From neurodiversity to queer anthems, Bryant’s Feast is a full-course rebellion.
Danica Bryant is carving her name into the pop landscape with fearless authenticity.
The Napier-born, Wellington-based artist blends playful indie pop with gritty rock undertones, delivering razor-sharp lyrics through a queer feminist lens.
Fresh off opening for icons like Elton John and riding high on the success of her NZ chart-topping single Acid, Bryant is gearing up to release her debut album, Feast. A bold exploration of hunger, identity, and unapologetic self-acceptance.
From dissecting celebrity culture to embracing her neurodivergence, Bryant’s music is as venomous as it is vulnerable.
In this candid interview, she dives into her creative process, the DIY charm of her visuals, and why Feast is the manifesto she’s been waiting to serve.
Happy: First up, what have you been up to today?
Danica Bryant: The cool musician answer is making the final edits to my new music video. It’s super glitzy and glamorous, I’m very excited!
And the nerdy answer is levelling up my Dungeons and Dragons character — it’s a great non-musical creative outlet for me right now :D
Happy: Tell us a little about where you’re from, and what you love about it!
Bryant: I grew up in the sleepy beach town of Napier, New Zealand, but I moved to the bigger city Wellington about five years ago. I feel a real kinship with both locations and call them each my home!
Napier has this small but mighty music community, and it’s all about long summer days, wineries and Art Deco. I love the town’s history and it is special to grow up where everyone knows everyone.
Bryant: But I’ve come of age in Welly, where there’s a lot more going on. I love that there’s always something new to discover and the community is definitely as weird and wacky as the city’s reputation suggests.
Happy: What inspired the title Feast for your debut album, and how does it encapsulate the themes of the record?
Bryant: ‘Feast’ is an album all about hunger, whether in the literal sense or more often as a physical desire for success, sexuality, celebrity and the intimacy of being understood.
I love that ‘Feast’ as a word encapsulates taking everything you want from life and enjoying it with no shame. I also thought it was a cute nod to queer culture, because I do think indeed this album eats!
And I’m feeding the audience well because it’s my first full-length record, as opposed to the bite-sized singles and EPs I’ve drip-fed them in the past.
Happy: How does Feast differ from your previous releases in terms of sound and lyrical depth? Were there any new influences or experiments this time?
Bryant: Making a full album gave me so much more room to experiment with the full soundscapes I’ve always wanted to explore.
With every release, my pop ideologies have become more polished, but ‘Feast’ also touches on more creative songwriting structures and genres like rock and folk with more depth than I have previously.
I also intentionally wanted the album to be a huge lyrical step up for me in terms of vulnerability and honesty. So much of the record is about aspects of my identity I’ve shied away from talking about publicly, particularly as a gay woman and an autistic person.
I realised the more real I was in my work, the more emotionally compelling it could be, and all the people who wouldn’t like it that I’d been so afraid of for so long weren’t the people who I wanted to be part of my musical community anyway.
I needed to open myself up for both my own personal growth, and to show people like me how beautiful and special our lives can be when we accept every part of ourselves.
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Happy: You worked with Julia Belle on Narcissist. What drew you to her for this track, and how did the collaboration shape the song?
Bryant: Julia is one of the first artists I met when I moved to Wellington, and her unique light, airy vocal and extremely raw songwriting style immediately drew me to her.
I actually posted the first verse of ‘Narcissist’ on TikTok a couple of years back and she was the only person who commented hyping me up! So when I eventually came around to picking songs for the album, I thought the more soulful groove made the perfect space for my first feature, and I thought she was the perfect fit.
Originally ‘Narcissist’ was written about my struggle to balance my needs as a neurodivergent person, which are often more complex and intense than a neurotypical person’s, against doing the right, socially acceptable thing.
My autism diagnosis as an adult made me hyperaware of how actions I take as self-care can be perceived as selfish to others. I also felt that it affected my dream to become a musician greatly.
Other people didn’t seem to understand the intensity of my passion for songwriting and performance. It could be a consequence of my black-and-white thinking that my entire purpose in life is to create.
Then I sent the demo to Julia, and she wrote this amazing second verse expanding on the themes of “narcissism” as a necessary trait to pursue a career in music.
I loved the tongue-in-cheek sass she brought to the table and it really fleshed out the song, shifting the meaning to be all about being a woman in pop. I absolutely love the outcome and as someone who finds it hard to collaborate with others, Julia gave me such a wonderful experience.
I couldn’t have asked for a better person to share it with.
Happy: The Narcissist video has a DIY, found-footage aesthetic. How do you approach visual storytelling to complement your music’s themes?
Bryant: I used to feel frustrated by music videos, because I wanted the writing to speak for itself and the visual side took so much effort. But for ‘Feast’ I made the conscious choice to give some sort of aesthetic for every single, since as a consumer I realized visuals only strengthen the music and make it more accessible.
So now I try to hone in on unique ideas that spin my lyrics in a new way. Sometimes it’s more budget-friendly, like with ‘Narcissist’ where the found-footage aesthetic was born from only owning a digital camera and having no money to cover anything beyond my partner and I filming in our own living room!
Other times when I feel the song demands a little more drama, I’ll reach out to trusted collaborators with a particular scene or outfit in mind, and we’ll flesh out a storyline from there together.
Colour palettes, mood boards and looks that spring to mind when listening to the song often kickstart the process.
Happy: With Feast being your debut album, did you feel any pressure to redefine your sound, or did you lean further into what you’ve already built?
Bryant: I’m a pop obsessed girlie and I very much see releases in “eras”, so if it were later down the line in my career I might feel the need to redefine my artistry, but since ‘Feast’ is my debut I felt it was important to make a statement that honestly defined my artistry right now.
Rather than making some drastic change, I tried to hone in on the ideas and themes I’ve always had and expand upon them. For instance, I’ve always loved 2000s culture, so I leaned into that for certain songs and promotional photoshoots.
Or another example, my music has always had a subtle rock edge, but certain songs on ‘Feast’ really let loose on that front in a bigger way than before. It’s all new, but in a way that honours the art I’ve wanted to make since I started writing as a kid.
Happy: Do you see Feast as a personal manifesto, a critique of the music industry, or something else entirely?
Bryant: ‘Feast’ embodies who I am right now in my life, and who I’ve always been. It does play with “pop star” tropes and ideas about celebrity and success in the music industry, but ultimately I wanted to make what I would make if I didn’t have to fit into anyone else’s boxes to achieve my goals.
To me it celebrates becoming an adult and stepping into myself with full confidence and power.
Happy: With Feast out soon, what’s next for you? Wore touring, new creative directions, or a well-deserved break?
Bryant: My band and I are touring New Zealand throughout August and September, with eight national dates to support the release of ‘Feast’! We’re also hoping to hit the summer festival circuit and keep rolling out visuals for ‘Feast’, so stay tuned!
Happy: Lastly, what makes you happy? :-)
Bryant: Britney Spears, drag shows, rollercoasters, black forest chocolate… And writing a song that even one person tells me matters to them. Cheesy, but true.
