Dafna lives two lives at the University of Colorado, Boulder. The 21-year-old engineering major goes to class and does her homework like everybody else, but outside of class, she’s a singer, songwriter, and producer that is putting Boulder on the music map. She has been writing songs since she was a young girl and has refined her writing and musical talents into one of the most refreshing pop vocalists in recent years. She is a talented instrumentalist and infuses her music with whimsical orchestral elements a la Joanna Newsom, jazzy passages, as well as more modern-sounding bangers like her single “Bitter” from this summer, which features distorted bass and vocals in the vein of someone like Billie Eilish.

She has been teasing her newest single, “Always A Dream”, on Tik Tok for months and it was worth the wait. The track features a string-heavy beat with lite handheld percussion-like claves and tambourines, as well as a very unique and surprising structure, seemingly switching between a standard 4/4 time signature and a 3/4 or 6/8 feel. These are the kinds of elements that make Dafna’s music so special. The song builds into a dramatic finale with a driving drum beat and luscious layers of vocals, before turning into a refrain of the chorus with Dafna sounding closer and more intimate, accompanied by a simple piano track.

Dafna has never been in a romantic relationship, so her love songs are often written in a way that they have double meanings. Take her song “Light Of My Life”, where a seemingly achy heartbreak-y song about lost love, is actually a song about a pair of broken sunglasses. On Always A Dream, it’s not completely clear if the “version of you that I can’t find,” Dafna sings about is real, unreachable love or was, “always just a dream.” Lines like, “I’m not used to the feeling of giving up, But I’m used to clinging on until you’ve had enough, "Cause it hurts when expectations of reality turn into dreams I leave behind” point in the direction that the fantasy Dafna is creating isn’t a fictional person, but rather her perception of how unattainable this relationship might be.

Her songwriting, production, and singing are all highlighted with this new dreamy single, the first from her, ‘new era.’ Dafna has been consistently feeding her growing and ravenous fanbase for the past few years, so with any luck, her next album will be here before you know it.

Listen to “Just A Dream” below, and follow Dafna on Twitter @dafnamusic.