Dove Cameron says Damiano David helped her appreciate her voice (exclusive)

After some time away from music to focus on her mental health and develop artistry, Pigeon Cameron Am back and feel safe as never before.

Actress and singer, 29, revealed the first taste of her upcoming album with the new single “Too much“On February 21, and the Electro-Pop track finds Cameron who sings self-assured texts with a much more full tone than fans have previously heard from the star.

Although she uses her powerful vocal abilities for theater projects such as Apple TV+ series Schmigadoon! or off-broadway Unclear Previously, the Emmy winner chose to use a soft, moody tone on her breakthrough in 2022 here “boyfriend” and subsequent editions.

“I always felt that my voice was this instrument that would be manipulated or changed, or something that suits what people needed from me,” Cameron tells People. “And I secretly had this belief that my full, real, true voice was ugly.”

For a long time, the former child star held the negative faith, with reference to “someone who is like” I hate your tone “in a theater camp or something” when she was young. But more recently she got some hard encouragement from best friend Veronica St. Clair and boyfriend Damiano David of Moonlight.

“She’s always like,” you’re so stupid and an idiot, and I will be full gas dampers if you don’t at least try to sing on one of your records, “says Cameron.” And my boyfriend, the same thing. He’s very like, ‘Why don’t you sing on these tracks? Why do you whisper? ‘

By working with “too much” and other upcoming songs, she found a way to rethink and ultimately appreciate her own song. “I only had the time in my life in the studio,” she explains. “I broke through my complex about my voice, and it delivered me a new sound that I really feel at home and comfortable with.”

Cameron feels safer in the power of her vocal abilities reflects the inspiration behind her latest single, which contains the lyrics: “If you say I’m too much, Baby Go Find less / If you can’t keep up, stay below, I guess / If I’m so big, you might be too small. ”

In many previously romantic and platonic relationships, the musician “breakfast” felt that she offered more than she got as a partner, which left her “morally confused.”

“I think there is such a cultural cap on women and queer people,” says Cameron. “The people in my life and my circle specifically, we very much feel this feeling that we have to put a lid on it, tighten it or hold a veil over ourselves. And often when we break the cultural fourth wall, there is a punishment. ”

Eventually Descendants Alum realized that she was not wrong. “I really thought there was something wrong with me,” she explains. “Then, when I walked away from the environments I was in and created new relationships – especially the relationship I am in now – everything became so clear in retrospect.”

“Now I’m just surrounded by people who want me to be as big as possible,” Cameron adds, “and wants me to win.”