Deina Andreou might has well have shot out of the womb singing, because she's been doing it from an age where most of us would still have been dribbling down a bib while an adult fishes around your mouth to pull out the bits of Lego you just tried to eat. Cutting her teeth in a girl band with her sisters and being encouraged by an already creative family, Deina has come through with an EP that takes every emotional, sexually rabid or otherwise extremely private text you have ever sent your best mates and put them on blast in the form of intricate, breathless R&B.When The Group Chat EP landed in my inbox, I felt extremely "seen". It's full of fragments of conversations about having too many feelings, the mechanisms of oral and being dicked down so hard your junk hurts – and that's just the intro. From there, Deina touches on every topic of conversation you'll find in women's only WhatsApp or Instagram groups – truly the sewing circles of the social media age – from breakups to miscarriages to vibrators, creating a tapestry of female experience and friendship that comes together as something both comforting and sexy.Smash that play button and read our chat with Deina about the salaciousness and sanctity of the group chat below.
Deina: My name is Deina Andreou, I'm half Greek and half Jamaican. I come from a family of eight – one brother and four sisters. I was raised in New Cross in southeast London, which was a bit of a rough area at the time, but I was in a girl group with two of my sisters and got my first label deal at nine years old, so that kept us off the streets because we were always in studio or rehearsing.That's pretty young to be getting into music professionally. Are your family quite creative?
My parents are really great singers. They love music and we'd always sing together as a family. My sisters and I would put on shows at weddings or for people that would come and visit us. From there, I fell involve with Michael Jackson, Mariah Carey, Brandy, Aaliyah and Destiny's Child. At around the age of five I knew I wanted to be a singer. I would write songs with my best friend in primary school and bring the Yellow Pages to my mum, asking her find me someone who could help me pursue my career.That's quite a flex.
I was outside my dad's factory once and a music video was being filmed. I remember seeing a woman who happened to be Jackie Davison and begged her to hear me sing, but she brushed me off. In the end I managed to convince her to come and look at my father's work, as he was a concept designer. Once inside, I got my parents make her listen to me and my two other sisters sing. She said we had adult vocals and was blown away. Right there and then my dad said we were a girl group and that's how it started!The Group Chat EP takes something intimate and discloses the sorts of things that happen in that space while also paying homage to it. What made you want to do it?
My best friend and I both broke up with our boyfriends, created a group chat on Instagram and would send each other memes all day. It was a way to connect and make light of our situation while we were doing other things. We added a few more of our close girls and the subjects got wider. That experience went into it a lot and as a result the EP is very intimate. In music, generally, I feel there is somewhat of a safety filter in our lyrics, especially as a female singer. I wanted to make a body of work that captures the different sides of women not often explored or celebrated in popular culture.You produced the EP yourself, right?
I produced three of the tracks, wrote everything and executive produced it, yeah. I think it would have been hard for someone else to understand what was going on in my head in the beginning. It was a a lot of work, a lot of trial and error. Because it's so rooted in female experience you have to understand and keep the true points while still making it tasteful, playful, meaningful, relatable – then having your own style musically and vocally. It was really important that I did it alone. I needed to find my feet as an artist first.What kind of vibe were you shooting for?
I wanted a taboo vibe – something real, raw and honest. I wanted something girls can laugh, cry, vent and relate to, and for guys to feel like a fly on the wall, because let's face it they all want to know. Most importantly, I wanted it to be empowering. A lot of woman say they feel strong, sexy and empowered after listening to songs. Others say they feel as though they're a part of the chat and want to be friends with us, which is cute. I'm glad they have that feeling of involvement or relation. I wanted something that I know deep down, behind closed doors, women would want to hear.The EP has a lot of spoken dialogue running through it. Is it fiction or pulled from real chats?
They're actual group chat conversations with my friends that I would just record when we would get together. After recording them I went home and edited the footage, picked out subjects and wrote songs around them. I have so much footage left on my phone I already have half of "The Group Chat Vol 2"!It covers a lot of ground: sex, relationships miscarriages. It also feels like an ode to female friendships and intimacy. What does the whole concept of a group chat mean to you?
It represents female empowerment and the many sides of us, I thought about women a lot making this: how we think, what we want to hear, what we want to say, what we want to feel, we all go through – breakups and heartaches, dealing with fuccbois and using sex toys. I also wanted to capture a healthy way to support friends. I think it's important to uplift your friend and put a mirror in front of them at hard times instead of telling them what to do. It was important to be kind and show a healthy friendship. I know my group chats have help me in a therapeutic way so why not let every woman have the same feeling through my music.What's your own group chat situation like right now – do you have loads going on or one enormous one?
I have so many group chats! With family, my siblings, friends – I'm always being thrown into one, but of course I have the taboo group chat. That one is full of forbidden thoughts, mistakes, opinions and just a lot of different stuff that would never even be shown our husbands, boyfriends or close friends because it's so intimate and you open up yourself for judgement.Have you ever had a life problem solved by a group chat?
