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Déyyess wants you to go down on a girl

From almost joining Arsenal Girls to touring with Alessi Rose, the rising pop artist talks growing up queer, nearly quitting music and the release of her new EP, Would You Go Down on a Girl? I catch up with Déyyess, just after her shoot for the issue. She’s dressed in sweats, still wearing a full […]

Interview

From almost joining Arsenal Girls to touring with Alessi Rose, the rising pop artist talks growing up queer, nearly quitting music and the release of her new EP, Would You Go Down on a Girl?

I catch up with Déyyess, just after her shoot for the issue. She’s dressed in sweats, still wearing a full face of camera- ready make-up, sipping on an Americano. It perfectly embodies her self-coined sound, ‘sprunge’ (sparkly grunge) — the very thing we’re sitting down to talk about. Best known for ‘Claire’ and ‘Better than Me’ from her April release Claire (deluxe), the indie-rock singer is now gearing up for her second EP, set to drop in November 2025.

Before tracing the origins of her sound, we take a different trip down memory lane, winding up in Canterbury. She tells me about growing up queer in the historic cathedral city, where being open about her identity wasn’t always easy. But resolve came in the form of Lady Gaga, who came to her rescue, offering an online community, emotional support and, eventually, inspiration to venture into music, turning down an offer to join Arsenal Girls and build a potential football career. Swapping one risky career for another, Déyyess spent eight long years in search of her ‘big break’ and almost quit the industry. That was before her song ‘Claire went viral overnight, completely altering the script for her career trajectory. Suddenly, she was touring with Alessi Rose, opening for Olivia Rodrigo and performing at BST Hyde Park.

When we speak, she’s gearing to wrap the whirlwind year she’d had with her second EP, Would You Go Down on a Girl?, in all its sprunge glory.

Déyyess wears corset by IMMORAL LONDON and trousers by ARODAZI.

Photographer Eva Pentel
Stylist Sylvester Yiu
Writer Khushi Vora
Make-Up Artist Jesse Walker using NARS Cosmetics
Hair Stylist Ellie Bond using GHD
Fashion Assistants Temi Oyewusi, Mia Wheelhouse-Wakeman

Q & A

Khushi Vora: You’ve had such a huge year. How has this chapter felt compared to where you were a year ago, when you almost walked away from music?

Déyyess: Where do I start? I released the Claire EP at the end of last year, and I didn’t expect it to do as well as it did. I just put it out with my friend, and so many people resonated with the music. Then I signed to Polydor and it’s just been crazy from then. I went on tour with Alessi Rose. I feel like I haven’t even had a second to take it all in. It’s just literally been go, go, go.

KV: Where did the name Déyyess come from?

D: It means goddess in French — if I may say so myself. I was nineteen when I came up with it. It’s a phonetic spelling. That’s why it’s so weirdly spelt.

KV: What was it like being on tour with Alessi Rose?

D: Oh my god, I loved it. I miss it every day. Everyone started calling me Princess Diana. They were like, You’re literally out every night with the fans, you’re talking to everyone, taking all the photos, so like you’re literally Prini D.

KV: You almost didn’t release ‘Claire’. What convinced you to share it, and what was it like to watch it blow up overnight?

D: I almost quit music last May. I’d had enough. But my old publisher said to me, Look, I have a session for you that I think you should definitely do. It’s with a girl called Phoebe. And I was like, Okay, woman producer, big slay, I’ll do it. So, I turned up at Phoebe’s house, and we instantly hit it off. First day we worked together, we wrote [the title track] ‘Claire’. I spent so many years caring about what I post online, but I was like, You know what, fuck this. I don’t care anymore. The third post went viral. I remember waking up to, like, two million views. I was like, No, no, no, no, no, no. Now I have to do music again. But, yeah, it changed everything.

KV: What is ‘Claire’ about?

D: ‘Claire’ is a song about unrequited love. You fall in love with a girl who will never love you back, or maybe she’s straight, or she can’t come to terms with her sexuality — or she’s your best friend. So many people resonated with it. This one woman commented under one of my posts, “I still think about my Claire from 1982”. I was like, That is literally lesbian culture. Then I got the Discord channel, and everyone joined, and it became this really beautiful community, where everyone felt safe and spoke to each other about their Claires. Thinking that I almost didn’t release it now is fucking mental.

KV: The title of your new EP, Would You Go Down on a Girl?, is so bold and playful. What does it represent to you?

D: Just what it’s like to be gay. I remember when I first met my girlfriend, I was like, Okay, I really like this girl, but does she like me? Am I reading all the signs wrong? How do you go up to someone and be like, Oh, by the way, you into girls? It’s this weird, unknown grey space. So I’m trying to say what everybody wants to say, but can’t — would you fuck a girl?

KV: You co-wrote the title track, ‘Would You Go Down on a Girl?’ with your girlfriend. What was that like?

D: Oh my God, so special. I was nervous about it, but we literally wrote it in about two hours. It’s amazing to just sit there and in two hours have a song. But I was like, Yes, because she’s my wife.

KV: You’ve coined your sound as ‘sparkly grunge’. How did that idea come about?

D: It was my first meeting with Polydor, and I was really nervous. We all sat down in the office, and they said, Okay, so what’s your sound like? And I said, Yeah, it’s like, shoegaze-y, sparkly kind of grunge — like ‘sprunge’. And then everyone’s like, Oh my god, ‘sprunge’, that’s so cool. It just came out of nerves.

KV: You’ve said Lady Gaga helped you find confidence in your queer identity. How has that shaped the way you hope your music impacts others now?

D: I came out when I was thirteen, and being in Canterbury, it was very conservative. Lady Gaga created this huge gay community, and I was, like, a proper hardcore fangirl. Every show you would go to, she would make you feel like you’re normal. Looking at the community I’ve created, like, on a tiny scale, it’s kind of the same. This is what music is meant to feel like. It’s creating a world where people feel safe to exist in.

KV: There’s a clear wave of queer artists shaping pop right now. What does it mean to you to be part of that?

D: So happy. That’s what was so nice about the Alessi Rose tour — so many fans would come up to me and be like, I came out because of you. That’s everything I want in my music.

KV: Coming back to your EP, when people listen to Would You Go Down On A Girl?, what do you want them to take away from it?

D: That they’d go down on a girl.

5 December 2025