Breakout country artist and San Luis Obispo native Dasha is returning to perform in her hometown. The 24-year-old has been touring the country following the release of her album “What Happens Now?”
Dasha’s sold-out appearance Friday night at SLO Brew Rock comes amid a whirlwind year for her. Since the release of her album in February, Dasha has performed at the CMT Music Awards, Austin City Limits Festival, and is now in the middle of her debut headlining tour. Her track “Austin” has gained significant success online, reaching over 500 million streams and it has been used in more than 600,000 videos on TikTok.
“People are so excited about the music and I've never felt that before when I've played shows. And I mean, it's just a whole new world,” Dasha said.
Dasha’s passion for music began at a young age in SLO. Her mother, Laura Joines, said she shared her love for music with Dasha and her brother Bardo, and encouraged them to pursue the arts.
In middle school, Dasha joined a music camp that trained students to perform in a band. Joines, said that’s when she realized Dasha’s passion for being on stage:
“Within six weeks she has learned the guitar and she's standing up performing at some venue downtown and I'm like, ‘wow, she really wanted to do this,’” Joines said.
Dasha started playing gigs at coffee shops around the age of 10 with the help of guitar teacher Deborah Henderson.
“I got my reps in super early of like my 10,000 hours of performing for people when, you know, there's only five people in the crowd, and I did it because I just loved it so much. And I was so excited about the songs that I was writing and I just wanted to show people.”
Dasha performed throughout her time at San Luis Obispo High School in musical theater productions and the Improv Club. She said sign language teacher Kristen Nusbaum was one of her biggest supporters.
“I fell in love with sign language and the culture, the deaf community. And she has just, I mean, we've always had like a joke that like, whenever I get nominated for my first Grammy, she's going to be going with me to the Grammy’s.”
Nusbaum called Dasha a natural performer.
“She would always create CDs and or links to your very first music sharing adventure and share those with her teachers. She's always been an inspiration to our classes as a performer because sign language is a very performative language, but also in the realm of music,” Nusbaum said.
Most of the songs from the album “What Happens Now?” are inspired by Dasha’s experiences outside of San Luis Obispo. However, there is one song, “42”, that Dasha says is rooted in her hometown.
“I wrote that in my mom's living room in SLO. It's the only song I wrote on the album in SLO. I don't know, that song just feels like my mom's house.”
Dasha said she is looking forward to her homecoming performance.
“It's gonna feel like a family reunion in a way. And I already know that I'm going to absolutely sob on stage because it's just going to be the most emotional, crazy thing ever,” Dasha said.
Nusbaum said it feels good to see Dasha come back to her roots.
“I knew she had the talent to be professional in any realm she wanted to attend to. But the fact that now my students know who she is, love who she is, and are excited that she's doing part of her tour here in town means the world to me,” Nusbaum said.
Dasha’s show at SLO Brew Rock is her first headlining gig in her hometown. She encourages aspiring local musicians to take advantage of San Luis Obispo’s music scene and put themselves out there.
“Be bold and, just, just start doing it and play the shows — and it doesn't matter how small or big the show is. Just do it, run that.”
More information about Dasha’s upcoming shows and tickets can be found here.
This reporting was made possible by a grant from the Community Foundation, San Luis Obispo County.
