Dasha Reflects On Her ‘Insane’ Year Of Success And The Stories Behind Her New Deluxe Album [Exclusive]

After releasing her debut album, What Happens Now? in February, Dasha continued to create new music and achieve milestone after milestone along the way. With her momentum at an all-time high, thanks to her platinum hit, “Austin (Boots Stop Workin’),” the songstress recently released a deluxe edition of the project, adding five new tracks to the album that offer fans a deeper glimpse into her musical journey.

The deluxe edition includes her latest single, “Bye Bye Bye,” in addition to the rapidly rising fan-favorite, “Didn’t I?” the painfully honest tune, “Way Too Drunk,” the sassy release of anger and betrayal in “Ain’t No Friend of Mine” and the never-ending toxic cycle of “Leaving Don’t Mean Goodbye.” 

With each of these tracks, Dasha admits to Country Now that her honesty and truth-telling have led her to find her place in country music and she is eager to see where this next chapter will take her. 

“The album getting released in February was kind of like the catalyst. We were pushing ‘Austin’ as a single, obviously, but I wanted to show people that I had a lot more coming than just that one song. So that was the purpose of the album and the deluxe was kind of the same thing, I had these songs that I’d written after the album came out and everything was happening with ‘Austin’ and I felt like I was really finding my stride in this new lane,” she shared. 

Dasha has “never been more proud” of any songs she’s written and she feels that these five new tunes act as the perfect continuation of the first eight tracks. 

“It just felt really fun on the storytelling level and I was really proud of the songs,” she added. 

Penned by the California native with her brother Bardo William Novotny, Cole Hutzler, and Kenneth Travis Heidelman, “Bye Bye Bye” sits at the very top of the project and finds her finally saying goodbye to an ex who did her wrong one too many times.

While taking us into the writers’ room for this song, she recalled hanging out with her brother, Bardo, and his bandmate, Cole, who picked up the guitar and inspired Dasha to come up with the catchy tune of the “Bye Bye Bye.”

“He was instantly like, ‘Ooh, what is that?’ And I was like, ‘I don’t know. I’m just f**king singing right now.’ We have a really rough voice memo of us just kind of jamming in the living room. It was like 2 a m. It was way too late to be recording. We’re just jamming and we’re all just like, ‘wow, that’s really, really catchy. I love that hook so much.’”

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The next week they returned to working on the song, but Dasha wasn’t quite satisfied with the lyrics they had written. So she went back to the drawing board, found the direction she wanted to take the song, and rewrote the lyrics until it felt right. 

“I didn’t really know what I was trying to say with the song. I just knew it was like very catchy and we kind of wrote this one storyline, but I wasn’t really connecting to it. I left that session knowing that I was going to rewrite the verses and maybe some of the hook. We had another session to work on it and that’s exactly what happened. Finally, I was in more of a state of like, ‘Okay, this is what I want to say with the song.’”

At the time of the initial writing session, she was still deep in the aftermath of a breakup. In order to finish the song, she had to do a bit of healing and by the time it was finished, she was fully ready to move on from that person. 

“I was finally unwinding myself from that relationship and finally feeling like, ‘Okay, I’m genuinely done with this. He’s actually the worst and we’re literally done here.’ And I was really happy about that decision,” she admitted. “I think that’s kind of the attitude I needed for ‘Bye Bye Bye’ to become what it is now. When we first wrote it, I was still so down bad. I didn’t have that perspective yet, but I think it was just like a mental change that kind of fixed that song up.”

Dasha got to see just how much fans can relate to songs like “Bye Bye Bye,” “Didn’t I?” and “Ain’t No Friend Of Mine,” during the opening night of her first U.S. headlining tour, “Dashville, USA.” After returning from her run of shows overseas, Dasha kicked things off with a sold-out show in New York City. 

“I was kind of nervous for the first one because it just kind of felt like my first proper headline show with music that I’m super proud of and a show that I’m super proud of. We worked really hard on it in rehearsals, and I was really excited to show people what I could bring live-wise,” the rising star told us. 

She went on to say that the crowd brought an energy that was better than she could have ever expected. 

“It was absolutely crazy and we’re all moshing at the end together when I stepped into the crowd for ‘Austin.’ So many people were singing every single word to every song, which is always the craziest part for me because, you know, I’m a songwriter first and it just means the world when people know the words and want to sing it back to me. So it was just the most magical night.”

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On October 18, Dasha will deliver another milestone performance in her hometown of San Luis Obispo, California. There, she will get to visit her old high school, sit down for an interview with the school newspaper, and host a signing at the local record store. Fans were so eager to get their hands on this show that it broke the record for the venue’s sell-out time at 15 minutes. 

“The SLO show is going to be magical,” she predicts. 

Dasha has racked up one accomplishment after another this year, including making her Grand Ole Opry debut, winning her first People’s Choice Country Award for Female Song of 2024 with “Austin (Boots Stop Workin’),” which has also been RIAA-certified Platinum, and selling out her first headlining WORLD tour. With all that has happened, the singer admits she feels like she’s “on a cloud.”

“It definitely has not sunk in because every time I go and think about it, like right now I’m like what the f**k this is the craziest year ever,” she admitted. “If you just wrote it down on paper and gave it to me a year ago and told me that all these things would happen this year, I would just be like how? I just don’t understand how so many big, momentous things have happened in such a short period of time, and for that, I’m just so unbelievably grateful. It’s insane.”

She plans to keep the momentum going into the new year by building a bigger and better live show and releasing new music, including a new song titled “I’m Not At This Party.”

“It’s cool because it’s super upbeat and I did it with Ashley Gorley and Ben Johnson. It was my first write with them,” she shared. “I had that title and it’s cool because it’s very me, it’s very emotional and I’m basically saying like, ‘I’m not at this party right now where everyone’s dancing and having a good time and drinking and being normal. I’m in my head and I’m in the backseat of the car, where I was the last time with that person.’ I’m just so in my head about it and it’s kind of cool how emotional it is, but also so upbeat.”

The new tune is expected to drop sometime in 2025, just in time for her upcoming runs in support of country stars like Thomas Rhett, Dylan Scott, and Tucker Wetmore.