Seven Davis Jr.: The Found Tapes

“To me, he’s like a new Prince,” says Funkineven with genuine admiration for his latest signee, Seven Davis Jr. It’s a strong claim, especially for a musician that’s spent the majority of the last 15 years working in the shadows as a ghostwriter. Yet for Seven – who was born Samuel Davis in 1981 – the time spent dedicated to his craft is exactly what makes this claim worth taking seriously. The missing puzzle piece that connects broken house with abstract funk and earthy soul beats, Seven’s music is at once familiar and mind-boggling, accessible but eccentric.

It was a long and winding road for Seven – even getting to his 1999 demo recordings, which only recently surfaced on Kutmah’s IZWID label. Growing up in Houston as the son of a session musician and the nephew of a professional dancer, Davis got into gospel music at a young age. From playing keys as a kid and going through extensive vocal training, Davis’ musical upbringing followed along traditional roadways early on. “I used to be pretty straight and narrow with my musical taste,” says Davis from his home in Los Angeles where he moved about seven years ago. “I grew up around people who were in the major entertainment industry. I was only listening to jazz, blues and gospel and didn’t even know other genres existed, except for maybe the Top 40.”

Discovering hip hop and drum and bass in his teenage years changed everything. “Those were my psychedelic years. It was around that time when I started experimenting with drugs. That did distract me at some point. It might sound weird, but it taught me a lot as well and opened me up. I learned a lot about myself during that period... I started listening to Portishead, Tricky and Björk and had just discovered Jimi Hendrix, so my world was flooded with all this other stuff.”

Kutmah recently released some of the music that Davis was creating during these psychedelic years on The Lost Tapes Vol. 1. Recorded in 1999, the demos are experimental yet raw and soulful. And they most definitely don’t sound like they were recorded more than decade ago. “I purposely tried to make future music. I had a couple of keyboards, some beat machines, a 4-track, and 8-track… and I would just play around and bounce different things back and forth, trying to combine all my influences.”

When Davis played his recordings to a couple of record executives that year, they failed to see the talent they had on their hands. “They just laughed at me and thought I was crazy,” Davis remembers with a smile on his lips. “Looking back, it didn’t hurt my feelings. I just kind of let it go. I knew I made this crazy music and I made it to be futuristic, so I thought maybe it’s just not time for it.”

Though he continued to make his own music in private, Davis was forced to find other ways to pay the bills. He went on to work with a few underground acts in the Bay Area, doing ghostwriting and ghost production on the side while also working as a dance choreographer. But when his drug habit intensified, he eventually grew frustrated in doing the dirty work for others and turned his back on the music industry disillusioned. “I felt like my time had been wasted putting energy into other people’s projects. So I decided to cut back on that and took a little break from music.”

An unexpected email from a distant admirer changed everything. “My friend Eric Coleman had passed a bunch of my music on to Kutmah and they had been trying to get a hold of me the whole year I was taking a break.” Davis, now drug-free, finally heeded the call and his track “Thanks” ended up on the Brownswood compilation Worldwide Family Vol. 2, among the likes of Hudson Mohawke, Flying Lotus and Samiyam. The unexpected lucky break led Davis to re-evaluate his situation. “I immediately took that as a sign that it was the right idea to focus on my own stuff. Then we basically became really good friends ever since, Kutmah and I.”

The IZWID boss wasn’t the only one who took a liking to Seven Davis Jr.’s music. Must Have Records issued a release of his newer recordings in October 2013. The One EP saw Davis take a firm step towards the dancefloor. “All Kinds” was picked by Kyle Hall as a “track that should have been a crossover hit” for The Guardian. It’s a driving, joyful piece of raw house music that sets Davis’ reverberant, funky vocals against a warm, pulsating rhythmic backdrop. SPIN said the title track “should be everybody’s late summer jam.”

These should’ve, could’ve, and would’ve’s will soon evaporate from Seven Davis Jr.’s musical biography. His release lined up on Funkineven’s Apron label has the potential to be a game-changer. “I spent years being told this is the format and this is how you do this and that, so I like to push the envelope.” Davis’s ghostwriting skills mean that he knows just enough about the formula for writing hits to subvert it successfully. The new EP, he says, imagines house music set in the ’60s and ’70s. Funkineven promises “slammed kicks and soft melodies, addictive vocal hooks… It’s a boogie EP but still blends easily with house and techno.” All ears in the know are trained on the prodigal son-turned-funk and house alchemist. Says Funkineven, “it’s a crazy record.” No one is doubting him at this point.