walking upstream…
d4vd
sourcesBillboard — d4vd on wanting to work with Deftones' Chino Moreno, plus Radiohead/Smiths references · NME — d4vd on his strict gospel-music childhood household · Rolling Stone — WITHERED review describing "Sky"'s guitar-driven alt-rock sound · Wikipedia — d4vd biography, genres, and years active · Ones To Watch — on the phone-and-closet recording of "Romantic Homicide"
d4vd (David Anthony Burke) tracked "Romantic Homicide" on an iPhone in his sister's closet in 2020 and watched the hushed, reverb-soaked breakup song turn him into one of the first TikTok-born singer-songwriters to cross into mainstream indie rock, followed almost immediately by the platinum "Here With Me." Raised on strict gospel and jazz until his early teens, he found his own voice after a detour through SoundCloud rap and the indie-rock discoveries of his Fortnite-montage years, blending lo-fi pop, R&B, and indie guitar into a sound distinctly his own. His 2025 debut album WITHERED pushed that palette toward a bigger, more guitar-forward '90s alt-rock sound, and he now names Frank Ocean as his chief creative touchstone.
the sound in question
2022
Romantic Homicided4vd
walk the tributaries ↓
Steve Lacy2020s · Alternative R&B / Funk / Indie rock
Asked directly about his influences, d4vd grouped Steve Lacy with Clairo, Dominic Fike, and Deftones as the artists who shaped his 2022-2023 records, and said he wants to reach the same level as Lacy "in indie culture." The plucked-guitar, close-mic'd-vocal intimacy of "Romantic Homicide" — a song literally recorded on a phone in a closet — sits in the same bedroom-pop lineage Lacy pioneered with his own iPhone-recorded demos.
listen: upstream & heresource: Vibe — d4vd names Clairo, Dominic Fike, Steve Lacy, Deftones as 2022-23 influences and Frank Ocean as his current inspiration ↗
2017
Dark RedSteve Lacy
2022
Romantic Homicided4vd
listen forListen for the unhurried, unadorned guitar figure that carries the whole track and a vocal that stays close and underproduced rather than reaching for a big pop hook — the bedroom-recording aesthetic left intact instead of polished away.
Frank Ocean2010s · Alternative R&B / Hip hop
d4vd has said plainly, "nowadays, Frank Ocean is a big inspiration of mine." The dreamy, reverb-heavy atmosphere and wordless post-chorus "oohs" on "Here With Me" recall the hazy, layered-vocal intimacy Ocean built on Blonde highlights like "Ivy."
listen: upstream & heresource: Vibe — d4vd names Clairo, Dominic Fike, Steve Lacy, Deftones as 2022-23 influences and Frank Ocean as his current inspiration ↗
2016
IvyFrank Ocean
2022
Here With Med4vd
listen forListen for the spacious reverb and the way the mix leaves room around the voice instead of filling every gap, plus the wordless vocal loops standing in for a hook — a private, late-night confession rather than a built-for-radio chorus.
Deftones2000s · Alternative metal / Nu metal / Art rock
d4vd has named Deftones among the artists who shaped his earlier records and has said of frontman Chino Moreno, "I want to work with Chino so bad. So bad." That pull toward heavier, guitar-forward atmosphere surfaces on WITHERED's "Sky," which critics singled out for its "fusillade of pungent guitar" — a rockier swell that stands apart from his earlier bedroom-pop material.
listen: upstream & heresource: Vibe — d4vd names Clairo, Dominic Fike, Steve Lacy, Deftones as 2022-23 influences and Frank Ocean as his current inspiration ↗
2000
Change (In the House of Flies)Deftones
2025
Skyd4vd
listen forListen for the wall of overdriven, atmospheric guitar and the dynamic lift from a hushed verse into a bigger, heavier hook — the quiet-to-loud swell Deftones built their sound around, filtered here through indie rock rather than metal.