Dasha is going silent, but not by choice. The country singer is undergoing surgery Oct. 22 to remove nodes on her vocal cords.
The overuse comes mainly from talking, not singing, Dasha tells Billboard, and from the rigors of the road. “It’s from the past two-and-a-half years of craziness that just hit me like a truck,” she says. “You don’t really get a lot of sleep. You talk, talk, talk and you party and you sing. It just caught up with me.”
The “Austin” singer is getting the surgery done at Nashville’s Vanderbilt University Medical Center, where a number of artists have gotten the procedure done, including Jordan Davis, who already shared his experience with Dasha. “He had the same doctor I do, so knowing someone that went exactly through the same thing as me calms me down so much,” she says.
Following the operation, Dasha will be on complete vocal rest — absolutely no talking allowed — for two weeks, then will begin vocal rehab to learn how to talk and sing properly a few weeks later. “You have to retrain your brain on how to talk and you have to know when to exit the party early when you’re starting to hurt, which is not good for me,” she says with a laugh.
Though she won’t be singing, she will be vocal-ready to walk the red carpet at the Nov. 18 CMA Awards. “I’ll be able to talk, but I can’t be out partying and stuff, which sucks,” she says. “I’ll have to be chill, but I’ll still be at the awards.”
The better news is she should be completely recovered when her third full-length studio album drops on Warner Records during the first quarter next year and she embarks on a worldwide tour later in 2027. “I really think this album is going to be a tentpole for my career,” she says. “I think it’s going to be an album that people really remember me by.”
In the meantime, she continues to tease new material from the set, including the nostalgic “82 Chevy,” which came out Friday and follows previously released tracks “Memo” and “Mad About It.” She co-wrote all the songs on the project.
She’s rushing to finish the album, co-produced by her brother, Bardo Novotny, and Ben Johnson, before the surgery. “It’s weird because there’s such a time crunch now to finish all the vocals for the album and any content I want to do for ’82 Chevy’ and the next song,” which will come out before year’s end.
She has two more live shows before the hiatus: On Wednesday (30), Dasha performs in her hometown of San Luis Obispo, California, at the iconic Madonna Inn as part of the Amazon Music Breakthrough Fan Experience. Then on Oct. 10, she plays the Music Fiesta at the Albuquerque International Balloon Fiesta.
Even though she’ll be under an enforced talking ban, Dasha plans to take her fans on her journey pre- and post-surgery and is already picking out funny voices for her talk-to-text when she is on vocal rest. “It’s gonna be fun to try to make [social media] content and connect with fans in a different way,” she says.
And, as long as she has to take a break, Dasha says she’s going to make the most of it. “This is maybe the first time and only time in the next 10 years that I’m going to have a full two months off during Christmas, so I’m going to go on some vacations,” she says. “I’m going to go to Europe. I’m going to take advantage of the silence that I have to be on.”
And she’ll look forward to her return fully healed and raring to go for the next chapter. “I do well under pressure, and I just have a lot of high expectations for myself with this album, so the surgery is gonna allow me to be at the top of my game,” she says. “It allows me the reset that I need to be able to tour and have the stamina and have the voice I need to carry the whole year out with the album and promote it. I owe that to my fans and owe it to myself to give myself a full shot at doing the damn thing.”