A lot of serious, silly or crazy problems are getting solved in my group chat daily lol. I've always been extremely private and prideful. I'm not comfortable asking for help, which I'm learning, and this project has helped me to be a lot more open and honest. Obviously if I'm sad or angry, my best friend will know about it, but my friends are way more vocal about their feelings and interestingly enough that's therapeutic for me – not feeling alone in your situation makes you feel better. I think that's the point of the group chat, though. It's good for those types of people too. They might need it the most.Thanks Deina!Follow Emma on Twitter.
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Noisey: Hello! Could you tell us a bit about yourself?
Deina: My name is Deina Andreou, I'm half Greek and half Jamaican. I come from a family of eight – one brother and four sisters. I was raised in New Cross in southeast London, which was a bit of a rough area at the time, but I was in a girl group with two of my sisters and got my first label deal at nine years old, so that kept us off the streets because we were always in studio or rehearsing.That's pretty young to be getting into music professionally. Are your family quite creative?
My parents are really great singers. They love music and we'd always sing together as a family. My sisters and I would put on shows at weddings or for people that would come and visit us. From there, I fell involve with Michael Jackson, Mariah Carey, Brandy, Aaliyah and Destiny's Child. At around the age of five I knew I wanted to be a singer. I would write songs with my best friend in primary school and bring the Yellow Pages to my mum, asking her find me someone who could help me pursue my career.
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I was outside my dad's factory once and a music video was being filmed. I remember seeing a woman who happened to be Jackie Davison and begged her to hear me sing, but she brushed me off. In the end I managed to convince her to come and look at my father's work, as he was a concept designer. Once inside, I got my parents make her listen to me and my two other sisters sing. She said we had adult vocals and was blown away. Right there and then my dad said we were a girl group and that's how it started!The Group Chat EP takes something intimate and discloses the sorts of things that happen in that space while also paying homage to it. What made you want to do it?
My best friend and I both broke up with our boyfriends, created a group chat on Instagram and would send each other memes all day. It was a way to connect and make light of our situation while we were doing other things. We added a few more of our close girls and the subjects got wider. That experience went into it a lot and as a result the EP is very intimate. In music, generally, I feel there is somewhat of a safety filter in our lyrics, especially as a female singer. I wanted to make a body of work that captures the different sides of women not often explored or celebrated in popular culture.You produced the EP yourself, right?
I produced three of the tracks, wrote everything and executive produced it, yeah. I think it would have been hard for someone else to understand what was going on in my head in the beginning. It was a a lot of work, a lot of trial and error. Because it's so rooted in female experience you have to understand and keep the true points while still making it tasteful, playful, meaningful, relatable – then having your own style musically and vocally. It was really important that I did it alone. I needed to find my feet as an artist first.
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I wanted a taboo vibe – something real, raw and honest. I wanted something girls can laugh, cry, vent and relate to, and for guys to feel like a fly on the wall, because let's face it they all want to know. Most importantly, I wanted it to be empowering. A lot of woman say they feel strong, sexy and empowered after listening to songs. Others say they feel as though they're a part of the chat and want to be friends with us, which is cute. I'm glad they have that feeling of involvement or relation. I wanted something that I know deep down, behind closed doors, women would want to hear.The EP has a lot of spoken dialogue running through it. Is it fiction or pulled from real chats?
They're actual group chat conversations with my friends that I would just record when we would get together. After recording them I went home and edited the footage, picked out subjects and wrote songs around them. I have so much footage left on my phone I already have half of "The Group Chat Vol 2"!It covers a lot of ground: sex, relationships miscarriages. It also feels like an ode to female friendships and intimacy. What does the whole concept of a group chat mean to you?
It represents female empowerment and the many sides of us, I thought about women a lot making this: how we think, what we want to hear, what we want to say, what we want to feel, we all go through – breakups and heartaches, dealing with fuccbois and using sex toys. I also wanted to capture a healthy way to support friends. I think it's important to uplift your friend and put a mirror in front of them at hard times instead of telling them what to do. It was important to be kind and show a healthy friendship. I know my group chats have help me in a therapeutic way so why not let every woman have the same feeling through my music.What's your own group chat situation like right now – do you have loads going on or one enormous one?
I have so many group chats! With family, my siblings, friends – I'm always being thrown into one, but of course I have the taboo group chat. That one is full of forbidden thoughts, mistakes, opinions and just a lot of different stuff that would never even be shown our husbands, boyfriends or close friends because it's so intimate and you open up yourself for judgement.Have you ever had a life problem solved by a group chat?
A lot of serious, silly or crazy problems are getting solved in my group chat daily lol. I've always been extremely private and prideful. I'm not comfortable asking for help, which I'm learning, and this project has helped me to be a lot more open and honest. Obviously if I'm sad or angry, my best friend will know about it, but my friends are way more vocal about their feelings and interestingly enough that's therapeutic for me – not feeling alone in your situation makes you feel better. I think that's the point of the group chat, though. It's good for those types of people too. They might need it the most.Thanks Deina!Follow Emma on Twitter.