Mike Wass Tired of being pinged for using music in his gaming videos, Texas teenager David Burke — professionally known as D4vd — decided to make his own. Armed with only BandLab and an iPhone, he started scoring gameplay montages. Early virality encouraged him to think bigger, and by the end of 2022, d4vd had landed global hits with “Romantic Homicide” and “Here With Me” without ever stepping into a recording studio. Both feature on his hotly anticipated debut project “Petals to Thorns,” out today via Darkroom/Interscope Records. Like many teenage boys, D4vd was obsessed with “Fortnite” when it came out in 2017 and he began posting videos on YouTube like his gaming hero Ninja. “I saw the videos he was making and I used the same music,” the 18-year-old recalls. “Only mine would be taken down for copyright infringement.” He complained to his mom, who suggested making his own songs. Inspired, he fired up Google: “I searched how to make music on a phone.”
