Devon Matthews Starting ‘D Journey’

To the announcer/DJ the song was initially a vibe. “The song was just a vibe that I got.

It literally came into my head.

A day I was driving to south and last year I lost my father… my mind was all over thinking about stuff and I was trying to find all of the things I was thankful for because I like to sit and think about things I used to do before and what I am doing now. The whole thing was freestyle.

“There was a DJ I was sending a voice note to, talking to him and telling him remember when he used to tell me that my voice was too thin for radio and I was too thin for TV and I was too shy…So I was saying though the road is long, no matter how long, I would make it,” he said of the song’s origin.

Matthews said he sent the song to the DJ and told him he felt it could grow into a song. He began to write ideas and remembering days when he had to ‘tote’ water and, “now I have running water and I used to wonder if it would always be like this.” Matthews wrote a lot of verses to the song but only had to choose two as the full complement would have made the song ten minutes long. This was how “D Journey” was developed. The song, he added, spoke to every day happenings and the difficulties people often faced in everyday situations but striving despite the difficulties faced.

He said when the voice note was complete he said to its producer, Anson Soverall, that he felt a collaboration was needed. Initially, Calypso Rose was suggested but Matthews said no because “everyone would run down Calypso Rose since her recent success.” The production of the song was taking place at around Emancipation time and a lot of people were calling in and requesting songs by Andall. “I was like Ella Andall, you know what I have to find her.” He said his management, Ground Empire (Fay Ann Lyons and Ian “Bunji Garlin” Alvarez) initially told him that securing Andall for a song would be difficult.

Matthews decide to reach out to Andall himself, especially after discovering that Andall lived five minutes away from where he lived.

“Everything just lined up. I went to her and sang the song to her and she was like I would do it.

From there both of us real clicked. She came into the studio and she taught us some stuff. Taught us about rhythms and everything,” he enthusiastically said.

The song holds special resonance to Matthews who has dedicated it to his father, Selwyn Matthews, after his passing in June last year. The song was written a month before his father’s passing which makes it even more significant to Matthews.