had been about a woman that I met while traveling, and you don't meet very many female performers in the hip-hop scene. So, when you do, and you like them, it's an exciting, kind of kindred moment, because it's a few years in between each visit usually. The video is the first one that I've ever seen of myself; I was excited and embarrassed. I had underestimated the challenge of it. It's almost like when you see actors go from stage to film. Sometimes their performances are so nauseatingly hyperbolic. [Laughs.] I think initially my performance on playback revolted me, because I seemed so histrionic, so dramatic and over-the-top. I feel like I'm trying to project my feelings to an audience two feet away. I certainly don't need my eyebrows to go up to my hairline to express surprise. So, for me it was a re-education in nuance, which is what I love in lyricism.