Dillon talks new ease and old struggles. Plus: In June she gives five concerts in Germany.
dillon After a five-year album break, she simply wanted to find more self-celebration on her fourth work of electronic beauty. But that wasn’t easy for her…
“It’s like this: You only have a certain number of stories to tell before new ones come along,” the German-Brazilian sums up her problem when writing songs. Dillon has always found it important to be close to herself in her music. Each record should also be a personal contemporary document of the singer and pianist. 6ABOTAGE deals with your desire for more patience, for self-acceptance, for finding yourself again.
The lyrics of the urgently glowing tracks negotiate the topics sometimes optimistically and with the announcement that there is strength in community, and sometimes more in the writhing introspective that first has to persuade itself to reflect. Finding a single heading for the text and vibe of the work would be redundant. Because Dillon wants to protest above all: “I’ve been making music for over ten years and my experience as a woman in music is that everyone actually wants you to have only one level. For me it was melancholy. Everywhere the word was used in connection with me. For me it is not multi-faceted and I want to do something about it.”
In fact, Dominique Dillon de Byington’s new pieces seem so full of layers that it’s just fun to flip through from one to the next. She teamed up with producer Alexis Troy (RIN, Giant Rooks) to create an album that she herself was quite surprised to see follow up to after KIND. But even when she was poking at her own trauma again, working on the album as a duo helped her. “In the past I’ve often fallen into a hole after recording a song and this time I didn’t. Sharing allowed me to drift and I knew – I can slide as low as I want now, after that I won’t feel so bad because of Alexis’ power.”
Dillon currently also stands for something like lightness. Even though she often ponders how global crises unfold, affecting more than just her touring schedule, she doesn’t want to give in to the seriousness entirely. “The years before that were so dark and while music held everything together, in real life I was falling apart. The fact that it’s the other way around is healthier, at least for me,” she summarizes the development.
Still, Dillon worries if there are still enough people out there taking the time to listen to her record. Artist friends she would have seen drown with current albums. Nevertheless, she herself hopes for listeners who will pay attention to her newly won self-acceptance as well as to her inner turmoil. Because this balance is something new for the musician – and again and again she meets fans who look at her in disbelief. “They want to know where the girl with the sequins is.” Clearly: That’s no longer the case.
The Berliner-by-choice also goes on tour with her album 6ABOTAGE – presented by MUSIKEXPRESS.
Musikexpress presents: Dillon on tour 2023
- 09.06.2023 Leipzig, Täubchenthal
- 06/10/2023 Hamburg, Mojo
- 06/11/2023 Berlin, home port
- 06/12/2023 Cologne, Gloria
- 06/13/2023 Munich, technical center
Tickets and further information at www.mct-agentur.com.
This text first appeared in the Musikexpress issue 04/2022. Order here.