DONLITE RADIO by Donavan Glover

“Expect Nothing. Feel Everything”

Some might know him as ME — his debut self produced sample-driven project CALL IT HOW YOU FEEL.—-or as the alias Ari-JOVAN, of which he released three more soundtrack instrumental EPs MUSE HUES VIEWS, OUR RAGE IS RIGHTEOUS and ROSE WATER within the same year of the pandemic (2020). The projects caught attention from Bandcamp Weekly and has gained traction within the Bandcamp community.

The Downtown Detroit native and producer rebranded hisself using his government name Donavan Glover (yes this is his real name), and broke his three year hiatus with DONLITE RADIO under the NATIVENOTLOCAL label. As a DJ, Donavan Glover has been on the same bill as TSHA, MOODYMANN, JOE KAY, KARRIEM RIGGINS, AMP FIDDLER, ANDRE POWER, KAELIN ELLIS, DJ SEINFELD, SANGO, IMAN OMARI — just to name a few. He’s establish a successful residency at one the hottest and newest venues (SPOTLITE) in Detroit called DONLITE, for which the name (DONLITE) and the essence of the series best play as the backbone of DONLITE RADIO.

DONLITE RADIO is intentionally curated for the dance floor. The project exudes cohesiveness, energy, sexiness, while being wildly eclectic—highlighting more mid/up tempo grooves to lift listener frequencies. It gradually changes from a funk groove to deep house, and back down to a melodic-guitar-sampled trappy bounce that makes you feel like you're in Spain or Columbia.

The project starts with the Master of Ceremonies featuring one of Detroit’s rising and hottest hiphop artists NICK VARCITY, setting the tone for the “DONLITE RADIO” dance floor. The project then transitions to “WIN” and “CAUGHT A VIBE,” the later being the perfect tune for an after hours spot. Following, MILFIE’s sensual invites listeners to take a chance with her over a repetative deep synthy baseline and punchy drums in “MAKE YOU BELIEVE.”

“WHATUPDOE!” starts with praise from Detroit’s own legendary DJ and owner of Mahogany Music Label, MOODYMANN and transitions into a jazzy-trance instrumentation— co produced by drummer and beatmaker Juuni.

“For WHATUPDOE and MAKE YOU BELIEVE, we created all the sequences/groups of the beat, hit record and tracked out the beats live—so the slowdown part and all of the modulation switch ups you hear near the end, it was all done in real time of the recording and in one take.”

“CAUGHT A VIBE” pushes Nick Varcity into creative new heights--as it's showcase much different sound from his previous “Q1. Spring Collection” release. Donavan Glover explains, “Nick recorded his vocals without a beat or anything— just a metronome at a set bpm for him to just freestyle—then I created the beat around that later. I just told him to lay down whatever feels fun and could get the people going. That’s how CAUGHT A VIBE, DONLITE RADIO and GOOD ALKALINE were created—all in one session.”

The melodic journey rounds out with the trappy guitar sampled track “DANDY,” ending with boastful words from Dandy founder Nelson T. Sanders.

Being that Donavan Glover is more notably known now as a DJ and curator of sound — making noise at venues in his home base Detroit, as well as across the country— his first project under the new branded name, the label, and upcoming releases will officially solidify him as a seasoned and more established Producer indeed.

Born in Detroit’s lower eastside downtown area, Donavan began making a name for himself in the photography/ documentary spaces early 2010. In 2017, he began experimenting with music sampling, soundscape instrumentals, creating sounds that Glover calls it open formatted, worldly eclectic-- and attributes it to close friends and collaborators Amp Fiddler, Waajeed, Jessica Care moore and more.