Your EDM Review: Velvet Winter – Diamond Daydreams [Video]

Earlier this year, Your EDM introduced the dance community to Talon Majors, also known as Velvet Winter, as one to watch for her unique brand of vocal EDM and powerful, emotive vocals. Her first single, “Crystal Heart”, had a heavy, dubstep-laced beat with a rock and roll twist, spiritually-charged lyrics and an ethereal, beautifully shot video. Her newest single, “Diamond Daydreams” has an equally gorgeous video, but the song itself is quite different stylistically from “Crystal Heart”, and will likely surprise her many new fans.

Production-wise, for “Diamond Daydreams”, Majors teamed up with Andrew Fruze and Todd Bergman, both of whom worked on “Crystal Heart”, and indeed the production values on this track have the same crisp, clean edges and techno-inspired synth punches as the first single. That said, “Diamond Daydreams” has a much more pop sound and structure than “Crystal Heart”, though it still has the hard edge of a powerful dubsteppy beat and some rock flourishes.

Lyrically, “Diamond Daydreams” packs just as much of an emotional punch as “Crystal Heart.”  Majors is a quite vocal advocate for mental illness awareness, and she has said about this track, “Diamond Daydreams is an anthem for anyone who’s had to fight their way to their life goals. The song tells the story of a girl who’shad a rough journey, takes the lessons she’s learned along the way and forms them into metaphorical diamonds to propel herself forward. The song is very personal to me, as I wrote it during a very difficult time in my life.” It’s quite an inspiring song and story, and doesn’t follow the usual cookie-cutter message for following one’s dreams; Velvet Winter acknowledges that following one’s dreams can be difficult, painful and bring on difficult times, but then declares she still believes in the human ability to transcend difficulty to achieve one’s heart’s desire.

With the first two singles under her belt, it seems that Velvet Winter has begun to establish herself as a hard-hitting artist with a somewhat pop aesthetic but who also doesn’t pull any punches when it comes to being emotionally honest in her music. The dance community should look forward to more emotive yet danceable tracks from this Los Angeles-based artist. “Diamond Daydreams” is available to stream or purchase on Spotify.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vDTaO5F8JC4