Dev to Play Jakarta Music Festival on Saturday

Katrin Figge

Devin Star Tailes, better known by her stage name Dev, made the transition from MySpace obscurity to music industry up-and-comer in 2010 when she was discovered by The Cataracs, a US hip-hop and indie duo.

Dev’s song “Booty Bounce” was then sampled in the song “Like a G6” by US hip-hop quartet Far East Movement, which made it to the top of the charts in the United States.

Two years and one solo album later, Dev will perform live in Jakarta on Saturday night at Stadion Renang in Senayan, South Jakarta.

The 23-year-old Dev hails from California and nurtured a passion for music early on. In her youth, she played in her school’s choir and in a band. After graduating from high school, Dev enrolled at San Joaquin Delta College to study English and art history, but eventually dropped out to pursue a career in music.

After the success of the Far East Movement’s “Like a G6,” Dev made a video for “Booty Bounce.” It quickly shot to YouTube fame and led to a record deal with Universal Republic.

Dev released her first single, “Bass Down Low,” a groovy electropop song, in November 2010, and followed up with her debut album, “The Night the Sun Came Up,” in September 2011.

The album received generally positive reviews, with music critic Chuck Eddy from Rolling Stone calling it “as stark as it is sweet, owed partly to the casually giddy lightness of her talk-singing.”

The second single, “In the Dark,” was even more successful than “Bass Down Low,” while the third one, “Naked,” saw Dev collaborate with Enrique Iglesias.

In an interview with Teen.com in October 2011, Dev said the album was intended as her official introduction to the international music industry.

“I think that I tried to keep this album useful and sort of reflect on my journey of becoming a musician,” she said. “Hopefully a lot of people will get to see more of me. The world thinks they know me, but they really don’t, so this is my chance to introduce myself.”

Dev’s music has drawn comparisons to female artists such as Lady Gaga, Ke$ha and Lily Allen.

“Naturally, I’m a brat, so I don’t really like being compared to anybody,” she said when asked how she felt about this. “But at least they’re all really good artists, so I can’t really complain.”

Dev has collaborated with several well-known musicians from all sorts of genres since she released her debut album, among others Demi Lovato, Timbaland and David Guetta.

That Dev hasn’t had time to record a new studio album yet might owe something to the fact that she gave birth to her first child, a baby girl called Emilia Lovely, in December.

However, the new year has seen her back on stage. On Thursday, she played the Philippines, and after her performance in Jakarta, it’s back to the United States for more shows.

Dev’s performance on Saturday is the closing event of the Cornetto Summer Ice Cream & Music Festival.