Dasha

Dasha is Dasha Novotny, a native of San Luis Obispo, California, known to locals as SLO ("slow"). Her passion for music began early. Performing in dance shows and musicals at the age of 3, she picked up the guitar and piano by 8, wrote her first song when she was 10, and started performing at local coffee shops and wineries in her elementary years. In 2018, when she was 18, she headed to Belmont University in Nashville, where he studied songwriting. Two years later, she landed a record deal with a small label called Quadio Records and started releasing music.

Dasha is a big fan of country music and drew inspiration from artists like Taylor Swift, Dolly Parton and Kacey Musgraves, but the first music she released was pop, complete with videos where she did choreographed dancing. Her pop phase lasted through 2023, the year she released her debut album, Dirty Blonde. By this time she had a modest following on social media but was getting lost is the sea of other pop singers. In 2024 she went country with her album What Happens Now? and had her breakout hit when the single "Austin" went viral on TikTok.

Dasha speaks well of her time studying at Belmont University. "I went out there fall of 2018 and absolutely loved it," she told Country Swag. "I learned so much in my two years there. I already had a good grasp on what makes a good song, but it's really interesting learning the names for the tools or the names for the techniques that these huge songwriters use. I got my songs torn apart in the best way."