Vetor Interviews: Danny Bond
- vetormagazine
- Apr 4
- 5 min read
Danny Bond brings the “trans megazord” to Brazilian funk. Joining forces with Irmãs de Pau, underground stars, Danny Bond dives head first into the heavy beats of Brazilian funk in her new album, being reborn into a new artist
Text and interview by Pedro Paulo Furlan
Photography by Gustavo Delgado
São Paulo, 4PM. Dressed in a white puffer jacked, thigh high boots and a tiny dress, all monochromatic, Danny Bond looks like the perfect image of a popstar - nothing unexpected for someone who’s been dominating the scene for almost 10 years. While getting her hair and makeup done, I ask how she’s feeling about her newest project, “EPica2 Deluxe”.
“I’m really happy, you know?”, she answers, adding: “I couldn’t be away from the music and the stage anymore”.
The truth is that, before the release of “EPica2” at the end of last year, Danny spent a long time away from the industry for a complexity of reasons - coming back full force with the huge hit that was “Cachorra Absurda”, that has over 7 million streams, and now with the deluxe version of her latest album.
Between laughs and serious moments, Danny sits down with me to record a couple videos for Vetor, besides answering a few questions about her new project. In “Deluxe”, the artist participated in every single step of the process, from the writing, her main passion, to musical production, something she learned a lot about this time around.
Deciding to go for a heavy Brazilian funk sound, inspired by her own experience listening to funk since childhood, and by the sound of the parties all over São Paulo, city where she lives these days, Danny Bond added five songs to the original tracklist, including the main single, the heavily anticipated feat between her and Irmãs de Pau, “CHACINA”.
“It represented the joining of this trans women megazord, the unity of our bodies”.
Photography by Gustavo Delgado
“It’s Danny Bond, it can’t be the same”
Coming from Jacintinho, on the outskirts of Maceió, Alagoas’ capital, Danny Bond came into the queer scene with her first album “EPica”, in 2017, releasing hits such as “Tcheca”, “Meu nome é Bond” and “Pirikito”, that are heavily played to this day. From day one, one thing was clear, “there are things only Danny Bond is brave enough to sing”, she points out herself.
“Everyone already sings about shaking their ass and stuff”, Danny tells me about the writing process for her first songs: “Danny Bond needs to be different from the rest”. It was that braveness, alongside her abrasive and direct flow, that really caught the public’s ears in an era where even explicit songs didn’t go that far.
It was the memories of that time, and the incessant begging from her fans - the “vagaBonds” - to bring “old testimony Danny Bond” back, that pushed the artist to create “EPica2”, that, at first, was just a collection of older music, already known by her fans, but that had never been officially out before.
But, the biggest hit from the record was one of the new songs. “Cachorra Absurda”, the partnership between Danny and MC Naninha, with PZZS’, one of the biggest names in Rio de Janeiro’s underground scene, production, was a success straight away, getting millions of plays, getting added to viral playlists and taking Danny to the placement of second most listened trans woman in Spotify, the biggest streaming platform in Brazil.
Photography by Gustavo Delgado
“If we’re gonna do Brazilian funk, we’ve gotta make it well done, and that’s when my producer presented PZZS to me”, Danny says, about creating “EPica2”: “He is the key to both these latest records, he was the one who built the beats with me, he produced everything, so, it’s all thanks to him”.
With “Cachorra Absurda”’s success, the artist, who already wanted to create a deluxe version of the album, got all the confirmation she needed. Diving headfirst into this heavy brand of Brazillian funk, more electronic, more underground, the artist created a song specifically for the duo Irmãs de Pau, and created four more that fit that vibe.
“I remember being on the plane and creating the song’s chorus, going to the Bloquíssimo, in Natal, where they would also perform - I showed them there, and they immediately loved it”, Danny says, telling me about the first interaction that evolved into “CHACINA”.
“The important thing is for us to be having fun”
Photography by Gustavo Delgado
Between 2023 and last year, Danny tells me that she suffered at the hands of someone really close to her and her career, and, because of that, she didn’t know if she would be able to continue with her dream: music. Giving credit to her new producer, the artist explains that she was only able to rise again because of her new team and new community.
In this new moment in her career, Bond expresses her total gratitude for her newest success and for now having the opening to plan her future as an artist: “It was really something where either I quit my career or I released this project, it was something really heavy for me, but, in the end, it all worked out, it ended up being a huge win”.
Always inspired by her origins in Maceió, city where she’s been honoured, Danny explains that, while “EPica2 Deluxe”’s sound is more about her newest moment, in São Paulo, her voice will forever come from Alagoas - and that culture will forever be present in her music.
“I think that will never leave me, leave my blood”, she says, “I talk to my friends from Jacintinho every day, and they’re my inspirations, when I go to Maceió, I absorb everything I can from the culture, bringing that in my music and showing the world”.
Pointing out the importance of representing Maceió, Danny also tells me about the importance of her presence as a black trans woman. With “CHACINA”, her “trans megazord”, the artist tells me that she really feels the political importance in this track, specially in showing a type of fun that is undeniably trans.
Closing off our talk, I ask Danny specifically about that, about the importance of creating art so that our community can have fun. Opening her heart about the queer community and the parties that are part of LGBTQ+ living, the rapper, singer and songwriter tells me that, for her, with her music, “the important thing is for us to be having fun”.
“I released this record specifically for that, so everyone has somewhere to have fun, to scream, to kiss, the important thing is for us to be having fun”.
